Terrain is everything - New display board - 'bloody marbleous'

I really didn't expect to progress so quickly with my new display board but I had a puncture last week which meant I had to take a day off to get it replaced. This afforded me some time during the day to work on the board. In the hobby for me, some jobs are 'day jobs' and some jobs are 'night jobs'; for instance painting the Heirophant is not something I can do during the day, it requires far too much patience and focus. But my new display board is definitely a day job, something I can fit in if I can snatch a few minutes. Considering my hobby time is supposed to be at night that makes the situation both challenging and rewarding when I get stuff done in the day. Seizing the opportunity I mixed up some black and Vermilion and sponged on the resulting brown to break up the previous Vermilion layer.

I then shaded all the cracks between panels. I did plan to paint Bonewhite mortar down the centre, I was amused by the concept that the Imperium would be collecting the Wraithbone shards across Ferron Proxima, grinding it up and then using it just as 'glue' to stick stone slabs together. The utter arrogance and ignorance for the revered Aeldari substance tickled me no end.

However, I wasn't sure it would look right, so for the time being I stuck with the shadow. Unfortunately my pics don't quite do justice to the gamut of colours applied so far.

Even so there was another set of highlights here, possibly Vermilion again, just to knock back the brown a bit. Towards the end of this project I may well have wished I'd stopped here but I went on with my next step regardless.

I then did my Red Planet BASE! effect on the Ferron sand bits, although I admit it looks more Orange Planet BASE! than red, but that had to happen to make it stand out against the Rockcrete. I also applied extra orange highlights to the slabs for yet more texture/depth.

If you hadn't guessed already here's where my intent is revealed. I'm going all out and recreating my Dark Angel Jetfighter/Dark Talon red marble. Now I'm not certain this was the original plan but as I progressed I thought why the hell not? However, at this stage I was thinking I'd made quite the mistake as the bonewhite veins had been supplemented with a dragging sponge across in places for fine scuffs and bone scratches. I mean it's not unpleasant but it was über busy, much lighter overall  and I was seriously regretting doing it. I then tried to mitigate the starkness of the veins by another light sponging with Vermilion but the decider would be the shading step, which was up next.

Resulting in this... now I'm, a lot happier with that finish. It's still ridiculously OTT, even more so than the previous step, but it does look considerably better - more deliberate, controlled and better executed. The big question is - should a display base overshadow the figures you but on it? I'm not sure there is a correct answer either way. I think I was similarly worried with the amount of bonewhite spots I did on my Realm of Battle and AoP boards but observed once you put your army on it covers up 75% of the boards anyway. So hopefully adding my figures, that will match up with the Red Planet BASE! effect on the Ferron sand bits, will break up the marble even more.

But everyone comments on my Dark Talon's wings and this is just as good an execution. In actual fact it has a life beyond Double Trouble 3 and will form the base for my Armies on Parade board at Southport this year. the plan for that display does not require anything bigger than this board so it will be perfect.

From the first picture above to the last this was done in one day, including the metal debris. I varnished it last night so it is fundamentally finished but I will obviously have to do a TO DONE! photoshoot. I may just add some yellow flock inbetween some of the slabs - pernicious weeds always find a way. Other than that I've ticked it off my list - the AoP board, even if it was not the complete 2'x2' board I had originally planned for that task, but the concept is still in the bank. Now I just need to do a backdrop [not neccessarily for DT3] and if I can eventually get the Sanctum Imperialis done that would be even cooler! What do you think, should I have stopped before the veins or did I do right to go all whistles and bells on it?

Terrain is everything - New display board

I started this display board the other week. This patterned sheet of hardboard was left at my Aunt's house when we cleared it after she passed away. It has a glossy finish to look like tiles and I hoped the slightly embossed pattern might still be visible when it was painted. The original plan was for one of these to be a platform in last year's Armies on Parade board but I didn't have the time or space. However, this one on its own will make a decent display for Double Trouble 3: Double harder [tickets still available]. With only 875pts to display, a 40cm square board will look far less empty than my 60cm square AoP board. So I added some Valejo Red Oxid paste and some sharp sand so the rockrete slabs weren't completely featureless.

I primed the board with grey and then Red Oxide Primer, trying to retain some of the grey underneath for variety. I also added a few toy packaging bits to look like metal debris, these are the things that usually have tie-wraps attached to brand new kids toys to keep them in place - keep your eyes peeled for them as they're really useful for debris.

