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the additional crater will make everything way more convincing...!

and niice suply drop !
gotta love those floor tiles!

and

The door will have a couple rust spots, but it will endure the elements and the passage of time much more readily than the rest of the building.

i was hoping for just that!

Looking forward to seeing your detail work on this! What I like about your updates is you can really track every stage of the process.

@ Vik- Well... you know how things change? Yeah. Keep reading.

@ graven- Glad to know my mini-updates aren't lame. Stay tuned, more coming!



Another 'almost nothing has changed but I'm posting pictures anyway' update. I am really excited at the modeling possibilities my new tread plates are offering. For what my opinion matters, anyone that builds terrain should try these at least once. They have completely changed how I look at my Imperial Sector ruins, and as I continue w/ this project I'm certain they will have applications I haven't even considered yet.

Last night I had a chance to do some work and after drawing out the base for the extra crater I realized that it wouldn't fit properly where I store my finished terrain. So I'm doing this instead:





Likely going to use this old plastic sheet of craters that GW sold back in the day. Waaaay back. Briancj should recognize this.



I decided to not use the ruins on the front like I had in the prev pictures, it's from a Manufactorium ruin.



And a couple shots of treadplate tiles on the Manufactorium I'll be working on soon:





Hey... I just realized this... the panels are the exact same size as the IS panels... I could use these for walkways as well as floors! The ideas keep coming.

This is the most fun I've had doing a terrain project in a long time. Pre-fab materials RULE! Whooo!

More coming as soon as I have somehting to share.

Like where you're going with both pieces. No issues with the mini-updates here, the process is a very interesting state to consider. Watching how others shape and change their ideas is always fascinating to dedicated modellers.

Blast from the past with the vac-formed crater sheet

if you use those floor tiles... then i suggest you ruining two at least to look all torn and stuf...

the vacuum formed craters look very cool... will you cut them up to have multiple craters on many terrain pieces? probably!


*keeping on reading *

Dude! You should make a press-mold of one or two of those! Thay would look badass spammed all over a city board! A few will look like a small accident!

@ monkeytroll- I'm glad the glimpses into my particular brand of modeling madness are interesting. I get what you are saying, I really enjoy seeing the process as much as (if not more than sometimes) then end result. Ash1 is a great example of amazing 'end result' (I love his work) but no real WIP information.

@ Vik- That's exactly what I'm going to do. Bits of the treadplae jutting out of a crater mound, rocks / etc spread out randomly over the treadplate that survived, etc. I'll be pretty awesome when it is done. Promise. And as for multiple craters....

@ Dave- Oh man you know it. The reason I still have that sheet is for YEARS (like since ... 1996?) I've been meaning to mold the entire sheet. And that exactly what I'm going to do. I have no idea how to use / make a press mold, but I do know how to use that 'brush on' stuff. I'm finally motivated enough to do it, and the work I put into it will be paid back over and over again instead of making individual craters every time. Gaaahh. That just gave me a headache just thinking about.

Not likely that I'll have another update before Monday / Tuesday. I'm going to be flat out this weekend doing pre-winter stuff. Early to bed tonight because I have some friends helping me w/ firewood tomorrow, starting @ 7am and working until we get tired, drunk, or it's dark outside. I'm guessing 'dark outside' because no one is going to be the first person to say "I'm done" and 3 of the 4 people working are prior military. Ha. By the end of the day I hope to have at least 2 full seasons in the back yard, if not 3. A lot of work in one day, but much like making a mold for the craters, it's an effort that I'll be able to enjoy for a long time to come. However, that means tomorrow night I'll be going to bed around... oh, maybe 7? Sunday I'm heading to my FLGS and picking up the new Chaos Codex!!!!! I won't be home for many hrs after that though because it's a 'responsible adult' day out (groceries, etc) and I'll likely still be beat from Saturday.

Thanks for the views / comments. Always appreciate feedback. More coming, you can bet on that.

Promise

taken!

and keep all your limbs during that hard work!

