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That's really impressive my friend. I doff my cap to your building genius!

Nice tower. Joint Compound-- related to and may actually be spackle-- has some additives to it that make it less brittle and more flexible. I would recommend it over plaster for future projects. But the better solution is to cut strips of cardstock and glue then over the edges.

Next time, really do try using foamcore-- yes, you'd be finished by now , but peel the paper off one side and 'carve' the details into it. I've seen this done to really good, and quick and easy, effect. The pores of the foam make for a good 'stone' texture. Or 'brick' or even 'concrete'.

Love the spinner. Very cool.

Theo: Not currently thinking of how I will paint it. But I have had scheme instructions from Graven as to how he wants it to look.

inmygravenimage wrote:That looks immense! And I like the figure towering over it

Thanks Graven. Ha, that was my computer's wallpaper at the time (it changes every 15 mins). This is the picture if you'd like a better look:


Thanks hk, setting a scene is the aim with the trench. There will be many "lived in" details before the end.

MagosBiff90 wrote:Wow.... both pieces looking really awesome... very much enjoying the damaged section... and the beam across the top really gives that "trench / foxhole" feel!

Good to hear you like it. I've tried to add a range of different materials in this pile (unlike my junk pile that was mostly rusty metal), so it should look visually interesting once painted.
Although, I did specifically add the cog just so I could do this again:


Thanks Gits'.
I'm channelling Red Harvest with this card building building.

And speaking of Red... Thanks. I'll keep a look out for it, for when I start building terrain in larger numbers.
The insides of the windows are going to get card inserts to give them clean edges.
I couldn't use card for the wall edges as I had plans to rough them up (see below) so needed something carve-able.
I'll also look at getting foamcore for when I build terrain in the future.

Red Harvest wrote:Love the spinner. Very cool.

Thanks.

This is how I'm planning on having the cross beam (still not attached) and then many sandbags across the top of that. Also see the insert as a test for sandbag texture.
I've also started the gun mount and thinking about the gun...


And the tower now has bricks and damaged edges, and window sills:

and for those of you interested in the wallpaper this time it's a picture of an apparently nameless girl (no clues from the picture), so here's a picture of Louise instead:

Having heard this alot in my old line of work, I must steal a commonly heard phrase and say with that base your attention to detail is outstanding.

Just wonderful, and don't channel Red Harvest too much, he still has a large table of shame himself to finish. (*Cough* I can't speak, I have one too... )

Only one table????what is this madness? I have a whole basement of shame....and a one car garage of stuff so shameful it's not allowed in the basement

 Theophony wrote:
Only one table????what is this madness? I have a whole basement of shame....and a one car garage of stuff so shameful it's not allowed in the basement

I have a bookshelf of shame. I'm not sure where this leaves me. I always laughed at people who had too much plastic to paint.

Now, I have that issue and I still have things to buy, wtf!!!

Oh, yeah, table of shame. Y'know shaming people for a table of shame is not nice. Y'all are supposed to encourage the shamed one to work on clearing the table. Sadly, I think I have added more to the table than I have taken off this year-- but there are still 5 full months before Year's End. I can do it.

Then there is the Shelf of Shame. Where the minis sit in judgement. But I have been clearing that, mini by mini. Having a Spreadsheet O' Shame is helping.

Masamune Shirow, eh? As an Infinity player, I am quite familiar with that name. That is a fairly tame image from him though.

I am curious to see what those windows will end up like. Windows always drive me nuts. ( So I use Linux. )

Another useful filler is your basic yellow wood filler, the pre-mixed stuff. Not as messy as the plaster of spackle.

Looking good mate... and so's the building

Stormwall wrote:Having heard this alot in my old line of work, I must steal a commonly heard phrase and say with that base your attention to detail is outstanding...

I'm only just getting going on the details. Thanks.

As for areas of shame, I don't go in for that. For one, I don't have space for a collection of part-built models (I barely have space for the finished models as it is). And I don't like to leave a job half finished; if I start something, I'll keep working on that until it's finished.

That said, I do have the example hut (balanced on top of my putty-working things, which are balanced on my paint-stripping tubs - I said I had limited space...) that is part-built. Other than that, the only thing that is "part done" is a bagged space marine waiting to become an objective marker. Everything else is either finished or in potentia.

Red Harvest wrote:Oh, yeah, table of shame. Y'know shaming people for a table of shame is not nice. Y'all are supposed to encourage the shamed one to work on clearing the table. Sadly, I think I have added more to the table than I have taken off this year-- but there are still 5 full months before Year's End. I can do it.

Then there is the Shelf of Shame. Where the minis sit in judgement. But I have been clearing that, mini by mini. Having a Spreadsheet O' Shame is helping.

You go, Red. You can do it.

Masamune Shirow, eh? As an Infinity player, I am quite familiar with that name. That is a fairly tame image from him though.

I'm a fan of Masamune's artwork as evidenced by my chosen avatar. But yes, that is one of his more tame pictures. ... Hopefully you are all forming a healthy image of my taste in art after this and the Giger work previously...

