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I made a oil drum out of a soup can and some plasticard

Whenever I shave my back I bunch it up and dip the tips in orange paint.

I'm not even sure why.

I've scrounged most of my terrain building supplies, so I'm conditioned, at this point, to always be on the lookout for useful parts. Beware, as once the bug bites, you may find yourself hoarding scrap (God knows I have...)

One thing I've found invaluable for terrain are plastic food containers (packs from fresh berries and vegetables are great, as are some Chinese takeout containers). These things make fantastic bunkers with very little modification, as the ridges and anticlastic curves that give them strength look rather architectural. Granted, this only applies to 40K, so you may want to tuck that tidbit away for the future.

Also, there have been so many responses that I skimmed over many of them, so I'm simply assuming that the basics - bark, basing grit, foamcore, cardboard, etc. - have been covered already. And, since I don't recall seeing it said before - your boyfriend is a lucky man.

Doomthumbs wrote:Whenever I shave my back I bunch it up and dip the tips in orange paint.

I'm not even sure why.

Luckily being a redhead I don't have to worry about the dipping.

Sorry, can't resist the double entendre here.

You could still benefit from a wash. Baal Red, or a shower.

thank you so much for the suggestions... and omg its so addicting! and yes im hording supplies and now have OTHER people collecting things from me. I'm about 95% done with one of my terrains... but i dont have any pics other then the before pics i took on a whim.

so have some cruddy iphone pics cause i didnt bother to charge my camera or move it to a better lighting situation:





this is obviously before painting and just glueing the bits together... my brother had this tube lieing around forever and i thought it screamed elven tower. so with his permission i used it... and glued a water bottle ontop for a spire.

then i found these lovely cork based placemats at good will for 4 bucks for 5 of them. so im useing them as the base for the big pieces. this is the before, before i even covered it.



i then went over it and paper mached everything and masking taped it further. spray painted it (and the tower) with the textured spray paint to make it stoney... painted it with a base coat. and then painted some accent colors, glued some stones and boulders on... more moss and i need to add some sand trails... need to glue the sand down.

i will try and post after pics. at first i didnt like it too much, but after glueing the moss and stuff. so now its looking pretty good.

im also working on some craters on another placemat. useing aluminmum foil, masking tape and paper mache... also sprayed that with the texture paint and then i'll need to glue debris and paint and stuff.

so far its been fun. our anniversary is on the 24th... so im going to see how much i can do in that time span.

also im just velcroing the tower on so it can be removed for storage and taking it places.


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oadie wrote:I've scrounged most of my terrain building supplies, so I'm conditioned, at this point, to always be on the lookout for useful parts. Beware, as once the bug bites, you may find yourself hoarding scrap (God knows I have...)

One thing I've found invaluable for terrain are plastic food containers (packs from fresh berries and vegetables are great, as are some Chinese takeout containers). These things make fantastic bunkers with very little modification, as the ridges and anticlastic curves that give them strength look rather architectural. Granted, this only applies to 40K, so you may want to tuck that tidbit away for the future.

Also, there have been so many responses that I skimmed over many of them, so I'm simply assuming that the basics - bark, basing grit, foamcore, cardboard, etc. - have been covered already. And, since I don't recall seeing it said before - your boyfriend is a lucky man.

thank you so much! i'll keep the containers in mind. right now im concentrating on more fantasy terrain since its more organic and the only armies he has is fantasy at the moment.

also thank you for the compliment. i hope he appreciates it. but i think i know he will

I like what you have going on there, Its a really Great Start.

Another Idea for you. Make Rock Piles and hills with rocky sides using the best material. ROCKS themselves.

Just glue a bunch of rocks together in a pile that you like. The important thing to do however, is Basecoat them in black paint and then repaint the rocks all together. When you make them uniform they look more like they belong together and thus you get really detailed high quality, without hardly any effort at all.

I used this strategy for my first set of alpine like terrain and it worked like a CHARM

InquisitorArchus wrote:I like what you have going on there, Its a really Great Start.

Another Idea for you. Make Rock Piles and hills with rocky sides using the best material. ROCKS themselves.

Just glue a bunch of rocks together in a pile that you like. The important thing to do however, is Basecoat them in black paint and then repaint the rocks all together. When you make them uniform they look more like they belong together and thus you get really detailed high quality, without hardly any effort at all.

