SW1's Scenery Project - Buildings on the way!

[GhostMalone]

Dude I can't wait to see the first cast

[SW1]

I'm quite excited for the casting to happen. The main hold up has been my brothers loss of interest so I've had to hold off the choosing of the texture to work with. It's his board and he wanted final say on the details side of things.

 

It looks like we'll be having some split level action on the boards with some recessed canals/overflows. There will be an out flow with big pipes and some flowing (modelled anyway) water if my brother gets what he wants.

 

If I can keep the pattern of the other boards chequerboard then there will be regular recessed bits I could slot the sides of buildings/walls into.

 

As an added bonus these tiles will work out useful when I start work on slot in displays for my display cabinets. :D

 

Silly side note: Thinking of house rules already ... maybe there's some objective only available via the recessed bits. However you roll a d6 every player turn and if you roll a 6 then the waters flow and you get washed down the canal a random distance. Maybe have at one end an open drop which no one ever comes back from?

[SW1]

Last night I was tired and decided to get a bit more done in the board anyway. Sort of regretting it now as I decided to add bundles of wire and have some damaged ones. In comparison to just the pipes it's looking a little amateurish. :(

 

Not had a chance to upload pics before heading out to work will do when I get back this evening.

 

So removal of wires and replacing with more pipes is called for later on. I've also took a razor saw too a few necromunda bulkheads with the aim of having some bits I can use to convert up scatter terrain with. While I'm pouring the moulds for the tiles I might as well have some boxes and barrels ready as well. ;)

 

Looking at what I've already got knocking about there's a heap of ruined buildings that need some paint on them. So next time the airbrush is set up I'll give some of them a blast as well.

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

Loving that board section it looks amazing! do you think you'll sell any castings of this?

 

"Thinking of house rules already ... maybe there's some objective only available via the recessed bits. However you roll a d6 every player turn and if you roll a 6 then the waters flow and you get washed down the canal a random distance. Maybe have at one end an open drop which no one ever comes back from?"

 

Excellent house rule mate!

[barry_hhh]

cant wait to see more ,  what scale diamond plate  plasticard you have used so far?

 

tough to get it look right sometimes and it seems you have

[SW1]

Cheers for the positive comments.

 

@ Altis - if people want the components then that's a possible but a full 2' square board would not work out cost effective to do in one piece. It would stop me doing the recessed bits as well which work out ok using different sized pipes already.

 

@ barry - I'm not sure what the exact size is. I ordered a bunch of different textured plasticard sheets and I'm slowly working through them. Will try and work out when I get back from work if I still have to order confirmation. Strange as it may seem GWS seem to have also started using the same plate stuff on some of the newer scenery kits. Think the top of one of the bunkers has it and it's also on some of the fortification line they do.

 

This first tile has ended up being a bit of a labour of love but the lessons learned should make doing future boards much easier. ;)

 

Lol ... There will be a simple dry grassland type board coming up in the near future which should work out really easy in comparison.

[SW1]

I've sorted the 4 square recessed areas and slapped some paint on. It's a bit slapdash but that won't matter as there's lots of washes to go over and it's going to be under a mesh section ...

[Vulkan454]

Looking fantastic as always, lovely to see progress.

An inspiration to me and many others I'm sure!

 

Keep up the great work

[SW1]

Last night I tried to plan out what the next couple of boards would look like. Trying to draw in every tile and just making errors an having to restart repeatedly was not fun.

 

Going to try doing it again but rather than draw in each tile this time I'll try just using colour blocks for the different tiles instead. Hopefully this will work better and I'll have something that will make sense to others.

[SW1]

All the mesh bits need trimming around all the edges as there's an annoying thin bit which looks naff, I've managed to do the 4 large (100mm x 200mm) ones, just need to get the 4 smaller ones (100mm x 100mm) ones done:

I've also been playing around with barrels I've finally got the first one cleaned up and ready for casting up:

Then there's my chopshop Necromunda bulkhead which I'm currently changing into a doorway, still got some filling to do but it's almost there:

[SW1]

After researching a bit for cheaper paint options small (GWS/Vallejo) sized pots of paint ain't going to cover this board cheaply, I've come across the idea of using kids acrylic hobby paint. Picked up a few from a cheap store in 75ml tubes between 50p and 85p a tube depending on the colour. Not sure it'll go straight on plastics that well but any card/paper construction bits I'm sure will be fine. I'll have a play with them and work out what I can do with them. :D

[deathspectersgt7]

Really impressed , the cheap paint should work on the plastics I did the same thing on some built scenery and it worked out.

[SW1]

Finally worked out the layouts I'll be working to over the full 8 board sections. There's going to be 3 sections with no recessed overflow/canal bits. The other 5 will have recessed overflows in them with: 1x T-section, 2x sections with a bend (90 deg) and 2x straight sections.

A rough sketch can be found here:



Will change the link to a pic when I'm not on my phone.

Now I know the direction I'm going in I can work out the total amount of materials I'll need to finish it off. Lol ... Don't think I'll need any more straws though. I seem to have a fair few already.

Edit to insert pic

[muggs]

have you thought about going to homebase/B&Q and getting them to match the GW colour to some dulux or similar?

 

Good idea on filling the Necro bulkheads with GS - I've got a big terrain project I'm gathering materials for and had been thinking about chopping those bits off - they look quite good filled in, would adding rivets be worth the pain?

