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.

Oh wow that is an awesome little bit of plastic! Seriously great find there Tzurk!

I may have to pop by my GW store and beg some people to root around in their bits boxes for that because I can see that making a decent start towards a new project entirely, looks perfect for a space port or hive city...

I have returned from the great beyond!

All dramatics aside. Just wanted to pop back in and say that that little bit of terrain you're building is looking really good!

Thanks War Kitten! Glad you like it, was nice to play around with a good sized bit of terrain for a change


Not much to report with Tizca, I have been busy with other projects so it looks pretty much the same atm. I just basecoated the central area and am now trying to figure out the best way to go about building all the complex gardens and pathways without the pyramids getting in the way...

I also put down a layer of dark blue for the ocean which actually frames the whole thing up quite nicely. Thoughts on the colour? My test piece with the ice cream stand used more greens and greys than this but I think indigo works best for a large body of water.



In real life the water is a little darker but pictures are a little hard to take given that there is a snow storm directly out of my window!

Gorgeous water color, looking quite abyssal !

Looks awesome - very reminiscent of something you would see in a museum.

Blue is a perfect shade

That is looking fantastic Cain, brilliant work

It looks like you may already have, but hard to tell, so I'l comment that around the actual coast - as opposed to the harbour - a bit of lighter colour in the water to help represent shallower depths would be cool.

I was just about to say that, Monkeytroll. However far out you want the coastal shelf to be. I'd say a little more green/brown, in addition to being lighter.

But yeah, the ocean being painted really helps it pop. Pulls it all together, you know?

Looks amaking . The blue really does a great job on the contrast with the landmass.

KernelTerror wrote:Gorgeous water color, looking quite abyssal !

Thanks! Going to try and keep it nice and dark so the ocean doesn't detract from the city itself so hopefully it works out..

IGtR= wrote:Looks awesome - very reminiscent of something you would see in a museum.

Blue is a perfect shade

Cheers! I should really look at getting a job making those museum dioramas, I think it would be my dream career

monkeytroll wrote:That is looking fantastic Cain, brilliant work

It looks like you may already have, but hard to tell, so I'l comment that around the actual coast - as opposed to the harbour - a bit of lighter colour in the water to help represent shallower depths would be cool.

Anvildude wrote:I was just about to say that, Monkeytroll. However far out you want the coastal shelf to be. I'd say a little more green/brown, in addition to being lighter.

But yeah, the ocean being painted really helps it pop. Pulls it all together, you know?

Thanks guys! Good call on the coastline, I have to look at some real life pictures for inspiration but it would definitely look good with some lighter tones around the edges. I would also have totally forgotten that the harbour would still be deep. Wouldn't want to beach all those expensive boats!

Theophony wrote:Looks amaking . The blue really does a great job on the contrast with the landmass.

Cheers Theo! It should look even better once I edge the sides with a nice dark black as well, just gimme another couple of months or so


Currently planning out the gardens in the central district, somehow I have to painstakingly place individual bits of flock to create mazes and elaborate patches of foliage. There are also going to be some small rivers flowing around so I have my work cut out for me! I might move over to paint rather than flock for some of it though, applied thickly enough it should have enough height to avoid everything looking like a flat painting.






Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well I held in the urge to eat my own hands and finally managed to get all the trees placed for the two largest sections of garden. Probably the most infuriating part of the project yet but I am happy with the results!

I also walled in the trees with a little plasticard as well to give it a better defined border, still gotta paint it though...



I discovered that the trick was to roll a small bit of flock into a ball with my fingers and then dip it into very watered down PVA, it wanted to stick to everything but the area I wanted it to go however

Hey all, it's been a slow month hobbywise, I've been busy working and finding a new place to live but I should be back in the swing of things soon!

In the meantime I managed to build the skeleton of my Warlord titan, as with the rest of the titanicus range it is one of my favourite plastic kits to date. So many tiny details and very cleverly designed to avoid ugly mold lines and badly fitting parts.





The army as it stands is a good size and I am going to try and get them all finished before picking up any of the other models. I am second guessing the purple paint scheme after seeing some of the other ones previewed by FW. I also want to make an Eldar force using the plastic 40k models as a base so I might go with a scheme that works in tandem with them.

This might interest you: https://imgur.com/gallery/hICtsah

Well it's been a few months of silence from me as I have not had any of my models or dioramas on hand but I am back now and looking to get some more progress done!

Thanks for that link anvildude, that's definitely how I want my water to turn out!

Just a teeny bit of progress so far, I am continuing work on the Royal Gardens which will take up most of the space in the center of the city. The aim is to have a vibrant colour palette and some interesting patterns to really showcase the wealth and power located in this district. From what I can make out in my reference image it is supposed to be mostly more houses and facilities but I think that would be pretty boring and also be lost under the huge pyramids anyway.



Still a heap of work to do and it is going to put my freehand skills to the test but once the whole area is done it should look fantastic!

Glad to see you back , the city is still growing.

Still needs a tiny sign saying keep the dogs off the lawn as a forewarning of the coming of the wolves.

Very nice!

Great to see you back Commander Cain.

Theophony wrote:Glad to see you back , the city is still growing.

Still needs a tiny sign saying keep the dogs off the lawn as a forewarning of the coming of the wolves.

I'll leave some squeaky toys outside the city gates, that should keep those pesky wolves at bay!

Malika2 wrote:Very nice!

Thanks!

Syro_ wrote:Great to see you back Commander Cain.

Good to be back, I've missed working on this thing!


Little more progress for today, the gardens are growing bit by bit. I have also painted in a small canal as depicted on the map but I am taking artistic liberty with the rest of the area as I want it to look nice and lush rahter than just a pile more houses.. I also placed the pyramids in to check that they all still fit around my paint, I really like how it is coming along so far.



I also painted up the warlord titan in the colours of Legio Xestiobiax, the Thousand Sons allied titan legion. Please forgive the paintjob, the model is smaller than a guardsman's head!

If the Titan doesn’t put it into perspective I’m not sure what will .

Great work, something to really be proud of.

Squeaky toys , audible chuckle here .

Thanks Theo!


Tiny bit more progress as I work on the canals and other side of the gardens, might add some more green as it is looking a little bland at the moment..



I am torn on how to decorate the circular section surrounding the largest pyramid. My current two ideas are a blue and white tiled pattern or a large body of water surrounding it. I have a couple of test dishes filled with the stuff I am using to make the water for the bay to see how it will look. Due to the glossy nature of the substance I was worried that it would look very out of place and detract from the rest of the area, have to wait for it to dry before I know for sure though!


I also wanted to plug a cool looking terrain kickstarter that should be of interest to any titanicus or smaller scale gamers out there. Some nice bits of plastic terrain and also a massive selection of STL files for those who have a 3D printer. Picked some up for myself for when I eventually finish this project!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smallscaleterrain2/smallscale-plastic-terrain-kits-2

Has it really been a month already? Guess I have been spending too much time outside and not enough working on the city!

I painted up a tile pattern for the central circle, decided that water would detract too much from everything else and liked the idea of the red tiles contrasting nicely with the greenery everywhere else. Might try and get the rest of it painted up tonight, wish me luck!

I think that was a great idea , also a prelude to Magnus the Red .

Wow! you never fail to impress with your work on Tizca. Good luck finishing!

That tile pattern looks gorgeous and very appropriate, well done !

Theophony wrote:I think that was a great idea , also a prelude to Magnus the Red .

Yeah figured it would be a nice callback, very happy with the results!

Syro_ wrote:Wow! You never fail to impress with your work on Tizca. Good luck finishing!

Cheers! Shouldn't be too much longer now before it is all done

KernelTerror wrote:That tile pattern looks gorgeous and very appropriate, well done!

Thanks! Felt nice to paint something that wasn't green for a change haha



I got a little distracted from the central city last night and decided to give the ocean a shot. Having already painted on a nice deep blue I mixed up some lighter colours and painted them around the coastline to represent waves breaking and more shallow sections of water. Then after adding in some more darker sections I decided it was good to go.



I then took my magic acrylic gel stuff and slathered it all over the ocean, sculpting long waves around the coastline, smoothing it down as it got further out to sea. The docks were tricky to do as I didn't want to get any of the stuff over the painted bits due to its glossy nature but I managed somehow!

I did panic a little as you can see from the picture that I have made quite a large commitment and prayed that come the morning it would have dried into something a little more presentable...



Walking downstairs today though I was thrilled to see that I had not ruined the entire project, this thing actually looks pretty good!!

The water has a great glossy look to it and reflects a good amount of light, the wave crests are awesome close up and still pretty subtle from a distance, and the paint underneath has been diffused just the right amount.



Some of the thicker areas have retained a little whiteness to them which was a nice surprise and I love how all the waves look up close.



Even the sand on the beach went a little darker where the waves are hitting!



I was very worried about how the ports would turn out as it was very hard to get the gel in those tight spots but with it drying clear, any little mistakes I made are almost impossible to see.




That it one huge step taken toward completing this beast. Just got to get back to Central Tizca, finish those gardens, paint up a pyramid and a few other parts and then deal with the canal. Wish me luck!

The water looks great indeed, must be quite a relief !

The ocean looks great , I’m blown away by this whole project, a true masterpiece.

Wow, that really does look amazing! Congrats!

KernelTerror wrote:The water looks great indeed, must be quite a relief !

Oh such a relief! I have been worrying about doing the ocean since I started thins project

Theophony wrote:The ocean looks great , I’m blown away by this whole project, a true masterpiece.

Thanks Theo! I couldn't have done it without all the support for you guys

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:Wow, that really does look amazing! Congrats!

Cheers! Super happy with how it's looking so far, now I just have to not mess it up at the last minute...


Pretty much finished with the inner city, all the pyramids save the largest have been stuck down, just need to tidy up some of the trees and paint a few more flowerbeds (turns out space marines have a hidden flair for gardening)

\

I still love taking pictures from the ground level. The titan looks very happy playing in those trees!

Wow....looking better and better!

Looking great. Nice job.

Malika2 wrote:Wow....looking better and better!

Cheers! Amazed I haven't messed it up yet haha

Dr H wrote:Looking great. Nice job.

Thanks Dr. H!



I think Tizca may finally be finished. I finally got round to painting up the main pyramid and touched up a few little spots. I could honestly keep addimg more and more details to this beast until my eyes melted but I am really happy with how it looks at the moment.

And extra big thank you to all the people who kept commenting and motivating me to keep plugging away, I would honestly have burnt out well before completing it without you all!!

And now for an extra large photo dump, my apologies to you people with bad internet!

As a refresher, here is the image I based the whole project on.



Starting out with a couple of wide shots, I just love how it looks in the sunlight.





We then have the Silver District and the Argent Bastion. I also included an arena and some additional pyramids.



Moving along we get to Southern Tizca which features a lot of larger buildings such as the restaurant and military academy.





And spinning right around the city I snapped a pic from behind the mountains



The back of the city features both a civilian and military port, a bastion, and lighthouse.







Old Tizca is the most industrial part of the city, featuring a massive factory the has covered the area in a fine layer of soot. The bridge was perhaps the most tricky thing to make in this entire build. Those struts are toothbrush bristles!






The Azure Distict is a far more wealthy section of the city and is dominated by the large hill, the Valperine Bastion, a shipyard, and a large mining facility.









Finally, Central Tizca is where the Thousand Sons legion resides. Each pyramid is dedicated to a different cult of magic users in addition to the Gread Library and the primarch's own residence, the Pyramid of Photep







The one scale reference I have in the whole terrain piece is the Titan stationed outside the Pyrae Temple. It is probably the height of an Imperator and it provides a nice indication of just how massive this city is!





And that should probably do it for pics before I overload the Dakka servers

Hope you all enjoyed following this project as much as I enjoyed making it. Feel free to leave any suggestions for what I should try next!