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Wow... I think my jaw just dislocated itself...you've done a great job on that plant!
When I saw Fido's first post, my mind went from meh at the pipe cleaners to HOLY at the finished product.
My hat is off to you, sir. Kudos.

That is incredible! Your board will look stunning with all that lovely terrain

I try and respond to everyone barring the occasional post lost through the cracks, I just wasn't expecting so many responses!!

Flying Pooo wrote:Wow that is awesome!
I really like the rust effect and the creeper vines.

Thanks! those two elements have become the "theme" to my terrain, I think they are the two things that have improved the most over time.

RSJake wrote:Really love the Skull and the glyphs! And ditto on the vines! Really nice! Great use of spare parts and stuff. I have never done scenery, but this may just inpire me to start! Way to go!

Its easier and cheaper than you think! start with a small piece, post it, get feed back, and get better on the next piece!

bigfish wrote:Only water coming out of that will be black, very well done

Yup, and not very tasty. I almost put a trapped Daemon of Nurgle in the large holding tank, but decided I just wanted to finish the piece.

monkeytroll wrote:Brilliant

That looks great, some nice details, but nothing that detracts from use as a gaming piece. The first pic was just 'wow, look at that.'

You'll have to put up some reports when you play on it.

I will for sure, as soon as my son gets to five hundred points painted I'll post a battle report. I've done one other on here, and it came out great, and was a lot of fun to do.

LoneLictor wrote:Holy ! That's amazing! It's orky, yet industrialized. It's huge, yet it could easily be used in gameplay. That building is amazing! Congrats on finishing it; I could never possibly hope to complete a project that large.

It's like eating a whale. You just need a fork and knife, and go one bite at a time.

Commander Cain wrote:Dang, everyone else has already said what sould be said. Awesome, epic, super....

My favorite orky terrain so far and you have made me want to have a dabble in sculpting

Exalting this thread, now I have seen what you can do, I don't want to miss another update!

Cain

I'm a huge fan of EVERYONE learning to sculpt. it's a lot easier than you think. if you can paint, you can sculpt. get some clay of your choice and get crackin'!

Arakasi wrote:Excellent work!

Thanks!

Commander Cain wrote:Oh, forgot this...

Thanks! I'm really gratefull for all the..... hey! you already got a response! get back in line!

Iranna wrote:I'd love to see all your terrain on one board...

Iranna.

I gotta make the board first, haha. I'll talk about my terrain schedule later in the post, but rest assured I'll get a group shot very soon.

SilverMK2 wrote:Have to say you have created some pretty damn awesome stuff here - very impressed

again, thanks!

Anvildude wrote:Great job on all I've seen so far.

Suggestion on the painting for the treatment plant, though- take your paint-cleaning water, after it's been used for about a week or so, put the plant in the tub or on a rag, and drizzle the dirty water over the top, as though it were raining on it. That way you'll have drips and puddles and such all over the walls and walkways, breaking up the semi-solid color you have going on there.

Nice tip! I'll give it a go, remind me again to do it if its not done when I get the entire board assembled.

Odd One Out wrote: Wow... I think my jaw just dislocated itself...you've done a great job on that plant!
When I saw Fido's first post, my mind went from meh at the pipe cleaners to HOLY at the finished product.
My hat is off to you, sir. Kudos.

I get that a lot. when I was sculpting my chaos dragon, I didn't even have drawings of what the finished product would look like, I had no drawing skills at the time. The dragon started out as just a ton of pipecleaners going every which way, the thing looked hillarious. It came out good though, it's still a show-stopper. (I even had it on display at an art gallery once!)

Pipe cleaners make the best armature!

MikZor wrote:That is incredible! Your board will look stunning with all that lovely terrain

Thats what I'm hoping for!


I want to stress that these big projects are a lot easier with support, so thanks again for taking a look, and taking the time to post. (that reminds me, I should post more in other threads....)

Now that the water treatment plant is finished, I had to figure out whats next. rest assured, the Great Gargant factory is in the design stage, but due to work reasons I need all my large work areas cleared out of my toys. this means that I have to hold off on the next big terrain piece until about mid November.

Here's a list of what I'll be updating until then.

First, I'll be working on objective markers.

Second, painting and modelling the actual terrain board, so we arent putting terrain on raw MDF board anymore.

Third, finishing and casting up the Space Marine bunker for the boy.

Fourth, making small wrecker yard pieces.

Fifth, making gang-planks for the terrain, in order to connect the buildings from their rooftops.

sixth, continuing the design for the Gargant factory, and drawing out the blueprints.

I have started my plans for the factory, and should be at the blueprint stage in a week or so. I also got a few packages in the mail that pertain to the factory! lets take a look, shall we?

First up, a twenty-one pound package from industrial plastic supply.



Why, I wonder what it could be?



It's high-impact sheet styrene! YAY!



A lot of sheet styrene.



seventy-six sheets to be exact, 32 sheets of .020, 32 sheets of .040, 8 sheets of .080, and 4 sheets of .250, all sheets are 12"x12".

I got another box from Restorer Supplies. what could it be?!?



Why, its magic sculpt! my two-part epoxy clay of choice! (up yours, green stuff.)



I got ten pounds, five black and five white.

Not pictured is my trip to lowes resulting in a 4'x8' sheet of high-density foamboard, and a trip to Hobby Lobby for 20 sheets of 20"x30" foamcore.

Ladies and Gentleman, come November I'm gonna open up a whole new door.

I love packages like that! My wife doesn't, but....meh.

How is the magic sculpt compared to Green Stuff or ProCreate? And how much $ is it?

Dang it! November cannot get here fast enough! Arrrrgggghhhh!

Can't wait to see what you get up to with all that plasticard! Just looked at their website, if I were to buy some, would high impact styrene be the best to purchase for hobby stuff? There are an awfull lot of brands to choose from

Jake took the words out of my mouth, roll on November!!

Cain

RSJake wrote:
I love packages like that! My wife doesn't, but....meh.

How is the magic sculpt compared to Green Stuff or ProCreate? And how much $ is it?

Dang it! November cannot get here fast enough! Arrrrgggghhhh!

I can't use any other clay. I know that art supplies are always good fodder for argument, but I simply have been using magic sculpt for so long that I have too much trouble making anything with anything else. My greater chaos dragon took over two years to sculpt, after that I simply cant stand the properties of any other clay. (even when I use oil clay for moldmaking, I only like Roma Plastilina because it "feels" exactly like magic sculpt.) I'm sure if I had to switch I could, I'm just trying to say that for good or for ill, Magic Sculpt is what I have the most skill with. (at last count, I've used over sixty pounds over the past ten years. The big chaos dragon was five pounds of clay by itself!)

I have not used proCreate, I did use green stuff for many years. Magic sculpt is far, far tackier when first mixed, and it dries super hard. like, sand sharp edges hard.
It also has no memory, which I prefer but others dont like.

next, I use rubber tiped sculpting tools which arent cheap, and the magic sculpt does degade them after a while. during regular use I replace my tools about every year, but while I was sculpting the dragon I had to replace them every three months!

next, it will stick to anything. I used it many times to make sculptures on glassware with it. (yay for skull mugs and plague doctor martini glasses!)

Lastly, I find it expensive as far as standard clays go, but cheaper than other two-part epoxy clays. It's usually around 35-40 bucks for five pounds, plus shipping. I think the clay portion of my order from Restorer was around 85 bucks for the ten pounds of clay and shipping. if you live on the west coast, you can buy it in different sizes at TAP plastics.

on the subject of how much to get, I would go with a small 8oz. ammount to try first. thats about the equivelent of four packages of GS. thats so you can see if you like it, and it does go bad after a year or so. I buy so much at once to A. save on shipping and B. I use so much of it for both my hobby and my job. (The only way to tell if I'm on the clock or not is to see what I'm sculpting!)

Commander Cain wrote:Can't wait to see what you get up to with all that plasticard! Just looked at their website, if I were to buy some, would high impact styrene be the best to purchase for hobby stuff? There are an awfull lot of brands to choose from

Jake took the words out of my mouth, roll on November!!

Cain

I hope this doesn't sound like bragging, but I've used so many different types of sheet plastic, acrylic, rubber, and styrene that I'm like conan, but instead of the riddle of steel I can tell you the riddle of plastic.

The stuff from industrial plastic has little to no difference between it and the sheets of plastic you would by from Evergreen or Plastruct. I find its a tad more like Evergreen, Plastruct does something to their sheets that make them shiny.

because I find no real performance differences, it's in price that Idustrial plastics shines. I only use Evergreen or Plastruct when I need the sheet imprinted, like with squares or diamond plate.

If you have ever bought plastic from a train store, you know how expensive it can be. The standard size I use for general applications (scratch built tanks, for example) is .040

Idustrial plastic sells 32 pack of black 12"x12" for 24 bucks plus shipping. in other words, for the price of a Predator you can instead buy 32 square feet of plastic, which is enough to fix up a Great Gargant, make a ginat house for him, build a wrecker yard, and still have enough plastic left over to make battle armor for all the pets in your house. (after which you will still have plastic left over.)

the same amount of plastic from Evergreen would be over a hunderd bucks.

This is going to be the start of something awesome... (yay awesome)

pox wrote:My greater chaos dragon took over two years to sculpt,

Is this viewable somewhere? I looked on your thread about it, but the pictures don't show.

I think I am going to buy from Industrial Plastic now! Thanks!

This is a fantastic thread. Excellent work!

RSJake wrote:

pox wrote:My greater chaos dragon took over two years to sculpt,

Is this viewable somewhere? I looked on your thread about it, but the pictures don't show.

Yeah, photobucket and I don't really get along anymore. I found out it breaks picture links when stuff moves, and they have a no-gore policy that was not actually written anywhere (They classified it as "obscene") so I couldn't use it to host work pictures. (and I lost a ton of pictures from that fiasco, they deleted half a gallery once.) Anyways, I haven't ported over all my pictures yet, but I do have a link to the finished gallery. The pictures are silly huge, but you can see oodles of detail.

http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n109/conversionman/finished%20dragon/

bigfish wrote:This is going to be the start of something awesome... (yay awesome)

You know, whenever I see you post, I feel like the Warboss just walked by and gave me the thumbs up as I toil away in my Mek garage. I think it's your avatar.

dsteingass wrote:I think I am going to buy from Industrial Plastic now! Thanks!

I swear I'm not a company shill for the products I use, I'm just fanatical about sharing what has helped me. A big issue when I first started doing sculpting and scratch building was cost. Sheet styrene and Green Stuff were really pricy when bought from the companies that marketed to miniature enthusiasts. I remember buying my first five pounds of Magic Sculpt, and realizing I could just use it for everything from sculpting miniatures to patching terrain to making Burning Man costumes. The worry that I would mess it up and waste the ten bucks on a small tube of GS was gone, and the same thing happened again when I started buying Plastic in bulk. When I built my massive Blasta-Bomma, the Aeronatical Imperialis model cost more then the 40k sized one. (AI forgeworld model was 35 bucks, the bomma was about 25 including the camera stand it sits on.)

Ultimate 40k wrote:This is a fantastic thread. Excellent work!

Thanks for looking, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I have a small update. work has fully kicked into high gear, I only have about two more weeks to post left till I dissapear for a month.

I know I mentioned the wrecker yard before, I just wanted to show off some neat stuff I found. what I envision is trashed tanks and cars built into ramshackle hills and barriers. think Mad Max, or Fallout. I almost gave up on finding the perfect cheap plastic toy, but then like a bolt of lighting I found a ton on sale for 68 cents each!



I then went crazy and scoured every toy and dollar store to find variations in my Army men vehicles. I have enough to make any configuration I want of little smashed cars.

The scale is perfect, heres a few Barry shots.





Whats going to be fun is designing and figuring out how to mass-produce imperium cars. I always wondered what cars look like in 40k, gonna try and answer that.

I also got a ton of cheap little plastic boxes that make perfect grot houses, so once I figure out the vehicle situation, I can start to build the wrecker yard. I also have a few GW vehicles that can get trashed for the cause.

My plan is to make several small pieces, a crushing machine, a Mek garage, Grot living quarters, and a magnet crane.

the wrecker yard sounds like fun! And the Chaos Dragon is SICK!

The savings alone makes it a no-brainer, I just placed my order with iplasticsupply.com and I am now recommending them to everyone. My wallet thanks you. For $40 shipped I got 32 square feet of 0.40, that is insanely cheap! If I didn't already have a sizable supply of 0.10" stuff, I wouldn't bought a bunch of that too for cricut-cutting stuff.

RSJake wrote:the wrecker yard sounds like fun! And the Chaos Dragon is SICK!

The wrecker yard is on hold, I cant get the Gargant factory out of my mind. Thanks on the dragon! I did it a while ago, it prompted me to go to school for art, and really opened a lot of doors for me. I might re-do it proppa some day, but i still do like the total mess of the thing.

dsteingass wrote:The savings alone makes it a no-brainer, I just placed my order with iplasticsupply.com and I am now recommending them to everyone. My wallet thanks you. For $40 shipped I got 32 square feet of 0.40, that is insanely cheap! If I didn't already have a sizable supply of 0.10" stuff, I wouldn't bought a bunch of that too for cricut-cutting stuff.

I really like the plastic quality too, I reall dont feel like it's the "cheap" stuff by any stretch, it just happens to be inexpensive!

As far as this post goes, I got good news and bad news.
The good news is I have a little preview of what I'll be doing in November, I went ahead and started the Great Gargant factory. I'll have this opener, and maybe one or two small updates over the next week.

The bad news is my latest production for work got pushed, so I won't be able to really dig into this until mid-November. I got all my plans worked out though, so you should see something uhhh... unique here in the coming months.

So without ithout further ado, here is the

NOVEMBER PREVIEW!

It starts (as these things often do) with a box. A really big box.



Saddly, this box held all my small loose styrofoam pieces. I found them all new homes. (I should really stop hoarding styrofoam.) I will be using a lot of it on this though, I need to keep this project super light.



Now that I had a size, I built a frame. I learned my lesson last time, namely to secure the piece to the frame before glue comes into play.



I then cut two sheets of 1/4 inch high-density styrofoam to shape.



The order in my terrain sandwich is foam, foam, cardboard box, frame.



My fastener of choice at this point is woodscrews long enough to go through all the layers.



I then add a piece of foam to the bottom to give me a"true line." I really only need one spot of the terrain to be perfectly cut, so I was pretty careful cutting and mounting it.



Next, I glue in the main structures, and keep them in place with clamps and heavy reference books. (yay for heavy art books!)





In the second picture, you can see the saw I used to cut the larger pieces of foam to shape. Cutting foam with a saw produces one of the worst sounds I've ever heard. (nice cuts though!)

I'm a real pro when it comes to building things, here you can see staples, duct tape and screws being used all willy-nilly to hold one difficult part together.



I got no issues with how I build, it's just not Orky if you haven't hit it with a little Alabama silver. Anywho, I pulled the books after the glue dried, and I must say, I'm quite happy with it so far.

Heres a shot of the bottom



And another of the top of the structure.



Lastly, I add the mounting hardware to the back. I need it both stable and secure, so I'm going with two D-rings for the frame and monkey hooks for the wall.



I leave you with a scale picture of the terrain piece. For scale, I have included my Great Gargant, who will be reciveing a massive overhaul and facelift for this project.



The tiny tank in the bottom left corner is a Baneblade, A solitary marine sits in front of the Tank. For a proppa "Barry" shot, I placed my scale Ork in the main barrel of the belly-gun.

Gonna be a fun winter, methinks.

subscribed. I can't wait.

Fun stuff! You mentioned the gargant had something to do with the terrain, Ork workshop?

That is going to be awesome!

The Good Green wrote:subscribed. I can't wait.

I appreciate it!

Commander Cain wrote:Fun stuff! You mentioned the gargant had something to do with the terrain, Ork workshop?

Pretty much. My plan is to cut the Great Gargant apart and use it for the terrain centerpiece. I'm gonna try and do it in such a way as to be able to re-assemble it, but I'm not super worried if that turns into to much work. I don't imagine I'll be using a 3,000 point super-heavy all that often!

The Gargant pieces are going to be more for when I do the horizontal terrain of the factory. The wall piece will have large chain hoists and cranes that extend from the top of the terrain and about half way across the board. It will also have a cool techno-alcove that the Gargant fits into, but the terrain that goes over and into the Gargant will all be horizontal.

Farty Wiffmas wrote:That is going to be awesome!

You bet your bippy!

As for actual updates, I was about to figure out how to do the wall mounting for the vertical terrain, but I realized my gaming table base got re-purposed for work, so I need a new table! Thats ok, because I was going to have to get a level table for this to work anyways. I will hopefully get a suitable table by the weekend.

I dont want to add too much more to the Factory wall until all the mounting hardware on both the wall and the terrain have been installed. I dont really want to try and make this thing level when its covered in detail and little catwalks, I just want to be able to take it on and off the wall easily. Plus this thing is huge, once I add the next level of foam it will be a little over 48", allowing it to smoothly line up against my gaming table.

I've been staring at it too and taking a lot of mesurements and sketches, I really want this to be as interactive as possible. I figure at the worst, each player would have to decide what troops to dedicate for the vertical fight. That might be too much in larger games, but will be a hoot for narative and RP-stlye games. I'm not super worried, it will be a fun pice of terrain even if it turns into a cool backdrop for the horizontal gaming board.

Impressive start, I like the idea of wall mounting it for added stability.

C...cut the gargant up... You sir are even crazier than myself! (In an awesome terrain guru kind of way )

A tear is welling up in my right eye. Are you serious?

You made that dragon by yourself? I tip my metaphorical hat off to you sir.

monkeytroll wrote:Impressive start, I like the idea of wall mounting it for added stability.

I figured it would be a neat trick if I could pull it off, and if I couldn't it wouldn't take up space on the actrual gaming table. time will tell.
Plus, I'll have a cool new strange piece of artwork for my walls!

Commander Cain wrote:C...cut the gargant up... You sir are even crazier than myself! (In an awesome terrain guru kind of way )

It will be fine, I'm pretty sure I can fix it. I'm hoping it looks like the Death Star in Return of the Jedi when it's done, and not like little timmy got into the tacky glue.

dsteingass wrote:A tear is welling up in my right eye. Are you serious?

Serious about what, cutting it up? if so, see below. I'll put it back together, rest assured!

DaWaagh! wrote:

Thanks! I do try to shock and amaze!

chaoslooksgood wrote:You made that dragon by yourself? I tip my metaphorical hat off to you sir.

Yeah, I made the whole thing myself. only non-clay parts are the rocks for the base, and the piles of skulls on the base. Stupid thing took me two years.

Hey, I cut up my Great Gargant! have some pictures.


















It was a lot of fun to hack it up. I had forgotten how I built it, and the boy was asking where all the parts came from. We spent the evening cutting it up and talking about how everything was built. Good times had by all!

OMG! I'll have to trust that you know what you are doing here. No one can ever say that you lack balls!

So sad now! Any way hopefully you'll do something amazing with it

Very exciting! Sounds like a fantastic time taking it apart.

Looks fun! Like the way you've cut it up, got some interesting sections there.

Will we be seeing grots at work on the innards?

This is going to be awesome.....

OMG!
that is very nice terrain. the water treatment plant is so awesome.
can't wait to see more of your work.