Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: Wirelizard on March 03, 2010, 01:19:03 PM
-
8th March 2010 - I'm converting this into a perpetual thread for all or most of my scenery projects, rather than spawning individual threads for each building, hill or bit of terrain I do. Updates at the end, naturally! Enjoy! Comments & feedback always welcome! Wirelizard
I have a satisfactory amount of jungle terrain, Lost City ruins and similar bits and pieces for my pulp games, but the playing field has been awfully flat up until now. Every single hill I used to own has vanished, presumably during the Years of Not Enough Gaming.
Having split a 2'x8' sheet of foam insulation with my brother, I had material to begin a new set of hills. I decided to make the first one a big 'un - most of the games we do are on 2'x2' or 3'x3' areas, so you don't need a lot of hills. Two big ones, technically, as I wanted a matched pair of hills that could be used together on a larger table or seperately on a smaller one.
(http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/884/img4362800.jpg)
The hill in raw pink(ish) foam, with some gravel on parts already. Note that that's a 14" ruler - the two halves together form a hill roughly 23" long, 11" wide. The odd shape is for transport - the two of them fit together in the bottom of the box of jungle scenery.
(http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/2519/hillbasecoat3mar2010.jpg)
The Hill all basecoated, and most of the drybrushing done on the cliff & rocky areas. There's a path halfway up one cliff face; the other is sheer. The top of the hill has space for a scenery CD if the two halves are together (as shown), or a smaller base of scenery when used apart. Again, that's the 14" metal ruler.
I went for carved foam rock instead of plaster; it's quicker to build and tougher when transported and used, and while it's somewhat stylized, it's still obviously rock! I think I first saw this type of rock carving in White Dwarf; while I may slag GW's business pratices and dislike most of their sculpting, their terrain building has always been excellent and inspirational.
On a standard .45 Adventures 2x2 table, these two hills set on opposite sides of the area define a jungle valley quite nicely. Used together, they will be a defining feature on a much larger area.
Next up, when the basecoat is quite dry is flocking most of the brown areas with my standard mixed dark green flock.
-
(http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8499/hillflocked3mar2010.jpg)
Added some fine gravel/sand for texture on a couple of bare dirt areas, and flocked the rest with my standard dark green flock mix, the same as I use on most of my jungle bases.
Top photo of the pair shows the path side of the hill halves; bottom photo shows the cliff side. You can see the divide between the two halves better, too.
-
If you want to add some fallen rock to the base of the impassable rockside, glue some odd pieces of plastic, like from see thru plastic box lids or plastic enclosed store bought items. Only has to be about 3 inches wide, glue most of it Under the edge of the hill and leave a small lip sticking out. Paint and pile on rubble rock. The under glued part easily supports the weight of the bit of fallen rock side.
Just a thought, oh and you can stick the odd weedy clump in the debries.
-
(http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1319/hillfinished5mar10.jpg)
Finished hill, with a couple of Pulp Figures Neanderthals checking it out.
-
You are the inspiration master. Lots of mastery & just enough K.I.S.S. to get stuff nicely done. :-*
Bringing this to Salute next week? Huh? When is your game scheduled?
-
You are the inspiration master. Lots of mastery & just enough K.I.S.S. to get stuff nicely done. :-*
"Just enough K.I.S.S." sounds about right. I can be a perfectionist who never finishes anything, but am trying to break myself of that habit with short, quick terrain projects!
Hence the carved foam for the rock on this hill, instead of plaster sculpted on. It's faster, easier, cleaner, and looks nearly as good. More resiliant to transport, too.
And one of the reasons I post fairly straightforward projects like this to LAF is to prove that not all terrain projects have to be monster epic awesome wunder-projekts from crazed Euro-gamers. :D I know from talking to new gamers that as awesome as that sort of wunder-projekt is, they can be just slightly intimidating for some reason. ;)
Bringing this to Salute next week? Huh? When is your game scheduled?
