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@ Moltar- Stole one from the kitchen. Results pending.

@ Galorn & Rogue- Thank you. See below.

@ Dave- Oh yeah buddy. See below the first below.

@ Shaz- Thank you, and yes they do!



Rather than complain about recent events, I'll employ a meme:



Don't expect anything from me for the next few weeks unless I snap and have to take some administrative leave.

HOWEVER, not all is bad new. I scored this on eBay today:



$36!!! I'm really happy for this. Even more awesome stuff I have no time for. I will be going flat out at least until the end of December. I'll work as I can, but it's 20 minutes here, 40 minutes there.

Thanks for sticking with me during the flat moments. It'll be worth it once I get cranked back up. I'm going to choke my table with some much Grimdark awesomeness that I'll rip open the fabric of reality that separates us from the Warp and create a new Eye of Terror.

Haha Skalk! I have this taped up at my desk

And Roy is my hero!

too much has happened since last i had time and energy to look... and boy... awesome work and totally cool stuff you got and did...


and yeah... don´t you ever dare to short sell your work here mate... you are truly devoted to your hobby... and you want to learn and test new stuff too... you can be sure of my admiration of your stuff!!!


and that diablo like cathedral... wow... very hot!!!

Skalk, just a short post to tell you that:
1) Your latest terrain are really badass, and the concept of the one made with the old citadel ruins kit makes me drool.
2) you should seriously think to move to France (ever heard of the 35h week law? and our social security?)
3) keep in mind that this terrible working period will finally slow down and that you'll finally get the break you deserve.

Sois fort! (Be strong!)

you french still have the 35h week? ... we seem to have forgotten all about that one by now... greedy capitalists ruled by a screw pretending to be a human...

35 hour week? Disgraceful, we're working towards the 35 hour day here


Your pain is felt Skalk, we'll all be hanging around somewhere whenever you get to do some stuff

@ Dave- now it is on my desk as well.

@ Joe- 1) thank you very much. Maybe my son will finish it someday. 2) Je ne peux pas parler français et aurait besoin d'embaucher un traducteur 3) Rumor is we're all getting comp days once this is done. Free time off (meaning not spending vacation time) and getting paid for it! Whoo!

@ Vik- I may be a wage whore, but I'm a wage whore with a LOT of toys.

@ monkeytroll- Thanks man. Looking forward to getting back on track. I expect things to calm down in a month or so.

Ok, that's it for now, won't be stopping by Dakka for a while. If anyone wants to contact me directly just to say 'hi', email me. skalkbloodaxe@gmail.com

Bah..mods deleted it. I've been bad.

^bugger!

Vik- I may be a wage whore, but I'm a wage whore with a LOT of toys.

LOL... aye.... it´s the use for that money we earn under the baddest circumstances that brings us to the "coalmine" each day anew^^

@ Dave- no problem, I saved it.

@ Vik- The last few week$ have $ucked. $o little Dakka or modeling time and a huge amount of $tre$$. However, it ha$ been manageable, i$ almo$t over, and I have been properly compen$ated for it.



Ok. Hi. Said I'd be back, and I am. Will admit to having had a few moments where I could have been on Dakka, but I think you'll appreciate my decision to model instead. I'll catch up w/ everyone in a few weeks or so once I can start slacking off at work and surf Dakka again.

I've been stealing time here and there as I could, and the result is a have a LOT of work done and have a HUGE update to share. I'm going to start with the project I was working on when I left and move forward from there, but I'll be submitting my work in category format instead of serial because it was hard to keep track of even as I took notes (yes, I took notes as I was doing the projects). Also, I'll be splitting this into at least 3 posts because there's simply too much to look at and I don't want to overwhelm people w/ 100+ photos in a single post.

First up in an idea I had when Dave was advising me to try the weathering powders. I wanted to practice with something before wasting my powders, and all I could come up with that I already had at the house was baking soda:



The idea was to brush the baking soda on whatever I was going to work with and then color it with a wash. Results were not so good. Didn't even bother with a picture. My next idea was to mix baking soda into rust paint and apply that w/ a small brush to at least create texture. Again, not wanting to waste my 'good' supplies on a test, I decided to make my own rust paint.



Paint on left is end result. Paint on right is what it looked like when I first started mixing. Yes, I know it's backwards, but didn't realize it until after I took the pic. Anyway, I used a lot of different colors to mix this, and I really like it. It's a 'mid-range' rust tone, between the bright oranges and the deep reds.

Mixed some paint into a spare pot w/ some baking soda, mashed it all up, and did a color / texture test. Here is my first run:



I liked the results enough to keep going with it and started to apply it to Imperial Sector building #2 which was almost finished, just needed that extra effort to make a really good model instead of simply a good one. Here's how it came out:



























I really like how that came out. A lot. I'll be revisitng that idea as a base and will highlight over it.