Looking really nice and also very inspiring.

I remember when those plastic craters came out.....now I feel old lol

Some really high quality work going on here. I like the work with rust and the use of weathering on the building in the most recent pic is very cool. Looks like its had a bad time on a rainy planet.

What plates are those that you are using for the floors, cant seem to find the spot where you posted about them.

I like your use of the treadplates as floors. Not enough folk pay attention to floors on buildings.

Bravo buddy. Love the titles for flooring it's a great touch. I am, as usual jealous of the progress your making and look forward to seeing more.

The crater in the building is always fun. Are you going to fill it with water effects or is it fresh?
When ever I think about craters I love the feel of older ones that have been filled with muck and mud and whatever else makes it's way in.
Anyway top notch as always and keep up the great work and pace!

@ Vik- Yes sir. Fingers are surprisingly important in this hobby.

@ GiraffeX- Thank you, I'm really digging this project and I'm always happy to know that I'm spreading the inspiration. A few of these ideas are organically my own, but most I've gleaned from others. Sooner or later I'm going to amass another list of those who have inspired me and who's work I genuinely respect and appreciate. Most of the credit for my terrain goes to them. I'm just the guy w/ the paintbrush and hobby knife. They were the inspiration that made it happen. And as for the plastic crater sheet... I prefer to call it 'experienced'.

@ mekbadzappa- Hey, thanks for the compliments. My goal is to make the entire table look exactly like that- abused, abandoned, and completely miserable. The 'fluffy' idea behind it has really started to come together. I'm envisioning a PDF outpost on an Imperial planet well within the safe confines of Segmentum Pacificus. Planetary law mandates that all citizens must serve in the Imperial Guard, but it does not mandate that all Guardsmen be deployed. This particular outpost was designed for the sons and daughters of the the Elite Class to fulfill their Imperial commitment without the unnecessary exposure to hostile engagement. All was well until the Night of a Thousand Rebellions. Now the outpost is in ruins and only the scattered rubble stands as a monument to those who died here. It's former glory is still visible in some places, but in most it is a mere echo lost in time and space.

@ inmygravenimage- The floors are actually to resolve a ruling issue we've had here before. With no base there was an occasional discussion on how we determined what was 'ruins' and what wasn't, and TLOS came into that as well. Now there won't be any question at all of what is what. But yes, I could have gone the lame way and just slapped it directly to the hardboard and called it good enough. I'm really glad I decided to put some effort into it. I really feel that this is some of the best stuff I've done. Now all I have to do it maintain or exceed this level. Yeah. No problem.

@ marty- Glad to see you back around. Hope you saw the influence you've had on some of these pieces. Your work w/ Pegasus Gothic and Imperial Cities of Death has always fascinated me, and now I'm finally giving it a try. With any luck I'll be the lucky owner of a brand new Imperial Sector box set soon. In fact I need to call GW tomorrow and find out what is going on. I'm supposed to have a $60 credit for stuff my aunt sent back to them after she bought Orks for my b-day. Ha. At least she tried, which is more than I can say for anyone else in my family. Anyway, yeah, i have that going on and I'm pretty psyched. I'm also really looking forward to pulling out my Gothic plates and seeing how I want them to go. I've considered making one massive piece but I know it wouldn't get a lot of table time so I'm likely going to go with smaller base footprints and multiple stories. I could make quite a few of those, and I think they match up w/ the GW IS pretty well. We'll see in the coming months. The craters will have to be more mud / mud puddle than pooled icky slime because I want it to be just a regular plain 'ol bombed out building. Difficult Terrain, 4+ Cover Save, that's it. I specifically don't want it turning into 'mystery terrain'. I'll make it as old and mucky as possible.



Ok, short update again tonight, but a pretty cool one. This is going to apply to many future projects as well as the one I have in mind currently. Tonight I finally cut a crater out of my last sheet.