Yes, this is going to be at Trumpeter Salute next week, no worries! My game is 9AM on Sunday, somewhere in the main gaming hall.
-
Nice work.
-
Excellent!
My games are Saturday morning and then again Saturday evening. We will be playing the new, easy-breezy & very fun Vietnam rules from Ambush Alley Games.
Hope to see you there!
-
"Just enough K.I.S.S." sounds about right. I can be a perfectionist who never finishes anything, but am trying to break myself of that habit with short, quick terrain projects!
Hence the carved foam for the rock on this hill, instead of plaster sculpted on. It's faster, easier, cleaner, and looks nearly as good. More resiliant to transport, too.
And one of the reasons I post fairly straightforward projects like this to LAF is to prove that not all terrain projects have to be monster epic awesome wunder-projekts from crazed Euro-gamers. :D I know from talking to new gamers that as awesome as that sort of wunder-projekt is, they can be just slightly intimidating for some reason. ;)
Yes, this is going to be at Trumpeter Salute next week, no worries! My game is 9AM on Sunday, somewhere in the main gaming hall.
I think this might also be a dig at me (his brother) who just embarked on the building of the art deco hotel seen in the other thread. It won't be finished for Trumpeter Salute. I am waiting for 1/16 x 1/16 styrene for the window frames until late next week at a minimum.
Regardless, I am looking forward to Trumpeter Salute. You Vietnam games sounds interesting.
-
I think this might also be a dig at me (his brother) who just embarked on the building of the art deco hotel seen in the other thread. It won't be finished for Trumpeter Salute. I am waiting for 1/16 x 1/16 styrene for the window frames until late next week at a minimum.
It didn't start out as a dig against your obsessive behaviour WRT that Art Deco building, but it'll do as one... :D
The real reason the two halves of the new hill are shaped the way they are:
(http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/8958/hillboxed6mar10.jpg)
It worked, too! They'll form the bottom layer of terrain in a banker's box I snagged from work; I needed an organized method of carrying my terrain, particularly if I'm going overseas with it.
(Local joke; the trip to Vancouver involves a 90min ferry ride, hence 'overseas').
-
That's excellent. Very organised too!
But look at all that empty space above it! What's going there?
Jungle Tribe huts? ;)
-
But look at all that empty space above it! What's going there?
Jungle Tribe huts? ;)
Large amounts of existing terrain (including jungle huts!), and depending on which game I'm packing for, stuff like last night's project:
(http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/566/tradepost8mar10.jpg)
From uncut sheets of foamcore to the WiP state of the above photo was last night's work; the whole thing is 5" wide and 7" long; the building is roughly 2.5" wide, 5" long. The front vehicle gate and rear man gate both slot into guides on the sides of the openings.
The roof is matt board, covered with strips of masking tape for a tarpaper look. It looks good, is pretty universal, and eventually if I want tile or something else extra roofs could be built.
I slopped a coat of paint on it last night just to see how the colours looked; the spackle on the walls needs to be sanded down a bit before the real paintjob starts.
The figure is an unfinished Pulp Figures 28mm reporter, just for scale. He's on a Canadian penny base, 18 or 19mm across.
Inspired by the rubber trade building someone posted (I think to the Colonial forum) a while back, and the various awesome adobe projects here on LAF.
-
Another small generic building, for anywhere somewhat tropical from Mexico to Asia!
(http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7122/twostorybldg17mar10.jpg)
Two stories, the base is 5"x4", the ground floor 4"x3", the top floor steps back for an inset balcony and is 3"x3".
Paintjob is obviously still a WiP; there's stairs, a balcony railing of some sort and a front porch roof all to do still. It'd be done tomorrow, if I weren't going out to a friend's birthday party.
That's a 28mm Pulp Figures British officer for scale in all three pictures, in all his bare pewter glory.
-
(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/7632/twostorybldg21mar10.jpg)
Two storey building done, except for the internal staircase, which I am still trying to figure out how to construct without going mad...
