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Well if you insist...


I'm currently thinking advertising signage along the empty four sides. Turns out it's really hard to find good vertical sci-fi food ads on t'internet On a separate note, we used it in a test game on Monday there and it was pretty stable (only knocked over by general carelessness) and sturdy, as well as being visually useful for play purposes (stops anything moving through its hex, apart from anything else. So that's encouraging.

That is the spirit, nice work.

WIP update: I decided I wasn't going to use the caps to the bottles for any part of the project, so I mounted them on a wooden stake and made a sort of jig to facilitate painting. So far, so good-- I got the rusty red-brown primer down with no fingerprints. Next I'll mess around with Ryza Rust and maybe some other colors for added depth before the somewhat intimidating next step.

More pics on my P&M blog here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/210/686009.page#10462980

In acknowledging Rule #7 (ambition), I'm going to try my hand at salt weathering on these tanks. I've watched videos demoing a few different techniques... with/without hairspray, with/without a clear coat between the rust and the color, etc. Does anyone here have a preferred technique or recommended tutorial? Also, I need to pick a color. I'm leaning toward yellow; I've seen it done well, and the high contrast really makes the rust stand out. Alternatives are Administratum blue-gray or Mechanicus red, both of which would be both more subdued and more forgiving than yellow. Thoughts?

Looking great, I have found the layer of protection over your base layer is a very good idea. And go for the yellow, or maybe a Military green, it will bring home the effect better.

I am sure you can pull this off, no worries. And it is a great technique to have.

I am a big convert to salt weathering, and don't be afraid of things looking a bit messy.

And it's worth experimenting with different grades of salt, and layers

As Cam says, a good trick to have up your sleeve.

Looking good Graven and MacPhail

I've done a little more work on the mind flayer. I combined two capes and did some gap filling to make the robe. I'll be putting more details on it later

Snazzy Illithid!

Started adding various bits of scrap plastic to the DBU launcher:


More stable now. Nearly there.

Turns out this means I've also started thinking about other Pitch Upgrades, so I've been playing with ideas for Subs Benches:

Just to sit at the side of the pitch. You really need 4 slots - subs, and 1/2/3 turns of Injury.
Clockwise from the Top, they would be:
1) Painted into quarters
2) Barrier to indicate Sub/Injury side
3) Other/different floor material
Fairly large, but standard based, Dreadball figure for scale purposes.

As previously mentioned, Smarties lids are identical in size to DB bases, so could maybe do something with that.

Thoughts?

Ok. I'm going to officially toss my hat into the ring here. I've got an ambitious terrain project idea for a modular ruined swamp tower.

My tenuous link to the theme is the base of my tower is going to resemble an 8" round layer cake...but with swamp mud, gnarly trees, and rubble strewn about.

I've already done some concept sketches and purchased some materials....I'll start posting to my project blog in the next few days and comment here when they are up.

Swamp layer cake? That sounds...interesting.

Here's where I am on the camp fire:


I painted the carcass in browns-- that's what most of the GIS results for "roast whole cow" looked like. I added some OSL to the bottom of the carcass (you can barely see it in this photo), as well as some on the rocks (slightly more visible). The whole thing feels almost finished, but I'm not wholly certain what it's missing. Ideas?

Would not hurt to have a handle to turn said beastie for an even cooking experience!

Swamp layer cake sounds good, Mississippi Mud Cake per chance!!

@inmygravenimage: Thanks graven, the tower is looking better and better. I like the addition of the textured strips on the side, it really break up the smooth surface and adds to it.

@Fango: Glad to hear you'll be joining us.

@JoshInJapan: Wow, Josh, I'm not used to a piece of plastic making me hungry. You did a really great job making that giraffe look like a golden brown cooked piece of meat. Nice job on the OSL too, I've never been able to do that.

Thanks buddy!
Turns out I'm also making a dice tower.



Ideally I want it to support the weight of the Dreadball announcers

The back of the announcers' booth also has the dreadball logo on it, so this version uses that too.
Thoughts?

Cam & Graven: Thanks for the insights on salt weathering. I took your advice and added a clear coat today. Once I find the paint I want, it'll be go time... couldn't find a color I liked in a matte finish. I think yellow still leads the pack. Krylon makes little mini craft-sized rattle cans of matte spray in a lot of bold colors, I just need to find a local source.

The Dreadball pylon is looking good; nice finds in the bits box for that extra texture!

Josh, excellent paint on that fire pit... you nailed the high-temperature glow of the coals.

I'm very interested in Fango's design... sounds like a good fit for my home table, so I can't wait to see the techniques chosen.

As for mine, I got some paint down on the main pieces, and I'll probably start fabricating and painting the trim tomorrow. I'll snap a photo when the riveting starts.

