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Imperial Fists and Tablescapes/Terrain [updated: 6/12/17]

augustmanifesto
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  • 2 years later...
augustmanifesto Veteran

augustmanifesto

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++++++++++

DATE: Terra, 5 years later
MOOD: Depressed it's taken this long, offset by a sense of self-satisfaction in progress made
STATUS: Final posting before final picts are captured and displayed

COMMENT: Why am I writing a post in this form? 

...INCOMING TRANSMISSION FROM II SQUAD, I COMPANY...

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/IF1_zps715jgm14.jpg

 

Edited by augustmanifesto
Optimat_prime Battle-Brother

Optimat_prime

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I really love how there guys all look like they've been through years and years and war - which of course is not a new compliment in this thread. I bet they look fantastic all together :smile.:

 

Especially the white there on that last guy the helmet grime is perfectly tone matched to the rest of the model. 

augustmanifesto Veteran

augustmanifesto

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I really love how there guys all look like they've been through years and years and war - which of course is not a new compliment in this thread. I bet they look fantastic all together :smile.:

 

Especially the white there on that last guy the helmet grime is perfectly tone matched to the rest of the model. 

Thanks! Which is fitting given it's been years and years of painting (and stripping, and starting over, and painting...)!

Rhetoricus Veteran

Rhetoricus

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Lovely looking Fists mate. Have you moved on to the new paint range now? I'm absolutely dreading running out of Darksun, and I'm down to my last pot of Golden Yellow too!

 

Anyway as others have said some of the best weathering around. If you find the time a step by step pic tutorial soul be immensely appreciated.

 

More please.

augustmanifesto Veteran

augustmanifesto

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Here is one more sternguard without basing (notice the scrimshaw as described in Ian Watson's novel Space Marine).

 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/image2_zps537058ab.jpg

 

And here is a pre-assembly piece of the sternguard sergeant. A few pieces are not done. Hope to finish tonight.

 

 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/image1_zps967ff1e3.jpg

augustmanifesto Veteran

augustmanifesto

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Almost finished sternguard sergeant, good enough for now. sorry the quickly snapped pics are kind of blurry upon zooming in.




http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/3758BBC2-148E-47F9-A61A-E748705979C6_zpskutewc2g.jpg

Edited by augustmanifesto
augustmanifesto Veteran

augustmanifesto

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How do you manage to get such an amazing yellow by starting with a black undercoat?

I don't. I start with white. airbrush does the rest! Then I go back over areas that will end up metallics with black and shade in the recesses with scorched brown.

  • 1 month later...
augustmanifesto Veteran

augustmanifesto

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Getting some work done on terrain. I've started working on the Secret Weapon Miniatures Tablscapes:-) urban street tiles. I basically followed a simplified version of tutorial posted on the SWS blog by James Wappel, which is:
 

Step 1: apply Minitaire Rock to the street
Step 2: apply Minitaire Concrete Slab to the sidewalk 
Step 3: apply street markings and paint metal details (Lead Belcher, wash Nuln Oil, drbrush Runefang Steel) 
Step 4: apply gloss varnish followed by oil washes of Burnt Umber and Davvy's Grey 
Step 5: seal with matte finish 
Step 6: apply rust effects to metal areas using pigments 

Steps 1-2 and application of street markings used Tamiya painting tape for masking. This stuff was impressive. I managed to use the same masking for all of the street markings. 

I was a bit apprehensive about this project because I had no experience airbrushing large flat areas  before (and little experience with an airbrush in general) but to my surprise, it's really easy and is turning out really well. 

After priming the tiles black I got to painting. Here's a stage-by-stage of my test tile. 

Step 1:  

When applying the layer, the trick is the get uneven coverage leaving a natural patchy look, concentrating on cracks (here, there aren't many). 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/B7A5FDB6-E0CC-4ED8-9978-0F4E110A44FD_zpskasuvwue.jpg

Step 2: 

Same as above, shoot for an uneven, patchy look concentrating on any cracks. I found out it's important to go for 100 percent, opaque coat over the boundaries between each tile, which helps to distinguish them and work sort of as a highlight (especially once oil is added later). 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/A1D9175E-F0F0-43A3-A10F-CA0DFB0BD26A_zpsndqedflv.jpg

Stepe 3-4: 

I neglected to take a shot of step three (the metals and street markings), so here it is after the oils were applied and still wet: 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/3532FF2B-1FDD-44A4-A788-C43E67F9A9D8_zpse7lzwze6.jpg

A quick note on applying the oils. Working with oils on a glossy service is very forgiving. You can wipe away anything you don't like.

I found what worked best was applying the Burnt Umber on the sidewalk area and gutter, with a lighter application an inch or two towards the center of the street. I applied the oil a bit liberally and then used a paper towel to dab up the excess (the dabbing technique is important because of the pattern it leaves the remaining oil, which then diffuses out and dries into neatly blended patches).I concentrated the oil in the cracks of the concrete and did a second oil application into the cracks after the first application dried (this is really easy because the oil pant flows right into the cracks via capillary action). How much oil you want remaining on the top of the sidewalk is up to you, I decided it looked best with a light, uneven layer remaining that was patchy as to leave some spots apparently clean at first (as the oil diffuses outward, these spots typically receive a very light covering). 