Foamcore construction on a mattboard base, with spackle over the foamcore inside and out for texture. Brown basecoat, tan heavy drybrush, white drybrush. The window frames and railing are wood.
The corrugated iron roof is scrapbooking/craft paper my brother found at the local Michael's craft store. It's two layers, one corrugated backed onto a flat base layer, so it doesn't stack like real corrugated metal does, but it looks good. Black basecoat ( a 50/50 mix of white glue and black paint, actually, for strength, which I've been doing for all of my scenery projects lately... no wonder I go through white glue by the litre bottle...), metallic grey/pewter heavy drybrush, then drybrushed and daubed with about four shades of brown/red/orange for a good rusty look.
I'll probably do one or two more buildings in this style; that'll give us enough for a good jungle hamlet, trading post or mission station somewhere.
-
(http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/9572/stuccovillagecomplete27.jpg)
Enough of the stucco buildings done to justify calling it a village, or at least a hamlet! As I said upthread a few posts, they're deliberately generic, suitable for most of the warmer parts of the world - large areas of China & Asia, Africa and Central/South America, even Spain and some European areas. The tarpaper and corrugated iron roofs mark them as late-19th/early-20th C, but the roofs also come off - tile/thatch/etc roofs could all be built.
The two newest structures are at the right in the top photo; one small cottage with a walled garden next to it, and a pair of identical buildings with a narrow alley or court between them, with an archway at one end and a removeable gate at the other.
The open-sided iron roof shelter/garage 2nd from left in the top photo is also new, finished last week. It's big enough (barely) to fit a Model T truck or similar in.
All the roofs lift off, as does the 2nd storey of the two storey building. I finished the internal stairs up from the 1st floor last week too, will try to remember to get a daylight picture of it.
Comments, anyone? I feel almost like I'm talking to myself here sometimes, most of the posts to this thread are mine...
-
Yeah they are looking good. Masking tape looks like a great idea for the roofing.
I'd perhaps have based them off white and then drybrushed them white rather than painted them white straight off. Also looks like you may have been using too much paint on your brush? I always said that if you can't see the bristles through the paint, then you have got too much paint! Even for scenery.
I reckon a brown wash followed by a white drybrush would have the same effect. ;)
Definately an improvement on the first attempts to paint them though. :)
Keep it up and don't let the lack of comments get you down!!!! :D
-
That's what happens when you start talking to yourself - people assume you're mad and leave you well alone ;)
Great thread, sorry for not posting before! I like the buildings a lot and as you say they are very multi-functional, which is always very high on my list.
I also like the earlier hill set and was impressed by the cunning way you actually planned them for storage/transport - unlike fools such as myself :(
Keep posting please - I'm sure plenty of others are enjoying your work too!
-
I'd perhaps have based them off white and then drybrushed them white rather than painted them white straight off.
They were painted this way, actually. Dark brown basecoat (which can be seen in one of the photos of the first building upthread), tan 2nd coat as a heavy drybrush (which I left as the inside colour in a few cases), white final coat drybrushed on. The brown along the bottom edge of the walls is a thin wash.
I had to use flash to take these last night, and it blew the white out pretty badly. There's more texture on the walls than it might appear; I should try and get some daylight pictures today when I get home.
That's what happens when you start talking to yourself - people assume you're mad and leave you well alone ;)
Heh. That thought had occurred to me. Then again, most of us are mad here. Sane people don't do this sort of thing. :D
-
(http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/2131/buildings28mar10.jpg)
One last picture of the stucco/tropical buildings before I move on to other projects - this one shows the stairs in the ground floor of the two-storey building, and another shot of the open-sided garage with it's craft-paper iron roof. I shot these outdoors this afternoon, quickly in between rain squalls! The colour and detail is better than the other photos that I had to use flash for.
-
They look great mate, keep em coming. ;)
-
Very 8) , especially the roofing materials.