Also, I've been checking out some of your P&M threads... really spectacular stuff, both in terms of vision and craftsmanship. Thanks for the inspiration and insights, everyone!

All the basic pieces have paint on them now, so the look is starting to come together. On the upper platform is window screen, sprayed silver and cut to fit. It will be held in place by the riveted trim, which I've also basecoated in Leadbelcher. Next steps: the ramp (I got some diamond plate styrene!), the magnets between sections, and the trim. I'll try to add a few more photos to my P&M blog later tonight.

Excellent work. Marching on.

Indeed! And further progress on the tower.

To make the angles solid I'm using Deadzone corner struts, such as the one in front. It amuses me enormously that I'm using nicely detailed bits on the interior in a way that will never be seen (though it's perfectly possible that some will also appear in the exterior detailing process).

Reduced the height, and did a test toss. Worked well... so well, that only 2 of the 5 dice thrown stayed in the tray

And just checking Elmer and Dodds for size. They'll remain removable, so it works as a piece of 40k/Gaslands terrain also.

Ok, I finally posted some progress photos and a little process description to my project blog.

Basically, I used this image as inspiration:



Drew up this concept plan:



Sketched these perspective views:






Made some cake layers of pink foam:



Built some plasticard bases and frames:



And got this far on one of the sections (more progress photos for this will be added to my project blog soon):

Spectacular start Fango, and excellent work Graven. Wonderful to see such great effort from all of you.

That's a beast of cake Fango. In order to raise my own game somewhat, I'm going to try to do something a bit extra with the launcher: I have raided the wife's old cake supplies (Food for Thought indeed ) and found a balloon light LED plus casing, and also scavenged 3 tiny tiny tiny lr41 batteries from a broken robopet. Had to clean the old leaked batteries out, but seems to be working ok.

It's taken a little while to get going, but here's a little progress:







Rivets done with fast drying dabs of PVA glue and slates made from card from a box of paella rice, so extra "food" points there...

Looking excellent, great stuff folks. Love those tiles, lot of work but worth it.

What have I not used in this build yet?

Sprue! The mightiest of ingredients. Blue trans hex base for the led, might as well use that sprue for something:

It also flashes
And progress on the tower, harvesting more crud.

Oh man, what an awesome round of updates!

Fango, your sketches are impresive! I've watched your foam building in your P&M thread, and this looks like an awesome build. The organic shapes are super cool and I love the inside-out design.

Skinflint, nice detail work with the little bits... looks super tedious. I've been pushing straight pins through plasticard, so I think I can relate.

Graven, excellent work with the electrics. I've shopped online for this kind of stuff, but never tried it. Super cool finished look and a great fit for the context.

Here's what I've got for the weekend: rivets! I got just the two sides of the upper deck done and haven't painted it yet, but I at least worked out the technique. I also discovered that I had way under-estimated on materials, so there's more angle stock on the way and the cost of the undertaking has gone up again. Hopefully I can pick up the pace on output. What do y'all think of adding a green stuff "weld" to the corner? More progress pics in the P&M blog here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/210/686009.page#10473072

@Graven excellent work, all looking great and well done on the lighting.

@ MacPhail, excellent bud, that really looks fantastic. As an idea for the corner "welding", have you ever seen this.




But to be honest if it was me, I would use a soldering iron or some form of heat. Even a paperclip heated over candle would work, and be quite gentle.

That's awesome, easy but not obvious. I think I might try freehand with green stuff, since there's not much to do. I think a lot of the illusion can be done with paint to show heat distress, but that's going to take some experimentation.

Cam, that vid is a gem...! this is something i must try....(and i say this as a RIVETEER...:awesome

Well, I think the different components are now done, and primed as well:


Some zenithal priming on the building also. Not something I often do. I added a couple of extra jeejaws to it, the lightsaber handles as funnel-pipe things, just for a bit of extra variation. Chopped up some mantic barriers and recombined them to add rails. I've also made a couple of sin bins/injury benches for Dreadball, as I was on a roll (sadly not a buttered roll, as that would be more edible). They're not really part of the contest entry per se just part of the "set" of upgrading my Dreadball stuff to make it more kid-friendly (they find the lack of injury benches printed on the Ultimate mat really confusing). So now that painting proper can commence, these are my final WIP pics. See you at the other end of the contest gang!

Excellent work all 'round folks!

Wow, Graven, even going for the LED lighting treatment!

I'll likely have some more progress this weekend, and will post more photos when I do.

Ack! How did I miss the deadline?! Here's the finished model:


More images and words in my Pblog (link in my sig).

@ Josh, deadline is a month away! No worries. Looking fantastic.

Everyone's work is amazing wonderful stuff folks, really brilliant.