I then followed the undercoat, stippling on Vermilion.

It's here where it came apparent the embossed pattern wasn't going to show but it's not too much of a problem.

With Double Trouble 3 on the 9th of June this was the perfect interval project. I have a deadline to do it and the quicker I finish it the sooner I get back to the Heirophant.

Terrain is everything - Sanctum Imperialis Big Build TO DONE!

After my last Confession I'd assessed what was on my palette and distilled it down to the 'Big 3' which begs the question why I was suddenly building the Sanctum Imperialis from my Imperial Knight Renegade set... In fact, on the sprue this took up far less room but I suddenly had the urge to sacrifice valuable time on the Heirophant to finish this off.

Now I made some choices about construction, to get as much out of it as possible and match up with the smaller pieces of it I already own. However, despite not looking at the instructions or the pictures I've made an almost stock version of it, the main difference being it has the walls on both sides, instead of the front wall leading to ruins.

The balcony is also twice as big, running the entire width of the buidling. I used 'granny grating' to extend the balcony, which meant gluing was a challenge. I used Super Glue Gel, to bond it to the sprue 'cantilever' supports and various bits of cable ties to support it underneath. it should be sufficient for the load of a few figures. And the grating allows light to pass through unerneath - no shelter from the caustic rains of Ferron Proxima but it does look pretty.

Side views, so that you can see how wonky the balcony is - no plumb lines in the 40k universe - it's heresy!

So I do get a Big Build Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval, it was even on my Big Build list! Regardless I need to see how quick I can actually paint this and it's siblings...

It's a Tyranid Skyshield Landing Pad...

Funnily enough I can never seem to find a complete 'To Done' showcase of my scratchbuilt Tyranid Skyshield Landing Pad. The best I have doesn't feature the walls/petals, they hadn't been completed at that stage. In all honesty these aren't great pics but I needed to take some for the monthly Warhammer 40,000 painting competition.

This month it's 'Terrain' and there's a quite frankly insane spaceship diorama but I thought I'd throw my hat in with the old Tyranid Trampoline.

Currently I have no urge to use it in my lists as 8th has made even my backfield defense of Tervigon and Termagants far more mobile, or at least I feel they need to be on the move as a support for the other elements moving forward.

It's not how I've played for years but probably far more in keeping with how Tyranids are supposed to behave. I could be wrong though, maybe these are ace in 8th but I doubt it, and here's the evidence:

 They took a price hike and only convey a 5+ invul save compared to 4+ in 7th. What's worse is it now has a wound and Toughness profile and at T7 can even be plinked by las-guns on 5s. 

Sad thing is they're not likely to get a 'Codex fix' either as they currently sit in the Imperium Index 2 and I doubt any of the Fortifications will see changes, at the least it won't be until ALL the Codex are released :( So it's going to be a very considered choice to take this to any sort of tournament.  

It's only justifiable purpose now would be in support of a painting competition entry - modesty aside, it's one hell of a centrepiece, but in most of the tournaments I've been to it's made an appearance so perhaps it's time to go into hiatus...

On the plus side it was a nightmare to use in game and always a pain to transport, pack and then re-pack. I can't say I'll miss that.

But it looked awesome in the battle reports and despite it's awkwardness was often handy to transport the Tervigon and 30 gaunts from table to table - it was it's very own tray ;)

Still, at least taking these pics gave me a chance to patch up some of the paint chips on it :)

And when I put the Tervigon on it for scale, made me realise this Tervigon is my favourite model, of possibly everything I've done.

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah new FREE Print & Play building template

I know Christmas and New Year has been and gone but there are still presents to be had and the 40kaddict thinks you've all been very good this year so please accept this gift as 2016 begins...

This design is over 3 years old now but it is an absolute nightmare to edit as Ilustrator crashes all the time due to memory issues. To be fair it's really my machine's fault and the fact it was hobbled by our IT policy before we even started with it. When I began designing Print & Play terrain I developed all four texture maps one after another, basically just jamming with the layout and seeing what ways I could make it different. The inspiration falls squarely on this old 1st Edition Epic Space Marine building, I think it's the Generatorium but there's so little info from these days [although I do have the rulebook at home somewhere, wait... yep just found a .pdf on my hard disc and it is indeed a Generatorium, which as we all know is:

