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At some stage, I'll be building some made of hardware supplies - and I'm sure they'll be better than the one I have there. Still, for 10 or so bucks on a Friday night it made for quick and simple, effective terrain and painted up pretty quickly.

Great thread, love the variety of your projects and I want to say thanks for bringing the Italeri fountain to my attention - grabbed a cheap one from ebay and it's just arrived It's a great little piece as is but like yours I'll be giving mine a little extra bling, thanks again!

Thanks! I'm a big fan of cheap and simple but effective little models like that fountain.

I've been doing a bit of work lately, but not really photographing anything for awhile - have finished updating a bunch of WFB orcs and gobboes, have finished some LotR Men of Gondor, but I'd rather show off the Orcs with some newly-finished figures, and the Men of Gondor are pretty bland, so not worth sharing until I have the units completed (ie- after varnish and flocking the models I just finished at minimum...) - The combo of black cloth, steel armour and truescale make them pretty boring and uninspiring figures, despite how cool they look onscreen in the films...

Hm. Does anyone here happen to have any spare musician instruments from the Mantic Elf or Dwarf range? Or any of the Citadel plastics ranges? I need a fair few for conversion into LotR plastics units.

Tons. I almost never make musicians. What are you looking for, specifically?

Pretty much any instruments. Horns, drums, harps. Standards/standard pole toppers could also be useful if you have any spares. Basically, I have heaps of these bloody things











and even a few of these:









(and that's without getting into the evil side, like the Black Numenoreans, Orcs, Goblins, Haradrim and Easterlings)

I have some (Gondor) standards and captains (who look too bloody close to the troops anyway) but no musicians, and similar but without the metal command/standards for the other factions.

I'm starting by turning the Gondor guys into a KoW force - I've just finished 3 or 4 units (Shield Wall Regiment, Spear Phalanx Regiment and either 2 troops or a regiment of Missile Troops. Just that none of them have musicians due to model issues. Once I finish painting all of the Warriors of Minas Tirith that I have, I'll start on the 2nd Age Men of Gondor and the smaller feifdom units, and then start to add in the Rohirrim. Working on a couple of metal standards and some character models now.

I have quite a few things in my bits box. Whereabouts are you located?

I'm in Melbourne. Where about are you?

TANGENT:
Ok, thanks to Grimdowk and his stupid tank, I've gotten all enthusiastic about making a tank graveyard for a major table/scenery project. I looked up some pics to provide him with inspiration, and accidentally became inspired myself. I've been playing with it in my head for the last couple of hours.

http://imgur.com/gallery/JDIGm
http://shiftedplay.com/threads/battlefield-4-real-life-zavod-311.1805/
http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/03/05/tank-graveyard-in-ukraine/
https://goo.gl/maps/YUIEI

Spoilers for huge pics:







Now, much of the work will have to happen over Christmas, as there's a pretty heavy reliance on both DeadZone and Mars Attacks scenery to put together the large buildings.
In the interim, I can start thinking about, and then purchasing items for the rest of it.
Those $6 tanks that Grimdork has are just not an option for Aussies, so my next best option is AU$18 tanks from Korea. I'm looking at getting 20 of these T-72s:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/T-72-1-48-Academy-13006-/370989265823?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item5660aef39f&_uhb=1

Sure, they're not mega-40k-ish or anything - or even as futuristic as the Merkava that I can get for the same price - but they look great and have the perfect fit and feel for a tank graveyard. Much better than the Patton for this kind of thing. The table elements will still kick all kinds of arse for 40k while not being made of skull-encrusted skulls. It will also work for Moderns, Warpath or even WW2 (if you squint hard enough at the T-72s they'll look just like T-34s, right?)

I'll paint the tanks with a mix of sprays, salt and washes. Maybe a drybrush and some freehand numbering, etc at the end. I imagine that it'll be pretty quick and painless - and by that I mean it'll take 10 times as long as I hope and plan for, and have all kinds of screw ups raise their heads, but still look good in the end.

So.. next I need to work out or find what kind of train tracks would work best for the odd 1:48/1:56 mix that our figures are in. I'll also need to get a few engines and a good 10-12 freight carriages/flatbeds. As well as a pile of shipping containers that fit properly onto them. I've got a few AT-42 containers and there's that guy on Dakka who sells his own shipping containers, but it'll obviously be a lot better if all the train stuff scales together properly.
Any ideas on that stuff, guys?

Pipes and smokestacks will be taken care of by Bunnings and Masters hardware stores. I'll need to figure out a painless way of making factory-style windows. The many fences could be made with square-cut wire with plastic strut for the poles.

Love the fountain! Simple perhaps, but beautiful.

