Altheim: Part 4 - Bill Stickers Was Innocent!

As you may have seen from my previous builds, I like to use posters on my scenery to make it look a bit more 'real' and 'lived in'. So far I've been mainly using the old ones that came with in the 'Warhammer Townscape' book, but I didn't want to keep repeating them, so I've decided to make my own. If you want them, there's a link further down in this post, but here's a quick shot to show you what they look like:

More info (and the file) after the cut....




So, a bit of background on these. Someone mentioned online in response to a WIP shot of these that most people would be illiterate, and so more with just pictures would be relevant, but I tend to disagree.

As a real world analogue, by the mid 17th Century in England the literacy level was hovering around the 50-60% level. As Altheim is a centre of commerce in the area, the population would probably skew more to the middle and upper classes, so I'd like to think the literacy level would be higher than average, as the 50-60% took in the rural population for whom reading was less necessary. Also, Altheim is a fantasy construct anyway, so I can make my inhabitants as literate as I like. ;)

Anyway, on to the the posters. (You may need to download it from the link further down to see them in their full detail, I'm not sure if Blogger compresses the images)

The first two lines are the original posters from the Warhammer Townscape book that I've put together in one place for convenience. As for the other posters, there are a bunch of 'Town Cryer' covers, as well as some of the classified ads from the back pages. The Wanted ads are a mix of the Town Cryer ones, and some I've made myself. There are also some original old 'real world' posters that fit in with the Warhammer world, a few that I've edited to make more relative, and some I've made from scratch.

The Theatre posters are where I did most of the work, photoshopping up some original old theatre bills with Warhammer-specific titles for fun and amusement. I like to add a bit of humour to my gaming worlds where I can as I never got on with the Grimdark 'ONLY WAR' emphasis that GW put on everything for years. Some of the titles are 'real' books/plays listed in GW publications, like Genevieve etc, (Detlef Sierck looms large!) but most are made up out of bad Shakespeare references.

At the bottom of the page I've left a few blank so you can make your own posters if you like. Having said that, if you've got any good ideas for posters, feel free to let me know and I'll happily make some new ones. It takes a while, but I quite enjoy doing it!

How to use them: If you've got an Inkjet printer you'll need to spray the sheet in a matt varnish first to stop the ink running, but if you've got a colour laser printer, you can skip that step.

After that, cut out the ones you want, soak in thinned PVA and then stick them to your walls. If it's a textured wall, I use a piece of firm sponge to push on it to make it take up the texture for more realism. You can also fold corners over etc.

Another trick is to leave one corner unattached, wait for the glue to dry completely then use that corner to tear the poster off the wall to (obviously!) make it look like an old poster that's been partially removed.

Anyway, the full file is *here* for you to download. If you want the original file I did with all the posters and shop signs etc from the Warhammer Townscape book, that's available *here*

Please let me know if you use any, I'd love to see what you do with them!

Enjoy!