Sunday, November 30, 2014

Terrain - Supply Dumps


Continuing in my recent terrain building effort I made a couple of supply catches turned strong points. Materials used were:
  • My home made cargo containers shown in my previous post
  • Apoxie Sculpt - Used to make sandbags
  • Scrap sprue
  • Window screen
  • Cast wheels/tires
  • Clay
  • Sand
  • 1/8" particle board





I started by cutting out the particle board into shape.  ***Be careful** I sliced the ever living crap out of my fingers doing this, not on my blade but on the chamfered edge of the particle board. Just shy of stitches but I was covered in bandages afterward. I would recommend using a jig saw and then sanding the sides to a desired bevel/chamfer.

After the boards were cut to shape/size I coated the board in clay and shaped it to create 3 berms and one point of entry.

After the clay had dried I placed my larger objects in place and then cut out the clay to stick them them in. I suppose I could have placed these objects when the clay was wet, but I didn't want to get clay all over them and have to clean it up later.

After the large objects were in place I coated the ground in a PVA glue/water mix and dusted it all in a fine sand.

I made the fence posts out of spare sprue which I carved a wood grain into and used some nylon window screen to make the chain link fence.

Apoxie sculpt was used to make the sandbags and both the tire/wheels and containers were castings I had made. The container is an original creation and the tire/wheels are casts of Forge World Tauros wheels.

I based it all in black and followed that up with a series of dry brushes, washes, and weathering pigments.

The second one was created in the same manner.





Friday, November 28, 2014

Terrain - Water Tower

I always wanted to make a water tower piece of terrain out of a tin can and so... I finally did! Yay, me. It's complete with a bird's nest and a fortified base.

For materials I used 1/8" particle board for the base, some scale model drums and cambros, a pack of scrap balsa wood, some sheet styrene, styrene hex rod, styrene tube, sand, and wait for it... a tin can!

I detailed the tin can with cardstock and made rivets out of disks I punched from styrene and slices of styrene hex rod using the same methods detailed in my previous tutorial on fasteners.

After that I primed the whole thing black and drybrushed it with a medium grey followed by a drybrush of gun metal and finished off with a mix Secret Weapon Miniatures rust weathering powders and mineral spirits.

The sandbags were sculpted out of apoxie sculpt using the same method described in the Forge World Model Masters books:

  • Roll out a sausage of putty (green stuff or milliput will work too)
  • Flatten the sausage
  • Cut it into sandbag sized rectangles
  • Cut a seam into the sides
  • Set in place
  • Texture with a cloth
  • Enjoy


 A box of scale model cambros and drums helped to add some detail.

I weathered the wood with a wash of dark grey acrylics.

A weathered pipe made out of styrene tube is complemented by a small pool of water.  I used the Secret Weapon Miniatures real water to create a little puddle.

Want to make your own? Check out this great video from MiniWar Gaming:

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Terrain - Cargo Containers

Our local gaming group started an escalation style campaign based on the book Death World by Steve Lyons. In order to bring the game to life I began making some custom terrain. One of the things I knew I would want was a ton of cargo containers. 

To begin I made the below container out of sheet styrene. I was very meticulous to ensure that every part was measured precisely and that all edges were square. I added the rivets using some scale rivet strips, although small diameter styrene rod would work just as well.


After it was built I went about making a few silicone molds. I used RTV silicone which is easy to mix in a 1-1 ratio and cures in about 4-6 hours. I order my silicone from Micromark.


After the molds were finished it was time to start casting.  The resin I use is also a simple 1-1 ratio and cures in as little as 15 minutes. With three molds I can crank out a lot of these in an afternoon.


And here's a look at some of the containers used in a piece of terrain.


Monday, November 24, 2014

Storm Eagle Assembly

I recently started helping a fellow gamer (Joe) out with some of his assembly work in exchange for trade. The most recent project was a Forge World Storm Eagle he had acquired for his Imperial Fist 30k army.

The kit was new in the bag and ready for work. There was some mild warping of the hull, weapons, canards, wings, doors, well basicly all of the resin was slightly warped. Nothing a little hot water couldn't help.

After everything was straightened I went about cleaning everything off the sprue and touching up the resin bits where needed.

Joe wanted the interior detailed so I went about assembling all that I could before that point first. One of those steps was to magnetize the missile pods. This will help to prevent breakage during transport and allow for easy removal in game after receiving weapon destroyed results.


After the various hull sections were assembled I primed the interior black, gave it a drybrushing of Army Painter 'Gun Metal' and went about detailing the interior lights and screens.  I applied some OSL to all the lights and finished the lights and screens off with a gloss varnish. 

The front ramp got a little love with some hazard stripes too.

Later, after I assembled the hull I realized just how obscured almost all of the detail work I had done had become. Oh well, I suppose it's best to err on the side of detail.

Once the interior had been painted it was time to glue the hull together. I would normally use plastic weld, but because some of the parts are plastic and some resin I had to use super glue. I was also glad to have several small clamps on hand as the resin, despite my work straightening it, was still warped to some degree.

After a night curing in place the clamps were removed and I was back to work. The engines were added. Some areas needed either plastic card, putty, sanding, or a combo of all three to get them squared away. I also magnetized the wings to allow for easy transport and to reduce the risk of breakage later on.

All in all I was quite please with the end result and so was Joe.  Now that he has it in hand I'll be looking forward to see how it looks after he gets done painting it.