-
The roofing is some one-sided corrugated paper I found at Michaels for about $1.50 CAD. Good for some stuff, but the fact that it is backed limits its usefulness for things like fences (which are often made of corrugated iron).
-
For corrugated fences I run paper through a $12 crinkler from Michael's and then coat it lightly with a 50/50 PVA/water mix for strength.
-
You'll have a lovely urban area by the time you've finished. Great for all sorts of genres :D
-
Been a long while since I updated this thread, but I've got a 2nd two-story stucco house that I actually finished in mid-April and haven't taken any photos of yet.
Pics of that early next week, I promise.
I've also just started a pair of 12" long cliff sections, roughly 6" high, inspired by several of the freestanding cliff sections seen here on LAF. Both sections are carved and assembled and painting will start tomorrow.
The cliffs demanded a blood sacrifice, though - I opened up the tip of my right little finger with the long razor knife I was using to cut the styrofoam! Cut away from yourself, right, right... I knew that, honest. Got careless halfway though carving the 2nd cliff, and splattered blood across the kitchen floor as a result...
Thankfully I'm left handed, so a buggered up right pinky finger is fairly easy to work around. Just a nuisance when I try and hit Enter or use right Shift on the keyboard!
-
First update in so long, the forum software is telling me off for doing it!
Started another river section a few days ago, along with my Build Something II entry of a small bridge.
I already have a number of 12"x6" river sections, designed to be put along one edge of a table or (now that I have enough) to form both banks of a river across a small 2x2 or 3x3 board.
This one has a cut or dredged bank section and a couple of rickety, lightweight dock sections strung up with some pilings and such to keep it all out of the mud.
(http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8607/img6061600crop.jpg)
The larger dock will be fixed in place; the smaller dock on the left will be removeable, with just the wooden retaining wall alongside the river. I'll probably do a third, smaller floating dock as an optional piece.
The whole thing is designed to fit a nice small river steamer my brother made a year or two back, and which he's promised to finish one of these years. And other boats, which to be fair I haven't even started building yet. ;)
I need to do a larger river/stream junction piece too, so the Build Something creek & bridge have more purpose.
-
River dock basically done, barring some drybrushing on the muddy bits.
(http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9356/img6063crop.jpg)
The larger dock is glued down; the other bits are freestanding for some flexibility.
(http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/101/img6064crop.jpg)
-
That's lovely! I need something similar for my Darkest Africa set-up. Some sort of wooden dock or jetty like yours - the more ricketty-looking the better. Shouldn't be a problem - I'm good at ricketty lol
Great stuff :D
-
I really like that... have been considering a table edge river/coast bit like that for a while myself... pics saved for reference...
-
I really like that... have been considering a table edge river/coast bit like that for a while myself... pics saved for reference...
Thanks! These ones are made of mattboard - picture framing stuff - which is pretty tough and won't warp unless you're really free with the glue/paint/water. The eventual plan is get some 2mm or 3mm MDF and rebuild the river sections in much tougher material, using a bandsaw I have access to!
Latest project is back to buildings! The largest yet of my "generic tropical village" buildings, and probably the last for a while, as I have a pretty good table setup of these buildings now!
(http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/770/img6067crop.jpg)
All three parts laid out - main floor, 2nd floor, flat roof. Still todo: stairs up from the main floor, interior partitions on both floors, a roof access hatch, and of course a forgiving coat of plaster over the whole thing to hide some of the patchwork foamcore and errors in construction! (I love doing these buildings, if they look a bit rough that's fine, and the plaster hides the worst!)
(http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/4913/img6068crop.jpg)
-
River dock basically done, barring some drybrushing on the muddy bits.
(http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9356/img6063crop.jpg)
The larger dock is glued down; the other bits are freestanding for some flexibility.
