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dsteingass wrote:Sorry for your Loss Theo. I lost my old man 17 years ago. You never stop missing them, but time makes it better. The waiting part is no fun.

Thanks Dave, sorry to hear about yours. The funeral yesterday helped. Very well attended, over 200 family and friends showed up to pay respects. I had no idea how many people my dad influenced in his life.

Red Harvest wrote:Those plants work nicely on that base. Very nice xeriscaping... or micro-xeriscaping, as it were. Those plants were dollar store finds, or hobby store finds?

I've said it elsewhere, work at your pace. All cool content is much appreciated, when an what you can post. I know just how overwhelming RL can be at times like this.

The taller plants were dollar store finds, the short plants were from the plant ball I got at Hobby Lobby, after the coupon it was only a few dollars.

I ran to the FLGS yesterday after the funeral, picked up a few paints and washes to resupply. The wash is what I use in conjunction with the Vallejo desert sand texture to make the bases on the concord figures. While there I stopped by the aquarium supply place a couple doors down and found a package of blue alien looking plants to add some terrain which I made this morning. Sadly I forgot to take a picture of the plant before chopping it up .

So this mornings work.

The larger piece on the far left of the screen is made out of the “sinker” base of the plant.

The sinker has kept the fern base which it came with, but then got some of the plants from the vegetation ball added to it.


The blue and white plants are the new ones I got yesterday. They came linked together about 8” tall.

Some of the rocky outcrops with vegetation from the ball plant. I cut some of the plants into much smaller pieces as well.

A few still need to dry before I can paint the base trim (Bugman glow).

Condolences for you and your family, Theo.

A veritable xeno-forest growing across your hobby desk.....

Thanks Theo. those plants are perfect for the desert themed table I plan to finish...some day.

Nice plant work, Theo'.

Sorry for your loss. All the best.

Fango wrote:Condolences for you and your family, Theo.

Thanks Fango, we are under the belief that it was a blessing for him as the pain is done now. Not great for us, but we’ll see him again.

monkeytroll wrote:A veritable xeno-forest growing across your hobby desk.....

Growing even more soon. I stopped at Walmart on my way home last night and bought some aquarium plants. Stopped by Petsmart today and found some more....and possibly a third cat GOD HELP US!, and just got home from hobby lobby and found 2 more sources of plants . All spent $25-30, but more than enough for a table or 2...possibly 3.

Red Harvest wrote:Thanks Theo. those plants are perfect for the desert themed table I plan to finish...some day.

Hobby lobby has 50% off of some tabletop plants ending today. I grabbed one which should get me quit a bit and another that I used the 40% coupon on so I got a bag full of plants for under $10.

Dr H wrote:Nice plant work, Theo'.

Sorry for your loss. All the best.

Thanks Dr. H, I think the plants are coming along nicely too.

I’ll try and snap some pics of the new plants today, wife will be home shortly and we may drive out to buy a new...slightly used, cat...or two .

Edit: so.....we have two new kittens...four cats total .

Here’s pics of the plants I got.

The ball of new plants from Hobby Lobby

And the floral pot also from hobby lobby


The aquarium plants, 25 plants for $6


The Walmart grass
$1.97
3 Walmart colored plants $.97 each

Good work on the plants and luck with the cats. Life go's on its what your Dad wants.

 Llamahead wrote:
Good work on the plants and luck with the cats. Life go's on its what your Dad wants.

I’m sure dad didn’t want us to sulk, he wanted the best for us. Not sure how he would of felt about more cats.

Well, more jungle.

And I took the pot from the one foliage piece I got at Hobby Lobby and added a Sedition Wars terrain pack door to it.

Hot glue is drying, once it gets done the door trim and roof will get sand added to it to match the ground around it. I haven’t decided if I’ll do the whole building in the sand mix, the pot has a nice paint job that kind of fits the colors. I left enough space around the side of the building for some landscaping/ building/scatter.

The pot building looks like it belongs in Mos Eisley or something. Very cool! Also great use of the fake plants for terrain. If and when I ever have my own gaming table, I'll probably steal these ideas.

Oh Man, those look great! I want to do some jungle stuff now!

i really like how you got the door frame done...i always struggle with the connection from round/ sloped to straight...

ZergSmasher wrote:The pot building looks like it belongs in Mos Eisley or something. Very cool! Also great use of the fake plants for terrain. If and when I ever have my own gaming table, I'll probably steal these ideas.

Ive always wanted a full table of terrain, I’ve got plenty of bulkheads and random stuff, but this is my first foray into a cohesive table.

dsteingass wrote:Oh Man, those look great! I want to do some jungle stuff now!

I think your Imperial Guard demand it

Viktor von Domm wrote:i really like how you got the door frame done...i always struggle with the connection from round/ sloped to straight...

I was struggling with the door frame and the straight to round. Finally I said it, get it close and fill with hot glue .

Well, it still needs the door to get final touches, but I think it’s getting close to the finish line.

The door had been primed a long time ago and something in the primer caused it to not accept paint well. Not sure why, but still working around that.

Stone walkway and some landscaping because not all aliens are evil hillbillies.

Rear of the house showing the side garden.

Not sure about the roof as it is just flat right now. I want minimalistic features as it is a safe haven, so no windows or exposed ventilation systems. Not sure what to put on the roof. Maybe some more plants like a green environmental roof.

Hey Theo, is the jungle themed table for 40K? Catachan? All those aquarium plants would be perfect for a Drowned Earth table. Have you checked out Drowned Earth?

A buddy of mine has been trying to get me in to it...but I've resisted so far. I have to admit though, it's starting to tempt me more and more....

I was going to post a bunch of pics here, but don't want to hijack your blog, so I made my own post about it on mine and am linking it here.

Anyway, keep up the great work. I can't wait to hear more about your Gasslands project as well.

No, I'm pretty sure all aliens _are_ evil hillbillies....

Great looking terrain, and clever, simple solutions directly applied. And well painted to boot!

Agree with VvD: I have always had trouble going from a sloped surface to straight as well- you've given me quite a lot to think about.

In all things, keep on keepin' on.

Agree with VvD: I have always had trouble going from a sloped surface to straight as well- you've given me quite a lot to think about.

there must be a good way to solve this...right? like with tools or a measuring method...after all this is a rather common problem...carpenters must be facing this every day i think...?

and i really like the tatoinne feel of you build...tho...for that sandy place too much green^^...


and the hot glue is still something i use very scarcely as the gun i got is sooooo cheap it works awe fully...

For my corners, I built up the 90 degree parts with square/rectagles, then used some 45 degree triangle rod to fill the gap

the Dakka Gallery image is zoomable
This was sub-structure, then I skinned it all with 0.5 mm styrene.

Fango wrote:Hey Theo, is the jungle themed table for 40K? Catachan? All those aquarium plants would be perfect for a Drowned Earth table. Have you checked out Drowned Earth?

A buddy of mine has been trying to get me in to it...but I've resisted so far. I have to admit though, it's starting to tempt me more and more....

I was going to post a bunch of pics here, but don't want to hijack your blog, so I made my own post about it on mine and am linking it here.

Anyway, keep up the great work. I can't wait to hear more about your Gasslands project as well.

The jungle table stuff is for my Beyond the Gates of Antares. I’m currently building and painting up a Concord army. I hope to use the terrain for multiple projects. I haven’t played 40K in 3 editions, even then I only played one game of 5th .

Meer_Cat wrote:No, I'm pretty sure all aliens _are_ evil hillbillies....

Great looking terrain, and clever, simple solutions directly applied. And well painted to boot!

Agree with VvD: I have always had trouble going from a sloped surface to straight as well- you've given me quite a lot to think about.

In all things, keep on keepin' on.

I’m sure there’s some logical way. Too bad there is no way to search easily any sort of world wide library to find an answer.

Viktor von Domm wrote:

Agree with VvD: I have always had trouble going from a sloped surface to straight as well- you've given me quite a lot to think about.

there must be a good way to solve this...right? like with tools or a measuring method...after all this is a rather common problem...carpenters must be facing this every day i think...?

and i really like the tatoinne feel of you build...tho...for that sandy place too much green^^...


and the hot glue is still something i use very scarcely as the gun i got is sooooo cheap it works awe fully...

Maybe when I wake up fully I can do some research. Tatooine was my inspiration, and was more a reason for me to buy the potted fake plant than the plant itself .

dsteingass wrote:For my corners, I built up the 90 degree parts with square/rectagles, then used some 45 degree triangle rod to fill the gap

the Dakka Gallery image is zoomable
This was sub-structure, then I skinned it all with 0.5 mm styrene.

Plasticard is always my second answer....right after Violence. Because violence is always the answer

Well I glued more rocks and plants and applied more paint. I have all the small pieces of the Kar’A Nine supplement now completed. There are however 4 or5 large pieces with more termite mounds that I need to make, but I need to pick up some more bits to try that out. Hopefully I’ll have time tomorrow. It’s off to work here shortly.

I’m struggling with starting to build an actual table for these pieces. I want to have at least a 4’ x4’ table to play this on. I cannot transport 4’ stuff, so I was thinking of making 2’x4’ boards and then fixing them together, then I thought maybe make them as 2’x2’ and fix them together so I can have a display board. The 2x2 also would be easier to work as the sand basing is really labor intensive and nor inexpensive. I have a 3x3 and a 3x6 table, but really want to go larger.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

What exactly is the difficulty for you guys with the sloped to straight transition? Generally you would scribe a line of the curve onto the straight area and then cut along the line. It can be tedious, but it is not difficult.

Well, done a bit of research on the subject: the tool for the occasion is called contour gauge....
And my own feeble attempts came off way beyond mediocre to say the least.... I like to work with junk...like yoghurt cups and so on...and this line drawing you speak of just didnt produce the needed results on my part...that lead to frustration and to hobby burnouts...on numerous cases...which halts the production and kills the fun...
Often my own skills cant cope with my imagination...
I've long lost any hope for example to ever draw a decent sketch of anything that my mind comes up with...which is really bothersome when you are creative but your hand eye coordinating lets you only come up with a drawing of the elephant man...

When it comes to art and crafting i wasn't gifted and sadly got not a decent amount of education either ...

(Sorry for that rant...)

Red Harvest wrote:What exactly is the difficulty for you guys with the sloped to straight transition? Generally you would scribe a line of the curve onto the straight area and then cut along the line. It can be tedious, but it is not difficult.

It was the curve up the side of the pot, not the base, but I see how it could be done your way. But I had already glued it to a base before I even thought about connecting the door .

Viktor von Domm wrote:Well, done a bit of research on the subject: the tool for the occasion is called contour gauge....
And my own feeble attempts came off way beyond mediocre to say the least.... I like to work with junk...like yoghurt cups and so on...and this line drawing you speak of just didnt produce the needed results on my part...that lead to frustration and to hobby burnouts...on numerous cases...which halts the production and kills the fun...
Often my own skills cant cope with my imagination...
I've long lost any hope for example to ever draw a decent sketch of anything that my mind comes up with...which is really bothersome when you are creative but your hand eye coordinating lets you only come up with a drawing of the elephant man...

When it comes to art and crafting i wasn't gifted and sadly got not a decent amount of education either ...

(Sorry for that rant...)

I know I have a contour gauge somewhere too.
I know your pain on the art front. I take after my mom with art. That’s not good. My art teacher in school thought I was hopeless.

Just snagged 2 Ghar starter armies off EBay with today’s sale code for about $100 with shipping normally $80 each MSRP and $64each through MM.

So with the two starter forces of Ghar coming I have to contemplate how to paint them up. Originally I painted them as Iron Warriors

But now I want to make them more Beyond the Gates of Antares and not 40K. Also to have them look better with my current terrain I was thinking of going the deep red similar to what I painted my Algoryn (who will eventually also get repainted )

I considered going a brighter red than the Algoryn, but worried that they might look far too crab like in the end. Though I could go kind of campy and make them evil crabs and try almost a pink shrimp color for the ones not in suits.

Suggestions on this front would be greatly appreciated. I might try some test colors out today.

Edit: finished these plants yesterday.

And started on making a river. First try ever at this, I guess we will see results one way or another later today.

Im making the sections 6” long and the water is 1.5” wide while overall width will vary but not wider than 4”

Now that's what I call bold as brass with that river piece...looks rather promising. But i hope you thought about shrinkage when you use pva...also would have been a good opportunity to add a bit of a mix of washes in the still wet pva...

I need to think about schemes...tho the latest stuff from Red , you know his orange troopers? That orange and white scheme could suit these suits quite well...

Plants look

Theo, if you are using PVA then use the new Clear Elmer's glue instead of the white stuff. I think Elmer's introduced it because of this whole slime making fad, but it makes for a nice water effect. This stuff http://elmers.com/product/detail/school-glue-clear

Vik, orange is the Dickens to paint. You've been warned. It does turn out nice though. Easy to see on the table.

well....to my defence...he didn´t ask for quick and easy scheme...so i went for a good looking one...

