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Ooh thanks Dr H that's a very smart idea! I just checked and a piece of sprue is already almost the perfect size for the perimeter wall as is.

That CD city is fantastic as well, it will definitely be used as inspiration from now on. It did make me realize that I also have to paint this thing as some point as well though

No problem. Good luck with the build.

Ta. Yeah, because I had all those "high" buildings so close, I painted as I went along. Was a tricky project that one.

I was particularly impressed that you even managed to squeeze street markings in, not sure if I will have a brush small enough for that

Sorry for the many updates but I have started cleaning up the first section and the harbour walls are now almost ready. I also made a few more houses to see how they would look together and I am very happy with the result. Fortunately as Tizca is basically a wannabe Alexandria I figured that I could continue with the Egyptian theme and have houses with flat roofs rather than triangular, saves me a lot of hassle...

The post-it note is conveniently almost the exact size of central Tizca so I will be able to plan out the details on it so that I get everything nice and symmetrical when I eventually get round to that section.



Anyone else get a very Game of Thrones vibe from this angle? Reminds me of the intro to the tv series somehow.



I shall try and restrain myself and not post another update till tomorrow when I should have made some significant progress

A supply of various plasticard strips and rods will be invaluable in creating a wealth of buildings I think.

I would go with a stepped look for the square and hex pyramids, so you just (hahahahaha) need to create sets of ever smaller shapes to stack.

And look carefully at your sprues, you'll probably find a number of interesting shapes that can be clipped off.

If you're willing to buy for bits, small battleship (and potentially things like space battleship Yamamoto) will have a wealth of tiny bits.

A lot of good tips MT! I have a bunch of plasticard rods somewhere but the trick is finding them

I managed to get the other half of the city sculpted last night but there is still a lot of refining to make it look good. Following monkeytroll's suggestion I had a rummage through my bits box and would you know it, hiding at the bottom were some pre made pyramids! They are a little large for my purposes really but they look so perfect that I couldn't just leave them. They will get placed in the Silver District as it looks a little boring on the map so I am planning on adding an arena and these pyramids for some added fun...



I knew those cities of death kits would come in handy one day!



I have to dash to meet some relatives today but hopefully I can make some more progress tonight.

Alright, today I managed to get the central section sculpted and spent 3 whole hours measuring out every part of Central Tizca. As everything is very symmetrical I wanted to make sure I got it right!

Now that the basic shape is outlined I have to build the downward walls so it's not just floating in midair. That could be the tricky part as the ground underneath it is not flat. I may end up breaking out the greenstuff for the bottom area. After that it's time to start adding some buildings to this thing...

I also found a good amount of random bits to sprinkle over the board when the time comes which will help immensely as I am now working in nanometers rather than milimeters







As you can see I have managed to stick to the scale on the map pretty well so far, I think Central Tizca may actually be elevated a little too much but it is hard to tell with it being a 2D image. Judging by the shadows cast I think it is about right and the highest part of the city seems to be level with the large hill in the Azure District and I am permitting myself a little artistic freedom anyway so I don't go insane and cross-eyed trying to replicate every detail.

Well I was working on this thing till 1:30 last night but I have maade some good progress as the first major landmark is nearing completion. The Great Canal was something I was looking forward to building and I am very happy with the result. Normally I forget to take wip pictures as I get carried away but I actually remembered this time!

I started by roughing out the arches at the bottom of the canal (which I assume is more of an aqueduct judging by the image)



I then cut out some braces for the top section to rest on



A bit of glue later and it's looking good



I then stuck the top section on and gs'ed the rounded section at the front



Then came sculpting 80 little pine trees to line the sides. The one tie having fingerprints wasn't a detriment to sculpting as they actually added a nice texture to the trees that will add a little more realism to them.



2 hours later they were all done



After wrapping another bit of plasticard round the sides I added a few test trees to see how it would look. I suspect they will constantly be falling off so I will add them at the very end so as not to drive myself crazy! Not sure if it needs some additional plasticard details along the bottom but I think I will leave it for now, chances are I will have some interesting offcuts I could add to it later and I still have many otherr structures to build so I don't want to get bogged down at such an early stage...




Now I have the fun task of sticking down quite literally hundreds of houses to the board without somehow sticking my fingers together. Most of the big stuff will be painted separately though as it would be tricky once everything is put in place.






I am also considering adding a structure in the mountains similar to the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut as they are looking a bit bare at the moment. My thoughts are it could be an analogue to the valley of kings where ancient Prosperine nobles were buried long before the Thousand Sons made the planet their home. I have a nice flat section of land by the river that should do nicely! Any thoughts on other interesting buildings I could make? I found a great little boar model from a Bretonnian knight's helmet that would make an excellent not-Sphinx


I do so love Egyptian architecture... How I am going to replicate that in about 2 square centimeters is another story!

You are making progress at an amazing speed, this is awesome ! I absolutely approve of the Valley of Kings as an inspiration. You could also have a look at the Great Temple of Aten, with its hundreds of sphynxes...

