Terrain is everything - Dawn of War Plasma Generator part 6.

Iyanden Darksun for the yellow! G.O.D. I love stippling, it really allows other paint to show through and adds texture as well areas of more/less opacity.

I'm thinking I could have added a couple of Imperial Fists symbols on the two plain sides, as they came with my drop-pod, but I suppose it's a bit late now. I think this is the point where you clearly see those joints, edge covering that work and those that don't. I think the biggest area of concern is not in fact the laminate reinforcements which could be explained as seperate pieces welded on [as in fact they are in real life] but some of the shoddy masking tape work on the four upright pieces that lead into the plasma tube holes. However, as exciting and keen as I am on this project as I near the end of it I can feel my enthusiasm wane. It's always the way and as far as I can tell equally common among other hobbyists

Here's where the stippling looks coolest, but what will remain after I put my next lot of weathering effects in place?

Terrain is everything - 2nd man-made hill gets paint

Red Oxide primer, seriously, if you haven't got Red Oxide Primer in your life you're doing it all wrong. For whatever building you are doing, once you've done a black undercoat to seal any possible foam [I've mentioned my 'special mix' many times] adding this colour allows so much variation to what will come after. Most buildings benefit from tonal variation, with all that flat surface in play it's a great way to add more detail without much effort and as the mand said - 'more detail is more detail'. The next plasma generator post will show better how Red Oxide is such a perfect base for your painting, so look forward to that

Following, the Red Oxide next up was some more of my Early Learning Centre black poster paint. Trying to get it in all the grating crevices and the modular socket door so it looks like it's been scuffed as it slides open. Of course there's plenty more coats of paint to go on yet but as I've said before I'd be more than happy to leave this as is for your average gaming club terrain. As it is I will be drybrushing the grating with silver, painting the socket door and drybrushing more Vermillion on the edges

I may also look to paint the cable ties a different colour. it might be a nice feature to draw attention to the detail, or if the paints too thick it might fill up the detail I was so keen to add. I should know after the Vermillion has been added. Of course this looks really cool with the Plasma Generator in place. I think a second red one may well be something I'd like to explore [here's where I hear a little voice shouting "why?"] with some added detail, maybe when I've finished my To Do List perhaps, treat myself.

I really should work on the STC for the hill as well...

Terrain is everything - Dawn of War Plasma Generator part 5.

Typically I've started with a red oxide undercoat. Sure I've decided not to make another red building but it'll make a perfect base for stippling yellow on top of to get that weathered look I'm after.

Early Learning Centre poster paint was used to shade certain areas. This stuff is still soluble when dry so can be a useful technique for adding variation to colours that go on top. It also gives a nice matt, 'soot-like' finish, which is also handy for weathering. As you can see some of the card gaps are still visible but part of me like the look of separate pieces of metal, not one solid cast. I think this would be better justified with some tiny rivets, but as I don't have any I can live with it.

Here's a top view which, to be honest, isn't pretty. The masking tape on the edges isn't great, but then capping them would have been really fiddly too. Ideally a + shaped piece across the top would neaten this all up but I'm still struggling with taking it apart and rebuilding it repeatedly for painting and photographing I can't be bothered with another piece to paint and attach once the thing is complete.

You can clearly see my issue with the sloping lines of the generators profile in the following pic. The extra detail on the vents draws the eye along the same path. But I don't mind it so much now, again I can live with it's imperfections.

Terrain is everything - modular plug gets painted

How much fun was this? There's nothing like doing that Ferron Proxima red planet basing. For something that was so painful to do and a permanent issue I love doing this now. Sure I've come across a few other red-planet bases that look really cool and there's still the issue that my Vermillion art paint is in fact a closer match to the 'Battlefield Mars' as I originally titled it but it makes me smile every time I finish one of these.

Of note is my use of Iyanden Darksun for the yellow. My son bought me it, he'd originally wanted to get me a Space Marine Librarian but I bargained him down, as I don't need it and they are expensive. Also, I tried to get a standard acrylic craft paint to reduce my reliance on Bronzed Flesh to lighten the Vermillion for highlights. The best I could find was a 'pumpkin' colour, which is indeed a light orange. Still, mix in some brown and we were nearly there.

Lastly a close-up of the Stargate-esque iris hatch. Successive coats of Stonewall Grey but thinned to allow some of the Red Oxisde undercoat to show through. This gives a nice weathered effect. Some slight highlights on the chevrons with the yellow stippled on to give that mottled weathered effect, love it. Now what else can i build to go in the socket?

Forgeworld - Nearly Thunderwolves

It seems Forgeworld may have just solved the Thunderwolf Cavalry dilema so many are struggling with, perhaps. Skaven Wolf Rats for Fantasy Battle. Presumably you get the 5 for £28 and you'd still need to do some work to make them less rodent and more canine/lupine but they look like a good start and even the branding look like Space Wolf runes, what do you think?

Terrain is everything - 2nd man-made hill

Having said I can't recall if this was the Athena Plateau or the Mercury Plateau, There to accompany the Vulcan Plateau I think I resolved in my head that this is in fact the Mercury Plateau. It's a uniform square [not taking into account the staircase] which better reflected the planet Mercury, whereas the Athena Plateau is/will be a long thin hill better reflecting the bow Athena used in her hunting. Look, have you seen the misplaced symbolism in star constellations? These are as good a reasons as any! 

Anyway below is the black undercoated hill with the modular socket capped off with a door and the steps faced with another new buidling material

Cable ties! Sure they're 4.8mm which means they don't quite cover the 5mm foam card but the little step adds detail and 'more detail is more detail', not to mention the many little grooves from the tie grip. I'm sure there's plenty more ways they can be used, even en masse as a whole wall texture and as I got a bag of 50 for £1 they're cheap as chips.

Here's the newly undercoated Plasma generator in plugged into the socket. More on that soon.

 And a marine in place for scale.

Terrain is everything - Dawn of War Plasma Generator part 4.

I think things are going to get a little messy/confused over the next few posts, so please bare with me. With the Plasma Generator, modular plug and second man-made hill progressing there will be a bit of overlap, separation and repetition in the pics. It's all good though.

Below we've finally got a bit of undercoat on the Plasma Generator. I tried to keep it thinner than usual to see if the folder card texture would show through, we'll see in time when the first bit of real colour goes on.

As you can see the plasma tubes seem a little pale, this may be the array of new electricity sucking Halogen bulbs we have in the kitchen. Sure the pics are not as murky as on my phone but we seem to have lost the brightness of the real Ferron Proxima which I think explains the slightly insipid gel colour.

And here we have the generator mounted in the man-made hill modular socket. For those who plan to make this baby with LEDs this could be your solution. Plenty of room to hide gubbins in this little base.

Now I can't recall if this was the Athena Plateau or the Mercury Plateau, There was very specific fluff why I chose to name the two other man-made hills that will accompany the Vulcan Plateau this way. Typically I didn't write down the blog post explaining these reasons at the time and I've since forgot the reasoning but there'll be an update on the man-made hill soon.

Last up the two tier foamcard has been covered. The template will be vague here. As you can see the diagonal cuts for the upright pieces had to be widened at the ends to accommodate the reinforcement on the uprights. This was quite difficult to measure for the trapezium, and it turned out they were all different sizes. So I'll put in a max size trapezoid and you'll just have to trim it down. I'd also used the jewels from some small jewel brads in the corners, they were just too big though and I cut them off, with some PVA residue left in place but that could me some metal corrosion. I replaced them with smaller rivets from card 'chads' made with my late Grandfather's ancient hole punch, it's still so handy.

More filler, less killer in my next update me-thinks