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I've been playing games with either good looking, Imperial GW terrain or crappy looking Xenos terrain for years. I've decided to make some terrain to match my Tau army so I can play in style!

Here goes. Finished photos first, and then a sequence showing how I put everything together. I think of this as my Tau'er... get it? Tower.

I don't feel like typing a lot because I finished painting this about 15 minutes ago. I'd be happy to answer any questions though.






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Oh, and the PVA glue is still wet, so the grass will darken up a bit as it dries. If you zoom in on the top photo you can actually see the wet glue.

Where can I get that lovely cork stuff?

They are essentially just 1 foot x 1 foot square cork tiles that I buy pretty much anywhere office supplies are sold and then tear apart into chunks. Really easy once you see it in action.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Board-Dudes-Light-Cork-Tiles-12-x-12-4pk/14917681

You can use the edge pieces to make "steps". Zoom in on the below and you'll see what I mean. Same cork, but painted with grays to look like ruins.

That is pretty spiffy.

If the tower is made of found items, I'd be appreciative to know what they are I've been doing some found items stuff myself, mostly out of plastic bottle caps and computer parts right now, but that Tau'er is quite nice

The blue thing and the big white disc are an overhead electrical box and corresponding outlet cover. Got them at the local hardware store for about 5 USD. The connecting tower piece is the leftover container of Mentos gum pieces... Th kind designed to fit in a cup holder in your car. The metal pipes are... little metal pipes! Also from the hardware store. Maybe 0.50 USD each.

Definitely good work. Awesome use of found objects.

Ahah. I can see it now, thanks

I love it !

Dude, I want your coffee mug.

Terrain looks good also

The coffee mug was a giveaway (or maybe I had to buy it?) at a GW store birthday several years ago. They had an Aquila one also. I gave that one to my mother-in-law because she likes mugs.

I use it as my painting water pot.

How did you do the scribing so precisely?

Great work and great look!

That's some killer Tau terrain man. Nice work.

That is some awesome terrain, great work. I am going to look it that cork that you are using. looks a lot better then polystyrene.

Great work on the terrain, very good imagination.

Any chance you will be selling this?

Thats really cool stuff man!

Can I ask what paints you used on the actual building itself. Its pure plastic is that correct?

I love the step by step! I'm still working on my basing so its great to see different methods.

To answer some questions...

The main piece is a "Carlon SuperBlue 1-Gang Ceiling-Fan Box with Nails" from Home Depot. The white disc was a cover sold on the shelf right above it, so I presume it's some sort of electrical box cover. The hardware store guy was perplexed that I kept telling him I wasn't worried about whether the pieces went together. Evidently, "I'm building a small scale alien fortress for my toy soldiers" is a weird response.

The Scribing was done very particularly using a compass and a scriber, both from Lowes. Both are manufactured by General Tools & Instruments. The compass is pretty straighforward, but the scriber has to have some sort of carbide tip. It's intended use is to scribe lines into glass and tile for cutting them. I used it to etch lines into plastic. I made a big circle with missing bits, and then a smaller circle to fill in the gaps. Then straight lines to connect the two. Pics lower of these two items.

The painting is as such... The tower is primed black and then given a heavy drybrush of The Fang... not an overbrush, just a crap ton of drybrushing. Overbrushing gets streaky. You have to avoid that. Then I color in armor panels with solid The Fang. Then line highlighting with whatever the new color is between the Fang and whatever Space Wolf Grey is now called. I can't remember, but if you do a tiny bit of research, you'll figure it out. The Tau logo is Space wolves grey highlighted with White Scar. The yellow is... I don't know... 3 yellows I have in a gem technique. If you guys ask me to, I'll put together a little tutorial.

The actual base is black primer, coffee bean, yellow ochre and vanilla using folk art paints. Two types of grass... static and "poofy".

Lastly... Thortek asked if I would be selling this. That depends. What would something like this be worth? I might be willing to part with this if the price is right, or I could make a similar one for you using your army's color scheme.

Nice work! If you intend to make more terrain, I highly recommend the purchase of a steel rasp. You can get them pretty cheap at a hardware store or a Home Depot and they do 2 things for you:

1. They'll outlast your sanding blocks by years.

2. They'll make beveling the edges of your masonite bases a breeze. Rasps make a mockery of the density of MDF.

Cheers!

I actually have a couple of rasps, but they're unfortunately out on loan. Thanks for the advice though. Totally solid.