Building some houses

Just before I went on a caravanning holiday with the family around the UK, I made these houses to populate my modular board.

They're both lasercut mdf sets that I picked up for a good price and decided that I should take a break from completing my Nurgle Army (before I burnt out with that project) and sit down with my son and construct and improve these. So we did the assembly together with lots of pva, elastic bands to keep things in place and some coffee.

After assembly my boy decided that one of the buildings should be a shop - we conferred on an Armoury and we then searched my bits box for details to adorn the building. I also wanted to pimp up the kit, the mdf buildings lack detail but more importantly texture. So some polyfilla was added to the walls, cardboard tiles were added and some sand for mossy areas too.

The function of the second building was definitely decided by me. Whilst rummaging around for bits for the previous model, I found a naked dancing girl from Hasslefree and though it would be a perfect sign for a medieval "club". This was placed just above the entrance door. The same texturing and detailing process also took place on this building. 

And then we went onto the painting. Both were undercoated black and then grey from above. Lots of washes of cheap acrylic paint later, followed by some drybrushing and finally some weathering and the buildings were done! As always it was the painting of all the beams that took the most time.

Back to the painting of some miniatures next...

 

Trash Bash Bits Pringles Competition

Last month I entered the Trash Bash Bits Facebook Group page's competition build. The task was to create something on the theme of "Defender" using a Pringles tube plus whatever trash bits you could add. This is what I made:

And this is what I made it from:

In addition to the Pringles tube, you can see a variety of pens for the gun, a CD for the base, fabric conditioner lid and yoghurt lids for the top of the turret, circuit board for the circuit board, bits of Lego, sprue and bits from an old computer for the interior and details, some lids (superglue and drink bottle) for the power generator and a contact lens case for the hatch. And some Plasticard/rods for decoration. 

As always with these kind of builds, the problem solving aspects of the task are what excite me. For example, below you can see me breaking up the surface of the tube with some incisions to represent panels and then using the small balls from a water softener embedded into pre-drilled holes for the rivets. Other plastic shapes and strips were added to create extra visual interest:

The next challenge was to keep the tower firmly based. The plastic yoghurt lid which was the perfect circumference for the size of the Pringles tube was too flimsy to support the structure. So I filled it with some resin!

The fit of the fabric conditioner lid was slightly too tight, but I managed to find another yoghurt lid that was perfect and when combined together in fact meant that I was able to retain the screw mechanism of the conditioner lid so that the turret could actually rotate. The gun was made by stacking lots of different diameter of pen lid together to create the effect of a multi layered extending gun:

From the outset I decided that i wanted to be able to see the interior of the tower too as this gave me an opportunity to use further bits of trash to make some internal computers and power generators etc. I like the idea that the exterior circuit board had been blown and that the doors had been forced open to reveal the inner workings. This involved making some steps from textured Plasticard and some computer terminals from a wire lighting connector and some old computer components

Here you can see the completed build:

The easy bit was the painting. The model was primed grey and then a series of dark washes were applied to create shadow around and in the details. The second series of acrylic washes were with a range of diluted red/browns applied in a vertical streak fashion and finally some very dilute green washes to complete the weathering effect.

The last aspect of the competition was to create a backstory and take some atmospheric photographs to accompany the narrative:

Abdul Goldberg spotted the derelict defense tower first across the debris strewn desert that is Helsreach. "That's our target" he pointed for the benefit of the gang. Nikosai inspected the rusted door system and quickly hot-wired the circuit board and with the help of the Pursuader, managed to prise open the doors. "We get this gun functional, the turret still works but we find some ammo and set up camp here. This is from where we dominate, a good mile range, before enforcement get here. I reckon we have 48 hours. Let's get it done" said Abdul.

And amazingly I was lucky enough to win the competition against some really stellar entries and was further privileged to receive some wonderful goodies for some future builds:

Lasercut house #1 "Dolls House Dilemmas".

I've completed painting my first mdf laser-cut house and I'm really happy with the results. I think doing a little extra work on the design in terms of making individual roof tiles and burrowing out the mortar between stonework created enough texture to make a more realistic impression and definitely made the painting stage a little easier as texture = dry-brushing!

I spray undercoated the build in grey and then used this colour as a base for the grey in between the beams. All of the rest of the painting was completed with tubes of acrylic paint (Daler-Rowney in this case). Subsequent greys (lighter than the undercoat) were dabbed into these areas between the beams which meant  that I then needed to re-paint the timbers matt black which was incredibly tedious as that process included the face of each timber as well as the top, bottom and sides. Touching up the windows with white was of little fun either.

Thankfully painting the stonework was quick and easy, using yellow-greys to create a sandstone appearance, followed by a range of terracotta hues for the roof tiles. Both of these were easily dry-brushed with slightly lighter shades to bring out the texture and light/shadow.

The final stage, my favourite stage, is the weathering which always surprises me in how easy it is and how quickly it unifies a paint job. Successive, very dilute layers of a variety of dark greens (eg. Hunters Green - my go to weathering green) and browns such as Burnt Umber and Yellow Ochre were used to streak the weathering from top to bottom. The appearance of moss was dabbed on slightly less dilute along the bottom of the stone work and in areas of shade - for example where the chimney meets the wall and where the pillar meets the stone floor. And that was it, first one down, although I might one day decorate inside too...

Part of me thinks that is an unnesecary job when there are so many other hobby ideas and tasks to do, but the Interior Designer in me disagrees. And I quite like a photo opportunity where my models can be placed inside with rugs and barrels etc. Dolls House Dilemmas.