(http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/101/img6064crop.jpg)
right.... started nicking your idea....
did you individually plank the jetty? may need to track down some thinner balsa I think... mine looks a bit too thick
-
right.... started nicking your idea....
did you individually plank the jetty? may need to track down some thinner balsa I think... mine looks a bit too thick
All the jetty bits are individually planked; the basswood I used is about 1/16th thick and 3/16th wide. Try to find basswood if you can, not balse; basswood is cleaner and stronger (balsa tends to be "fuzzy").
The underpinnings are various larger bits of basswood, or for the round beams & pilings, bamboo BBQ skewers or just toothpicks.
I used coarse sandpaper and the teeth of a razor saw (put the razor saw across the wood, drag it up and down sideways) to rough up the planks and pilings, and a couple washes mostly of grey ink (with a bit of brown) to give a decent weathered wood appearance. I scuffed with sandpaper between washes, too, for the current blotchy look.
-
hmmm... never used basswood before... may give that a go... cheers
-
Very nicely done! Love the small details like the shore waves.
-
Very nicely done! Love the small details like the shore waves.
Any shore waves you see are happy accidents of paint and gloss medium, not deliberate! lol (I'll take credit for accidental detail, of course, but I'm also cursed with honesty...)
While greenstuffing the rope ladder for my air pirates (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=24054.0), I fiddled some excess GS into a couple of flags.
(http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/6410/greenstuffflags20nov201.jpg)
Couple of bigger banners to reserve for future projects, one "regular size" one that'll probably become a Union Jack (am I mad enough to attempt a freehand Union Jack? Not sure, actually...), one small pennant that'll likely become decoration for boats.
I squeezed, stretched and fiddled the GS into roughly the shape I wanted, cleaned up the edges with an xacto blade, then wrapped it around a piece of steel wire and smoothed the joins down with a damp fingertip and a few hand-carved sculpting tools. (surprisingly versatile things, toothpicks...) More excess GS went into knobs and some cordage on some of the flags.
GS stretched this thin dries surprisingly flexible, to the point where I might be able to flatten these flags out again gently to make painting them easier.
Another grainy late-night handheld photo, I know. I need to do a daylight photo session some non-rainy day this coming week... too much new stuff unphotographed!
-
Union flag old chap... only a jack on a ship ;)
-
Union flag old chap... only a jack on a ship ;)
I knew that, actually, being a bit of a flag geek, but when you say "Union flag" most Brits I've ever met say "You mean the Union jack?" so I went with the popular if inexact usage. ;)
Regardless of the actual name, freehanding two (one on each side of the flag...) might be a bit much. We shall see.
-
You will, of course, remember this hill, from long-ago times when this thread was young:
(http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8499/hillflocked3mar2010.jpg)
Staring at it a few days ago, I realized that if you put the two halves next to each other on the same table edge, with the cliff faces in the lower photo parallel, you got a very respectable ravine or canyon entrance. Now, what does a dangerous canyon really need, for proper pulp insanity?
An insanely fragile, dangerous bridge, of course! Just the thing to go carreering across in an out-of-control Model T whilst being chased by a maddened T. Rex! :D
(http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/3637/img6239crop.jpg)
It'll probably get a few more beams along it; even for an insanely fragile bridge it looks a bit TOO lightly constructed right now; I also need to rough up and weather the whole thing. The ends are going to be embedded in the same caulking I've been making roads out of lately.
Pulp Figures 28mm Russian renegades for scale, with figure cases standing in for the actual cliffs for now!
-
Added more beams to the underside of the bridge, bits along the edges of the deck, and wear, tear and weathering along the deck and elsewhere.
Quick photo:
(http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/818/bridgeofdoomwip6dec10.jpg)
Later this evening I'll get the caulking gun out and do the two small road pieces that'll hide the beams coming onto land and blend the whole thing in with the roads I've been making.
Not a bad two-day project!
-
missed that bridge... looks great...
finally got round to finishing nicking your coastal bit...
http://anevilgiraffe.blogspot.com/2011/05/river-wip.html
-
finally got round to finishing nicking your coastal bit...
http://anevilgiraffe.blogspot.com/2011/05/river-wip.html
Those look great, EG. The cork tile for banks give them more texture than my card banks have.