Hah! Nice, way to take an idea and run with it I had no intentions on anything quite this large, and am very interested in seeing it develop. I can't help you with the trains though, one thing I've stayed pretty well away from.

I did some research, and apparently "O" scale is approximately 1:48. And it's also hard to get hold of (especially here in Aust) and trains cost approximately eleventy bejillion dollars. (which I kinda knew, but wow... worse than I expected!) Still, I've always wanted to get hold of some sets of tracks for terrain, since they seem to be such an obvious and easy way to add interest to wargames (even if there's no actual carriages or rolling stock).

I am in the process of ordering 20x of those Academy 1:48 scale tanks - all T-72s. With luck they'll be here in about a month, and I can then begin to assembly-line assemble, paint and weather them. Also bought 6x other random 1:48 scale armour kits off the 'bay which should be here next Friday. With reports for work finally finished this week, and a long weekend imminent, I may even go out and start to foam-core a building together this weekend.

Spoke to the owner of a local model store at length last night, and he seemed quite excited to help me get set up with various bits and pieces, including picking through his bag o' random tank bits. He also shared a ton of knowledge, including almost everything I now know about O scale trains.

You know, I think this might actually be a go-er.


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Thanks Vermonter. I love simple things like that. Especially when they still "work" so well.

Excellent, may you have the tenacity to complete what sounds like a pretty awesome project ;D

This does sound like a good project that could work for a lot of systems, and if nothing else, you'll get enough terrain for a board and a rather massive fleet of tanks. Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

Well, I didn't manage to build anything today, and negotiations continue of those 20 T-72s. Well, those are sorted, but not yet paid for, since I'm trying to add 4x Merkavas to the order so I can have a bit of variety in the graveyard, so waiting for my Korean eBay friend to get back to me.

I did just buy a pile of the $1 sale Dave Graffam models. I was initially looking for some free papercraft buildings that I could use as templates for the storage buildings (in the background of the train pic above) and eventually found some of the DG ones that seemed to have potential for cutout templates for foam core. (And then bought a bunch more for Fantasy/medieval cityscapes down the line, because, hey - $1 each!) Now I just need to wait for them all to finish downloading....

So, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to start building some buildings.

Excellent, progress! I think I'll make it a point to keep an eye out for more of those tanks at Hobby Lobby whenever I'm not already planning to use the coupon on something else, then I'll be able to make a mini tank graveyard so as to compare notes

I've got the planning for the T-72s all worked out. Should be rapid and reasonably painless. Maybe even slightly enjoyable. The guy said he can hopefully send them towards the end of next week, and then it's a good 3 weeks from Korea to Australia, and then I tend to do a weekly mail pickup on Fridays.

I figure batch painting them is the only sensible way to go.

First assembly.

Prime black (spray can). Airbrush the crevasses that I miss.
Rustoleum Brown or red-brown
Airbrush various patchy different shades of red-brown through orange.
Salt.
Spray can an approximation for the appropriate undercoat colour for T-72s (research this in the meantime, then get a "close enough" from the hardware store)
Salt.
Spray can an approximation of the right colour for Soviet armour. There are a few specific cans made for FoW players.
Salt.
Patchy highlights and such via airbrush.
Salt.
Maybe some badly-applied camo (as in the GY pics).
Airbrush with Pledge for a clearcoat.
Wash with oil paints.
Let dry for a day or two.
Mineral spirit some of the mess off.
Remove Salt.
Maybe some really subtle metallic edge/scratch highlights, but probably not. They're supposed to be rotting hulks, after all.
Gloss Varnish
Weathering powder.
Matt Varnish.

Those spray colours (and spray varnish) will take forever to dry between coats, and so will the oil paints. So I'm hoping I can maybe get them done in a week or so, but it could well take two weeks or even three or four since I'll also have to go to work, and it'll be the mid-winter (which is obviously gak-awful for spray-can work. Or not pissing down rain. Or light by the time I get home from work.

Hm, after writing all that, I don't know how much fun those middle 45 steps are going to be. Hope I still have my enthusiasm for the project when they arrive in about a month.

That's a lot of steps for something you're doing 20 of! Sounds like it'll look good though

Well, I figure most of those steps should take a couple of minutes per tank at most . And since I hate doing stuff like cleaning and changing the colours in the airbrush it will actually make it much faster per step on a per-tank basis. I need to get a new airbrush since I seemingly killed my double-action top-fed badger the first time I used it - I really need someone to teach me to use the stupid thing properly. At least I haven't killed my cheapo bottle-fed single action one, though!

How did you kill it? I broke the apparently non removable nozzle from a cheapo iwata clone, but my SOTAR seems like I could just replace any faulty parts and get it going again.

Cool concept

I may have some musicans parts from KOW. I certainly have a few from the WGF romans if they ae of any use.

