Friday 10 May 2019

Terrain is everything - TT Combat Gothic Ruins MDF kit - Red walls.

In amongst everything else I further procrastinated by getting the  TT Combat Gothic Ruins primed. I had sprayed it black with some cheap £1 store matt black. Then I mixed some black masonry paint with PVA, some of my finest sand and some powdered plaster/wall filler.


This gave me some texture to the flat walls. Red Oxide zenithal base coat was next and then stippling/drybrushing with Vermillion art acrylic.


Shading and verdigris areas to pick out next, hopefully less drama than the Sanctum as I'm far less precious about this.

Monday 6 May 2019

Dark Angels - Ravenwing Dark Shroud part 5

With both the Sanctum Imperialis and my Ravenwing Dark Shroud as priorities the Sanctum took preference when I balked at the Speeder, so when the Sacntum became troublesome I used the fact I had to patina the building to simultaneously do the same on the Speeder. Not that it'd likely weather in these areas [maybe the grav plate holds moisture in the up-wash...?].


But this was another example of 'misdirection', like how my Mum used to give us veggie-burgers with sausages just as a way to have more vegetables on our diet. If I'm going to push on with one troublesome task I may as well do the same on another project.


At the very least it's one less thing to do, to make it easier when I pick it up in earnest. Thankfully the thought of painting the black meant I was not easily distracted from the Sanctum.


I'll get back onto this when the Sanctum is complete but small steps. I think the controls and touch some of the metallics up will be next. I won't mention how I think the verdigris on the engines a little too much, the last hting I need is another crisis of confidence - just get stuff done and move on!

Friday 3 May 2019

Terrain is everything - Sanctum Imperialis - I'm getting there, stains n'all

I cannot believe how much this colour choice is challenging me. Luckily after a plaintive appeal on twitter [as well as feedback here] I had enough reassurance from these pictures to keep going.


I mean I still had reservations but folk liked them and ultimately the decision has been made what direction these were going in, that's inevitable now. It was just actually doing it, like magnets sharing the same poles opposing each other.


And instead of taking the big piece to this stage I actually took the medium piece to the next stage - adding shading and stains ot all the rivets and edges with the result I am much happier with where this is at now.


Although the turquoise is still very much in your face that shading on the right hand side is working so much better than the non-shaded left in the pic below.


These three sections, plus the front and the two sections from the small corner piece [more on that later] were shaded in one sitting, so now I have a measure of how long that will take.


I added staining to all the rivets the next night. I still need to do some addtional shading on it but I needed to pick out the red glass finials on the roof so the shading can be applied to those as well. I also felt the doorframe needed to be more akin to the older copper than the newer brass/bronze.


I also picked out the glass in the buttress lights but I've no idea how thats going to work - Tamiya Clear Red X-27 dries super quick and I'm not sure it'll play well with those small areas. I'll no doubt have to touch up afterwards...


The corner piece got grunged up, not much left to do on this apart from Bonewhite chips on the base and some of the debris inside.


I might have had to tidy up some turquoise smudges, but thinned Rhinox Hide covered the worst of it. I'll blend some red in so it makes it fully masked.


The big piece was also taken to the full verdigris with all the finial and lights picked out. Stains and shading next which is just laborious and will make everything work but because it;s a couple of nights work and I've been feeling a bit tired of an evening I've just not got back onto it for a couple of nights. Time for another push.


Returning to my Photoshop concept I wasn't too far off. A little lighter perhaps but I've already identified the shading will help tone it down and it'll better match this when it's done.


I was reminded the other day that this ruin was built coming up 12 months ago. That sound pretty bad but it's not like I haven't worked on other projects or had other prioritiesn not to mention I've had longer projects.


It will be nice to get it complete though, it just requires that push on all the shading, then pick out some interior details and all the lights/glass followed by varnishes. I keep thinking it's half a dozen session's work or so and at this stage it's just doing it...

Monday 29 April 2019

'nids part 265 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.18 - TO DONE!

Back in August I completed my Tyranid Hierophant but only shared my phone pics. I also took some pics with my digital camera but they required a fair bit of tidying up, specifically the ones on the white background. I'm not entirely sure if they're any better but I needed to upload them to the blog and finally got round to it.


Not entirely sure what to say about these pics to be honest, it all seems a long time ago but like I say, they needed adding to the blog/gallery page so I'll just leave you to scroll through the pics.













And the 'white' background shots which were a pain to take and clearly the lighting was insufficient and the choice of a glossy sheet of paper did not do me any favours...













So there we have it, and all the links to the project [though some might be incorrect?].

Part 1. | Part 2. | Part 3. | Part 4. | Part 5. | Part 6. | Part 7. | Part 8. | Part 9. | Part 10. | Part 11. | Part 12. | Part 13. | Part 14. | Part 15. | Part 16. | Part 17. | Part 18. |

Friday 26 April 2019

Terrain is everything - TT Combat Gothic Ruins MDF kit - TO DONE!

My Old Skoolfriend Pete, who originally got me into Games Workshop games, until that point I'd just been collecting Citadel miniatures, managed to get me a TT Combat Gothic Ruin B at Christmas. I've only now just had the chance to build it.


What really attracted me to this kit was the extra laser cut card detailing to help lift the flat mundane MDF, more akin to my own efforts in terrain templates.


I was just really impressed with the extra detailing and spotted some of what was left on the card could be used to further embellish the buttresses.
 

On the right is the skirting board element, but they were inside the arch piece and each board was separated by those thin strips, which I added to each top for more detail and depth. I even added a piece on the front.


I also cut a strip of mounting board to cap the roof wall, and had a strip of card folded to cap the corner.


Interior-wise, I added some more of the 2mm strips to the roof wall to make it panelled. Mounting board for skirting boards. 


Then I had some 5mm card strips to make vertical panels and conveniently the grey board was half the thickness of the mount board so I could add a 2mm strip down the centre so make more definition.


My only regret are the doors, I did absolutely nothing to add detail to them, not even hinge strips. I don't know how I'll live with myself but nevermind.


I left the roof clear as the 2nd and 3rd storey inner piece would be detachable.


The corner piece, hidden behind the grey board is a crenellated pattern that interlocks.


If you look at the line of the roof that crenellated embellishment was the 'sprue' off cut from the MDF which I added with a mice miter joint to make it more detailed.


Inside more 5mm mounting board strips to emphasise the vertical height.


I had a 10mm strip of mount board off cut that also had some heavyweight paper strips already stuck, ideal for moulded skirting board.


Again, the doors bereft of detail, but I'll probably be adding stained glass in the windows.


2nd and 3rd storey inner piece attached but I will be creating a separate base so they can be used as two distinct buildings.


Plenty of space on the roof of the first storey.


Honestly the scale of this thing, it's a beast! £12 [or less] for such a piece of terrain, that is multifunctional [if you leave it so it can be split] and has all that extra detail. I honestly think it's one of the best value terrain kits around.


At around a foot tall, it's big enough to hide Knights behind, yes the 2-3 story piece alone can even do that!


Sure, a Citadel kit has much more detail and nowadays possibly even more options to build and repurpose but if budget is an issue and you don't want to go to all the trouble of my own FREE templates then this is an absolutely amazing kit to check out. Great value, great design and extra details to raise it above the mundanity of standard MDF. And plenty of scope to add your own embellishments to make it even better.

I'll be priming it black, adding some slight texture and then Red Oxide zenithal first coat next. The it'll be  painted in the same way as the Sanctum Imperialis to discover if you can mix and match these two types of terrain and still retain some consistency in your table top battles.

 I builds it, I gets the badge!