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Hey everyone, I always get the urge for real world images to help guide my modeling and took some pics the other day to start a folder, so i figured i'd pop them up here as well incase they help or encourage any other hobbyists out there, feel free to add your own throughout so we can collate an album of great things to help us as well as techniques if you know how to achieve a certain texture effect etc.

firstly i took a stroll around my village and photographed some examples of rust and paint chipping, as well as a couple of statues and some weathering of brick walls.












I work at a Casino/hotel and every time i walk through the staff entrance I always imagine a space hulk high ceilings with a lot of pipes and wires, cable bundles and air conditioning units, high fluro lights cast a bright glare over the walls, I love looking at all the pipes etc and imagining how i could use the look of it to add realism to my terrain, I hope that these images give you something to use with your own projects!























that's all today, i'll keep posting anything i feel might inspire you or help with some individual pieces and i'd hope you do the same!

Thanks nerdfest09! These pics are awesome inspiration - thank you for sharing!

LOL... these pics from your workplace... looks like you are planning a job similar like an oceans eleven^^

the rusted streaks on that pipe in the middle ...that is pure art...!!! i will see if i can add a bit to these soon... i know a hospital in my neighberhood that has some nice rusty sreaking smokestacks that would fit right in...

hopefully you didn´t get into trouble for taking those pics at work

cheers, and a truly nice idea!

How's poker treated at your casino? (My uncle loves the game...)

That yellow pipe with rust streaks is super sexy.

Cheers guys! :-) I'm kinda happy others think this is a good idea! beats the hell outta trawling the web for images of flaky rust/stains/grasses etc.

No, i didn't get into trouble for the pics, i had it passed by my mates in security and plus it was about 3:50am when I asked so it may have just gone in one ear and out the other! lol

Galorn, I actually don't even know how to play poker lol! I've worked there for 11 years and since we're forbidden to gamble at the premises I never learnt! but it's a boutique casino so only one floor of tables.

now where are the pics from you guys? :-)

At home on my PC - will link some soon -

Can't wait to see what you bring to the table!

nice pic of the statue, you always see people doing a green verdigris wash for copper but people don't realize weathered bronze... like for minotaurs for example, is dark brown and a very light green running down in streaks from the top... best way to do that is to half drybrush and half use a bit of runny paint and make downward streaks....

Also the bricks, that is a very cool effect didn't realize the moss grows like that in the nooks and crannies. That would be very easy to do with a light green wash on some brick-pattern stuff and probably give a cool effect.

Hi Meade, that's exactly the sort of thing I like to hear, it's the things you may look over each day that one day will make your models pop! like that brick wall, the way the mosses grow at the base in the gravel, hadn't thought of that but it obviously makes sense!

and thank you for the hint with the weathered bronze, how good would it be to see someone do a 'realistic' minotaur marine or 40! :-)

So, to whet your appetite, and until I can find my portable hard drive with more photos on it, here you go -

Wow, more rubble than I though there's be! great pics too btw! easily incorporated into gothic style ruined terrain, cheers for them :-)

Yeah, that's what happens when you slam JADAMS into poorly made reinforced concrete.

Got some more rubble shots floating around on another computer - will try to find them and upload them as well.

More photo goodness from my phone! took these this morning on my way back to work along the highway from our airport. the texture and colours are very similar to the start of my Realm of battle gaming board, so now I'm going to base it as if it's landscape from near my home a good constant source of inspiration!







and a railing from the fire escape stairway again at work



Hope you like.

ah... i meant to do some pics...

and those nice red hills... what kind of earth/sand is that...if you know that...

and peeled paint... one of these days i need to test the hairspray salt methode...

@Nerdfest - There are some awfully big holes in those walls... They're not supposed to be fire rated are they?

I took a whle load of pictures of roadside details once and then lost the memory card :(

So here is an awesomely knackered storage tank in Iceland:

what the hell happened to that poor wee barrel???

One more shot of the side of my highway, @Vik, I am not sure what the make up of the earth is but I'm guessing it's a dense clay filler looking at it's surface? I'll see if i can get a close up of the walls of it on my way back from the airport this morning? I like the way the greenery bleeds into the top of the face and it then has different dry grasses springing up in holes where water may pool. I'll re post these pics in my blog when i start working on my realm of battle board again!

wasn´t there a saying... don´t drink and drive... now we could add don´t drve and take pics

Cool Thread Nerd!
A requested, some of my recent Grimdark inspiration reposted here:
























These were mostly taken from sites ran by Urban Explorers and the like: I still have more I need to upload.

Thanks Dave :-) now i better use it and actually show you something I built!

They are all here in my Dakka album called "reference pics" if anyone is interested.

Great idea Nerdfest!

I have a collection of pics I use for inspiration.
Share the wealth they say...

Oh my goodness. This thread... So beautiful and so sad. Most everything here is a crumbling mass of constructed, once-useful, and completely forgotten stuff.

I almost feel that this stuff would be worth while traveling across the US, Europe, and Asia just to see. The depth of human's desire to create with obvious over-tones our follies or short attention span. Both fantastic spiritual inspiration and great inspiration for any of us looking to make just a hell-hole of a forgotten place.

This is awesome. I never thought about using reference photos, but it makes so much sense.

Wow talk about momentum fast! thank you for contributing some absolutely beautiful photo's and ideas! these are great for model building and just slowly browsing each image for it's beauty and depth, I hope we can encourage more Dakkaites to share the wealth of images we have collected over the years of our terrain building life!

If it hadn't been said yet have a look for pics of English cities in the 60s and 70s prior to modernisation and cleanup, cos they'd be perfect since a lot were heavily industrialised in the 1800 and 1900s.

These industrial sites are abandoned because some rich jackhole made a fortune selling the work overseas, putting all the people out of work.

Now these are sad..

Yeah, my dad was one of those people put out of work by the rich jackholes. The mill I worked in so long ago has been turned into apartments. But still looks more or less the same. I may try to get some pics this weekend. Plus, lots of deserted and rusted out buildings in a former mill town.

Well, at least they made some use of the old building- I'd bet most of these could've been saved and re-purposed if anyone cared. I'd bet they just shut the doors one day and let the weather rot them from the inside out.
Known as the "NYC Batcave" one such factory housed a bunch of homeless squatters for years, until a "drunken rooftop incident" shuttered it for good.
http://abandonednyc.com/2012/06/10/in-gowanus-batcave-teenage-dreams-live-and-die/
I'd bet that place was a bit like the Underhive.

The creepiest pics tell stories on their own.




Dare I say this one is an artform all on it's own?






I'm going to build tanks like these