A city or industrial complex requires vast quantities of energy, and power supplies are a favourite target for attacking forces. The nature of a generator will vary from world to world. Fertile planets often use organic or fossil fuels, while fusion grids and plasma reactors are common on industrialised worlds. Solar generators and geothermal energy are also used where local conditions permit. These power sources, and the secrets of their operation, are jealously guarded by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Of course my misremembered stab at it no way matches the majesty of the original but the concrete texture came out really well. Now you can obviously just print these out, stick them to foamboard [printing on sticky labels will further facilitate this] and build but I would heartily recommend an alternative. Should you have access to the printer and materials then print one set onto clear acetate and then print another set onto paper/labels. Now you may have to print another set and apply to the foamboard as well. Then cut the windows out on the foamboard, apply the acetate sheet for transparent windows. Then apply the label set to some cereal box or mounting card, cut out the windows again and glue over the top for a composite detailed building.

Now that may be a little more effort than Print & Play but it's next level detail and only a little effort for a lot more gain. Over the next few days I may consider putting this one together myself as it looks like I'll need some city blocks for a new interesting hobby adventure, more to follow.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here, be fair warned it is 4MB in size and may not quite fit on A4 paper depending on how big your printer margins are.. [I make no apologies for this, I could probably render it as a .jpg or spend hours trying to reduce the file size, I tweaked it a little bit and got it down so hopefully it's less of an issue now.]:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbLU4tZzFSYW9ORGc

Meanwhile all the other Print & Play and standard terrain templates are available here:
http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/terrain-is-everything-hail-omnissiah.html    

P.S. let me know if there are any problems with the download, it's a bit difficult for me to check

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah new FREE Print & Play building template

As per usual on my birthday it's time to give a present away to the readers and what better than the next installment of my Generatorium design for my Print & Play building. It's also timely in that this could form part of your Google AdSense competition entry. Still not quite pinned down the deadline date, I'll have a better clue at the beggining of March based on the earnings in Feb but please start thinking about your entries as it'd be a bit of a damp squib if there were hardly any entries. obviously not for the winner, but y'know.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here, be fair warned it is 4MB in size [I make no apologies for this, I could probably render it as a .jpg or spend hours trying to reduce the file size, I tweaked it a little bit and got it down so hopefully it's less of an issue now.]:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbZXQ2RTdMZ20wWlk

Meanwhile all the other Print & Play and standard terrain templates are available here:
http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/terrain-is-everything-hail-omnissiah.html    

P.S. let me know if there are any problems with the download, it's a bit difficult for me to check

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah new FREE Print & Play building template

I know Christmas and New Year has been and gone but there are still presents to be had and the 40kaddict thinks you've all been very good this year so please accept this gift as 2016 begins...

In truth the bulk of this design was created over 2 years ago. When I first started designing Print & Play terrain I developed all four texture maps one after another, basically just jamming with the layout and seeing what ways I could make it different. The inspiration falls squarely on this old 1st Edition Epic Space Marine building, I think it's the Generatorium but there's so little info from these days [although i do have the rulebook at home somewhere, wait... yep just found a .pdf on my hard disc and it is indeed a Generatorium, which as we all know is:

A city or industrial complex requires vast quantities of energy, and power supplies are a favourite target for attacking forces. The nature of a generator will vary from world to world. Fertile planets often use organic or fossil fuels, while fusion grids and plasma reactors are common on industrialised worlds. Solar generators and geothermal energy are also used where local conditions permit. These power sources, and the secrets of their operation, are jealously guarded by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Of course my misremembered stab at it no way matches the majesty of the original but the concrete texture came out really well. Now you can obviously just print these out, stick them to foamboard [printing on sticky labels will further facilitate this] and build but I would heartily recommend an alternative. Should you have access to the printer and materials then print one set onto clear acetate and then print another set onto paper/labels. Now you may have to print another set and apply to the foamboard as well. Then cut the windows out on the foamboard, apply the acetate sheet for transparent windows. Then apply the label set to some cereal box or mounting card, cut out the windows again and glue over the top for a composite detailed building.

Now that may be a little more effort than Print & Play but it's next level detail and only a little effort for a lot more gain. Over the next few days I may consider putting this one together myself as it looks like I'll need some city blocks for a new interesting hobby adventure, more to follow.

Oh, and just a reminder that the Google AdSense competition will include the Print & Play terrain. If you can get a decent photograph or photo-manipulated shot of one of these, maybe with practical smoke effects even you could still be in with a chance to win an Imperial Knight [or equivalent] as and when the AdSense funds mature [update to follow].

