Modelling: How to make a barricade

[Brother Captain Andrecus]

Ok, I'm no super-expert at making terrain, but I do know how to make a good looking barricade. It's pretty easy, almost the only things needed are:

2 6 inch wooden dowlrods.

1 small chunk of polystyrene insulation foam (Available at Home Depot, Lowes, and probably alot of other places. I don't know where you;d find it in the UK, sorry... Most of you probably know what it is.) You need about a ffive inch by five inch peice, just to be sure you have enough.

1 tube of foam glue. (I use "Hold the Foam" brand, available at most craft stores. It works pretty well. Normal PVA glue works fine, I just prefer foam glue when workin with foam...) You won't use the whole tube...

Some foamcore.

1 or more of those black plastic things that come in every GW boxed set. They hold the black, slotted, bases together in groups of four. You don't strictly NEED one of these, it's just nice to have it...

1 drinking straw, whatever diameter you want... (You can get decent ones from any fast food place...)

1 peice of card, which you'll cut into a base for the barricade. This needs to be at least five by five.

 

Ok, start by cutting out your base. I used a roughly semi-circular shape, and cut it out of white card. Some people say MDF hardboard is better than card, but I don't have any, and I think it would be a bit of a waste to use it on a barricade.... Your base doesn't have to look like mine, but that was the shape I used. After you make one or two, then you can make some more. The nice thing about barricades is they're easy to make and it's easy to make variations. Plus, they're fun to make too! I've included a Marine on his side to show the base size. (I'm too lazy to measure it out... )

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3037.jpg

 

Next, take your two dowelrods.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3038.jpg

You're going to need a saw for this, I use a saw on a pocket knife, as it gives a nice, ragged, edge that looks good.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3039.jpg

Now cut a notch all the way around your dowelrods. You want to seperate them into peices that are about an inch and a half long. you can also make them an inch and a quarter long too, but whatever length suits your taste. Once you've notched them, take them in your hands and break them along the notches, so they're in peices. The notches should make the rods look something like this. When you've split em into the proper length peices, take your saw and riun it back and forth up and down the rods. This makes them look like real wood. It's not neccessary, but it does add some good detail.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3040.jpg

(Note, I notched my rods wrong, so I ended up re-notching and splitting the shorter peices, which was an Imperial pain in the rear...)

Then, you're going to want to get your large chunk of pink or blue foam, and cut off a peice.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3042.jpg

The size of the peice doesn't really matter, just go with what you think will work. I cut off a square about an inch and a half long, and half an inch wide, and shaved it down to the size and shape I wanted, a rough triangular shape... Then I cut another chunk and left it mostly square shaped.

I cut a third peice, a small square nugget. Then, I glued the long square down first. Here's a pic... It shows the glued foam and the Hold the Foam glue I used.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3043.jpg

After that, I glued the triangle peice next to it. Then, I glued a few dowel rods in place. Again, there's no set way that this has to be done. Just wherever looks good and fits well is where I usually put mine. I usually try to make my dowelrods look like they're a backing for my foam rocks, or some such thing.

A pic, a little blurry but hopefully ok...

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3044.jpg

I glued the third foam peice down behind the long square one. Then I added a few more dowels.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3045.jpg

There's a Marine there for current size comparison.

 

Now, the base of the barricade is finished, from here everything is superfical, though it's the little details which really make a terrain peice...

First, I took the drinking straw and punched a hole in the triangular foam peice. I pushed the straw through, then pulled it out and pushed the foam nugget stuck inside it out of it. Then I cut it down to a smaller size with my handy-dandy X-acto (A modellers best freind!!!) and applied some Hold the Foam to it with a tootpick. I pushed the smaller tube through the hole, and the glue went with it. I cleared the excess glue around the joint with the other end of the toothpick. It's like a steel pipe sticking out of a peice of concrete! Clever, eh?

Next, I took a peice of foamcore and cut it to a conveniant size. I used a droplet of PVC glue to attach it to the back of the square foam peice.

Then, I took one of the black plastic thingies menioned above and glued it into the gap between the two standing dowel rods and the peice of foamcore. I'm gonna say it's a Heavy Bolter mounting, and when I get a spare Heavy Bolter, I'll probably attach it.

This pic shows everything but the straw.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3046.jpg

And here's the straw part. You can also see the Heavy Bolter mounting and the dowel rod placement.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3047.jpg

Another picture, from a slightly different angle.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/ModellingStuff3048.jpg

 

And that's it. Once it's painted, it'll look great! I'll paint the foamcore a metallic color, probably, and the foam will either be stone or concrete colored. The straw-pipe thing is gonna be rusted steel, that much is for sure. The wooden dowel rods will be wood colored, most likely a shade of brownish grey... I have a method for painting really realistic wood that looks great, using ink washes only, so maybe I'll post a tut for it...Sorry, I just made this about a day ago, so no pics of the painted thing. I'm sure you can imagine what it'll look like though! ^_^

(Note, Hold the Foam glue takes a little over 24 hours to completely dry, but in 15 minutes it's firm enough to handle the peice Just don't drop it too hard!!!.)

 

Questions or comments?

[OwenCrute]

Looks like a nice little tut for a nice little barricade.

[True Thorn]

heh, now just to apply the spray primer to start painting... but doesn't spray melt styrene? has that been mentioned?

[TeamLando]

It melts, yup. To a certain degree, anyway, something I find useful for applying various sorts of damage. If you don't want it to melt, howevere, you could just go with some ordinary, wanted-thinned chaos black.

 

Nice barricade, btw. One thing I think you could modify however is the sprue-part. Looks a bit too.. sprue-ey. Maye som damage and some bullt holes could change that?

You been to the easy terrain-thread, btw? Got some more barricades there if this is your thing :D

[Brother Captain Andrecus]

Yah, I added the sprue thing on top sort-of as an afterthought. I kinda like it...

I've seen the easy terrain thread. I do like barricade making, as they're easy and most of the people in my gamer group play primarily infantry armies, so they don't need massive cliffs to hide Rhinos and Hammerheads behind... (Although one of them does like to hide his Carnifex behind large buildings. That's really annoying.)

[Brother Captain Andrecus]

Update, Update, Read all about it!:

 

I took a trip to my local hardware store (I live so far out in the boondocks, my local hardware store is like my local hobby store. Sad, but true...) and found a brand of spray-paint that doesn't melt foam! :P (Can you hear the angel chorus? Can you hear the "Hallelujahs"?)

 

A pic, taken with my laptop's webcam. It shows the brandname and the color. In case you can't see it too well, it's named "H2O" brand. It's made by Krylon. I don't know if this is available in the UK, and if it is, I don't know where it could be purchased...

 

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo52/Drakdylon/Picture0078.jpg

 

I will be basecoating my li'l barricade with this spraypaint whenever I next get the chance. The holidays are REALLY busy for me, so it might not happen for a while...

 

A word to the wise, this stuff smells HORRIBLE!!! (Ironically, it's called "Low Odor Latex Paint". Low odor my rear...) Even worse than normal spraypaint, although there is a special bonus; since its water based, it can be washed off with water. :P

 

Also, if you're spraying just pure polystyrene foam, you may want to blu tac the foam down, cuz the pressure from the paint spray will send the foam flying... (I learned this the hard way... Heh.)