Building Better Worlds: A Terrain Progress Log

[hd3]

Hello everyone! As part of my policy of not buying new models until I finish the ones I have now, I am taking a break from expanding my army to make the battlefield look more interesting than a tissue box on a cloth mat. To whit, I'm starting this log to keep track of my terrain projects as I do with my main army.  My first entry will be a small one, starting on my scatter terrain from the old combat patrol magazine. This one has two large Imperium supply crates, two small and three barrels. 

 

I'm starting with the  ammo crates, using a black primer and a base coat of caliban green and washed with agrax. What I'm not sure about is how best to represent chipping on the paint here. Or if it would just be better to just make it dirted but not pitted and scarred. After this I want to move onto the promethium barrels which I want to paint mostly red except for the middle stripe which I was aiming for a really dull white.

Edited October 3 by hd3

[Master Ciaphas]

Looking forward to following this and your journey towards Hadley's Hope!

[Tallarn Commander]

In the army our ammo containers (unless they were new) would generally have some scratches and some dust on them. Nothing too severe though.

 

I also look forward to seeing this project progress.

[hd3]

 

In the army our ammo containers (unless they were new) would generally have some scratches and some dust on them. Nothing too severe though.

 

I also look forward to seeing this project progress.

 

Out of curiosity when the containers scratched, could you see the unpainted metal underneath? Like was it metallic grey? Or did it just dent but keep the colour like my beaten up Jerry can?

[hd3]

Finished the ammo crates! I cut them up a bit with my knife to create some scratches and then I went with Caliban green for most of them and highlighted the edges with Caliban green mixed with Vallejo English uniform to try and approximate Elysium green. After that for the aquila I did Balthazar gold with a highlight of canoptek alloy. Finally I wanted down some mournfang brown until it was basically a wash and then soaked the whole thing to create some dirtm I also tried using kantor blue with highlights of macragge blue for the 'special crate'. 

 

I also trued a little streaking grime along the edges but it came out either too string in the blue crate or too subdued on the green ones. 

 

Next, the promethium barrels! I'm doing these in the classic late 2000s videogame exploding red barrel colour scheme since I was replaying spec ops the line the other day. Which also serves as almost the anti-40k game.

[Firedrake Cordova]

 

Out of curiosity when the containers scratched, could you see the unpainted metal underneath? Like was it metallic grey?

The ammo containers I've seen only had light scuffs, which didn't remove the paint - this is after being used in the army, and then in the construction industry (for transporting metal fixings) for a decade plus (i.e. no exposed metal or rust). Don't know if that helps.  

[Tallarn Commander]

I agree. When the containers scratched you would usually NOT see metal. Instead you would see a primer color.

 

Sadly, I cannot for the life of me remember the primer color--but it was 3 decades ago. 

[hd3]

I finished my Promethium Barrels! I went with mephiston red and pallid witch flesh over Tamiya flat black primer. Then a wash with nuln oil. For the metal details I went with lead belcher for the skull and spigot whije the aquila was brass scorpion for a bit of contrast. I was worried I went too heavy with the nuln but now I wish I had used more to make it look filthier.

 

I'm finally starting to see why people buy light booths for photos. This photo barely resembles the barrels in real life.

 

I also used some number decals to remind myself which side is up quicker. You may notice the numerical sequence is a reference to the old Astra Militarum joke about the three servitors loaded with corpse starchy sprayers then set loose to blast at random in the scholar progenium. The servitors are branded, 1, 2 and 4, forcing the proctors to waste hours looking for the non existent 3rd servitor.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice work  

 

6 hours ago, hd3 said:

I'm finally starting to see why people buy light booths for photos.

You don't really need to buy anything - you can make one very cheaply.  

[hd3]

Time to start on the center piece of the terrain sprue: the Munitorium armory container! This is actually going to be part of a special set with two other miniature which a friend of mine who lives in the eastern capital will be sending me. 

 

For the container itself , I am doing it as rusted over and 'abandoned' on the battlefield. I got the formula from grotsmasha. I've primed with wraith one spray, then a base coat of 50/50 Gryph Hound Orange and Goregrunta Fur. Then to add the exposed metal details, I've done a drybrush of Iron Warriors and Stormhost Silver. I spilled a little of the Iron Warriors so I'll have to go over that again with the base coat.

 

For the paint, such as it is, I went with Zandri Dust stippled on a second stiplling of ushabti bone. I think I might need a second pass at the stippling to build up the colour a bit more. Does it look like paint on rust or rust eating over paint?

 

The green is castellan green but honestly it's not close enough to olive drab for my liking. I think I might do something different, maybe olive green from Tamiya. I've been on a Tamiya run lately since I discovered Tamiya flat black works great as a matte black primer spray and is a less than a quarter of the price of chaos black spray.

 

The next step is to finish the paint, then decals. I'm planning an Aquila tank decal on the top quadrant of each of the green panels and a 'two' score on the right tan panel.  This is a reference to the second part of my little diorama which I'm keeping as a surprise! 

The final surprise also requires one hatch door be able to open while the other stay closed. I was debating if it would be worth paying a commission to get the door attached by a hinge to let it open and close easily. But it would probably be cheaper to just not glue it and open the door by hand.

 

Edited October 12 by hd3

[hd3]

I added some imperial guard decals for greater detail but they came out way too glossy. I think I overdid it on he micro set or maybe didn't use enough micro sol to dissolve the becking. 

 

Anyone have any tips on how to fix this? Another pass with the micro sol? Or just wait until I use spray on matt varnish over the whole thing to dull it down?

[hd3]

Taking a break from my Munitorium armory container since I'm waiting for two new parts to arrive. Instead, I'm working on my main terrain project: a set of STC-Ryza ruins! AKA the terrain set GW released and apparently immediately forgot about.

 

To start with, I've got the entire set with Tamiya matt black spray. Before moving onto the base coat. For this project, I'm trying something different and using a bunch of Vallejo paints instead to try and get a different look. To begin with, I did a 50/50 blend of Vallejo black and the dull metal 'jet exhaust'. This came out looking pretty close to 'iron warrior' from GW except for one piece where I guess I used too much jet exhaust and it came out more of a silvery lead belcher. This has given a  metallic but uneven natural texture. Though I might need to touch it up a bit more with another coat of black/jet exhaust in some places.

 

Next step is going to be using 'dura lumin' a slightly brighter metallic silver and sponging it on sparingly from the top down to hopefully get a nice patina effect on top of what we have now.

 

P.S.

I forgot how huge terrain sets are compared to troops and how long just base coats take. I remain envious of people with an airbrush.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks like a good start.  The Vallejo Metal Colour range is really nice ...

[hd3]

A before and after shot here. I gave it a second coat of black/jet exhaust for more consistent coverage. Then used a sponge to put Vallejo duralumin across it. The recessed grooves of the terrain made it a bit harder to get it consistent in the recessed areas though and I'm worried the brighter metallics look more like spatter in those spots instead of natural wear and tear. What's the public opinion? Should I redo those parts with the black/exhaust?

 

Next step is the hardest, painting up all the details, cables, pipes, cogitators etc.

Edited October 17 by hd3

[Firedrake Cordova]

Honestly, it's hard to say. Looking at the third image, they're in the middle of the panels, which is where a scrape would likely live, and they're shaped mostly how you'd expect a scrape to be (the exception being the vent), so you could probably leave as-is?

[LameBeard]

Yeah I really like how this looks like the middle of the panel got worn away but the trim provides protection near the edges. The splotch above the small vent looks funny though.

 

On the glossy decal, it could be glossy because it’s just got air between it and the surface. Can you put solvent on, move it and start again? Or just add softener to slowly get it flatter? Or hit with matt varnish with a brush on those panels?

[calgar101]

I like your rust technique and will copy that as best I can on my containers. I enjoy looking at terrain, especially ruins etc. I'll be following this with lots of interest. Nice work so far.

[hd3]

On 10/18/2024 at 4:41 AM, LameBeard said:

Yeah I really like how this looks like the middle of the panel got worn away but the trim provides protection near the edges. The splotch above the small vent looks funny though.

 

On the glossy decal, it could be glossy because it’s just got air between it and the surface. Can you put solvent on, move it and start again? Or just add softener to slowly get it flatter? Or hit with matt varnish with a brush on those panels?

 

I have about 6 cans of mr.hobby matt varnish top coat spray ready and waiting for once my paint jobs are finished and then I'm going to matt var ish everything. Is it different if it uses a brush as opposed to a spray?

[LameBeard]

4 hours ago, hd3 said:

 

I have about 6 cans of mr.hobby matt varnish top coat spray ready and waiting for once my paint jobs are finished and then I'm going to matt var ish everything. Is it different if it uses a brush as opposed to a spray?

Well I was thinking do you really want matt varnish on top of the metal? The brush suggestion was just to let you get a heavier coat in a local area.

[hd3]

I've added most of the detail work to my STC-RYZA ruins now. For the cables I sent with a really sharp contrasting colour, with a slightly brighter colour in spots to give more texture. On the red for instance, I did mephiston red base with spots of evil sunz. I'm going to go over the macragge blue cables with a kantor blue mixed with a little corax white and the averlabd sunset yellow cables with Vallejo yellow.

 

For most of the metal details I just used various brass to not be too jarring a contrast. Rune lord brass for loose wires, plaques and canisters and brass scorpion with agrax for the vent covers. I didn't want to lose the nice spotty effect I got on all the pipes from the base coats of duralumin and jet exhaust so I used my special stained brass formula of gor grunta fur really thinned down with contrast medium to add a distinct colour while keeping the patina effect on the pipes. Hopefully it also creates the impression of greater shadows and dirt as you go down the pipe to the places where it was harder for the sponge to reach. 

 

Finally Zandri dust and Tamiya olive drab for the various fuse boxes and maintenance hatches washed with athonian camoshade for a little more colour.

 

The next step is decals to add a bit more detail and colour to the metal work. Then I'm gonna cover the whole thing with a watered down coat of rattling grime to make everything look nice and gunky.

 

 

Edited October 28 by hd3

[Firedrake Cordova]

I really like how the pipes turned out.  

 

Have you thought about softening the outline of the sponge in the last image?

[hd3]

1 hour ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

I really like how the pipes turned out.  

 

Have you thought about softening the outline of the sponge in the last image?

 

How do you mean? Trimming it some more?

[Grotsmasha]

18 minutes ago, hd3 said:

 

How do you mean? Trimming it some more?

If you look under the window piece, there's a clear line against the recess where the sponge didn't quite reach, I think @Firedrake Cordova is suggesting feathering that line a little to make it look a little more natural

[Firedrake Cordova]

I think @Grotsmasha did a better job of phrasing it than me - if you look in the top left (where the slot is), there's quite a hard outline of the edge of the sponge that would benefit from being softened out a little.

Edited October 28 by Firedrake Cordova

[GhostMalone]

Hell yeah I love a good terrain project! Keep it coming