I am curious to see what those windows will end up like. Windows always drive me nuts. ( So I use Linux. )

Another useful filler is your basic yellow wood filler, the pre-mixed stuff. Not as messy as the plaster of spackle.

Ho Ho, windows See below, card inserts and a little putty filler.
I'll look out for that also.

inmygravenimage wrote:Looking good mate... and so's the building

Thanks.
I've now tidied up the inside of the tower; nothing too obvious, but necessary. And the windows have had card inserted and the inside sills done (and gaps filled).

This now concludes the basic structure building and now I can move on to the details. Meaning that it's time to attach it to a base and work up from there.

As I'm not used to building gaming terrain, I will ask is this too much of a lip for a base? Bare in mind it will get basing materials on top of that.
I can take out the roughness of the underside, but that's not going to make it much lower and will just be for neatness sake.
Scale terminator seems quite happy there, and I struggle to see how it could be made much thinner without being prone to damage.
Thoughts (especially from Mr Graven) welcome?

Also, a bell tower is not a bell tower without a bell (old Christmas deco's for the win). That will be part buried in the rubble at the base.


And for the trench piece, what do you think of this for the gun?

In an unusual move for me, I've left it removable to make painting easier. I may however, leave it removable should Magos want to have the trench with and without gun for ease of viewing?

Also, another concept for sandbags:

Need a bit of work. These are bits of plaster wrapped in Zinc oxide tape (not much use to any of you that haven't done any climbing, I know, but...).
I may do the final versions with fresh putty so that I can mould them to the shape of the trench so that they look heavy and not like cushions.

Thoughts?

Yay bell! I think that lip is perfectly reasonable. My lampposts are on lipped bases for the game, after all, you have to have stability for stuff. Lovely sandbags, btw.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Yay bell! I think that lip is perfectly reasonable. My lampposts are on lipped bases for the game, after all, you have to have stability for stuff. Lovely sandbags, btw.

Good good. I have tidied up how it sits on a surface and will address any other issues once basing has begun.

Before basing (and rubble pile) can happen, I needed to start the lower platform and stairs as the rubble will interact with them.
Scale shot (with a 25mm base) to show that models can pause at that level.
And construction of the stairs up to it. Gone for narrow, rickety stairs as the models will just "jump" past them.
Steps don't go all the way to the ground as they will be covered up to that height with rubble.
I put the box in the corner as models won't be able to get in there, so needed to fill it up with something.

I had to give that corner a splash of black paint as you could just about see into it and I wouldn't be able to paint it once the steps went in. The post that you can still see has had some brown as well.

I'm thinking a ladder up the wall to the first floor from here (about 70mm)?

As for the trench, I was happy enough with the sandbag test that I went ahead with them using milliput so that I could mould them to shape. Hope you like it Magos?

There's the final little details still to do, so any feedback is good at this stage.

Those do look good!

Excellent indeed! Ladder sounds about right. Love the trenchwork too, btw.

Those sandbags look really good, so much better than making them from green stuff.
I might have to give those a try myself

Thanks Shas.

inmygravenimage wrote:Excellent indeed! Ladder sounds about right.

Good to hear, Graven.
This is ladder mark II;

Ladder mark I was made of "wood" but turned out far too chunky and made the (intentionally small) stairs look too small a scale.
Mark II will be metal to add another material so it doesn't all look a bit too much like wood interiors-R-us.
Yay or Nay?

Also you can see the rubble pile. I left the top of the pile able for a model to stand on it, but hopefully it doesn't look it.

Love the trenchwork too, btw.

Thanks.

hk1x1 wrote:Those sandbags look really good, so much better than making them from green stuff.
I might have to give those a try myself

Thanks hk. When people say that, you know you're on the right track.

Next, I'm going to start the 1st floor (and probably do the 2nd floor at the same time).

Sand bags are a piece of work!

Thanks StarDrop.

What have I got to show you today, I hear you all cry... no, just me... oh well, I have something to show anyway; Floors!.

In the picture below you can see, from top to bottom (and ironically from the bottom of the tower to the top);
The first floor, with a hole for the ladder, a hole for the bell's rope and a comic-inspired bell-shaped hole (let me know, Graven, if that's a bit too Loony Toons rather than Batman )

Next to that is a photo that shows the space available and that the first floor can support the weight of 2 plastic models (not a lot admittedly), even though it's not glued in or had it's support beams added yet.

Then, I added the remnants of stairs from the first floor to the 2nd floor, as requested.

And at the bottom a photo to show the underside structure.


Thoughts?

That looks stunning mate - I'm desperate to get playing on/with this! Ladder fab and excellent arrangement of space on the floors. Not at all obvious that that's a practical rubble pile, which I heartily approve of also :thumbusp:

Wow wow wow! Looks cracking mate! Really cool! Great details! And I think that gun is awesome!! love the bell tower too! The bell is a great addition!

I must learn the secret to your sandbags!

I love how the floors look like they've been damaged by the bell, as it fell through the tower. You've put thought into how the building would of collapsed, and what damage would of been caused in the process.
A lot of people don't do this when their making ruins, and it really makes a difference, well done. .

inmygravenimage wrote:That looks stunning mate - I'm desperate to get playing on/with this!