Once I finished a few more bitz here and there I officially delared this piece DONE. Here are the final shots:





Apparently I didn't take any of the other sides. It is a small matter, I'm sure you'll see this again in the future.

Next project I'll share is a bit off the current track but was fun and functional nontheless. I looked up the maximum number of Objective Markers that could come out in a 6th Ed game and found 9 (and if that is wrong please correct me). I did not have any 'real' objective markers, we'd just use random bitz from my Necromunda terrain, and a few times we lost track of what was what. So I decided to slap together a quick project in between prokjects I was waiting for to have glue dry, paint dry, etc. My friend Kaitlyn was hangout out w/ me at the time and wanted to help, so we figured out how to make it happen and then got to work.

Materials were all stuff I already had, and I would likely never have used the 25mm square bases or the WFB Zombie grave stones. This was a win all the way around.



Once again, the treadplate from Dave is being used for something functional on my game table:



Quick mockup of what the end-result idea was:



Kaitlyn being indoctrinated into the creatively bizarre world of Wargame Modeling:







annnnndd.... DONE!



Model for scale comparison:



Entire project took about an hours. They are not perfect, nothing I'd ever enter into a contest, but they look good on the table and are functionally efficient for my future games.

That's it for this one, but I'll be back very soon. I have a LOT of stuff to share. And before I go, here's a teaser for the next update:



Thanks for looking, C&C welcome, and I'll be back!

Nice stuff. The rust effects and, more generally, the various textures on the metal tones create a very evocative setting.

I agree with tinfoil. That rust effect turned out awesome, Skalk! I like your simplistic objective markers too. Glad to see you finish up that piece of terrain. It looks really good and I'm stoked to see what you crank out next.

Here's what I don't get: You have tons and tons of really great buildings here, a lot of skill and, appareantly, even more disposable income. So why are all your buildings so low? If I had acces to this ammount of parts I would reach for the sky!

Serioulsy, I loved that 6 level tower.

Because anything more than a couple of stories is pretty much unplayable.

@ tinfoil- Thank you. It's what I am going for, and have found a technique to create more texture w/o it looking 'added on'. Will show some examples later.

@ Moltar- Thanks, I genuinely appreciate your compliments. The rust is still a learning process, but I know I'm getting better. The objective markers were fun to make and didn't take up much time (the best part of it was I used things I 'had no use for'). I feels good to completely finish up a project and move on to the next. I enjoy that feeling of accomplishment, and it helps clean up my desk at the same time.

@ Anung Un Rama- Briancj is right, and there is the additional consideration of my space available to store them. At most I'll go 3 levels. They have a huge footprint and my shelves are only w 12" x h 12"-16". If I had the space I might go higher, but as it is I'm going to go longer / wider.

@ Briancj- Yup.



I haven't done anything since 9am except model. I had today off (company holiday) and spent it doing what I wanted to do. Wicked updates coming.

We really will need to get another raodtrip/game session in at some point... your stuff is looking better and better. I'd love to have you down here to show off my workshop once its "done" also take you to my local harbor freight tools... (heh)

@ Galorn- Yes we do, and I have no idea what 'local harbor freight tools' are.



The next installment was complete just a couple hrs ago, wanted to finish it up so I could show the whole story from start to finish.

You may remember this picture if you have been around for a while. I took it on January 11 2012:



I promptly got to work on it that same day:



... and here it is again 6 months later in a group photo of unfinished terrain projects taken June 13. Really moving along!



Doesn't show up again until November 22:



Here's how this happened- I was working on another project, and I had to move this to get at something I wanted. I put this on my desk instead of back on the shelf. The piece I was working on needed to dry, and I was looking at the Bastion thinking what a horrible job I did building it, and since I had a moment I could at least seal up the gaps.

Then I decided to glue the ramparts on, just because they were there. This brings me to a short rant about GW models if you care to read it:


I glued on the bunker door and suddenly this became an active project even though I really didn't have any specific interest or need for this piece at the moment. The blue absolutely had to go, and I wanted to try salting this for a different rust effect. I gave it a nice clean undercoat, and officially ended the color blue on my tabletop. Sorry Dave, but it had to go.



Next I added some black streaks to break up the rusty spots. Had I thought of it I would have used streaks of different colors of rust as well, or painted in sections (orange top, light red middle, deep red bottom) but of course that only occurred to me much later:



Now it was ready for a soaking in hairspray and sprinkle of salt. I had read online about trying Margarita salt but I couldn't find any, so I tried coarse sea salt. The results were disappointing to say the least:



Problem #1 above all else was the salt simply would not stay adhered to the Bastion. Problem #2 was there was way too much of it. I did my best to solve the problem by re-soaking it with matte sealer.