[SW1]

Don't worry, I've left a section of detail approx 5mm wide on either side which has some lovely rivets on them. ;)

 

I think in real life the edge would be a solid cast piece so wouldn't have rivets there.

 

From the centre of this bulkhead and another I've managed to rescue some ladders and window bits. I'll be looking to combine these in as well. The ladders would work with the recessed overflow sections.

 

House rules wise - Maybe have rules where scrambling up over the lip is a difficult terrain test but up a ladder is just 1" which it just so happens to be?

[SW1]

So had a play with some signage boards work was chucking out. It's 3mm thick and slightly flexible but much more durable than foamboard. Unsure what it's actually made of but there's quite a lot of it waiting to be used up. Not sure if it'll work for scenery but first up will be some paint stands. If that takes paint I'll try using it for things like the floors of buildings and the core of the walls.

[SW1]

Hmmm ... Matchsticks, coffee stirrers and granny grating. I'm sure this is the magic combination required to make metal mesh stairs.

[SW1]

I think I may have worked it out. ;)

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/gallery/image/162134-image/

 

The rail is removable so I could build them with and then depending on the table either used them or not.

 

(Will edit the pics in correctly later)

[SW1]

That board from work is waterproof. So it works really well as a board to mount items on to make one part open topped moulds. :D

 

Will be pouring the mould for the tiles pretty soon once I've got a few more moulds prepped. :tu:

[SW1]

After Blackadder's rather informative reply to my question on constructing with plasticard I feel a little more prepared for cracking on with the scratch building of bits for my brothers board.

 

My brother has been over and we've been going through different ideas for walls and free standing parts. He's liking the idea of some form of walkway or overhead trains or a suspend road. Not sure exactly what quite yet but I think mocking bits up in paper and cardboard will help.

 

Should have some form of proper update in the near future. ;)

[SW1]

Spent this evening sifting through the bitz boxes for inspiration. Instead I found a good chunk of my old space wolves army (how did I loose 300+ marines?).

 

I sort of fell out with GWS and the SW's when we got our new half a codex with an extra book to play the full army. Still not bought it and probably not going to. But that doesn't mean the models won't get painted up at some point. I've had a look through them and have started putting them all in the same box so when their time comes I'll know where they are.

 

What I was actually looking for was all my cities of death scenery. Still not located all of it but I think I know where the rest is now. :)

[SW1]

Went to pour the moulds for the resin parts of the board and found the oldest batch of rubber didn't flow that well when pouring. No bubbles were released either. Looks like that mould will need to be redone once I can get the tile out from it. :(

 

Guess keeping it on the shelf for a year or more was a bad idea. I had ordered some more rubber but that's been on the shelf atleast 6 months unopened. Thankfully having it unopened seems to have saved it. But now I need to use it ASAP and there's 10kg of the stuff. Time to workout what I had been planning to cast over the next couple of months and just get on with it. ;)

 

Lesson learned. Get my moulds ready to pour and then order the rubber in. Don't have the rubber sitting for months on end on the shelf.

[SW1]

Had a Eureka moment. The mould that the rubber messed up with has had the walls increased in height and new rubber poured over it. This has slipped under the messed up rubber and filled in the gaps I could see. It's now 3 times thicker than it was meant to be but it's now usable. :tu:

 

Just need to let the moulds mature for 4 or 5 days (just happen to be working the next 4 which works out nicely) and then I can start casting the tiles to crack on with the board.

[SW1]

I was going to slap textured plasticard under the mesh around the edge of each of the recessed pipe sections and then thicken up the section with further layers of plasticard to bring it up to the same level as the tiles. To save time in the long run I've made a master of one of the edgings:

This was the item that I tried first to make a mould for with the messed up'd rubber. Glad I managed to rescue it with more rubber. Looking more closely at the mould I will need to file each of the cast edging sides before using as there will be a few bubbles on te edge. The main thing is the detailed surface which has taken well and wont be affected by this:

The other 3 tiles were cast up in a single mould:

Really glad I used the new rubber for these as they have come out spot on and should cast up nice and neat:

I'm relying on these casting up square to line everything up over 600mm square boards. I used the spirit level function on my phone to get it as level as possible and once cured flipped it over on the same level surface to make sure the top pour surface was level. If they hadn't been then it would have been remoulded. An advantage to using this particular rubber is that I can chop or grind it up and use it as a filler on bigger moulds. It seems this can be done repeatedly so over time I plan on doing bigger moulds.

The other things I've moulded tonight are oil drums. I've tried to do a hollowed out one which might cast up, guess it depends on the thickness of the walls being thick enough. :/

It may look like a lot of extra rubber is being used but this is so i have a pour point well away from the detail I'm trying to cast up. The rubber is better off flowing slowly over the detail rather than getting poured directly onto it. It's been s long since I've made any fresh moulds that lots of little things I've pickd up in the past were initially forgotten. But like riding a bike its all coming back to me. :D

[SW1]

Well I've finally done the first cast of tiles and they have come out pretty well. I think the oil drums have also come out fairly well. However I did pull them out a little bit early so they are not quite round. The resin I have bought this time around has a longer cure time which I didn't realise. Though the knock effect is better detail capture so it's a worthwhile trade. Pics are uploaded just need to get on the laptop to do the links. ;)