I thought about your project earlier, as I am gathering tools to scatch build BFG ships, which will also be a challenge in terms of scale. Long story short, I found this bottom of fruit wrapping, that I thing could make a nice greenstuff mold for hexagonal shapes, or indeed .5cm long houses :


Not sure if that is of help to you, but keep an eye out when doing groceries ^^/

Thanks for the suggestions! I was tempted to do some buildings in central Tizca themed around the Temple of Aten, there are several gardens where I could add a perimeter of pillars or sphinxes, the trick is finding enough small bits that will fit...

I had never thought of making molds of anything, I have a nice hexagonal pyramid that I could do with repeats of, might be something worth looking into.

After about four hours of surprisingly relaxing work, I managed to get a good chunk of the buildings in the Silver District placed, 326 houses to be precise

I am not sure it was entirely necessary to sculpt in the roads now that I have put them all down but it was nice to have a guide on where everything should be placed. In the lower section will be placed the arena that I have planned as well as a perimeter wall and some pyramids for good luck.

I decided that this district would be where a lot of markets were located so I have a good chunk of buildings cramped together as if they were fighting for customers.I also have a couple of research posts by the small mountains in place.



As you can see from this shot, I still have a massive amount of space to fill and figure I will need around another 1500 houses to fully populate the board. The left side of the board will be particularly cramped as there is less forest and farmland but I think it will look amazing once done.




Enough chat anyway, I've got a diorama to finish! Thanks for dropping by

Excellent progress so far, so looks very nice. Great job on the canal.

Thanks MT! This is by far the most productive hobby month I have had in probably two years so I'm trying to keep to energy going.

I decided to abandon the idea of using sprue for the perimeter walls as it was just too chunky and not accurate enough for my needs, I turned once again to plasticard and got to work...

The turrets were pretty easy, just a couple of tubes inside one another



For the walls I started with three strips of plasticard and stuck them together ensuring that the middle one was slightly lower than the others





I then repeated this process with smaller tubes and thinner plasticard for the smaller sections of wall



Next up was the Argent Bastion, I used some angled bits of plasticard, a cross-beam section and some very thin tubes and came up with this. I didn't like the design on the map so decided to go with something that had a bit more symmetry



After adding a few more little bits the whole thing came together quite nicely!





As with the canal, it may get some more additions later on but I am happy with how it looks for now.

Next up: Who knows?! I seem to just be picking a bit of the board I feel like working on randomly now

That, my friend, is awesome. Hope your “most productive hobby month” becomes a most productive hobby year.

Thanks! I can't make any promises about the rest of the year, I am going to be joining the Royal Mounted Canadian Police at some point before the end of 2018 if all goes well so the hobby may have to take a back seat for a while haha

The second part of the perimeter wall is now complete. It's not as ornate as the first section due to it not needing a bastion section but it still turned out nicely.



I also wanted to hear people's thoughts on my idea for the arena, is it a bit chunky or does it need some bits added? Or should I just make one from scratch?



This little piggy had to be given a home on the board as it was perfectly to scale for a large monument . I figure it could commemorate the Thousand Sons' victory over the Space Wolves similar to the Colossus of Rhodes.




Lastly I realized I never took an actual scale reference for this build, fortunately sergeant Photep took some time out of his busy schedule to pose on the board for me...





I think I may start working on the next 300 or so houses in Southern Tizca next, see y'all tomorrow!

Great choice of bits for the arena, I think it could be used as is. Maybe the top of it could be filed a bit, to ensure it is perfectly flat... And maybe adding some flags hanging from the sides ?

Looking good, love the little arena. Such a different scale forces you to look at all bits and pieces in a different way as well.

Thanks fellas! Flags on the arena are a good idea, I may have a stab at painting them as I don't think fabric would have any noticeable thickness at this scale...

I finally got Southern Tizca finished. Upwards of 500 individual buildings are crammed in this area. Most noticeably are the larger structures I have added such a large rotating restaurant by the wall, a military barracks, and campus buildings for the University of Tizca!



No city is complete without a fancy restaurant...



Come study on Prospero, where else will you learn to shot lightning from your fingertips?!




I might try and work on Old Tizca next, that section is going to be the most frustrating I imagine as I plan to have the houses very squashed together and a little smaller as befitting its name. There will be a nice big ore refinery near the docks though which will be fun to work on!

Seriously, that is amazing good stuff!

Beautiful work, this is turning out great. You are really making fast progress too.

Quite some progress. It's really looking like a huge city, kudos!

Amazing work at that scale. Looks like a cartographers map blown up in 3D.

Thanks everyone for the kind words, it really helps keep me interested in the project and motivated to get it finished!

With that said I may have had a lazy couple of days and haven't really much progress to show, I tried putting some walls round central Tica but after two failed attempts I decided to leave it alone for a little while. I also went out for some much needed socializing as I have been trapped at home for too long!