Talk to CommissarKhaine about doing orange- he's got a metric crap-ton of grots done up in that livery. I think that'd look good- but you could go a two-tone crab colors also: that brick red you've used before on top, a cream or light grey for the undercarriage.


I like the look of the river- coming along swimmingly

Slightly more seriously, it is looking good.

If you do another, you can, as VvD suggested, do a number of things with washes to help with the coloring as you go. The model railroader guys have this art nailed. You can paint the river bottom a base greenish/greyish/brownish bottom color, then add your pva/pvc glue or clear resin in layers. Tint the layers llighter blues as you go up, edge the layers with a bit of greenish wash and you get a very 'deep' looking nicely graduated river.

Keep on keepin' on!

I like the sound of evil space crabs......

Or honour a minor switch to your old iron warriors base and twist the yellows into reds?

I love how you based the plants for terrain. One or two bundles can cover a whole table. I am rethinking using some contrasting plants since your blue ones turned out so good. Thanks for the inspiration.

Viktor von Domm wrote:Now that's what I call bold as brass with that river piece...looks rather promising. But i hope you thought about shrinkage when you use pva...also would have been a good opportunity to add a bit of a mix of washes in the still wet pva...

I need to think about schemes...tho the latest stuff from Red , you know his orange troopers? That orange and white scheme could suit these suits quite well...

Plants look

Ive tried orange, my results were not as good as Red Harvests , I’m experimenting with a few other options.
As for the pva, that was layer 1 and there was color under it. See below.

Red Harvest wrote:Theo, if you are using PVA then use the new Clear Elmer's glue instead of the white stuff. I think Elmer's introduced it because of this whole slime making fad, but it makes for a nice water effect. This stuff http://elmers.com/product/detail/school-glue-clear

Vik, orange is the Dickens to paint. You've been warned. It does turn out nice though. Easy to see on the table.

I’d switch to the clear, but I had bought a gallon of the white for other projects, so for now it’s the old tried and true method.

Viktor von Domm wrote:well....to my defence...he didn´t ask for quick and easy scheme...so i went for a good looking one...

Oh Vik , we know I’m not patient enough to do anything difficult.

Meer_Cat wrote:Talk to CommissarKhaine about doing orange- he's got a metric crap-ton of grots done up in that livery. I think that'd look good- but you could go a two-tone crab colors also: that brick red you've used before on top, a cream or light grey for the undercarriage.


I like the look of the river- coming along swimmingly

Slightly more seriously, it is looking good.

If you do another, you can, as VvD suggested, do a number of things with washes to help with the coloring as you go. The model railroader guys have this art nailed. You can paint the river bottom a base greenish/greyish/brownish bottom color, then add your pva/pvc glue or clear resin in layers. Tint the layers llighter blues as you go up, edge the layers with a bit of greenish wash and you get a very 'deep' looking nicely graduated river.

Keep on keepin' on!

I painted the river base a brownish red, as I’m on one of those redneck alien planets, but otherwise that is how I’m proceeding. I might give the red and cream color scheme a test. Though the red and black of the Christmas Island crabs isn’t pretty cool too.

monkeytroll wrote:I like the sound of evil space crabs......

Or honour a minor switch to your old iron warriors base and twist the yellows into reds?

I wanted to get away from the clean shiny silver for the model. I’m looking darker and more malevolent for these little ankle biters.

Pointer5 wrote:I love how you based the plants for terrain. One or two bundles can cover a whole table. I am rethinking using some contrasting plants since your blue ones turned out so good. Thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks Pointer5 . The aquarium store had the same blue/white ones in a red/white also. I just liked the blue more. There’s all sorts of crazy colors in aquarium plants though. Some even more exotic. I saw one pack that I really liked. Not $20 liked, but it was really neat purple.

So, after two days the glue is mostly dry . Next time thinner layers .

Had an incident with a cat jumping on the bench and a model went into the wet glue . I’ll need to touch up some parts before proceeding, but I’ll probably get more sections done to this level before then.

Oh...that piece looks decidedly cool, and indeed red planet like

Lovely river and jungle terrain Theo, you should play Bushido you already have the terrrain to play. ;-) That hut is also a stroke of genius.