I used this strategy for my first set of alpine like terrain and it worked like a CHARM

i never thought of painting the rocks... with the exception of the river stones all the rocks ive used so far have been pretty uniform in color... so it doesnt look too out of place. im in the process of uploading more pics.

You don't have to paint rocks. I leave all my desert bases in unpainted beach sand to save paint.

On your elf tower, are you going to cut off the spout and cap?

So more pics!



this is where im at currently. im probably going to glue down more moss for vines up the walls so it looks less boxy, and make some sand trails with glue and beach sand.





the tower will get velcro'd to the top there probably





and then this is the tower... im probably going to glue some sort of gem to the top... just havent found the right thing yet.









Rock walls! weee! the first thing i did. still needs sand and moss...



and the beginings of my craters:



what do you guys think? on my to do list is making a light box so i can take good shots of everything... my iphone is just handy.

This is excellent. 100 times better than the first scenery I ever made.

I like the tower except for the top above the blue bead circle. It is just too identifiable as a drink container (the bottom is well disguised). I'd put a circular peaked roof on it with a bead/spire in the center

Misguidance wrote:This is excellent. 100 times better than the first scenery I ever made.

hehehe thanks dude!

CT GAMER wrote:I like the tower except for the top above the blue bead circle. It is just too identifiable as a drink container (the bottom is well disguised). I'd put a circular peaked roof on it with a bead/spire in the center

yeah i thought so too... thats an idea... hopefully i can figure something out without undoing everything ive done.

Kitty, this scenery is freakin' epic! Really good job. Yeah I second the comment about adding a tall, cone-shaped roof to the tower that would look wicked. You could always just roll some card into a cone and glue it on. The surrounding scenery to the tower is really impressive, you've done a sterling job on that.

Tell me though, how did you achieve the crawling vines up the side of the tower? That's so effective I think I'd like to try that on my scenery!

Wow, this is cool. Have to say, using real supplies for landscaping the bases looks... well, real. I really like the window planters you've put on the tower. I like the gems blue, you've done a lot of good work here.

But for my taste, the tower looks a little phallic.. The moss even looks like veins, and the thing is even ribbed for pleasure.

That is seriously good.

Just make sure that there is a way for units to get to the high ground.

Also I'm not really digging the obvious water bottle cap at the top.

http://www.bitsandkits.co.uk/necron-monlith-gauss-crystall-p-6804.html

For the crystal?

Tek wrote:Kitty, this scenery is freakin' epic! Really good job. Yeah I second the comment about adding a tall, cone-shaped roof to the tower that would look wicked. You could always just roll some card into a cone and glue it on. The surrounding scenery to the tower is really impressive, you've done a sterling job on that.

Tell me though, how did you achieve the crawling vines up the side of the tower? That's so effective I think I'd like to try that on my scenery!

the crawling vines are just bits of moss (spanish moss) glue'd strategically up and across the tower. i just thought the tower looked fake without something to distract from it. so that was my solution. Thank you so much!

Doomthumbs wrote:Wow, this is cool. Have to say, using real supplies for landscaping the bases looks... well, real. I really like the window planters you've put on the tower. I like the gems blue, you've done a lot of good work here.

But for my taste, the tower looks a little phallic.. The moss even looks like veins, and the thing is even ribbed for pleasure.

LOL it does look phallic... but at least its not cylindrical... its actually oval shaped like this ---> () so it makes it a little less phallic looking in person. Hahaha.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:That is seriously good.

Just make sure that there is a way for units to get to the high ground.

Also I'm not really digging the obvious water bottle cap at the top.

I was thinking about how the units could get to the high ground but also was worried there wouldnt be anywhere to put the movement trays and stuff if i tried glueing some sort of mid point there. so im stummped on what to do there. yeah i'll figure something out to do with the cap at the top i hope.

winnertakesall wrote:http://www.bitsandkits.co.uk/necron-monlith-gauss-crystall-p-6804.html

For the crystal?

thank you! thats awesome. shipping from the UK to here may make it a little unreasonable though.

Ahhh, I didnt see you were from the US, there are several America based bitz companies, I cant think of any off the top of my head

You're thinking of eBay.

