Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, you probably missed the chance to pay lots of money for a 3" semi-sphere from GW and are all broken up about the extra cash in your pocket and the lack of awesome on your table. You could go on Ebay and try to buy one, but I think they're going for around $1500 US ($50 Canadian or £80) so that might not be in your price range.

Fear not, here's a quick and easy way to make your own Webway Portals and then send me the rest of the money saved.

Step 1: Go to a Dollar Store and find yourself a ball. One of these things, but smaller. The standard blast template is about 3" in diameter, so find a ball that size.


Step 2: Most of these cheap balls have a mould line down the middle. Just cut along on it and make two half-spheres.

Step 3: Spraypaint the ball black, then dust it with white spray paint for a starry look. (It's a good idea to test the paint on the ball first, to make sure it doesn't melt or explode or give off toxic fumes that will kill you and your family and the neighbours. SAFETY.)


Step 4: Find pictures of Commoragh in your copy of Codex: Dark Eldar. Paint some spiky buildings.




Step 5: Add some little vehicles and birds. I've drawn a tiny raider, some Scourges and these two Hellions having a date.




You could stop here if you wanted and have perfectly acceptable portals, but don't. Make them more betterer!

Step 6: Add some highlighting to the buildings and vehicles! Light source from the top and behind the buildings (i.e., INSIDE the portal)



Step 7: Wash the whole thing in black to put a damper on the overall brightness.

Step 8: Mysterious mist. Using a wet brush, make cloud shapes along the bottom of the WWP. Use lots of water. Once you have decent cloud shapes, dab a little dark blue (or whatever colour you want) into the water and spread it around. Repeat this with differing shapes of clouds and more/lighter paint to add a sense of depth. Also, add clouds using the same technique and black paint to mark out the body of the cloud, with dabs of the blue to highlight the tops.



Step 9: LIGHTNING. I would teach you how to do this, but forget that noise. Go look at Catattafish's awesome lightning tutorial instead. Put a little bloom in the clouds and around anything they're striking. (My ball had mould injection points on the top and bottom, so I used those as the middle of the portal, where the lightning was most concentrated.)



Step 10: Add white highlights around the lightning strikes.



If things are too bright at this point, you can do another black wash to mute it again. Also, if you over-highlighted, feel free to firm up the buildings by painting some more black inside, over top the edge of the highlights.

DONE.


Hope this was useful. All in all, I spent about $1 buying the ball and used paints I already had to complete the whole project. I estimate that to be a savings of 1542% over buying a WWP on Ebay or something. Save that money and buy a house.

You're welcome.


Also: I've heard that tournaments use flat blast markers instead of hemispheres as WWPs. This is bs and should be fought via extensive ball kicking and eye poking. The official model was 3D!

Thanks, this tutorial is great! I will try this out.

All I can say is
WOW!!!!
that is amazing I will have to try this thanks for posting

Holy crap that is a good idea. Thanks for sharing.

Updated with the final pics.

Thanks for the feedback, folks.

Wow dude this is sweet. Quick and easy, well done

That looks fantastic! And you explained the creation process very well.

Thanks. I hope it was helpful.

All I have to say is that is a very impressive tut, especially for the people who have a limited budget. I really like the result!

Looks great. Very well done.

While it looks great, and it was a well done tutorial, you could have condensed it into 3 steps:
1. Buy ball
2. cut ball
3. paint to your liking
lol

Though like I said, looks awesome.

What a badass portal you made there. Hellions on a date FTW.

PraetorDave wrote:While it looks great, and it was a well done tutorial, you could have condensed it into 3 steps:
1. Buy ball
2. cut ball
3. paint to your liking
lol

Though like I said, looks awesome.

Brevity is the enemy of stupid jokes!

Looks epic!

Very nicely done.

...I am speechless.

Speechless, maybe, but you managed to type something. Well done!

Oo, you clever little beggar. I was wondering what the best way to do this was, and in you swoop to save the day. Much thanks, noble Foo.

Very ingenious. I never would have thought to cut a ball in half. Thanks for the tutorial and the idea.

-MightyG

Well done. Even though I do not run a portal list I will be making a few of these for my gaming club.

Thanks, folks. Please share pics if you do make your own version!

I finally can make an awesome looking webway portal for all my bloodbrides cause GW's webway portal was not up to my standards. Thank you

That's epic, i did find a vid on youtube though... it was made to be a vortex grenade template, but it could work as a webway portal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT4zkVXsEhY

Foo wrote:
Also: I've heard that tournaments use flat blast markers instead of hemispheres as WWPs. This is bs and should be fought via extensive ball kicking and eye poking. The official model was 3D!

LOL!!!
I dont use these 3d things in my games, but if i see someone whos using a template instead of a 3d thing, ill kick them in the balls and tell them "Foo" sent me...

Damn right!

Nice turtorial! I think im gonna pain half-a-ball to be a vortex grenade!

Damn! Nice work

Not sure a ball-kickiing is in order though. I mean, it's not like you're deploying the guys coming out of it in three dimensions

Excellent tutorial. I took your advice and made my own the same way, but used 3" styrofoam balls I got at the hobby shop like 6 for $3. (Make 11 more for your friends!)

Wow, this looks great!

That's real neato, love how simple it is, looks better then the actual too.