Since my desert themed table is finally nearing completion (it just requires finishing off the sides of the modules), I got motivated to start on some themed terrain for it right away, during drying times (I've been applying quit a few alternating layers of glue, sand-mix and varnish-mix, which require loads of time inbetween them).
And what better theme to get started, after all these years of hoarding stuff than Yes; Star Wars!
The first thing I got my teeth into was a Star Wars Legion terrain/objectives set by FFG. It is comprised of 4 Moisture Vaporators, 3 Control Panels and a bunch of crates (the vaporators were the items I started out with). I also had some barricades from the Legion boxed set, so I took them along for the ride as well.
The construction was very straightforward and easy. virtually no cleanup required, and the fit was perfect (obviously the slightly vinyl feeling barricades required none); the vaporators received washers for bases instead of the provided Legion bases though. Better stability, and I'm not using the Legion bases on any of my units to begin with (I use WotC minis for SW).
Paintjobs were fast and dirty (quite literally so; Tatooine style delapidation is mandatory of course): a white primer coat, followed by a coat of white paint. Then a wash with watered down Army Painter Strong Tone, some accents in colour, chipped paint with a dark olive brown with some silver edging and finally sandy and sooty weathering powders before a coat of matt varnish.
The barricades had the area of the orange stripes neatly taped off, after which I stippled the orange on, but to my dismay, the orange still ran. So I had to do some clean-up, but most I was able to hide between damage and grime, as well as some replaced, grey panels:
That was that, but now I wanted a building as well. I have several bunkers in my current terrain stock, but I felt the new table warranted something more suitable.
So I unearthed the Proxxon Foamcutter I had bought on the cheap last year (or was it two years ago
). At any rate; I had not used it before, but I did have the advantage of having the experience of a terrain building workshop by no other than Gerard Boom (even longer ago), so I was confident I would be able to get at least a decent result out of it.
I also had some small blocks of left over foam form said workshop, and that was enough to get me started. After this experience though, I will now have to dish out for a good sized stash of the stuff, as I expect more projects to pop up in the near future...
It took me just a couple of hours, including figuring out, testing and tinkering with the cutter, to get me a pretty good result. I had to resort to using a plastic dome, from some sort of packaging, out of my 'junk-box', since I had been unable to source any styrofoam spheres in any of the nearby shops. I will venture deeper into town soon to get me an assortment of them. They will come in handy for this project I reckon...
The foam was glued with fast drying PVA and pinned, the dome was glued down with hot glue. I then also created an inner frame to support the dome, since the foam piece I used for the roof was rather thin (a left-over from that workshop), and I feared it might otherwise suffer catastrophic failure somewhere along the line.
The door was made from polystyrene sheets (2 thicknesses), and the ribbed texture in the door portal is a zip-tie. The tech panel next to the door is made from a cut down Antenociti control panel with some added plastic greebles. The pipe on the side is from the Chemical Plant box by Tehnolog, the vent in the back is the eye from the same zip-tie I used on the door, and the crate on the right side of the building is from the aforementioned Legion terrain set.
The stage I regrettably did not photograph, is the covering of the entire building with an instant wall filler. I used many pots of this stuff on the table, and I find a great material to work with. It's fast drying, easily sandable, light and also pretty cheap. In this case, I coated the entire building with it, and smoothed the layer out with water. I only used tools in some hard to get to nooks and crannies, the rest is all just (gloved) fingers.
Oh; and I taped off all the mentioned parts of the building that I didn't want covered in plaster
I then lightly sanded the coarsest parts down, and I find that this is the area I still have the most to learn (including the application of the filler), as there are some areas that are not as smooth as I would have wanted them to, although there are some parts I'm pretty satisfied with.
After this followed a brush on coat of the Graveyard Earth matched wall emulsion paint I use for all my basing and also the table (the pot I had mixed up in 2011 is finally showing a dent in its contents!
), and a zenithal spray coat of Army Painter Bone.
I then mixed a wash of brown and black from tubes of cheap acrylic paints, and coated the entire building. Then followed a drybrush of Bone mixed with white. I then built up some washes at the bottom of the building, using Armypainter Strong Tone and Sepia.
Then it was on to painting the details, and after a spray coat of Armypainter Matt Varnish, I declared this project done!
I had also cut out and beveled an MDF base for the building, but after testing it on the table, which is (intentionally) uneven, I decided that using it as-is, is probably the lesser of the two evils, and I think the inevitable gap at the bottom between building and ground is less conspicuous than the same gap between a base and the table...
The entire building, sans drying time, probably took me about 5 to 6 hours. But I'm sure this can go faster once I get more practice in, although by that time, I'll probably be wanting to do larger, more complex buildings...
But enough waffle; here it is, in all its glory:
And one more gratuititous shot of the building in its natural habitat: welcome to Tushi Station...
On my workbench already, and bound to be finished next, are a converted speeder and (the more observant amongst you may already have spotted it in the pictures) a Table Top Combat MDF (energy?) turbine kit, which I already greebled up and primed white. And the control panels and crates from the Legion kit are queued up as well.
At this rate, I might actually finish up my first themed terrain set soon...