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Beautiful collection of terrain to behold of those shelves

Apollinaire- I appreciate that. Carpentry has always been an interest of mine but I tend to build everything "Da' Orky Way" because I lack proppa tools. This was a circular saw and a regular drill w/ a Phillips bit. This spring I intend to add quarter round (for support) then haul it outside and stain it. Something light that doesn't obscure the natural wood, but give it a "finished" look instead of a rough build that's going on 6 years of "good enough for now".

Cam- Thank you. I would call it the Shelf of Awesome but it has too many unfinished projects on it. That is going to change in 2018 though. Read on, dear friend, read on....

graven- Once I've earned that tag I'm going to sig it.

Alaricuk- Thank you for the compliment, and offer one in return. I checked your gallery and I cannot find the words to properly express how stunning your work is. I'm looking forward to seeing whatever you share next. Hoping to see the Craneblade w/ some paint.

Syro_- More stuff coming for sure. Finishing old projects is my main focus going forward.




On 12/14/2012 I posted this:

Gentlemen, I proudly present the tool that will catapult me to the next level of modeling:














The compressor is a Badger TC910 ASPIRE PRO, the airbrush is a Badger PATRIOT 105 (in case you didn't see the name on the manual, ha), the hose is Badger 10' Heavy-Duty Braided Air Hose, and the cleaning kit is from Temptu.

Hopefully I'll avoid some of the airbrush n00b frustrations because I invested into a high-end product. All I need now is time to practice practice practice. I'll share my failures along the way so there's a history of my improvement as I become more familiar and skilled.

HUGE thanks to Dave for his recommendation, advice, and support. He truly exemplifies the spirit of community I enjoy on Dakka. LoER forever!

As always, thanks for taking the time to check this out and I appreciate the interest. C&C always welcomed. The experience you share helps me (and anyone that reads this blog) become a better modeler.

Today is a good day.

I tried it once in Jan '13, failed, put it away. This weekend I decided to have another go of it, this time with proper paints.



Before doing anything else I took advice from my IT idol Roy and RTFM from cover to cover. Once I was done went back through it step by step. This is what I tested on. Yes, I should have tested on paper like the instructions and helpful people advised, but I didn't. This was the result:



With that 5 minutes behind me I knew I was ready for the big time. I grabbed a suitable candidate for some work and pulled out some old weathering friends:



This is how it came out:



I used rattlecan anti-rust primer as my base (ironic I think) and Vallejo Filthy Brown paint. I used a yellow tone becasue it's industrial heavy equipment and I like to think that 38,000 years from now CAT yellow is still the standard. Next pics detail weathering etc











Mistakes-
(1) tried to remove salt too soon and washed off paint as well as salt
(2) defaulted to a brush too soon and "weathered" the tank in illogical locations
(3) used fine grain salt, forgot about this from the first time around
(4) should have painted the entire thing but I didn't think of it at the time.

Triumphs-
(1) IT WORKED!!!
(2) old wear / tear weathering technique still gives decent results
(3) homemade "rust" wash with a bit of salt in it leaves a really nice effect (see cargo bed)

I'll be going back over this model again when I start painting the Mantic stuff. I'll be spraying caution lines on the barricades and will do the sides / blade/ fix other stuff at the same time.

My hobby world has again changed forever. Everything I've been waiting to finish, everything I've wanted to improve, everything I've been afraid to try... it's all within an easy reach now. I could lament the time I didn't use this tool but no good comes of that. Instead my energies are dedicated to motivation and results. I've been happy about a lot of things lately (cutting a perfect circle, finishing the Mantic project, etc) but this is far and away the most awesome modeling thing I've done in a long time.

And finally, a pic of the new mess I've made on my painting desk. I'm looking forward to it becoming worse and worse. I'm very happy with everything right now.



Today is a good day.

congratz mate... for me the first time AB usage felt like using my virginity anew too

when tech and skill work in unison it feels like a true leap for the hobby ...sadly often it doesn´t...but when it does...my mood is through the roof^^

My airbrush has been a real game changer for me when it comes to painting vehicles and terrain.

The tank looks great! After reading: dsteingass's tutorial I've been itching to give the salt technique a try.

 OneManNoodles wrote:
My airbrush has been a real game changer for me when it comes to painting vehicles and terrain.

The tank looks great! After reading: dsteingass's tutorial I've been itching to give the salt technique a try.

completely wasted my time with cheap ebay airbrushes, couple hours on youtube looking for the best one for all round and found badger 501, godsend, so easy to use and clean, when I think of all the frustrations of blocking, cleaning etc etc wished I had gone straight for a higher end one,

Excellent first go. Really great on the weathering. Yes there's room for improvement, but it's a great start.

I invested some time ago and enjoy using it, but find it to be a tool, nothing more. It is not the gift of the gods. I mean I know its good, and there are things that can only really be done with an airbrush, but it has issues. I use it the same as any tool. When it is the tool for the job. Still the vast majority of my work is painted by brush. Maybe that's why I am so crap.

Practice my friend, that's all you need. Stick with it and you'll be cranking out beautiful models in no time!

That's a great result for a first try.
Airbrushing does get easier the more you use one.

As for the paint lifting off with the salt removal, remember that a layer of airbrushed paint is much thinner that what you will do with a hairy-brush. It's easier to scratch through to the undercoat, so you need to account for this in handling, varnishing, and curing times.

I just finished getting through your entire blog. A lot of enjoyable terrain to see. As a relative newcomer, I didn't realize how just how long you had been away from dakka, since I read lots of old threads. Keep up the great work, and I'm off to read your "junk wall" terrain challange

Still haven't got an airbrush for me the way I like to paint, little and often with several different batches of sometimes wildly different things at seperate stages makes it less useful to me. Although I am hoping to see your Nurgle return with this!

Good work all round Skalk.

I'm blaming you for this, Skalk - this is what we've spent the last month and more on!

Behold - Skalk Point Plasma Substation, named for it's inspiration:



The build was a hell of a job, and I have a new found respect for all you terrain builders out there - we learned a lot, but there's definitely more detail we can add, so this is a "finished for now but ultimately WIP". Wanted to share it here as it was this thread that inspired us!

Quiet round here...here....ere....ere..r.r.r

Vik- I agree. When creativity and technology join forces the results can be excellent. My resukts have been decent enough to keep me interested in continuing.

Noodles- Thanks for the compliment. Salt weathering has been my friend for years. Dave perfected it in his last tut and I'll be digging into that again once I get back to my 41st Millennium terrain projects.

bob- I read a lot of horror stories re: inexpensive airbrushes. I'm glad to have avoided those issues by jumping ahead. It's said that a bad carpenter blames his tools, but sometimes it really is the tool.

Cam- Thank you. It's been a while since I tried detail, I've been busy finishing builds and getting basic colors on the model for "good enough for now- it's game time" play but detail is my goal for winter 18-19.

Gits- I'm sticking with it and I'm looking forward to learning some of the advanced tricks for weathering and highlights.

Dr H- thank you, and I've at very least learned that "mostly dry" is not dry enough for any sort of handling. I have quite a few models right now that could be used to positively ID me via fingerprints. But if I ever need to prove a model is mine I'm all set!

Syro_- Wow. Thank you for that, I do appreciate it. A lot happened here in the past and I expect I'll have more to share in the future. I'm not always here but Dakka is my wargame modeling home.

Llama- Nurgle... man I would love to go that route again but I've actually culled that collection massively and I don't see myself returning to it. Mad fun when I was in the middle of it but I really do consider that one done.

Monekytroll- Thanks friend Great to see you around again. Sorry it took me a month to get back here.

SFG- Wow! That is really cool! I really appreciate it. I especially like how you made somehting functional out of random bitz of this and that and made it into functional and great looking terrain. I am genuinely honored by the dedication.

Cam (again)- Sorry. See below.



For anyone that read this on my "everything else" thread, apologies for the dupe but I should have updated this thread a long time ago and am just getting to it now. I have been flat out in the best ways possible. My game group is finishing up the AoS Firestrom campaign (I am dead last with not one victory... ) my buddy Jayce and I have been dabbling in Necromunda (hereafter referred to as N17) and I've gotten over my complaints of it, it's an excellent game so far and we're going to be moving to 3D soon. Shadespire is an occasional distraction, I'm not into it much (again, no victories and I don't like the models) but a buddy of mine bought it for me because he really wanted me to play it. So I'm at least respecting his gift and really, it's about the camaraderie. Another friend has started a D&D 3.5 campaign and really needed someone to fill outn the party so there's that as well. We just finished up Blood Bowl seasn 2 and season 3 is right around the corner, we're all playing goblin teams this time and I expect it to be frustratingly hilarious.

Let's see... what else... oh yeah. There's this going on...



I merely mentioned to my game group that I'd like to try it again at some point. The response was immediate an unanimous- a first for us for anything! I am so happy right now I can barely contain myself. Sleeping has become a nuance (I have modeling to do!) and the only reason I go to work is so I can continue a revenue stream to support my addiction hobby.

Here's a few glory shots of a table setup form about a month ago:












A couple building in the pics above are from this MDF kit:



It's fairly awesome, only complaints are no instructions, and it's not true 28MM, more suited for 25/20mm.





