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 Illumini wrote:
Impressive project, could we get pics of the basement too?

Only got 100's of photos ... more or less documented the build of this monster...So here's some shots of the basement area terrain at different stages of build...

brain555 wrote:

 Illumini wrote:
Impressive project, could we get pics of the basement too?

Only got 100's of photos ... more or less documented the build of this monster...So here's some shots of the basement area terrain at different stages of build...

And here's a few more as its coming together... as you can see, the main basement piece is its own area terrain with the walls as separate terrain pieces...

brain555 wrote:

brain555 wrote:

 Illumini wrote:
Impressive project, could we get pics of the basement too?

The basement center area terrain.

Same piece from a different angle...

One of the external wall pieces.

The inside of one of the wall pieces...

Last but not least, you can see how I've designed it so that if the main floor is removed, I can add (or not) a couple towers which can be removed. You can see can see them in this photo since they aren't primed yet...

With the main floor removed, the back part of the cathedral has a scenery spacer removed from underneath so that its the the back floor is at the same level as the basement itself...

Wow! Does that table swing up gaming? That is pretty awesome.

The cathedral is just unbelievable. Great work. I take it you have ample storage? I have dreams of grandeur but run out of space as soon as I try to make more than one table.

Let's give you a few shots of the basement of the Apse of the cathedral... You can see I used rock walls consistent with the main basement... but I also cut off the floor above, which is also removable.
It lets me either put the Dreadstone Blight underneath and then cover it... or I can have the whole Dreadstone Blight together and it rises up out of the floor into the Apse itself...

So lets get a peak at the basement of the Apse, without the floor in place... The whole table, is model after model that can be pealed away to reveal even more details of the terrain pieces...


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 Gorgrimm wrote:
Wow! Does that table swing up gaming? That is pretty awesome.

The cathedral is just unbelievable. Great work. I take it you have ample storage? I have dreams of grandeur but run out of space as soon as I try to make more than one table.

The shelf on the table folds down. And the table is totally open underneath for storage for all the pieces. So when I need to, I can reduce the playable or storage space down to the minimum table size of 4'x6'. Surface plus underneath.

That said - when I'm building or working on the table... I pretty much take up the whole basement floor with parts, supplies and buildings everywhere! LoL.
Easier to work but what a mess!!

The concept layout and substructure build for the front steps... Included of all things... walmart heavy PVC faux stone garden edging... when cut with a power saw, it melted through at the cut, and let me make some really cool looking stone steps to form the shape of the stairs... then framed it in with administratum walls... and more rock wall behind the administratum walls to bring a cohesive look to the stairs and walls...

Then I used expanding foam styro fill from a can... sprayed it in... it expanded and then pushed out the walls in some areas... Yeah. experiment gone bad... Should have known... Had to cut it back some of the foam to get the walls where I wanted them...

Then cut back some of the foam in prep for flocking and sealing work... but the basic shape was all ready to go...

The piece was flocked and then primed. To get a great hard surface that could be easily painted, all my flock to prevent chipping etc was done using a mix I pulled from the web... but then modified to my own specs...

My flock recipe was a 50/50 mixture of acrylic paint (why you see sometimes, blue or white... colour really doesn't matter here...), and LePage PVC white glue. (I buy it in the giant bottles...)
I throw in table spoons in various quantities of 3-4 types of fine to coarse HO Woodland Scenics sand or grit. For really sandy work appearances - I'll just use real SAND. You can get it in giant bags for next to nothing at Home Depot.
And last but not least, I use LePage Poly Flexible Filler. They make something called Polyfilla too, or their drywall compound... but the flexible filler I find works better. Here's a case of not all products are made equal. You really have to experiment to get the effect you want. For example, I found that the drywall or Polyfilla tended to crack after it cured/dried. Which made for great random rock wall effects.

The Flexible Filler though - as you increase the PVC glue content, made the Flexible Filler almost like a stretchable rubber... And it did it fast too... I found the more PVC glue I had, the faster it cured and the less work time I had... if I went to a 60/40 of paint to glue, then added in the Filler i had more work time but a more runny consistency... I could cover more area. For walls and vertical surfaces, I increased the PVC glue content.

Generally speaking the final mixture was a 1/3 ratio for each of the 3 main ingredients of the mix... And when it dried, it made the surface super hard and very durable... ready to be primed, painted, and drybrushed... And given the size of the area I'm working with... I could use aerosol spray paint for prime and base colouring with no negative effects...

Longer post today... but this is the exact same technique I used when basing all my terrain....