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here, be fair warned it is 4MB in size [I make no apologies for this, I could probably render it as a .jpg or spend hours trying to reduce the file size, I tweaked it a little bit and got it down so hopefully it's less of an issue now.]:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbWTlldVNha1c1cHM

Meanwhile all the other Print & Play and standard terrain templates are available here:
http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/terrain-is-everything-hail-omnissiah.html    

P.S. let me know if there are any problems with the download, it's a bit difficult for me to check

Otty's scratchbuilt Tyranid Bastion

You know me, I love Tyranid Fortifications and I obviously have strong views on them particularly those that claim they're not something Tyranids would do - they absorb and mutate other life forms, steal their tactics and evolve to overcome them if you don't think they'd produce fortifications alongside the rest of their bio-constructs then you're not looking at the same faction I am. And to top it all considering GW have no love for creating nid fortifcations then it falls to the hobbyist to make their own and they can be as easy or complex to build as you like, thanks to their organic shapes. Now my old mate Otty has empited his bitz box here on his Bastion, with enough spares that it propably costs more than a standard Imperial variety. Enjoy the pics and his decriptions

Here are some photos of my tyranid bastion. The first is black undercoat, then onto block colours.

the third and fourth washed

then the last 3 are the layers and highlights.

This is the finished article. The hole at the top, isn't quite as large as I would have liked, it did start off larger, taking the inspiration from tyranid box art ,which appear to show bastions or towers in the background. I extensively modified the original, adding more scything talons and numerous tyranid components. Changed the automated weapons for gene stealers holding death spitters.

I love the way those Devourers poke out perfectly from those gaps in the Carnifex carapces that are there to accomodate it's vent stacks - inspired.

Well what do you think? There's got to be a point soon where we look at another Apocalypse game I hoped I'd be able to field more of my army now but Otty keeps banging stuff out of such an awesome level I'll struggle to fit in my stuff ;) Anyway, he's given me some more pics to share with you  so look out for those and I hope this has inspred you to build your own nid structure.

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah new Print & Play buildings

I know Christmas has been and gone but there are still presents to be had and the 40kaddict thinks you've all been very good this year so please accept this gift as 2014 comes to a close...

Having introduced a number of new colour schemes for the Print & Play Terrain templates I thought I should add some more building shapes so you had a little more variety. This is based on the first beige tower colour scheme but there are 3 towers you can make from the one .pdf. There are double width towers in two and three storeys and you can choose the rooftop, and even use the 40k Standard Manifold Coupling, aka the Modular Plug Socket.

Potentially you could even stack these ad infinitum or even attach them to the modular sockets on the existing Print & Play terrain templates for some crazy structures. Indeed this adds a huge amount of variety to your buildings, which would suit the 'new' Cities of Death rules, definitely a quick way to populate your CoD! Mostly they add line of sight blocking terrain but with a much smaller footprint than the existing templates. And lets not forget you can always tear them apart to make ruins!

These would ideally be suited for the foamboard that has the black foam core as that black foam would make these easily playable from the off, without looking too much like a quickly knocked up bit of terrain.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here, be fair warned it is 4MB in size [I make no apologies for this, I could probably render it as a .jpg or spend hours trying to reduce the file size, I tweaked it a little bit and got it down so hopefully it's less of an issue now.]:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B97Rk-BalgZbcV81MFEyMFB5Umc&authuser=0

Meanwhile all the other Print & Play and standard terrain templates are available here:
http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/terrain-is-everything-hail-omnissiah.html   

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah a new Print & Play building

Therefore I give you the tall tower version for my new green marble 'Print & Play' terrain scheme. If you've made the first beige or black building then it's exactly the sayellow grid leaded effect. So the building is the same, but wider with just a different colour for variety on your battlefield.

These would ideally be suited for the foamboard that has the black foam core. I was going to make one but didn't get round to it, sorry. However, that black foam would make these easily playable from the off, without looking too much like a quickly knocked up bit of terrain.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here, be fair warned it is 10MB in size [I make no apologies for this, I could probably render it as a .jpg or spend hours trying to reduce the file size, I tweaked it a little bit and got it down so hopefully it's less of an issue now.]:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbSlJGbDU5bmdsUnM/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-PtjxlRJkNj6eSLlvFeByLg

Meanwhile all the other Print & Play and standard terrain templates are available here:
http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/terrain-is-everything-hail-omnissiah.html