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.

Here's my finished LoER Terrain Contest entry. It's in an odd category... not an in-game piece, but more of a diorama and utility shelf. Is the crumbling cliff-side trail the dangerous terrain, or is it the surface of my workbench, where models have been crushed in the past? Either way they'll be safe now that they have a nice wall-mounted perch. Here's a good variety of photos, some with models for scale only.

Overall I'm very happy with the aesthetic outcome... I like the color scheme, the drybrush and ink, the tufts, the overall build, etc. The pillars and skylight were both really fun. I enjoyed trying to use paint to blend a bas-relief rock band with a flat piece of backing, although I don't knw that I managed it. The skylight is really fun to play with when it comes to lighting and photos. The only bummer is that the whole piece is too shallow... I misjudged how much depth would be used up by texture and detail, and it's hard to squeeze 32s onto the bottom shelf. It will still get good use, and it was a great way to break in the Proxxon foam cutting table.



Other angles, close-up details:
With models for scale:
Mounted on the wall:

That is very cool looking. Well done!

That’s a great looking piece MacPhail, hopefully looking at that whilst painting will spur you on and provide inspiration!

Looks cool Mac congratulations on finishing.

The more you look, the more detail comes out- massive effort put into this! The colors put me in mind of Bryce Canyon- adds some pinnacles on top for 'hoodoos' and you're completely there. The wash of colors is perfect.

I particularly like the shot with the one Sister directly under the skylight- talk about a natural cathedral- I voted that one up separately.

Outstanding effort and an excellent break-in of your foam cutting tools.

Amazing work, that finished piece is beautiful! Love the skylight shot, really cool pic. The tufts really bring this piece to life.

Wow, thanks y'all! It wound up being more work than I'd imagined, so I'm glad the impact is good. As I move forward with foam crafting, I need to find ways to be more efficient and corners to cut. Hopefully I can get to the point where designing, cutting, assembling, detailing, and painting can go down quickly one after the other, allowing me to crank out tabletop-quality pieces for friends without giving up on painting my own armies.

Meer_Cat, I was definitely thinking of Utah in general and Bryce in particular, Moab, Arches, and the San Rafael Swell when I chose the colors. I wish I'd gone easy on the yellow and stick to reds and browns, but that was part of my purpose, to see how different tones looked when weathered.

Thanks again for the accolades... I'm flattered!

That thing is so sweet. The skylight archways create such a dramatic light effect.
Well done.

Thanks man! That skylight photo was with a random headlamp from my toolbox. I might try to get a small lamp with colored lenses to mess around with. I could probably use a better camera too...

Okay, another long hiatus... but this one has a really fun return post! I made a trip to California to help clean out the house I grew up in, and while I was there, I dropped in on an old Warhammer buddy... we picked up the game in the Rogue Trader / 2nd Ed. era and have been playing ever since. He found an old box of miniatures in his garage rafters that I had abandoned when I moved out to Colorado almost 20 years ago! I had long since written off those models assuming I'd sold them in a big lot along with a Guard army and a fantasy Dwarf army I got rid of years ago.

What treasures I found! A lot of these are from the late 80s and early 90s, and really are some of my favorite sculpts from back in the day. I cleaned the rat poop out of the box and repacked the models into bags for the flight home to Colorado.


When I got home, I dumped them out to see what I actually had... first up was the bag of metal models:


When I got them sorted, I found that I had lots of 40k Orks...


There's a bunch of Space Marines, including some in MkIII power armor, some early Terminators of the Space Hulk era, some Inquisitors, and the classic wolf-headed dude...


I found a really fabulous haul of classic metal Guardsmen, some of them so old they're technically "Imperial Army" or even "Adventures", "Pirates", and so on, AND the thing I'm most excited about, a bunch of Squats who somehow survived the Tyranid Hive Fleet that got the rest of them!


The dregs of the metal bag had a few oddities, including a very risque female servitor, most of an assassin, some hobgoblins and draconians and familiars, a Squat heavy weapons trike, and (I think) a complete Space Marine speeder.


Then I moved on to the plastic bag, which had a lot of the 2nd Edition starter box snap-fit monopose Marines, Orks, and Gretchin, some plastic Space Hulk Terminators, as well as some Rogue Trader "Imperial Space Marines" plastics (with a shocking amount of enamel paint). There were plenty of usable bits in there, though...