Doomthumbs wrote:You're thinking of eBay.

lol!

More scenery!! The other day my boyfriend discovered my plan. but its alright. he still absolutly loves it. So sometime last week he came over and painted some figures while i concocted this crumbling tower. today out of boredom i decided to countinue with it, as well as work on a little tree lined hill.

Before paint on the crumbled tower.





Yaaay for Popsicle sticks... they make lovely floor boards and make shift support beams.

so in the next few pics, im going to show a rotation of the outside of the tower. i got the idea to use the bark, after seeing someone make some pretty cool natural stone mountains, so i thought why not Masonite/brick work for the outside of a building?







bottom floor:



top floor, technically second... all thats left anyways.



one last look



and now base painted!







Size comparison with my little woodelf. i made these a little bigger scale, with the idea of movement trays. ive never actually played a game yet, but if i remember correctly certain troops can only move in a group? so i wanted to make sure they could fit inside, outside and possiably inside. Besides his main army is high elves and they have all sorts of tall swords, pikes and banners... so i also had that in mind. its something the first scenary i made, may be too snug for. still it looks cool





and then the small tree lined hill. surprisingly this is made for the remenants of silk flowers that i wasnt useing and were left over from another project. the base is from some sort of stand my dad brought home, he works in a hardware store so he brings home all sorts of weird but useful stuff. LOL





Not sure how im going to flock or put leaves on the tree on the left though... maybe i'll leave it bare? not sure.



With my trusty wood elf... can you tell she's been my trusty companion for sizing?



Again please tell me what you think! critiques and advice gladly accepted.

They are really big trees!!!!!
Love this thread and I'm glad to know that hes excited (it's always better when they know so they have to wait until you give them to him, its also a good motivation)
also about that ruined tower, won't the bark eventually fall apart???

The bark on the ruined tower looks awesome When looking at the work in progress pics I thought thats gonna look silly then painted It looks awesome the bark should hold together reasonably well aslong as it dosen't get wet did you give it a coat of PVA glue or anything to harden it?

Oh and those threes are awesome their trunks still need work but great start

Nice start to the trees. The masking tape can actually work quite well as bark texture, You could just grab another couple of strips and wrap it carefully crinkling it up to create texture as you go. You'll have to seal the tape with waterproof pva it will get loose and fall off over time otherwise. Tin foil makes really good texture too, a bit finer. Good job on the scale. Most people keep their eyes closed to scale and build small street trees and call them forest trees. Real trees ARE big. You could actually easily go even bigger if you wanted an ancient oak.

Mr.Awesome1 wrote:They are really big trees!!!!!
Love this thread and I'm glad to know that hes excited (it's always better when they know so they have to wait until you give them to him, its also a good motivation)
also about that ruined tower, won't the bark eventually fall apart???

I was pinning on coating it after I was done with this stuff called mod podge. It's good for collages and deco podge. So I figure it might keep it together.


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mullet_steve wrote:The bark on the ruined tower looks awesome When looking at the work in progress pics I thought thats gonna look silly then painted It looks awesome the bark should hold together reasonably well aslong as it dosen't get wet did you give it a coat of PVA glue or anything to harden it?

Oh and those threes are awesome their trunks still need work but great start

Thank you. I was originally going to try and figure out a way of doing tiny bricks. But didn't know what to. So while walking around joannes yesterday I saw they actually sell that bark and I was like " that reminds me of that one thread" so I went home and gathered some and decided to try it. I will seal it with mod podge after in done painting. Hopefully it will work.


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Wazzdig Dagga wrote:Nice start to the trees. The masking tape can actually work quite well as bark texture, You could just grab another couple of strips and wrap it carefully crinkling it up to create texture as you go. You'll have to seal the tape with waterproof pva it will get loose and fall off over time otherwise. Tin foil makes really good texture too, a bit finer. Good job on the scale. Most people keep their eyes closed to scale and build small street trees and call them forest trees. Real trees ARE big. You could actually easily go even bigger if you wanted an ancient oak.

Thanks for letting me know about the tape. I hadn't thought about that. I should seal the other stuff I've worked on. You also gave ne an idea for an epic tree! That would be so cool!

Trees are bigger and much more back then when everything is all natural. I think I'll use tinfoil better for the rest of the texture. Less to seal.