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sometimes i think you guys over the grand sea have all the good stuff in such great suply...the few artshops i know of are 1.expensive, 2.sadly smallish with a very limited range and 3 mostly way too much away...could make a guy go ballistic but then i had to firstly arange maters that i had enough material for a good catapult^^

lol, I found this glue at Meijer, which is like a Wal-mart type store, groceries, clothes, and a craft/scrapbooking aisle. The really good white glue I use is Weldbond, it is Canadian made, and I can rarely find it.


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Basic mod

Example: ruined house
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I forgot about this one until I found the photos, but it started the Stalingrad project (which drove me knucking futs by the time it was done).

It is just the basic shell construction, smashed and rubbelized





ANyone interested in seeing Stalingrad?

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An exercise in repetitive madness
Example: 2x2' Stalingrad table
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This project was the evolution of the ruins project, but instead of concentrating on making pretty, romantic LOS blocking buildings, these needed to be gaming-functional first and foremost. Good thing, since the real Stalingrad of 1943 was not only bombed repeatedly, but burnt, then the rubble was fortified and booby-trapped and defended. The project began with a lot of research. I wanted the 2x2' table to have 2 main large buildings to become potential strongholds or objectives in any given game. So I looked at pictures of the real Stalingrad and used my templates to approximate the shape in foamcore.




Once constructed, and the sparse architectural details that may have survived bombing and burning were added and more damage added, an unholy mess of sand, dirt, cork, kitty litter, flocks, foam, sprue, railroad gravel, and HO scale bitz were added in multiple layers of strong Weldbond glue. I didn't have time to be repairing loose rubble after the fact, so I used the good stuff.





Here are some WIP shots from the smaller, filler ruins.




And final, painted shots.

HOLY ! Your Stalingrad is unbelievable! I don't even know where to begin!

Stop distracting me by making me want to make awesome terrain like yours.







...don't stop.

RSJake wrote: HOLY ! Your Stalingrad is unbelievable! I don't even know where to begin!

You may begin wherever you like sir! and thank you very much

one day.... i will get to making something like that and propaganda wallpapers is on the front of my lists then!!!!!

Those were surprisingly easy to do really, just found a real propaganda poster and resized it and printed it. Ruffle the paper, burn the edges with a lighter, and add a little dirty paint water and viola!

possibly but still this oozes awsomeness from every pore...you are aware of that...eh?

Honestly, I'm really not being modest here, but when you spend as much time with a project as I did this one, and really pour effort into it after a while, it all starts to look alike to you. This was my first real commission project too so to speak, I got paid for it, and whenever you are in that position with a customer, they put time and quality pressures on you. It becomes sort of less fun to do when that happens, so what I *wanted" to do was really go over the top like in the European houses, but the customer wanted it on a deadline, and thought the extra detail was unnecessary which forced me to go against my natural creative process. I'm glad it looks great, but this is the first time in months that I have even looked at the pictures, and I can't help but see parts that just look unfinished or hurried to me. I guess the real test is to see what other people see as unfinished or hurried, and if I don't hear of any, well then I guess it's just my own personal neurosis I have to deal with and I just need to learn to "kill my darlings" in the end. Thank you Vik, I really do appreciate it.

after reading your comment my first thought was : jerk... rushing an artist is something only fools are capable of... second thought was by the way bigger jerk^^ if i made myself not clear i meant the customer not you... but it is to be said that your western buildings and the hstorical buildings are on a other scale of detail and art, tho the stalingrad builts are all fine there is an ordinary feel to them that i think is lacking the true hand of your style as the other shown objects have...i hope i have not hurt any feelings here...

oh and one thing too..,.i think there is a jump from the white WIP models to the texturesprayed and later drybrushed buildings... i think if your customer would have been an easier fella to deal with then this would have been the stage to be more proud of the whole group....so i in parts share your feelings! (or to put it in another way...the white really was a cool site to behold^^)

OMG Vik, you can't hurt my feelings, I'm pretty thick-skinned. But I am very glad you see that *something* that is lacking too, that means you are being honest with me, and I like that. He wasn't really a jerk about it, but he wanted to show them off for a game he was planning on running with them, so I can understand that. He kept asking when he could pick them up, which made me feel the pressure to cut a few corners here and there (pun intended). He acted as if the extra detail I added to the other buildings was completely unnecessary, that was unnerving.

lol... well where else are enough corners in the world as in stalingrad...where nearly everything was bombed into an unrecognizable state^^
well i kind of get easy into an emotional state when understanding (sometimes wrongly) that unrightnesses have been comitted against peeps i like^^

meh...in the end I got paid to build stuff and the bonus of peeps enjoying the photos. win win

lol.... and now to something different^^ i.e. the western city painted or else^^

As a side project, I carved a building face in several layers, making another of my templates in Visio, and carving the brickwork.






And then my uncle made a silicone mold of it for me...I think I am going to try casting a building in plaster this weekend, make a mess, see what happens!!

don´t tell me you can read minds over the ocean as well as making beutiful things.... i am getting a strange feeling here...my original (and failed) attempt was to make my ruins more into something that resembles exactly what you are currently showing us...whoope! what is this visio prog you keep refering to? guess i have to ask google some serious questions and then come back running to you to get a bit of helping from you in that department... fact is i have some different sized sheats of foam still lying around for such a purpose...

hmmm trying to cast that in plaster? hmmm for a first try this might work, seriously if you scale that up to the more used 28 mm standard then i think you could fully well make some cometition with hirst art stuff! talk about a thought there^^

personally i don´t know what magicians hat you stole but you draw yet again things from said hat that makes me think you are an endless (bottemless was not fitting^^) pit of creativity...

amazed vik

No clairvoyance or magic hat here man, just the ravings of a lunatic taken out on foam Microsoft Visio, it is a handy drawing program that's like a big, interactive pad of graph paper. I've also used it to design and build (but never finished) a modular trench system for 28mm .