Oh - post script - if you're going to add in bitz.. make sure to do it when its drying... cause once its dry... it really is rock hard!!

 Malika2 wrote:
Holy Emperor that is insane!

What he said.

You sir deserve an exalt!

Wow, just wow.

Consider my hat off to you!

So since we've gotten posted the basement, the front stairs, and the apse basement, lets get some pics of the Apse itself up next...
What eventually will house the altar of the cathedral, the apse is what you would see if you could walk in the front doors... this was even my first attempt at curved architecture too...

The floor was carefully marked, notched, and assembled, including the flock, so that the apse was perfectly placed/seated every time I put it back in place...

So I'd gotten a few questions about the table... here's a couple shots just after I built/installed the fold down shelf... might give someone some ideas on how to make a truly solid table that can fold up (some) for storage... but expand out to give you a really cool multi-level playing area... Mind you - 2x4's and plywood needed some truly heavy duty hinges... and deck screws!!

I might add... to give the table a finished look... the table after all is nothing more 2x4's (the legs are two 2x4's screwed together - could've probably have gotten a 4x4... but the 2x4's were cheaper!!)
Then to give it a finished look... Nothing more than faux wood finish baseboard trim, wood glued and small finishing nails counter sunk to attach the trim to the 2x4's... including glue, deck screws, hinges, and 2x4's and trim... you can easily do a table like this for under $150 for all the materials combined...

The first picture made my jaw drop, i kid you not, and it only got better from there.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
Impressive. What kits have you used thus far?

My wife just shakes her head at me...

Okay... I THINK I actually have (for the first time) a full inventory for this baby... As of this afternoon... This is what has been used so far. Even went so far as to break it down by miniature company so i could go back and identify pieces in the future... Also be nice to have once the project is totally done... I have a separate log of paint, and paint recipes I'm keeping for that part of the project.. This is just to build.... And no, I haven't put a $ to it... I suspect some enterprising person out there might price it out...

Cathedral Build Inventory (as of February 1, 2014):

Games Workshop:
7x Shrine of Aquilas
5x Manufactorums
12x Basilica Administratums
5x Sanctum Imperialis
3x Honoured Imperium
1x Aegis Defence
1x Bastion
2x sets of GW Movement Trays
1x Garden of Morr
1x Dreadstone Blight...
1x LotR Ruins of Osgiliath
3x Penitent Engine bits,


Pegasus Hobbies:
1x Gothic City Building Large Set
2x Gothic City Building Small Set #2
1x Gothic City Ruins
2x Sandbag Corners
1x Gothic Rubble Set #2


Reaper Miniatures:
12x (approximate) Random Fantasy Mini's and Grave stones


Zuzzy:
1x 4x6' The Wounded City - Broken Blacktop Gaming Mat
1x 4x4' The Moorlands Terra-Flex Gaming Mat
1x 4x4' The Wounded City - Broken Blacktop Gaming Mat
1x 2x2' StoneWorks - Flagston Paven Gaming Mat


Ziterdes:
1x Kingscliff
1x Rock Stairs Ruins


Thomarillion:
2x Crypts


Scibor Miniatures:
1x Rosetta of Death #2
1x Rosetta of Death #3


Woodland Scenics:
6x brick walls
1x double wide concrete tunnel
1x double wide brick tunnel


Walmart / Home Depot / Local Hobby Shops:
8x 1/8" 2x2' wood panels
4x 1/8" 4x6' wood panels
1x box 2x2" ceramic tile
1x 1/2" 2x2" Plywood

LePage PolyFill (many many many...)
Pink foam / insulation (Sheets of it!!) in 1/8" and 1/2" thicknesses
Plaster
White and Clear Silicone...
Drywall Compound...

Plasticard
wooden dowels,
2x plastic garden edging sets ( rock walls and steps )

some .... glue... Glue and more glue...

Glue gun...
Plastic glue...
PVC glue...
Epoxy Resin glue...
Wood glue...
Green Stuff...
Super glue...


Still in building the building queue:

Games Workshop:
1x Battlescape
1x Skyshield Landing Pad
1x Moonscape

Local Party Store (sales bin!!):
12x 8" Greek style pillars
12x 6" Greek style pillars
12x 4" Greek style pillars

1x 8-10" Angel on Stone wall

Note: this does NOT include the actual table, or the basing materials, or some pieces that I need a few extra bits and had to mold... A couple building pieces included above are also not ready and in any of the pictures yet...

That's a hell of a list! How close to done is the build part at this point?