That said, no one is going to care about a doorway they have to duck through, the models are awesome.

Speaking of awesome models (ha) I made some wyrdstone counters:



Pay no mind to the Beastmen Chieftain with the massive axe. He's more afraid of you than you are of him.

Or not.


Finally, heads up regarding my next update- after 8 months of miserable weather, spring unexpectedly arrived and that means motorcycle season has returned. I don't know how much I'll be sharing on this thread because of all the above but I'll at least make more of an effort to visit your threads. You guys are why Dakka is such an awesome place for me.

Wow... that is incredibly cool!!!

Cool pics. And wow, that is awesome how many different games you and your gaming group are playing.

That is such an epic Mordheim Board! That's awesome brother!

Great looking board there! And seems to be a lovely variety to your gaming going on

And after a few years absent I don't think you need apologise to me about a few weeks

Nice work. Nice table of terrain.

Gits- I'm getting too much mileage out of "here's all my toys" shots. I need to get some actual modeling done.

Syro_- So many games, so little time. Even with the benefits of modern chemistry I still need to sleep every now and then.

Master Azalle- Thank you for the compliment. It's a never-ending WIP to provide the best table I can for my gaming groups.

monkeytroll- It's going to get worse. With Adeptus Titanicus and GorkaMorka returning I know I'm going to dive head-first into both.

Dr H- Thank you. I'm a poor to moderately fortunate gamer so I fill a different role in my group by producing fun tables to play on.



Started some weathering on my Mordheim MDF stuff. I'm using a mix of Griffon Sepia and home-brew black wash. The GF was stippled in for a "plaster" look, and the wash was slathered on a bit too enthusiastically, I'll be doing some cleanup for sure. My end result is to make the building look rain weathered and abandoned. I'll also be doing a scratch-build roof for this using the techniques I've posted earlier (I can pull those up if anyone has an interest).

C&C directly requested, I'm having a mental block on how to do the things I need to do to make the building look the way I want. Sounds ridiculous I know. My brainy parts aren't wrapping around weathering and detail right now.









More to come. I still have one MDF building left to build / paint and everything needs weathering. That plus roofing on each one and fiddly bits (barrels, etc) should keep my terrain work going for a while.

I have almost no experience with weather models, so I probably won't be much help, but you're saying you want this ruined building to look rain weathered and abandoned?

Except for the black wash, a lot of the building looks crisp and beautiful to my eye, especially the Tudor style beams. No idea if it's just the photo or not, since camera flash can change things quite a bit. In my experience wood gets very gray from heavy weathering so maybe get those beams more gray? Also maybe even do a very light (application not hue) green wash in the places where you did the black wash to make it look like some algae is growing along with the mold colors you've already done?

Hmm, been a whils, but
light sponging of a darker brown and possibly some very thinned green on the wood, followed by a light Derbyshire grey?

some random light slinging of a grey mixed up from that cream base colour on the wall to signify some dodgy plaster patches?

very thin dribbles in greens, browns and yellows down the walls for water runoffs?

some tiny detritus caught in places in top of the beams. I'm thinking dust, fluff and tiny plastic chips that I seem to find in bits boxes and around cutting mats.



adding some cracks to walls, and/or beams

fire or smoke damage around the damaged areas - dark browns and greys and black sponged and dry-brushed

Plants and foliage as well growing all over the place are a must.

I like it very much. One thing I've done before on buildings is a top line of vj smoke (it's naturally pretty thick) and then a very wet brush from paint water running a long it to create multiple trails.

Good start.

As the others have said, water runs are a good thing to add.
Start with a light brown, add a darker brown run inside those, and then a black run in that. Gives them the look of a build up of dirt over time and seeping into the surface.

Don't get too carried away with them though. Just one or two here and there in select places.

Beyond that, research.
Have a google for the sort of buildings you want to replicate ("old", "industrial", "run down"...etc.) and look for things you want to add to yours. Reality can give more ideas that nobody would have thought of.

everyone- Thank you. Pics of progress posted when I have more to share.



Grinding gear shift, went back to the 41st millennium for a quick visit because I got sick of seeing the same bare plastic models sitting there for months and months. Plus I needed some instant gratification results so I resurrected some bad old habits and I'm satisfied with the results so far:









This is all still WIP but it's a step towards completion and far beyond where they were they day before. As they are right I would put them on a table for a game but it'll be a while before the reach the standard I want before calling them "finished".

sandable primer?...that is a thing? i would have feared it would obscure details...but it didn´t...looks almost playable even now...
also...the magic of necromunda bulkheads...with these bitz...everything gets an instant convincing finish