I cut this part out with a very dull hobby knife. Why... WHY do I wait months of use to change blades? Far and beyond dull, I usually only change them after thay have broken off in the chuck. I have at least 5 or 6 packs of xacto blades that I haven't even opened yet, some of them from years ago. How many times have I posted "duh, cut myself again"?

...

So yeah, here's the end result of the hobby knife cutout:



I was so dreading the next part- trimming the excess plastic away from the detail of the crater. I knew it was going to be an annoying process that would take forever and yield substandard results. Just as I was resigning myself to wallowing in Wargame Modeling despair I had an absolute flash of brilliance!!! I decided to use my Wonder Cutter that I usually use on pinkboard insulation. It worked amazingly well and took about 3 minutes. I took a file around the edges to smooth it out more, but I am *really* happy how this came out. Horray for technology!!!



Next pic is of the last time I'll ever use a brush-on mold maker. It's not terrible, but I know there are better ways of doing this and I've gained enough experience with things to know I could do casting with a bit of practice. My next mold will be one of those cool ones with Lego blocks and everything. But for now here's crater mold #1 after a few coats. I used tinfoil only because I was out of wax paper and I'm getting mighty impatient these days and I figured the worst that could happen is I'd have a bad mold. On that note, the mold might look too thick but I was drying it w/ a hair dryer between coats. I figure I'll have the mold done in a few days. I'll pour plaster first, but my goal is to cast these in resin for durability over the years.



And that's it for this one. I'll be updating it when I can. As always, thanks for the views and for the C&C. I'll have more to share as soon as I have something done.

cut this part out with a very dull hobby knife. Why... WHY do I wait months of use to change blades? Far and beyond dull, I usually only change them after thay have broken off in the chuck. I have at least 5 or 6 packs of xacto blades that I haven't even opened yet, some of them from years ago. How many times have I posted "duh, cut myself again"?

the only person i know of to change constantly is dave... all the other guys tend to be as lazy as you in that regard... seriously... count me in on this as i even can underline this statement partcular...:

I usually only change them after thay have broken off in the chuck

LOL silly me^^

and what is a wonder cutter then? it worked like a charm tho

and what is that ugly mess on the last pic supposed to be? yucky^^

LOL..I don't understand why anyone would use a dull blade, it's harder to cut, more resistance, more jerky motions, more danger. To me it's lie driving with a flat tire, it'll only cost you more in the end

see... the master of them sharp knifes has spoken

and nice analogy...^^

It's weird Dave, but certainly true. I change my scalpel blade regularly, but for some reason the other blades have a horrible tendency towards the 'change when snapped' party

I dunno..losing a finger would sure put a damper on my hobby time.....

Terrain is still coming along nicely, Skalk!
I only saw one store in either Beijing or Shanghai that sold any Warhammer stuff. Believe me, even as drunk as I was, dumpster diving never crossed my mind. Nerd stuff seemed a little bit cheaper, but not enough to appeal to the average Chinese income. So all in all, just like the rest of the world. It was fun to see a store front crammed with Anime models, AoBR, an ork trukk and a big 40k window decal, though. Glad to be back state side, but had the time of my life over there. Now I just have to focus on unpacking my new place and I can FINALLY get back into painting and modelling.

@ Vik- that ugly mess is the start of my new crater mold. It'll be done in a few days once it has a few more coats and has completely cured. It's a bit of a process but the end result will be worth it. The Wonder Cutter is this:



Miniature provided to show scale.

@ Dave- I don't know either. It's not like I don't know better, or I don't have replacement blades. It's a mystery.

@ Monkeytroll- See? I'm not the only one. I'd offer that I'm in the majority. But so are stupid people. Hmm. I think I need to make a point of changing my blades more often.

@ Moltar- Welcome back! I was worried you'd be abducted and sold into the slave trade to make iPhones and whatnot. That's really cool to hear about the game shop there. You almost have to wonder how a GW product would sell there (maybe Tau? Ha!). Looking forward to you getting settled in and sharing your new work.