Also, is a SkyRay Landing Pad like a Skysheild Landing Pad?

 whalemusic360 wrote:
That's a hell of a list! How close to done is the build part at this point?

Also, is a SkyRay Landing Pad like a Skysheild Landing Pad?

Yeah. Oops. That's the Tau player in me slipping out there... !!



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 whalemusic360 wrote:
That's a hell of a list! How close to done is the build part at this point?

Also, is a SkyRay Landing Pad like a Skysheild Landing Pad?

Done? Hmmm. Probably close to 65%.... I have to finish the top of the rock wall... I have 2 buildings/towers partially built that haven't been integrated at all yet... A water fountain that I haven't started.... A rock wall/water fall that needs further early design work... The roof design is 90% complete but I'm only about 20% into the build...

I have an idea that I'm just starting to price out for LED strip lighting... And to give my necrons some terrain... I have an idea how I might make a couple pieces that can be inserted under/behind the rock walls to give them this underground/bursting up from the ground feel... Coupled with under table lighting, it should make for a really cool effect...

The list seems to go on... And none of the above includes the stained glass and interior finishing work, or the basing and flocking for the whole table..

All in all, I have a personal goal of getting all the table built and primed by the end of this year, so that I can start the actual painting ... I'd like to have it all done and lit by the end of 2015...

Getting some pieces finally finished... Varnished/wet sanded and varnished some more (6 layers in all) the floor painted as marble which is the cathedral apse.... Does it ever reflect well. Shadows of building or models to even details off models depending on the angle a pic is taken...

All the interior floors will be varnished the same fashion as the apse floor. When the lighting is installed in the underside of the cathedral ceiling, it should give a really cool effect when viewing the interior thru the windows. The exterior marble will be similar colours but, matte and weathered and dulled down to give the appearance of centuries of exposure to the environment...

An early test shot of the cathedral roof. Intent is for it to be a fully playable area too. Long way to go before it's done... A good "before" shot... Because by the time it's done. Those pillars will support or hold up what you see plus walls which will include 2 sanctum imperialis, a shrine of aquila, and a wall of martyrs defense line...

So here's a few pics to bring the construction blog up to date... Got quite a bit done actually - the interior columns are now done and magnetized to the floor of the roof... Managed to get the interior side walls and the rails assembled and done... built an extra piece for the apse to boost the back of the cathedral up a cm so the floors were matched and perfectly level... but importantly - 6 full cans of Krylon camouflage matte black later... the whole thing is primed and ready to be painted!!

And yes - even managed to blue prime my version of the 40K TARDIS... Glad I was able to inspire a few folks into similar ideas, too!!

And just a couple more shots to give perspective and different angles ...

Hey brain555 - glad to see you back up and running - Cathedral's looking good! (And the Tardis too ) what colour are you going to paint it?

And so a few shots... felt pretty good to get this thing primed... Still trying to decide on the final paint scheme though...


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Phutarf wrote:
Hey brain555 - glad to see you back up and running - Cathedral's looking good! (And the Tardis too ) what colour are you going to paint it?

Ugh good - very good - question. Still debating that... tried a few test pieces... wasn't happy until i found a good auto prime...
it has a nice reddish hue... auto prime mixed in with the black... its an interesting rusted look... then gold trim on most of the more decorative features...
Interior is going more golds, and browns, and oranges... the test floor inside that I did for the apse is going to carry through the bulk of the interior... The gloss, multilayered varnish gave an awesome result. I want to continue that through the whole floor interior... I'll do some of the exterior stone floor the same colour but rough it up/weather it to represent being exposed to the elements... That's whats going on in my mind right now at any rate...

I have 1 more wall piece, and the roof edging still needs to be built... But damn it - it felt real good to get prime on it at this point!!! *LOL*

Another beautiful weekend to get outside and lay down a little spray paint prime... Testing out the rust/red that I'm going to use as part of the base coat.
With just one colour other than black, the details really start to show in this massive model!

Interior and exterior colours will be different... The top of the towers are too red/pronounced. Those will get dulled down with some random flat black again.

The white you see in some of the shots will be the undercoat to the snow flock... going to be going for a late fall/early winter feel...

Got the whole interior painted.. grey and black mixed base... will be using golds, and browns and oranges for detail and highlights in the interior.
The exterior has been toned down with another light dusting of black to get the right rusted/limestone red I was looking for...

That's quite an edifice.

Your work is inspiring the hell out of me. This is downright extraordinary. I have thought of doing something like this for years. I now know more than ever that I want to. WELL done!

Oh...my...God...

Very epic