I'll have to dig them out and show pics of how far I got. Most of the sections are built, I just never finished doing the groundwork on them.

I have more unfinished projects and half-baked ideas than I have finished projects though, I've just cunningly shared the few that are actually finished. I don't want to compete with Hirst, their stuff is awesome, I don't know why I didn't buy some of their molds at GenCon when I was there.

I have more unfinished projects and half-baked ideas than I have finished projects

man this is actually the graven truth of our ilnes thats part of the creative hobby....you wouldn´t believe whats screaming for attention in my cabinets and boxes...and the tiny voices speak to me and yell...argh argh^^

the trench system is full of potential and when added some steely or rocky/sandy texture over the pieces and walls this is going to be huge ! this alone should justify a thread mate... many would apriciate that.... if you work on that further at least change the titel of this thread then you will see the hits on your thread go skyward... trencher threads are highly popular around these parts!

I know what you mean, this industrial terrain building grumbles at me every day to finish. I was experimenting with a Cricut machine (home CNC cutter that women use for scrapbooking) to cut 0.10 plastic sheet into railings and supports.







I want to spend some more time with the Cricut machine, I could fabricate all kinds of cool model parts with that thing. As far as I now, I am the first person on the entire Internet to try this for wargaming.

I was experimenting with a Cricut machine (home CNC cutter that women use for scrapbooking)

???? what is that and come to that where did you get that machine of wonders, sounds like a nice if somewhat pricey investion and how do you use it? did a bit of research and i think i saw something on some teleshoping program last week or two ago... coudn´t bring tho this into perspective with our hobby... but now that you mention it it seems pretty obvious to use that...multilayered textures then would be way easier and in my case be way more acurate!!!

It's a Cricut Expressions http://provocraft.com/products/detail.php?cl=cricut&scl=expression&cat&item=29-0300
How I came about it is a rather long story involving an ex-girlfriend that is best told over a few beers

But basically, they sell these little ROM cartridges with different designs but I basically hacked it with some software that lets me cut any vector graphic I can create....another long story.

It works like an inkjet printer, but instead of a printhead it has a sharp knife bit (I bought a couple of the heavy duty blades for it) at this place called Michaels craft store, which I think I've mentioned before, and I think Vik now sees in his head as this wonderland filled with a hobbyists wet dream

You attach your stock plastic or paper to this sticky cutting mat that holds it as the tray moves in and out. Here is a super-cheesy video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5r7U5yAOyU&feature=related



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WOOT!

Nothing better than getting home from work on a friday to find that your Micro Mark BOGO sale box on the porch!

2 boxes of Doc O Brien's weathering powders and 4 brass bar clamps.

hmmmm...I need to use these this weekend now!
and I guess i'll never be buying any of those fancy MiG powders, I seem to have a lifetime supply here

talk about wet dreams that redhead is very yummy indeed and then her accent....^^
yep micheals sounds a bit like a wonderland, in fact tomorrow the kids and wife are off to see the in laws...long story here... and i will try to get to my only known place that ight come close to that...maybe i get some usefull stuff for a future project...wanted to build me a walker from scratch...

this is a cool machine, and do you operate it via usb from your pc then?

too bad that every so often beers are not able to get served on the interwebs :(
too bad that machine is currently out of the question for me regarding budgetranges...argh who am i kinnin`seems so versatile but yet so stunning expensive...
but the potential of that thingy is sheer endless...if this can be operated by standard programs like paint for instance then this is a huge development and the amount of cutting things is "cut" short indeed... no sore fingers anymore from cutting through plasticcard o even cardstock... i hate that^^


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looks like santa came early this year.... the clamps what are they for or won´t you tell as they are for something naughty?^^


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the powders have yet to be discovered by me.... any special uses you are panning them on yet?

HAHA, the clamps are just for general gluing duties, gotta have clamps! Yes it connects via USB, but it has a huge learning curve to it, takes some practice to get to cutting exactly what you want. That is why I want to spend more time with it. Sometimes, you still need to use a knife to get thin bits out, the blade might not penetrate through your stock onto the cutting mat if you don't have the depth and pressure set right but the precision is much better than I can repeat whilst wielding a knife as well as the added bonus that it can make perfect duplicate parts (or layers) of detail, like you said Vik.

i think most of the times for general use i use cloth pegs for glueing... and they work... up to a certain thickness anyway...but some hightech klamps can be nice... i gotta admitt^^
well cutting some parts loose is not to be compared to cutting whole pieces out of stock^^ and the option to make identical pieces is just priceless... for some reason i cant cut worth a damn, even with scalpel, steel ruler and a cutting mat and other useful gimmiks two pieces are not alike from me....i even went to solve the problem by going to a DIY hardware store and got me some different length of wood as count as rulers so now i have custom made width of wood to cut my stock ...this works now to some extent...so finally your designs can spark a new incentive in working with card^^

Just think of the steam castle you can build with one of these Vik!

that ain´t teasing no more that is tantamount to torture^^

This is an older model now, you can get ths one for US$150 or so. It's the wider model too, they make a smaller tabled one for le$$.

yeah well seems i have to be employed for that...which i am unfortunatly not...so...:( but i see you point...and for hobby related stuff a smaller one would suffice... cya...off for a lil sleeping^^

I found another pic of some cricut-ed things

and some more of the industrial building (including the machinery inside) mostly here, I was playing with my new miniature pipe bender when I first got it, festooning the work with decorative pipework.










I have named this piece of machinery "The Departmento Munitorum Washing Machine"