Another short update, but a decent one. Progress is skipping right along on the 'crater building'. Depending on how this one comes out I may make another, but no more than 2, I don't want to ruin the uniqueness of each individual piece.

I haven't had the chance to sit down and get the detail work done on the first building I started so I've been hammering away at the 'bulk work' on the 2nd building. This morning I sprayed the base, sprayed the tread plate floor, glued to the base, painted Tamiya Gun Metal, and light drybrush w/ a mix of Gunmetal and Flat Brown:





I glued the tread plates directly to the board on this one instead of on a sheet becasue there's already so much going on w/ overlap that this will be a lot easier and look better when it is done. You'll notice the circle that some of the plates overlap. This is where the crater will be, and I'm going to cut out the bits of tread plate where the crater will go w/ a Dremel tool and use the leftover bitz of tread plate as rubble around the crater. There will also be bitz that come off for the rubble overhang from the resin pieces I'm using for damaged walls. I may have to pick up another set of those actually. They make pretty handy fillers for my lack of actual wall pieces.

I think that's it but I'm at work and my mind is scattered, it's taken me hours to get this much typed out. Questions / comments welcomed.

thanks for the pic mate! what did you have to pay for that tool? if you still remember as i think this tool you have for quite some time now?

and the base looks promising! did you forgot about the torn plates or will the be done later and then added?

and... yes... moldmaking... understood

@ Vik- This is the exact one I have- http://www.benfranklin.com/item.php?id=MP-FA601/4/3&c=a&s1=Graphics+And+Cutting&s2=Miscellaneous+Cutters&s3=Styro+Cutter&gclid=CLD726nh9LICFQZnOgode1MAJA

There's others that are higher quality for sure, but I've had this one for 3 years now and no issues other than you absolutely *must* remove the batteries because the 'off' switch doesn't work.

As for the bits... yes.

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:You'll notice the circle that some of the plates overlap. This is where the crater will be, and I'm going to cut out the bits of tread plate where the crater will go w/ a Dremel tool and use the leftover bitz of tread plate as rubble around the crater. There will also be bitz that come off for the rubble overhang from the resin pieces I'm using for damaged walls.

.

I'm on it, trust me. Entire idea here is to make this look better.

oh boy... i need to find that here...endless possibilities... it´s dead cheap!!!

i trust you...tho asking never hurts

Next time I come up do remind be to bring my "Travel Kit" of tools would you?

@ Vik- Nope. Asking never hurts.

@ Galorn- Oh man that would be awesome! I'll swap you some stuff if you show me how you make those awesome molds. The technique I'm using right now is functional but it takes forever and is not what I would prefer.



Update on pending supply drop- I have an Imperial Sector box set enroute as of 4pm today. I am so psyched I can't hardly explain it. This will be my first ever opportunity to build my own stuff w/ my own vision instead of fixing the mess of someone else. eBay is awesome, but this is a treat indeed. Really looking forward to this.

A LOT!!!

"You almost have to wonder how a GW product would sell there (maybe Tau? Ha!)"

Given their dislike of the Japanese, the Tau probably are the least popular army over there. They seem to be into orks from what I saw. Which makes since, with their pseudo-mob mentality and lack of enforced laws.
Glad I didn't get abducted, but they seemed to be pretty intimidated by my beard. Excited to hear you're getting that imperial sector. No doubt you'll crank out some sweet stuff. Look forward to seeing your progress.

congratz for the upoming suply drop

All those bits - looking forward to whatever you come up with.

@ Moltar- Welcome home.

@ Vik- Thanks, and see below.

@ monkeytroll- More incredible awesomeness coming soon!



Text update. Nothing new going on, have been slammed at work and at home. Hope to change that soon. Getting a game in this weekend, will take pics.

And oh yeah... my Imperial Sector box arrived today.


*head asplode*

Awesome! I think that box set has the best sprue to value ratio in the entire GW line. Usually, GW swiftly corrects that sort of customer-friendly thing by either increasing the price or discontinuing the set.