-
Started my first new terrain project in far too long a few evenings ago - a batch of plowed fields, good generic scenery for everything from 16th C TYW/ECW battlefields to all sorts of pulpish places and times.
There's 4 roughly 6"x4" fields and one larger 8"x6" field.
I took a sheet of corrugated cardboard and while watching a movie several evenings ago, carefully peeled off the top layer of paper and cleaned most of the ragged bits off the now-exposed corrugations. The boxes Warlord plastic ECW figures come in and an old shoebox donated thin cardboard for bases, and I glued everything together the stacked some big books and a six-pack of Coke on top to keep everything flat while they dried.
Next came my usual sand and fine gravel mix, over most of each field and thicker around the edges. I wound up doing two layers of this, as the first looked too skimpy.
Tonight I got the base coats done. I mixed the paint right on each field, squirts of brown and burnt umber craft paint with a bit of black paint and a generous squirt of white glue as well. (My basecoat layers for almost all my scenery is a white glue/paint mix, it seals and toughens things nicely) I used a 1.5" housepainting brush to shove the paint around, mixing right on each piece, and moving the various rough-mixed batches of paint back and forth so all five fields have roughly the same mixed colour on them.
Between wet paint and late-night light, this isn't a great photo, but you can see the basic structure and painting on two of the smaller 6x4 fields:
(http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/3650/plowedfields4june2011.jpg)
There's a bit of warping of most of the fields, but some more paint on the backs will help somewhat with that, then once they're done I'll park them under a heavy book for a while, then store them somewhere they can't (hopefully) curl again. Considering they're cheap light card and corrugated cardboard, I'm pleased with how little warping there is, and the overall appearance so far is just fine. You can still see the edges of the corrugated cardboard pieces in a few cases, but flock around the edges will fix that.
Tomorrow night I'll do a quick drybrush across the plowed marks and sand, then start on the flock. They should be done by mid-week... pity I have zero actual gaming time between now and the end of the month!
-
would a book not crush your corrugations?
not as cheap, but corrugated plasticard on a plasticard base would be less prone to warping...
-
I made some very similar fields a while back and had warping issues. I tried it with a non permeable plastic base too, but it turned out the issue was the shrinking of the cardboard after it received heavy treatment to make it look like a dirt field.
Corrugated plastic might be just the ticket.
-
would a book not crush your corrugations?
Nope. These fields have already been weighted down once, when I glued the two layers of cardboard together, with no noticeable damage to the corrugations, and now that they're covered in a heavy layer of white glue and paint (my primer coat for scenery is 1:1 white glue and paint) they're so solid I can't even do much damage with my thumb, never mind more distributed weight!
not as cheap, but corrugated plasticard on a plasticard base would be less prone to warping...
True, but that would negate two of the attractions of this project: working with found material diverted from the recycling bin, and the fact that total money spent so far on this project = zero!
I painted the backs of the fields last night, and that cured most of the warping. Today they're under weights for the day, so that should fix the rest. Final paint and flock tonight.
-
Drybrushing and first round of flocking done this evening. The flock is a mix of roughly equal parts GW bright green flock and Woodland Scenics "Weeds" dark green ground foam, with a scattering of two other green shades of ground foam for additional depth.
(http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/7435/plowedfields6june2011.jpg)
A WiP shot from earlier this evening. Due to rather limited workbench space (partly because I've been really lazy about clearing away completed figures and projects lately!) I've been working on an old plastic tray covered in a layer of wax paper to protect it from the worst of the paint and glue. Works quite nicely, with the advantage that I can put it up on one of the shelves near my painting bench with in-progress projects on it.
I'll probably do a few lines of darker flock across some of the fields to show something sprouting; I'm not going to put larger plants on any of these to allow troops to march across them with a mimimum of fuss.
Painting the backs of the fields has largely solved any warping; a session under a few hardback books will sort the rest out in due. course.