Some Rogue Trader Imperial Guard in pretty rough shape:


Including a squad of ten that I had mostly painted in a striking orange scheme... were they Penal Legion troops or X-Wing pilots?


Finally, a bunch of plastic Squats from the Rogue Trader "Space Dwarfs" box. Check out the one I modeled with two power fists!

Congratulations, that's an impressive find!

I just did some old plastic guard and they are such a good kit. If you need parts Mad Robot makes an updated version that can provide arms, guns etc.

Nice! Let the nostalgia flow!

Nice, what are your plans for them?
Would love to see them painted...

Wow, that's a really nice haul! The old guard were really nice designs

Now that's an update! What a great surprising retro haul.

Wow that's amazing to get those old models back after all these years. I'm enjoying looking at them.

Yeah! Back to the CLASSICS!

--B.

Reunited and it feels so good.

Treasures in the attic.

CB

That lot will keep you busy for a while! I love the double power fist dude, classic!

Thanks, comrades! I'm excited to get into the lot at some point, but unless I pull five of them for this month's "Rebel Scum" painting challenge (which would be both easy and fun), I think I'll back-burner them for the moment.

The reason is that I got some good energy and momentum on the Battle Sanctum project. This will be my entry for the League of Extraordinary Riveters Terrain Contest (check it out here ). The theme this time around is "By the Book" so I'm going to craft my Battle Sanctum in the manner of a ruined scriptorium. I'm going to ease up on the 41st millenium a bit and go for a more neutral Gothic/medieval feel. I'm going to maybe try some LED wiring to create some torchlight effects, some hand-carved wood grain, and lots of scattered texts and tomes among the rubble. But first I need to build the basic structure... on to the foam cutter!

I cut a bunch of thin slices (about 1/8" thick) measuring 5" (the GW model's wall height) by the various lengths the original calls for. The foam cutter was awesome at this, and I easily got the 8 slices of each size that I needed from a single piece of 2" thick XPS.


I used the ShiftingLands Gothic windows template to lay out a design for single or double windows.


The template I made works for both the inner and outer layer of the window/wall sections, and made the whole project move forward nicely.


I managed to get half of the pairs cut in a single sitting, although texturing will take some time.


I did do a single prototype section of wall to figure out the spacing of the blocks and start messing with textures, but then I got distracted trying to figure out how to build a spiral staircase. I think this works, and I'll try to squeeze it into this project to prove the process for future builds.

I’ve seen spiral staircases done like that in real life - so it has to work!

Those window arches look great as does the staircase. I look forward to seeing the next instalment!

have you seen the new tool from shifting lands? he made one to make spiral staircases in one piece... not that you are in a real need for one...just mentioning...

and the window arches look superb!!!

Zahnib, I've got your next installment right here!

Arakasi, thanks! I've done my share of snooping in the castles and cathedrals of Europe. I realized my stair spiraled the wrong direction and reversed it. They usually descend counter-clockwise to favor a right-handed upstairs defender with shield against the pillar and the sword arm free.

Viktor, I've seen the demo video of that tool, and I definitely looked at how GeBoom crafts his stairs. I already have another ShiftingLands tool, the Angle Cutter, needing to be assembled for the next steps of this project.

I made some good headway this week. I got all of the wall panels cut for both floors and got the window details finished for the lower floor.


Once I etched the guidelines with the template, the work went really quickly and was very satisfying:


After hitting that threshold, I used some tape to do a quick mock-up. The staircase kind of dominates, but I think I'm going to keep it and design around it. I'm also going to re-cut the second floor, not just to include the balcony for structural reasons, but also to reallocate some of the square footage without changing the overall area.


Speaking of the balcony, I looked at the off-cuts from the spiral stair...


...and realized I had the supports I would need to hold it up:


Next up: detailing the upper level windows, adding brickwork to all the walls, and making plans for the interior. For now, a bench photo and a tip o' the hat to Black Magic Craft.

Fantastic detail so far! Really looking forward to seeing more.

Oh perfect, just what the chef ordered That's a nice bit of thinking reusing the offcuts from the stairs as the supports for the balcony. With the stairs Im assuming they are spaced widely to allow for models to stand on them?

Wow, I love the way your gothic windows are turning out. Even with the template it looks like a lot of work, but well worth it.

That’s some serious detailing Mac! Can’t wait to see this come together LEDs and all!

Oh, your bench is so much cleaner than mine . . .

Nice work on the stairs and windows. You're certainly making the most out of that cutter.