Word of advice for anyone that models- never never EVER use matte sealer when you are working on a slat effect. While it did solve one problem (salt not sticking) it created an entirely new one. The overcoat of paint and the salt underneath were nearly impossible to brush off and ultimately I had to put the model in the shower and use the hand-held shower head w/ hot water and a stiff brush to finally rub off or melt the salt. Unfortunately it also took off most of the overcoat as well. Tally so far- Bastion 2, Skalk 0. (by the way, this is the 'good' side. The other sides look much worse)



By now I was rather annoyed. At least a couple hours had gone into this already (though I was working on other projects when I was waiting for things to dry etc) and so far complete fail. My next idea was to re-salt it (this time without matte sealer) and see what happened.



I repainted the overcoat but didn't take a pic for some reason. Anyway, this is after I brushed the 2nd coat of salt off:





Total disaster, and I was mad. All that time wasted, and probably ruined a good model. At that point I didn't care what it wound up looking like, I just painted it the overcoat and was going to sponge rust all over and call it done and not ever show it on Dakka. The idea to paint the model again is what saved this project. I started to really look at it, and decided it was salvageable.



The rust streaks were only the beginning. As I looked at the model more and more I realized I had done something incredible w/o having any idea that I was doing it. The rust was there staring back at me, it just needed to be painted to bring it out. I had inadvertently taken a serious step forward in my modeling evolution:









Closeups of the detail:











Before getting to the next bit- I forgot to take a pic but I applied the 'finishing touch' for the building by applying a very light black wash to bring out the grit and take away the last vestiges of 'clean'. I really like how it came out. Then I got to work on the base. I did consider skipping that part but a few months ago a wise hobbyist said that all completed models have a base. Plus it also helped me to reinforce the new standard on the table for buildings and bases- geometric shape = functional building, asymmetrical shapes = ruins. I used some more Platformer bitz for the floor. I can't emphasize how handy these things are to have around! They will be part of every project I do from here on out. I applied some 'baking soda' rust to the base as well and then glued the bastion to the base. I used regular modeling glue as both base and building are made from the same stuff.



While waiting for the glue to dry I decided to get started on the Icarus Lascannon:



Once the glue had dried I 'tied in' the rust from the platform to the building and from the building to the platform.









Check the detail on the lights (front door). Another first for me.



Skipped the painting process on the Icarus gun since it is so small compared to everything else I have been working on. Here are the end results. Note the leaking oil (black, sides), hydraulic fluid (red, right rear), coolant leakage (green, front bottom). Also notice how I was subtle w/ the rust so it would tie in w/ the rooftop regardless of direction the gun is turned:







...and the entire thing, one last shot. I am officially declaring this model FINISHED!



I know I made a lot of mistakes on this, but the important part is that I see them and know how to avoid (or use them more effectively) next time. I'm leaving it 'as is' so I can use it as a measurement of my progress, because there was a time not so long ago where I thought these were good pieces of terrain:






Thanks for looking. More coming soon.

That bastion is dope! About 3/4 through your post I could start to see the texture coming together and I was afraid it would end with you pitching it. It looks awesome and should fit in with the rest of your terrain perfectly. Wish I had more time to comment, but I gotta close shop and head out for dinner. Thanks for posting, Skalk!

honestly...i think you are a brave man to show all that work and the process... most would have kept it quite and would only show the true sucesses... but then again you turned the wheel again and it came out really well...looks even a bit nurglish with all those puslike craters of rust and so on... the green sloshes on the base of the gun are also a nice touch...

oh...and one thing i gotta ask... that head of yon guardsman in the last pic of the bastion... where is that head from?

thanks mate!

I believe they're all good pieces of terrain. In fact, I happen to like the scratchbuilt pieces more. They have more CHARACTER. My $0.02.

 Briancj wrote:
I believe they're all good pieces of terrain. In fact, I happen to like the scratchbuilt pieces more. They have more CHARACTER. My $0.02.

hear hear.


Google "harbor freight tools"

they have a retail location near me.

The bastion came out amazing after all the problems you went through.

I think you turned a problem into a Happy Accident Skalk! Good job, it looks great. The effect of peeling paint exposing the rust spots works very well. Please do me a favor though, before you go to that seemingly labor-intensive and messy trouble again, just try those weathering powders I sent you?

Oh, and one other thing, You can use 10 gloss coats if you want, it's a tool to make decals hide their clear sheen, and to make oil washes flow into cracks and around rivets, but a matte coat only needs applied once, at the end if you ask me. It will dull down any gloss coat below it and no one will ever be able to tell.

