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Hi Dakka,

I am in the process of creating the below ruins for my ruined city terrain. It's got a metal base from a clipboard. The main body is styrofoam covered in plaster and sanded. And the round grey things are from the GW city terrain kit. The basic plan is to paint generally grey, concrete colours. It looks a little bland to me; lots of flat surfaces.

Things that I am planning to do include:
1. Spreading the sand areas around a bit more and adding a couple of more bits of rubble etc lying around to break up the flatness.
2. Draping some gauze over the "sandbags" as camo netting

Things I'm not sure about include:
1. Making the open chasm in the front a drain with water in it (to be achieved by painting blue/green on the bottom [challenging given the space], covering with PVA and then putting match sticks vertically as a grate). This would give me the option of running vines out of the water and up the walls. Vines could be cut up headphone wires + flock, or just PVA a line and throw flock at it...
2. Making the open chasm sealed with bits of 2x4 (cut up paddle pop sticks). This would give me the option of leaving some "building materials" (other paddle pop sticks) leaning against the wall, or in a stack. (I guess I could still do vines...)

Front:

Rear:


What else can I do to break up the flatness? [or should I leave it?]
What of the above will work, and what won't?
Any other suggestions?

Sounds good.

I suggest adding some bits to the flat areas.
Like an imperial eagle above the drain, a poster on another flat area (just google Imperial Poster), a small shrine somewhere or a control panel/communications panel (made from vehicle bits, for example).
Additionally I suggest adding a bit of sand (not a lot mind) to the corners and where the various steps meet each other.
Furthermore flat areas can be broken up while painting by adding some battle damage or soot.

Good luck.

Definately break up the lines of the scene. Pockmarks/vines on the walls, rubble at the base of the structure, and uneven terrain are your friends!

I think it looks fine except the end where the raised platform and wall just stop. I imagine these would have connected to more wall or a building. A chunk of rubble or something would give a visual explanation for that end of the piece.

That said, game pieces do not have to make total architectural logic unless they are part of a completely built up board. I don't think it needs the extra rubble -- it will work fine on table without.

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll resume work on this in a couple of days [paid work in the meantime]. I'll do my best to work all of the above suggestions into the final product.

Of special note is Kikrazy's one regarding the sheerness of the wall dropping off on the left hand side of the front... now that you've mentioned it, it's bugging me. I might add a more substantial pile of rubble and trail it off onto the base or something. I'm also loving the imperial posters idea; I'll definitely be doing that.

Thanks, everyone!

Go out and buy one of the Tamiya vehicle stowage kits. Plank bits like barrels, jerry cans, crates and other pieces of kits about the place. Just stuff to make the thing look lived in.

Other than that maybe add a radio of a sort somewhere? The ones included with the Imperial Guard Vehicle Upgrade sprue are always a nice addition, though you may need to switch it out for a stronger wire or you could use a vox caster from one of the infantry kits.

Hi Team,

I thought I'd provide an update on today's work. I've spread the sand around. Added a broken wall so that it makes more structural sense (note that this has yet to be sanded due to drying plaster), and added a vine. The next thing to occur will be to put water in the opening down the bottom, and to build up a little bit of plaster to "hold it in". We'll see how it goes.

Front:


Back:


I'll look into adding a radio and other bits and bobs after I get the structure all set.

C&C welcome