"Ideas for making natural Prehistoric "Predator Traps"" Topic

Hi all.

I've been looking to be doing a bit ot prehistoric gaming using Mgister Militum's 10mm dinos and rules and been thinking about different terrain and hazzard models I could build. I've already got a load of cycad and palm trees as well as some conifers that will do nicely for foliage, a peach-coloured felt cloth that should do for a sandy terrain (no grass ye see) and some sand dunes. Also picked up some nice looking stones that would look nice based. But let's face it, what prehistoric landscape would be complete without a nasty gloopy substance for either large animals or even human explorers/prehistoric people (suspending belief a bit) for fall foul of?

So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how to go about making such a thing as either mud or quicksand traps (tar pits came much later in the Eocene as far as I'm led to believe, despite what The Land Before Time tells you!)?

My basic-ish idea would be perhaps a base of suitable material to withstand getting inundated with PVA (eg thin MDF or plasticard), with something around the perimieter to make "banks" (eg thick card cut to shape, clay or putty, polystyrene etc etc). Of course this bank would be cut inside too so as to expose the base material.

Then I'd maybe throw a bit of PVA in, some fine sand, and then more PVA? Or use gloss acrylics to give a wet look? Nice mucky, murky browns adn greys? Perhaps try and make some raised areas in the actual pit, perhaps with a wet area in the middle (which would make it look like a small watering hole).

There's a decent picture in one of the Dorling Kindersley prehistoric life books of an Allosaurus about to try and make a meal out of a trapped Stegosaurus, unaware of the fate that awaits it. It's based on what happened at Cleveland-Lloyd quarry in Utah I believe.

Hmm. What do you folks think on the matter? Of course it's not just for prehistoric gaming, there are plenty of nasty places that could give your warriors that sinking feeling, but I'm looking to make something suitable for dinos, sicne it both seems a staple in such fiction, and seems to have been a real hazzard.

Next up, pockets of CO as shown on Walking With Dinosaurs ep 6 :P

Pit traps and cliffs.

Er… yes.

There was a thread on making Saurian proof bunkers a few years back with lots of neat ideas:

TMP link

While this tutorial is for lava bases, I'd think the same technique could be applied to making tar pits.

link

Also, if you're going to be ahistorical about this scenario, don't forget the near-naked cavegirls! ;D

For a sand trap I would mix fine sand with glue and spread over plastic. Create a ridge around the edges and cover with varnish to add a little sheen as matt sand looks boring but more accurate!

I like the foam filler from Woodland Scenic with a brown paint for mud – make sure this is very glossy with odd pools of varnish.

Do not use WS scenic water – I have real problems with it!

Andrew
Mini site: 2mmwars.kings-sleep.me.uk

Funny thing, today I was just reading about natural traps in the Jurassic. An old limestone cavern would give way leaving a natural verticle shaft. The cool wet air from the cavern would encourage the growth of ferns, etc along the edge and this would attract herbivores that might lose their footing and fall to their deaths. The dead animal would then attract predators who might fall in or
climb in and be unable to escape.
I have no suggestions on how to make something like this or how useful in a game.

The mud or quicksand traps that you mention also seem reasonable. A stegosaur wandering into deep mud might get stuck fast, attracting the allosaur, and so on and so on.

I forgot to add that I just received a batch of the Navigator Miniatures 10mm dinosaurs the other day: Carnosaurus, Baryonyx, Suchomimus, Triceratops, Pacycephalosaurus, and Stygimoloch. I'm using them for juvenile dinos for my 15mm games. They look great next to 15mm dinos and humans. The Pachycephalosaurs and Stygimoloch actually work as adults in 15mm since the different species of bone-heads ranged in size from 3'-26'.

I managed to paint all my first order in no time, so I've shot off another. I'll take pics of my painted 10mm and post them on my blog with comparison shots in a couple of days.

Thanks for your replies, it's great to get your input and different ideas and takes on making them!

Rvandusen that's very interesting about these limestone shafts! I wonder if you could make 'em for a GM-based game, with CDs with ferny things on them, marked with a "hole" that only the GM would know about?

I think something like that would work. From the illustration I saw the top of the shaft had eroded into a funnel shape. Maybe have the first few milimeters around the CD as safe enough, but if the herbivore gets too close to the center is might slide down to the verticle drop!

For a tar pit you could use a layer of hot glue to make the tar. Either use a glue pot and then quickly mix in some ink or paint as you move bits into place and shape it.

I like it, rvandusen. It'd be similar to these "blue holes" (or something like that) in South America filled with that utterly crystal water?

Borathan- Hot glue eh? I've seen coloured glue sticks… if you get black or brown- paint the base the colour, and since the glue sticks are slightly see-through, might give depth! Liking it.

Well I'm off today. So… trip to local caft shop??

I think the limestone pits are the same as the blue holes in Florida before they filled with water. The original pit-falls are also typical of Triassic Scotland and Pleistoscene Australia.

Triassic Scotland?! Where?? Do you know if there are any still around? This is brilliant!!

I'm not sure of the location, but according to the encyclopedia by Dougal Dixon ( a good book for dino painting inspiration BTW), Triassic Scotland was an arid limestone plataeu built up over the preceding geological periods-Devonian, Permian, etc. The dry nature of the terrain is deduced by the condition of the fossils. Many show the bending back of the neck vertebrae as the animal dessicated in the desert. The rims of the pitfalls were a common source of vegetation due to the cool, wet air rising out of the limestone caverns.