Painting the Fortifications (and an experiment)

Back to terrain!  This was the big experiment with the airbrush.  The idea was to see if using the airbrush could create some time saving aspects for painting.  Nothing fancy, just getting the primer on more quickly, as well as the initial layers of paint.

Since several forms of hardboard and foam core can warp a little when you paint them with regular brushes, I was hoping to avoid that.  The airbrush would use little or no water, and thus less warping!

I knew that the experiment could be compromised by the age of the equipment I was using.  When I first thought of using this, I thought it had been 10 years since I last used my airbrush stuff.  Actually, it was more like 13 years!  One of the hoses had completely disintegrated.  I cobbled together what I could find, and set out to test things out.

It  began well enough, with the primer going on pretty easily.  The first layers of paint did as well, but I could tell that the compressor was acting a little crazy.  This was my nice compressor with the pedal control.  The remaining hoses seemed to have leaks, and all the ancient airbrushes started to jam.

It went downhill from there, so I abandoned the idea.

This is as far as I got with the airbrush...

It's not so bad, as I began to realize that the airbrush also had a big 'footprint' and the only area where it could have gone is now occupied by the new video filming area!

There is also a lot of pre and post airbrush stuff that has to be done, taking away too much of the anticipated time savings.

So, I proceeded to go ahead with the standard brushes.

Here's what I did with some rust colors and other shading.

The next post will show the rest of what I did with the brushes.

Stepping away from terrain for a moment...

OK, a little break from the terrain for you guys.  I believe this was a special edition figure set from Dark Sword miniatures.  Dennis Mize definitely had a distinct sculpting style, especially for hair.

It did make getting to the face a little more difficult, but they were always fun!

Pug dog!

This Olde House: Part Two

When we last left this project, we still needed a way to get in!

Just as I did for the watchtower, I got myself a sheet of baked sculpey, and drew out my design.

This one is slightly different from the watchtower.  I used my trusty wood carving tools, taking care to  vary the depth of my carving.  I wanted the edge of the door and the stones to be deeper, while the wood grain and cracks in the stones were much lighter.

Here I am getting ready to carve in those lighter textures...

The door is carved, and glued in place.

Just like the watchtower door, I used some plasticard to make the metal braces and door handle, etc.

I still have a decent amount of the plastic sheet of brick texture, so I put it to use!  I cut out several 'corner' pieces, which will be exposed brick where the stucco has fallen away.

This image shows a little more of that textured plastic sheet.

Several pieces have been cut and glued in place.

Now for the fun part... some Flex Paste for our stucco texture!

I used the end of one of my woodcarving tools as a de-facto palette knife to apply the flex paste.  not only would this give me the texture I wanted, it would also hide the ends of the pieces of brick texture that we glued on.

Once that was finished, I cut out some flagstones for the entrance.  Then I finished things off with some ballast and rocks of different types.  I learned to be patient with the flex paste as far as drying time goes!  That is, unless you want lots of rocks in your stucco!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I didn't make a chimney for this piece.  I will do so on the next one. :-)

Now that the 40k terrain is painted, I will get some paint this as well!

This Olde House, Part 1

Here is a much smaller version of the house that I constructed a while back.  This one is a bit more simplified as well.  There are no dormers or anything.  It was also limited to the size of the plasticard roof sections that I had :-)

I cut out the sections of foam core to the correct size. I had the benefit of my matt cutterm but you can also do this with one of the metal rulers that has the cork backing.  That keeps it from sliding as you make your cut.  When it comes time to film the video of this project, I will have to use that method.

I started gluing the pieces with a strong elmer's glue (wood glue is ideal)

The sections are now set, as well as a support bar in the crest of the roof line.  I used some painter's tape to keep the pieces stable while the glue dried.

Once all the sections had been glued together, it was time to start making the strips of wood that would   give the house that wood and stucco feel.  This was thin balsa wood.

I measured the various strips and cut them to size...

It takes a little while to get all them in place, but it will be well worth it!

When you do the corner pieces, make sure that you cut one side a little shorter than the other.  This way they will look even once they are attached.

The Tudor look requires some cross bars, etc...

The angles pieces need to be planned out carefully, but they look very cool!

The windows were done with some of the left over cuts.  If I wanted to get more details, I could have used some really thin strips of plasticard for the interior frames of the windows.  But, the idea was to keep it simple!

I decided not to make a chimney for this bulding, since it will see a lot of rough use at the Dragon Shoppe, and I didn't want them to have to worry about not breaking that!

With all the wood planks in place, we need a door!  I will be making one from sculpey that is very similar to what I did for the watchtower.  That and more is coming in the next episode!

Completing the fortifications!

There were three final tasks remaining to finish off the fortifications.  The first was to glue all the rivets in place, which takes a lot of time.  However, it always looks neat!

For the parts that are not metal, I had to make some pock marks.  This would be the second element that I needed to add.  

I took that same very sharp exacto blade and chopped out some chunks of various sizes.  I also added some bullet holed by pressing a ball point pen into the foam.

I added a few chipped out areas to the walls, using that same super sharp exacto blade to that I would not tear away the board from the foam.

This gives you a nice view of the rivets on the walls.

The last task.  Out comes the trusty Oxide Paste.

The oxide paste does far more than just fill in gaps.  I allows me to create a rough texture on what will be metal surfaces to create a rusty, encrusted look.

It also lets me hide unwanted texture, such as the painter's tape.  I learned that on the Tomb Kings army board project.

So, I will be painting this thing up, which is actually going to be another kind of experiment.  Stay tuned!!

Working on that modular cover save... fortifications part 2

OK!  We get back to the modular 40k fortifications.  When we last left this project, I was waiting for all the glue to set up on the various elements.  In this image, you can see the door that I had ready to go...

A platform was created to guard the entrance...

Now the gate and the pillbox are all set.

I put foam core on the tops of all the elements to give them just a bit of extra height.

I added some corner pieces, as these will be platforms for optional weapons such as heavy bolters, etc.  I believe that when you purchase bastions with your points, you can choose from a few weapons.

For more story driven games, I was going to make some communications arrays that might go in those corners or even teleport homers.

I added a few more elements to the walls.  I wanted these to be metal struts, to which I will be adding those rivets...

Speaking of rivets, here is the part that I hate the most... punching out the rivets!  It takes forever, or at least it feels that way.  Very tedious, but they are very important for the desired effect.

This is a sheet of relatively thin plasticard.  The hole punch is from an archive/scrapbooking store.

I tried to gather all the little rivets into one container, and got a new, sharp blade for my exacto knife, which I would use to place the rivets.

Here's some of those rivets in place!  Stay tuned for the final construction episode!