Bandai Y-Wing 1:72

I'm having building work done on my house which means that I've had to lose my hobby space. I wasn't in the best run of form anyway, so this has really hampered my productivity. To get out of the dust zone, my kids and I went to my parents for the weekend and as is customary, I had a rummage around my old bedroom in the hope of finding a few nuggets of nostalgia and hopefully old models! Well I found one! A boxed Bandai Y-Wing (1:72) that I received for Christmas a few years ago. Joy. With my parents taking the kids out for the day, I set to work on constructing the tiny, detailed model.

Having worked on some quite difficult Airfix models with my son (small fiddly bits that need lots of gluing and don't fit particularly well) I was amazed that I did not need any glue to make successfully build this and the level of detail and quality was pretty astounding. I would definitely recommend these kits to any serious model-maker.

I wish I had the larger scale version to fit in with my Star Wars Imperial Assault minis, but I can imagine creating a diorama where this hangs in the sky, it's smaller scale lost in the perspective of distance.

Once the kit was built the yellows were painted on (rather than use the rubbish decals) and then the weathering which was done very quickly. Without applying a primer, I washed a dirty brown, very dilute oil paint mixture over the entire model and when dry applied a further range of acrylic washes over this including blacks for the burnt effect near the engines and browns over some of the pipes. A few of the details, including the pilot, droid and lights were then picked out with acrylic paint.

Overall it was a very enjoyable day making and painting this. Back home, I've established a temporary site for my hobby exploits, so (fingers crossed) expect a few more posts in the near future of a variety of different projects.

Helsreach Mercenaries - Arrabella; Peugeot 203

"Don't fuck this up", threatened Adelei Niska, his large presence adding considerable weight to the threat. "If she comes back with any damage on her, I'll do the same to y'all, one at a time, slow and steady like, and I'll enjoy it, clear?"

Adelei Niska took the crew to his garage and unveiled his pride and joy, "Arrabella", an old Peugeot 203 with raised suspension and over-powered v12 engine. She'd done a lot of missions and helped create a lot of stories with Adelei Niska as he built his reputation and eventual leadership of this province of Logan's World. But she was being brought out of retirement for this new mission; a crew of Ork Slavers had taken some human captives at the far side of Niska's patch, caused some damage and disrespected his sovereignty. He wasn't going to let it go, so he turned to his mercenaries, offered them plenty of incentive and the opportunity to take the car with them. His Maria would accompany them though, just for insurance and because he trusted her to bring Arrabella back in good condition..

You can see the construction of the car here if you missed it, so I'll start this post with the painting processes. I tried out a few new techniques on this badboy. I started with a grey primer which acted as a dull metallic undercoat. I then used some red/brown aerosol applied over this, leaving some of the grey exposed. This created a perfect base layer for my rusting techniques. For this I used a range of browns/reds/oranges mixtures all applied by dabbing a brush, I actually let the brush fall out of my grip onto the car to create a slightly random application of paint and I kept on jumping from one colour to another so there was a range of light and dark colours in any one area. It took a while and quite a few successive layers, but I found that this technique also allowed me to build up a slight texture to the finish too (none of the paints were watered down):

The above two WIP pictures are taken in daylight and show the true colours of the car, the first photo and subsequent ones are with my daylight bulb and actually increase the orange value slightly. Just goes to show that you can't beat real daylight for colour accuracy in photography..

Here you can see one of the images I researched, which helped me explore the rust colours/palette that I eventually went for. However some further research showed me that a lot of rusted out old cars still retained their shiny, chrome fixings, which provided a nice contrast to the rust colour but also a focal point. My model at this point was looking rather bland and needed some additional detail. You can see what I mean below;

So I introduced some Bare-Metal foil, which I had read about being used by serious car modellers on the net. It is incredibly easy to use and really jazzes up the finish of the car, perhaps better than paint can (unless I was to have gone down the nmm route perhaps..). Quite simply you cut a piece of foil slightly bigger than the area to which it is to be applied, use a cocktail stick to apply and push into any crevices and the material sticks to the model and retains all the detail/texture that was originally there. I used a cotton bud to burnish it into place and then a sharp scalpel to trim it back to the correct size:

I applied it to the rims of the headlights, the front grille, rear bumper and the side trim (very thin strips). I feel this really broke the model up and provided some much needed contrast. Some of the chrome then received a very fine wash of dry pigment in matt varnish, just so it wasn't so super shiny. The final stage was too add the last elements of weathering, more red oxide dry pigment, creating additional texture as to where the worst rust would occur (I assumed this would be mainly over the wheel arches from experience of my previous rust bucket cars - I 'm thinking of you Toyota Celica!) and then some oil stains around the moving parts and exhaust with Nuln Oil and finally my dusty dry pigment, applied heavily to the wheels and undercarriage to tie the vehicle into the desert landscape setting I've created for my Rogue Trader mercenary warband:

Oh and of course I added a Copplestone figure in the back, wearing fatigues and looking mean as she keeps watch with her rifle. I then actually went back to the model and added the logo on the doors, I felt the model needed something else to look at and to break up the shape. I was initially going to go for a scorpion (I wanted a desert creature) but after practising found it very hard to get an accurate shape of such a detailed critter, so instead plumped for a coiled snake. I definitely painted it too small on the whitewashed background, so had to improvise by adding the squared sign on a whim to fill a bit more space and add something extra. Snake squared I guess?

I think the only downside of using 1:43 scale cars is that they are quite narrow. I think the length is pretty much in scale, but they could do with being a touch wider for 28mm. I can't imagine two 28mm sitting side-by-side in the front...

The car kinda gets lost in my usual photo set up, with all the rusty structure in the background, so I've also taken some using a plain background, or at least my white kitchen table:

And to finish, a couple of shots of the whole gang, now with vehicle but just awaiting the last member and arch-leader of this mercenary group: