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Rather brutalistic tower, I like the rounded corners. Might be at home in Gotham.

Trench dug out looks awesome as well

Good you see your finding a use for the bits .

BTW very impressed with how the Blade runner cop car turned out, very nice!

Thanks again, StarDrop.

Thanks Graven. Here's the rest in place, the wiring in and the plant-life added. See what you think?

Theophony wrote: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.

Thanks Theo. Ha, maybe that'll be my secret weapon for when I eventually get around to making a full gaming table and playing a game on it; distract the opposition with details.

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

Well it was intended to be an unused sandbag, rather than a bedroll, but one man's sandbag is another's bedroll .

And all trenches have mugs, although what they contain may not always be tea or coffee...
For example (relevant part starts at 1:45, but it's worth watching the rest anyway):




The trench has also had some plant-life added and I'm in the process of deepening the mud inside the trench (and hopefully giving it a waterlogged look...):

OneManNoodles wrote:Rather brutalistic tower, I like the rounded corners. Might be at home in Gotham.

Trench dug out looks awesome as well

Good you see your finding a use for the bits .

BTW very impressed with how the Blade runner cop car turned out, very nice!

Thank you, Thank you, and Thank you.
Rounded corners came about from the way I was layering on the card, but I liked the way they were going so stuck with it.

I've been trying to find any and all excuses to make use of your bits (oo matron ), and these are the first of many such occasions.

Onece again superb attention to detail: great job on the tower cabling and the mug in the trench!

Damn how have I missed this that tower is one piece of creation, love the Art Deco vibe very Gotham.

Love the way you add the little details to bring it to life, the bed roll and bottles really add to the feeling of life.

The Fox hole/ gun placement is brilliant love the sand bags totally stealing that idea the sense of destruction and and battle comes through perfectly I think all will be happy with there winnings I know I would be

Littletower wrote:Onece again superb attention to detail: great job on the tower cabling and the mug in the trench!

Thanks LT.

lone dirty dog wrote:Damn how have I missed this

I don't know, it's not as if I don't have it in my Sig' for all to see. Although this thread is not as prominent as my "main" blog. At some point I may rectify this.

that tower is one piece of creation, love the Art Deco vibe very Gotham.

Love the way you add the little details to bring it to life, the bed roll and bottles really add to the feeling of life.

The Fox hole/ gun placement is brilliant love the sand bags totally stealing that idea the sense of destruction and and battle comes through perfectly I think all will be happy with there winnings I know I would be

Thanks.
Steal away, this is why I share these things.

I aim to please, and hope that the recipients are pleased when they receive them.

Which should be one step closer, as I've run out of things to add to them.
I'll be priming them tomorrow to see how they look and to check them for any issues before starting the painting.
There's still time to make changes though, so shout out (especially Graven and Magos) if you see an issue.

And as I mentioned when I started these, they are prizes for the LoER terrain contest round that I ran a while ago. The current round of the contest is still under way and has 3 weeks left to run. Please go and check it out, leave comments, join in, build something (big or small), fabulous prizes to be won. Link also in my Sig'.

Looking great!! No comments from me for any changes etc.... pretty much exactly as I had thought and hoped it might look like! I always get exited when a model gets its first coat of primer.... just really beings the whole design together for me!

The trench really does looked water logged. Did you use a resin water effect for that, or just PVA glue?

All is good. I like the trench better. It could tell an interesting story, moreso than the tower. The trench has a certain unity of design to it.

MagosBiff90 wrote:Looking great!! No comments from me for any changes etc.... pretty much exactly as I had thought and hoped it might look like! I always get exited when a model gets its first coat of primer.... just really beings the whole design together for me!

Good good. All (nearly) the same colour below.

hk1x1 wrote:The trench really does looked water logged. Did you use a resin water effect for that, or just PVA glue?

It looks a bit less water logged now, but should be fine once I've finished with it. Just PVA and my usual basing material (dried paint).

Red Harvest wrote:All is good. I like the trench better. It could tell an interesting story, moreso than the tower. The trench has a certain unity of design to it.

Thanks Red. That's the difference between a set piece diorama and a piece of gaming terrain; certain concessions need to be made to make space for models. However, more "life" will be given to the tower (and the trench too) when I get to painting it.