Gotta Say man, the bastion came out great i was suprised myself seeing the end result after all the mishaps from before but well saved buddy

Nice job chief. Great salvage job. I agree absolutely about your rant on these bloody gaps, it's a menace. Almost puts me off building more crazy sized buildings... Almost. For some reason though your rant made my phone crash. Clearly it didn't want to be tainted by your heresy!

I hate bastions. My time at GW as a redshirt was spent building and painting about 200 of those darn things. You did well. I would have thrown the thing out.

I hate when a model doesnt turn out the way you plan. Like you, sometimes you have to step back to see that your mistakes actully make your work better! Most of my triumphs were mistakes... I just dont tell anyone.. wink, wink

good work.

@ Moltar- If I were going to pitch it I'd likely never have shown it on Dakka (since all my other recent work has been above my normal average). I have a few failures that you've never seen, and won't unless you drive to VT. They are in the closet with the rest of the skeletons. I really like how this came out, and it's highly likely I'll pick up another one . So much that I may buy another one and use the same effect on purpose this time.

@ Vik- I enjoy the WIP so the Vet's can see the struggles and offer advice, and so the young bloods can see my mistakes and hopefully avoid them as they come up through the ranks. The Guardsman head is from the basic kit, nothing special.

@ Brian- Well, I'll agree to the extent that if I had not made those pieces, I would not be maing the ones I am not. I haven't given up on scratch build, I'm just immersed in pre0fab right now and I'm really liking the results. And what I am learing now will be alloied to my next scratch build. I'll win a LoER contest yet.

@ Galorn- same as I said to Brian, and dude I looked up HFT... I could spend a full paycheck there and still leave a lot of things I wanted behind. Wow. That place looks awesome.

@ GiraffeX- Thanks, I really appreciate the compliment. Having those problems make me a better modeler, so long as I actually learn something from it. And trust me, I really did this time.

@ Dave- I have tried the weathering powders but haven't shared those attempts because so far my only results have been to make a muddy mess of things. I've been looking at videos online and I'll have another go at it soon, I just haven't figured them out yet. And I've learned my lesson regarding matte coats. It's for one thing and one thing only. I won't make that mistake again, it was a horrible times trying to fix it.

@ Lordjig6- thanks for commenting! I'm thinking you are no less surprised than I was. I thought this one was marked for the Shelf of Shame. I'm really happy w/ this project and am looking forward to using these techniques on other projects I have coming up.

@ graven- I've been working on a couple other build projects concurrent with the Bastion and my opinion is unchanged, even with brand new straight out of the box pieces. It's annoying, but a bit of work and perseverance has (so far) yielded worthwhile results. My table is looking progressively better with the completion of each new piece, and the shared similarities on each building (color scheme and detail) has really tied everything together. I've alluded to the 'fluff' behind the overall theme before, it might be time to write something up that gives a distinct definition to what I'm doing, and why. As for your phone crashing... not sure on that one. Perhaps a data transmission intercept by the Inquisition?

@ eldartau1987- Wow. 200 Bastions? I can completely understand why you hate them. I can't even imagine that. Congratulations on maintaining you sanity (be that as it may ) and interest in the hobby. Your story is a great example of why I would never consider doing this for a living, even if it was only supplemental. I'd go mad and wind up hating one of my true joys in life.

@ Styrofoam04- You've seen my other projects so you already know the majority of my 'successes' are due to dumb luck and fortunate happenstance. Someday I hope to produce INTENTIONAL results, but until then I'll be satisfied with the gifts bestowed upon me by the Dark Gods of Modeling.



Not an update (yet... one is coming this weekend though), this is a 'thank you'. You all keep me going. I'd be do this anyway, I don't need to be on Dakka, but it's nice to receive the compliments and attention from fellow gamers and modelers, most of whom I feel are far more accomplished than I am. That's not false humility, it is a genuine compliment to you all and great appreciation for your suggestions, points, and continued interest in my project.

I have 5 other projects in the background that I'll be sharing more of over the next couple weeks. Dakka time has been gutted again by work, but modeling time at home has increased enough to where I feel I'm moving ahead instead of stagnating. I'm really looking forward to sharing my latest efforts.

I'll be back w/ a LOT more to share. I'm dedicated to this project and I have nothing else on my radar except choking my table with so much awesomeness that there will hardly be room left for the armies.

You've put a lot of work into this project and it shows. Keep it up.

Aha! -I'm glad you're playing with it. Just get it wet, slop it on, and let the water/thinner evaporate, then you can do all sorts of manipulation with a dry brush. It doesn't look right until it's dry. Remember, nothing is binding it, when you're happy seal it. Or just use it dry. Try the white powder over one of your bulkheads or other already painted bitz.