I did however start thinking about how I was going to make the ocean and waves that fill up a good chunk of the board and not being able to find water effects anywhere in town I selected some stuff intended for acrylic paints and it has produced pretty interesting results. The product is a very thick paste that dries solid and transparent but can be manipulated to create some really nice looking waves, it almost functions like PVA glue if it were able to hold its shape. Naturally it is a bit hard to see due to the white base but I think that if it were painted a nice grey/blue mix or I blended some colours into the gel itself the results could be awesome. The stuff could also be a very good material for filling in gaps and sculpting magical effects if a bit of coloured dye was added.

Anyone else experimented with this stuff? It seems like it could be quite versatile and comes in a variety of different thicknesses and mediums as well. May have to go pick up some of the others if it proves to be successful!





I know this isn't really much of an update but I wanted to thank my viewers and prove that I am still here!

I do however have a Rogue Trader army I promised I would get painted up before the month is out so that will be my focus for the next few days but then it's right back to making this city something to be proud of! I am already thinking about making another similar diorama as this one is so much fun. Any thoughts on what else could look good at this scale? I would quite enjoy tackling something from LotR like Minas Tirith or maybe a Star Wars board, perhaps Kamino if the water effects turn out well!

Great progress I use a variety of liquitex mediums such as that in my abstract work, they're great products, not tried doing any model work with them though.

I used a similar product for the water on my CD city.
And was recommended that exact product for future work.

Great work on the tiny buildings. Good use of parts for the more complicated buildings.

Thanks fellas!

I tried the product out on some bases with some inks and they looked pretty nifty, might use them when I eventually get around to making my alt-future daemon army as they look very Warpy.

@Dr H, I suspect I must have subconsciously noticed you used the stuff on your CD city and remembered the name when I picked it out. Good to know that it works as water since yours looked amazing

After two failed attempts and lots of destroyed plasticard I have finally managed to add the walls around central Tizca. It was a lot more complicated than I thought as the ground below was very uneven making it hard to get everything to fit. I ended up solving this problem with the liquitex stuff which I used as a gap filler as it is much easier to use than greenstuff for that kind of delicate work.





I still have some edges to smooth out but I will probably tackle those later once the liquitex has dried a little more. In the meantime I will get back to work on the many many houses that are still waiting to be built!

I admire the work you are putting into this project. Great work on the walls.

Thanks Theo, it's been a pile of fun so far!

I have been working on making a huge lighthouse based on the Pharos of Alexandria and have created a couple of options: The first is more sleek and refined while the second pays a lot more homage an actual lighthouse. Not sure which I prefer to be honest, any thoughts?

I might also paint them up to test how good my fine detail skills are holding up. Not sure if I should use metallic paint or NMM for the gold and silver bits of the city either so I might try out both styles and see which holds up best at such a small scale.

If the lighthouse is coming straight out of the bay I think the second, if it's onshore then the first with the top from the second.

If you have any more walled areas to build you could try putting a layer of gs/clay down so that you can push certain walls down into the soft layer, might mean you don't have so much awkward shape-fitting to do.


Great progress

I like the first one because it’s different, and would seem more mystical. And the second would look more traditional. Perhaps you could use both in different areas of the board. Possibly the more traditional by the sea and the newer one by an airport as a beacon for landing.

That's a good tip with the gs Monkeytroll, much smarter than my method that I used!

I stuck with both your suggestions and the classic style is going to be the lighthouse and moved to a location slightly offshore. Meanwhile the modern tower would indeed make a great addition to the spaceport.

I am probably going to want to eat my hands by the end of this project but I did decide that I will be going for a NMM technique for any gold and silver bits that need painting despite it being a pain in the butt to do. This is partly because at this scale it should help stuff stand out better and also because it just looks awesome if done right!

I haven't done NMM for about 6 years so I am a bit rusty (Hah! Metal puns) on the technique and my gold ended up being a nice dark brass colour, I think I may need to pick up some lighter browns so I don't have to mix colours constantly when I have a larger section of gold to paint...

Behold! The first painted thing in the city of Tizca! A thing that at 40k scale would take 30 seconds to paint but at this scale took 2-3 hours



Automatically Appended Next Post:
This post is gonna get auto appended but I also managed to get the newly re purposed Tizca Spaceport Tower all painted up. This time I went for a NMM silver, I meant to just make it grey but got carried away... I also tried out a glass effect in the center of the building, normally I would be tempted to paint glass grey but seeing as it would just blend in with the rest of the tower I went for a nice blue. Overall I am happy with how it looks, my only issue is that it could be a little bit tall, it is currently by far the tallest structure on the board and I have to reign myself in from making stuff excessively big or risk ruining the miniature scale of the whole thing. An easy fix would be just to chop the bottom part off though so I am not too concerned at this point.

This will probably be the last splash of paint on this blog for a while (unless I get distracted with a killteam or two) so enjoy it while it lasts