And so, I had the air brush out today and made both pieces grey:





Had a few issues with the airbrush spraying towards the end; Intermittent paint flow seemingly independent of the trigger position.
I think after a while the seals swell due to the white spirit and it affects how the brush works.
I've stripped it and sprayed some water though it, so will see how it behaves tomorrow. Either way it's a sign that I should resume my search for a better quality airbrush.

These will become black tomorrow, and then the painting can start proper...

Blown away by this. It's really forcing me to get a move on with my minis for it - I want them done and ready to go when it comes! The detailing is just superb.

That's really amazing. Every update just impresses me to no end.

Amazing work. Love the vents/slats up top. That tower is quite impressive.

Nice art in the background.

inmygravenimage wrote:Blown away by this. It's really forcing me to get a move on with my minis for it - I want them done and ready to go when it comes! The detailing is just superb.

You seem to be getting through the mini's pretty quick, unless you have a load we haven't seen yet you'll be done before me.
I'm just aiming to finish this before your round of the contest finishes...
Which people can find via the link in my Sig'; LoER Terrain Contest. Go and check it out.

I'm glad you are pleased with it. Some thoughts below...

Gitsplitta wrote:That's really amazing. Every update just impresses me to no end.

Thanks, Gits'. That's good to hear.

MagosBiff90 wrote:

Thanks Magos. Some thoughts for you below also...

Stormwall wrote:Amazing work. Love the vents/slats up top. That tower is quite impressive.

Thanks Stormwall.

Nice art in the background.

It's not always hot/scantily-clad ladies, but they do form quite a large percentage of the pictures I use.

Today, I have made both pieces black. The airbrush worked fine for 5 minutes and then started playing up again, so the rest of the work will be by hairy brush as I have no control of the airbrushes' flow rate.

Therefore thought have turned to how these two will be painted...

The Trench:
Magos asked for muddy, and muddy there will be.
The sandbags will be sandbag colour.
The wood, I'm thinking, will be of a lighter tone (to give some contrast with the mud), but will be old, dirty and discoloured.
The junk will have a selection of colours from clean to rusty metals, I've made sure to include a selection of materials in there to give some variety and that will be picked up with the painting.
The gun will be gun coloured.
The tin mug can be any colour you like.

The Tower:
Graven wants the stonework to look like ...well this (big pic'):

I think the inside stone should match that also (as it's very likely the same stone). One question though; Should the bottom section match the bricks, or contrast?
I'm currently thinking that the lower section should be all "black" like the darker section of the photo (the angled parts), so will match, but will contrast with the multi-coloured brickwork.
The gaps in the lower section would then be black in contrast to the sand coloured mortar of the bricks (I'm currently experimenting with the paints to use for the mortar as that seems to be the first thing to do).
The broken edges of the walls would be fresher, yellow, sandstone. But this may need toning down a bit so it doesn't jump out on the model.
The vents can be verdigris green as the roof in the photo above.
The wood inside I'm in two minds for; either old and dirty (to look really decrepit and unloved) or an expensive-looking red mahogany type (to show that money was once spent on this tower), that will still be old and dirty though..Basically, the underside of this table:

Or, the top of this bench:

It may depend on if that works with the "yellow" sandstone... Will have to see.
Bell will be bell coloured.
Rubble will match the walls in one way or another.
Mud will be mud coloured.
Plants, plant coloured.
Then a touch of graffiti.
The inside will be dark "shadowed", probably lighter about the windows and broken side, except for the ground floor that has the working light and will get some OSL of some description.

Sorry to hear about AB troubles, hope it's fixable.

Always a joy to be walked through your thought process.

Old, untended wood for me, greyish brown with a green under tint. Though the red mahogany could give a nice contrast... Not too helpful...

I think you're right, the lower section should be darker. I'm pro old greyish wood, personally. Also, I've still got all my streetlights, crates and barricades to do (and then there's the cryo-vault) - the aim is to have a fully playable table, a hero crew and a villain crew!

Littletower wrote:Sorry to hear about AB troubles, hope it's fixable.

