Blueprints for Rocks? Apparently, Yes.

As absurd as it sounds, yes – I actually sketched out a blueprint for a stone.

When working on terrain pieces like these menhirs, especially for tabletop games or miniature dioramas, I’ve found it surprisingly useful to set some ground rules. Not for the sake of strict realism, but to create consistency and scale that works with mini figures. Think of it as… world-building with calipers.

But there’s another reason behind these technical sketches: space. My storage area is limited, and that has a real impact on how I plan my projects. If I want to create more terrain in the future (which I do!), I need each piece to not only look great on the table, but also fit neatly on a shelf when the game’s over.

On one of the images below you can see a simple list of materials used, along with the basic dimensions of the menhirs and their bases. One detail worth pointing out is the proportion between the base width (2″) and the square base they stand on (3″ x 3″). This wasn’t accidental. While each menhir is an independent scatter piece, I wanted them to be arranged in multiple configurations – including defensive ones. If you place them in a row with their bases touching, the gap between one stone and the next comes out to exactly 1″ – the size of a standard infantry base in MESBG (as you can also see in the photos). Perfect choke points for a small warband holding off a larger force. Yes, Thermopylae did cross my mind here. 😉

This particular drawing is my dimension plan for one of the handcrafted standing stones I made recently. It’s part of my first scatter terrain set, and while the final product looks rugged and ancient, the design is anything but random.

Until now, I usually made my sketches by hand – they were layered with revisions, scribbled notes, dimensions, and often ended up almost unreadable. Creating a clean digital draft was a refreshing change. And as a bonus, it leaves me with a clear record in my archive in case I ever want to return to this project and expand the set. I have a feeling these digital blueprints will become a permanent part of my process.

I like to think of this as the moment where art meets engineering:
a prehistoric relic shaped by modern hands – starting with pencil sketches on paper, then refined into a clean digital draft with precise measurements.

Below you can see not only the sketch and the material notes, but also a couple of final shots of the full menhir set. This time it’s a home session – more technical and straightforward, without the atmospheric backgrounds of the earlier posts. Still, I’m happy with the results, and I hope you’ll like them too.