After that dried, I applied a heavy layer of Davvy's Grey wash to the street, dabbing the extra up with a big wad of paper towel (I later discovered I left a bit too much on this test tile compared to my other tiles, but it's a street! who cares!) 

Step 5 and 6: 

Here is the finished tester tile after being sealed and applying some rusty-looking pigment to the metal areas. I later decided I applied way too much pigment and wiped off a good deal of it with Q-tips soaked in turpenoid. 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/7A0922A4-6BC6-48B1-8A93-0E7756706BE7_zpsrf3ctwxq.jpg

Not too bad for a first attempt, I think. 

Bonus Action Shot!

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/7985B8B4-8AB2-4846-AABC-C52F99D39D04_zpslfjci3ml.jpg


Going into Full-Rate Production 

The tester tile took me an evening of work. Resolved to apply my knew found feel for the process, I decided to complete the rest of a road tiles. It took about 7-8 hours spread out over a two days. For me, that is actually really, really fast considering it takes me many, many hours to finish a single space marine. 

Steps 1-3 Batch: 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/77736EFB-5813-41B3-AE2E-C3667D1B38F8_zpssnphzhwa.jpg

I improvised a few details here, like painting hazard stripes on the ground machine in the middle of the road. It helps break up the concrete look and add interest. You'll also notice some blast marks in the craters built-into the tiles. For that, I sprayed in Minitaire Coal, faning outward. 

Steps 4-6 Batch: 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/773D3DCA-5DD9-46A9-B336-698398CE85D6_zpsgbgokvio.jpg

(Half-) Concluding Thoughts 

I am really enjoying this project. It was just what I needed to take a break from painting these Emperor-forsaken Centurions while still staying productive. It was a good change of pace and working with oils and weathering powders. I'm looking forward to competing the remaining tiles where buildings will be placed. Those are much more uniform and I should go much faster, especially because I won't have to worry about masking. 

I think the colors work really well together. Unlike some other urban street tiles I've seen, sticking to the grey-scale makes the elements blend together while remaining distinct enough (this effect is helped by concentrating different oil paints on each respective section with some bleed-over with the Burnt Umber to smooth the transition).

There are a few things I could have spent more time on, but the returns would have been relatively small in exchange for considerably more time invested. One thing that may have been worth it, though, was to dry-brush some of the rubble in the street a lighter grey. I may go back and do that eventually (and then re-seal those areas) but for now I'm satisfied with the results.  

Regarding the Secret Weapon tiles, I have two thoughts so far: 

First, Bravo, Mr. Justin. These are an outstanding product. I was an early backer on the kickstarter and the tiles were well worth the wait. They are well designed. Easy to Paint. Functional. I'm really looking forward to gaming on them. I personally favor their more utilitarian, minimalist aesthetic over the GW street tiles. The SWS tiles are also superior to the GW tiles in the respect that they are 1ft x 1 ft (which allows more gaming options). When combining the damaged and undamaged Urban Street Tiles, I think they make for a more interesting game board as well. While the GW versions have more details, there are only two tiles which limits layout and does not feature the kind of interesting cracking and damaged features as the SWS tiles. 

Second, I do have one complaint. Some of the street tiles have a textured surface (only on the street, not the sidewalk). Others don't. This makes for a different final appearance, especially once washes are applied. There is no way around this. Fortunately, I discovered the difference in appearance is fairly minimal once a matte varnish was sprayed on to seal the tiles. I'm fairly OCD about this kind of thing, and the result is tolerable even to me. But, nonetheless, this is still a flaw in the tiles (and the only one).  



 

Edited by augustmanifesto
augustmanifesto Veteran

augustmanifesto

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Finished the other half of the Tablescapes Urban Street Project yesterday. The process was the same as what was previously described for the sidewalk sections. The only difference being the tiles with deep damage and one tile I decided to make an industrial foundation. 

For the damaged Tiles, I applied some browns with the airbrush first to simulate dirt that will show through the cleaved concrete: 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/13F06896-7847-4039-A771-705267F3ED7C_zpsgoqkilsm.jpg

Then, the Concrete Slab was sprayed on. I think I ended up covering too much of the brown, but oh well:

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/882593E1-5267-4340-9D81-7041D2445018_zpsxsw5pjeq.jpg

The second difference was some extra work to create an industrial-ish foundation tile. I thought this would be a simple way to add some interest to the overall game board and play off the industrial-ish theme already in the road tiles (recall one tile has some check-point thing with big metallic elements and another has some sort of machine built into it that I showcased with black and yellow hazard stripes). Wanting to match the hazard stripes going on elsewhere -- and what isn't an obvious industrial reference if not hazard stripes -- I decided to replicate that effect in this tile. I used the good old hairspray technique to get some chipping going on: 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/764AC43D-DFCE-42A1-B4C6-159E56BFA5A0_zpspvuepir3.jpg

Then the oil wash went on, followed by some matte seal. Group photo: 

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn177/Emperor_Bill/Mobile%20Uploads/FFCBAF06-07E3-4BF8-A1B7-5F8D349EF746_zpsbthpoo9k.jpg

Next, I see how everything looks together.

Edited by augustmanifesto

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