It was expected. It's a cheap AB that came with the compressor, and I knew that the seals would be attacked by the solvent. I could buy new seals, or extra seals and swap them over regularly, but as this is the 3rd time using it that's going to get old very quickly. I'm looking at getting a decent AB that is designed for use with my paints (this was the plan all along, I just thought I'd give this one a go and see how it went). It's just a matter of finding a good deal as I'd rather not spend over £100 on an AB if I can help it... I've spent more than I've sold recently.

Always a joy to be walked through your thought process.

Old, untended wood for me, greyish brown with a green under tint. Though the red mahogany could give a nice contrast... Not too helpful...

Thanks. It's always nice to see the hows and whys to the things people do. My thoughts exactly on the wood, hence asking.

inmygravenimage wrote:I think you're right, the lower section should be darker. I'm pro old greyish wood, personally. Also, I've still got all my streetlights, crates and barricades to do (and then there's the cryo-vault) - the aim is to have a fully playable table, a hero crew and a villain crew!

Good good. Will work in that direction then.

And on that note:
Just to show that things are happening... I'm still playing about with the paint, this is not the final effect... or even near it really...


This is the base colours blocked in for the brick section. They now need to be made to look like bricks and get some shading and weathering etc. Some areas will get darker.
I did fill all the grooves between the bricks with a light sand colour (as per the reference for mortar), but you can probably tell that it doesn't show; that's not the photo, I can't see it IRL either. The gaps I have here are a bit too thin for the light colour to show up, so I may have to go with dark mortar. But will try again first.

Also, you will see that I've started on the wood:

I'm attempting shading it for the position of light sources. This is also still in progress.

And because I was painting wood...

Doesn't look much lighter than my usual wood, but it is in person and will look better once I've done the mud to contrast with it. More to do still...

These (the wood and brickwork) should be the hardest, and therefore slowest, parts of the painting. Once I find the effect I'm after these should fly along (relatively).

Not only does it look superb, you can really see the lighter grouting. Excellent stuff indeed.

Ah, maybe I've been staring at it too long then. It'll get better (in spite of you liking it so far) in time.

Thanks.

Beautiful work Dr. H.

And because I was painting wood...

Doesn't look much lighter than my usual wood, but it is in person and will look better once I've done the mud to contrast with it. More to do still...

These (the wood and brickwork) should be the hardest, and therefore slowest, parts of the painting. Once I find the effect I'm after these should fly along (relatively).

Actually, it looks pretty real. Wood that has been soaked in water and then dried on scorching Sun, over and over again and again, with lovely little xenos bacteria and algae forming within the recesses of wood planks...

Awesome! Those look sooo cool! Honestly cannot wait to have this with the rest of my pieces... the wood effect is lovely!

Paint work is bringing that to life

If I saw these in real life in a display cabinet i would stare at it for ages. They will make great prizes.

Thanks Gits'.

Thanks StarDrop, the trick with wood (like rust) is to build up multiple tones and colours. See below for wood progress.

Thanks Magos. More work on the wood below.

Thanks Shas.

and Thanks Weety. That's the hope.

Not had a lot of time to work on these the past few days, but I now have the wood up to the required standard.

This will get some more staining and splashes of mud and rust as it progresses.
Mud next.


Now I need to bring the bricks up to the same standard...

...that's if I don't suffer heat-stroke or am eaten by horny spiders first...

 Dr H wrote:
...that's if I don't suffer heat-stroke or am eaten by horny spiders first...

C'mon, what kind of a Object Source Lightning user are you, when you can't handle a horny spider?

I can hear the shells screaming overhead as I look at these!

I've heard the horny giant spider scourge Is a Worry!

Thanks Shas.

StarDrop, the way I paint will not save me from the giant love-struck spiders.

Not to worry, Graven, I have a pair of ninja vibrating spider sentries in my room, although the largest of them is nothing compared to the 4 inch horny spider we found yesterday.

Although it is such a worry that it's in the news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34026269

Anyway, not seen any today.

And I've made progress on the bricks that I'm happy to show:

I re-did the mortar lines with a pin-wash of light stone, and I've just finished adding the light wear pattern to the bricks.

Next is the dark deposits on the bricks.

Damn, but that looks amazing. I am a very happy customer indeed!