Good to hear. Not long now (for relative values of "long"), just the detail at the top of the wall to do and then basing and little details throughout, before paint.

Ladder fab and excellent arrangement of space on the floors. Not at all obvious that that's a practical rubble pile, which I heartily approve of also :thumbusp:

Glad you are liking it all.
The floors now have their support struts and to test their strength I placed 5 metal mini's on them.

That should do you. The floors are not even glued on yet (left off for painting).

and to prove the practical rubble:


And I've done the "vents" (slats, whatever they are) at the top of the tower.


So, as I said, it's just the detail at the top of the tower's wall, the basing (how green do you want it, that is plantlife-wise?), and the scattering of little details, to do.

MagosBiff90 wrote:Wow wow wow! Looks cracking mate! Really cool! Great details! And I think that gun is awesome!! love the bell tower too! The bell is a great addition!

I must learn the secret to your sandbags!

Great to hear you are pleased with it. Your's is nearly done, just the little details and painting to do. Hope you don't mind waiting for Graven's to catch up and then I'll paint both together.

Glad you like the sandbags. I'll throw in some of my tape when I post the trench so that you can have a play.

hk1x1 wrote:I love how the floors look like they've been damaged by the bell, as it fell through the tower. You've put thought into how the building would of collapsed, and what damage would of been caused in the process.
A lot of people don't do this when their making ruins, and it really makes a difference, well done. .

Thanks hk. Yeah, I always have to rationalise every detail in my models; no detail for detail's sake, it all has to have a reason. It's a blessing and a curse.

Easiest way to detail a building is to ask yourself, if the building were real...? And construct accordingly

The vents are excellent, and flooring looks substantial. Going to have to try swamp thing on there (weighs about the same as a metal dreadnought)! As for greenery, dark side of verdant please mate.

Red Harvest wrote:Easiest way to detail a building is to ask yourself, if the building were real...? And construct accordingly

And the same can be said of any model.

inmygravenimage wrote:The vents are excellent, and flooring looks substantial. Going to have to try swamp thing on there (weighs about the same as a metal dreadnought)!

Cool. Glad you like them.
I don't know how much a metal dreadnought weighs either, but I'm pretty sure that anything heavy enough to break the floors away from the tower (baring in mind the supports are glued and pinned to the walls) will bend the plastic of the floors first depositing the offending item "safely" away from the tower.
In short, I'm pretty sure they can take a lot more than the 5 figures above.

As for greenery, dark side of verdant please mate.

But how much?
Looking at your wall sections I'm seeing muddy ground and some leafy creepers. So I can do my usual mud 'n' rocks basing, with a few patches of grass, and then a creeper-like plant up one of the walls?

As for today's progress;
Mainly "invisible" work: filling some gaps, tidying some edges, covering the base and levelling the floors.
And to show the relative height of the floors;

10cm as requested, between 1st and 2nd floors.
The first floor is about 8cm above the rubble pile.

However, I did also add some detail to the top of tower to indicate that it once was more interesting towards the top of the original structure. Kept is reasonably simple in the end.

This time being overlooked by Alicia Silverstone.

Next up, in addition to finishing the basing, is the little details.
This will mostly be a scattering of rubbish, bottles and things and just some general debris from the collapse.
I'm also thinking a sleeping bag etc on the 2nd floor and a light on the walls of the ground and 1st floors (one of which will be inoperative, possibly the 1st floor).

Magos, I'm also collecting together little details to finish your trench off too.

Looking really nice, there is a real "Art Deco" Gotham feel coming from the tower...

EEEkkkk.... looking forward to the finished trench piece!!

Gives me vertigo just looking at it.

MagosBiff90 wrote:Looking really nice, there is a real "Art Deco" Gotham feel coming from the tower...

Thanks. That was the aim. I had to do quite a bit of research into what "Deco" was at first, so I'm glad it comes across in the piece.

EEEkkkk.... looking forward to the finished trench piece!!

Here you go, Magos. Provisionally done (short of some plant-life). Let me know if you think it needs anything else.
You will see an added ammo' box next to the gun, and a spare pistol, some grenades, a little electrical box (maybe a radio), notebook and pencil, and a mug:

weetyskemian44 wrote:Gives me vertigo just looking at it.

Sorry, here's some photo's that'll help with that...

Note to self, I'm definitely going to have to do some final shots with lighting though the windows.

And some progress on tower details;
debris, a cardboard box bedding and rolled-up sheet (and some bottles to scatter about once I decide on where the "bed" is going, and the lights (these will get wires soon).


The bottles, lights and the radio in the trench are all from OMN. Give him a shout if you like the look of them.

This is coming along super-awesome.

It's truly magnificent. The scatter just adds to the super awesome. One relatively small section of Creeper will be fine, thanks. (apologies for brevity - on phone) omn 's bits look fab too.

That tower is amazing , so much detail that I would loose every game played on that table as I stare at it and forget to do so many other actions. The vents are a great touch to the upper level windows.

And that has to be the compfiest trench dugout ever , a bedroll AND refreshments