 GrimDork wrote:
How did you kill it? I broke the apparently non removable nozzle from a cheapo iwata clone, but my SOTAR seems like I could just replace any faulty parts and get it going again.

I used it, paint dried in it while I was still using it/changing paints. Then I tried to clean it by dismantling it and then reassembling it in the exact same way. Something is now seriously messed up in it with the action or springs or something. I have so far managed to resist curbstomping it, so there's that at least.

Basically, I don't know how to use or clean an airbrush properly, and most online tutorials seem to be filled with useless instructions like "and now disassemble it for cleaning - be careful of losing the parts, though" or "then clean your airbrush". Yeah, thanks. Just typing this is making me frustrated and angry. I feel like taking it outside and "fixing" it with a ball-peen hammer....

Carlos. Those parts seem ideal - though I may have some coming shortly, so I'll hold off for the moment and let you know if I still need them in a week or two if that's ok?

Sure mate just let me know.

Hmm. When you are feeling particularly zen some time... Google the exact name and get the parts diagram. Completely field strip it and try again? A missing tiny seemingly insignificant washer or o ring can foul things up but if everything is present and unbroken.. well good luck if you try orhappy hhunting if you go to replace it

For anyone familiar with Battlefield 4, this is the map section that I'm going to be basing my board, layout and components on:


And the Aerial View


Here's the building I'm basing the first storehouse on: (the ones at the bottom of the above pic)

http://www.davesgames.net/catalog-warehouse.htm
Still available on WGV for a buck!

Using the Warehouse card building sheets as a template on Foam Core. Still needs a roof and floor at this stage. Thanks to my long-suffering and supportive wife for going down to Bunnings to pick up a can of adhesive spray for me earlier today. I might go out later this evening and see if it's all dry enough for me to move to the next step of assembling the foam core walls and roof properly and adding some corrugated cardboard for the roof texture. Then I'll carve some 40k-sized doors out of it. If this first building works out well, I'll batch-build another 1-3 using the same template. I want to mount them on large concrete slabs as well, so I'll probably have to buy a giant sheet or three of foam core so I can finish them.


Leonard the cat offers his assistance!



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Went back into the shed for a bit. Bloody cold in there in the evenings now.

Assembled the walls and the removable roof. Made a right mess of it in some (most!) parts while assembling but managed to recover it all in the end. It was certainly a good move to build one as a learning experience before doing the others. Now to print out the templates for three more, and hopefully build them all tomorrow. My wife found my 10-year-old roll of corrougated cardboard and I found the other card that I intend to use as sheetmetal wall and roof reinforcement, so I can add those to this building tomorrow.

The scale of this board is intense . Gonna be awesome.

Looks great so far mate. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

The work continues:


Breathing spray solvent is supposed to be really good for you. or something. Remember kids - use a well ventilated room!


It's not glamorous, but it's got to be done.


Spacemans and toy tank for scale.


Obviously they’re not exactly the same, but they’ll be close enough, and representative of those warehouses. Except a Dreadnought will also fit into my ones!

Those look nice. Good solid LoS blocking terrain, can't wait to see you finish up and weather them I'd make buildings out of foamcore if I could cut straight or evenly to save my life, I'll just have to let you do it and stick to buying terrain. And picking out random coffee cans and such

That's one of the main reasons I bought the card building templates. No measuring!

I'll take some card which I'll use for the corner and roof supports into work tomorrow so I can cut consistent strips using the guillotine.

Probably need to buy a guillotine myself at some point. I've put my decade-long-rolled-up, erm, roll of corrugated cardboard under the rug in the shed so that it flattens out well enough for me to use as roofing. The ingame ones use concrete slabs for roofing, but I figure that I'd like the visual interest that rusting iron roofing can add, even though it's a bit more work than leaving them as concrete.


I'd rather buy a lot of ready-made stuff as well, to be quite honest, but it's hard to find buildings to match a certain vision - and I bet it'd be expensive, and I've just burnt a fortune on tanks, and might do more on train stock and rails. I'm wondering about the table base now. Perhaps a set of SWM tiles or a combo of two themes? I'm not sure - I still haven't seen any great pics of the full individual tile sets.

Ruined Temple as a base

These for the paved/plaza areas where the buildings are, and where the majority of the tanks are parked, fading into:
either


Scrapyard
or


Rolling fields? (though not painted in a desert scheme)

For the outer, wooded and overgrown areas, including where the rail lines run.


The tricky thing with this is wanting to avoid using the larger, "centrepiece" and "feature" sections like the river in Rolling Fields, or the Amphitheatre or crypts on Ruined Temple, or the huger piles of scapyard junk, since I'll have my own Tanks taking care of that, for the most part - and will need lots of flat space to put buildings, rail lines, tanks and such....