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Dangerous terrain, or anyone moving into the hut takes a strength 2 hit with ap -.

Theo: I'd have thought that splinters would ignore armour as you know they have a way of working their way inside your clothes and shoes and waiting until you're at your most vulnerable and then jabbing you...

I have here the answer to the question that, literally, none of you asked...
How much shavings have been produced by this hut build?

About that much... and you can see in the background the piles of the bits that have been clipped from the longer pieces of sprue.

and I think I'm going to start teasing you all with small close-ups that don't show the whole model in order to not loose the impact of the final piece.

Starting with some of the plants.

Made from sprue of course...

Sprue flowers??? Do you also cater parties with the decorative fruit carvings? They look amazing, but will be a bugger to paint all those strands.

Sprue plants!? Dude that is insanely cool!

Theophony wrote:Sprue flowers??? Do you also cater parties with the decorative fruit carvings? They look amazing, but will be a bugger to paint all those strands.

Yeah, it could be very difficult to paint, but I'm hoping that if I throw paint at it in the right way It'll turn out ok and without major issues. Shouldn't be any harder than paintbrush-bristle grass...hopefully.

Casey's Law wrote:Sprue plants!? Dude that is insanely cool!

Thanks Casey. I've said before that there is many things that can be done with sprue.

I used this tutorial: http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/infopages/page350.html

Airbrushing the grass is the quickest and easiest way I can think of doing it effectively.

Yeah, airbrush for sure!

I absolutely agree that an airbrush would make it easy. I just don't have one...

Gathering to have a drink and contemplate the broken ladder...

You definitely need to take steps.......

Those sprue plants are looking great, I tried this once or twice in the past but never seemed to master the technique, maybe I'll give it another try...

Thanks Cam.

Thanks Ruglud.
Yeah, they are tricky to get right and unique (it very easy to end up with them all the same). I did occasionally chop off some "leaves" that i didn't intend to and some ended up in funny shapes, But those can be glued back on or re-shaped.

However, I decided not to try and get them perfect in the modelling as it probably won't show and the painting should hide any minor sins / make them look more like plants.

The flower heads were done as per the tutorial and then glued onto the stems and then the leaves (a few chips of sprue) were glued onto the stems to complete the look.

Well, I am inspired now to have another try and soon...

BTW, where did the bottles come from? Surely not more great sprue work??

 Ruglud wrote:
Well, I am inspired now to have another try and soon...

BTW, where did the bottles come from? Surely not more great sprue work??

Look forward to seeing what you do.

Yeah, you're right. The bottles are sprue as well.

Having made the ladder above (from sprue again, and the square stuff that is. No cheating and using the round sprue I have), I was going to mount it to the hut. But, I couldn't really think of a justification for why the hut maker would have rushed the build of the hut and then taken the care to mount a ladder to the (poorly attached) wood of the hut. So I decided to leave the ladder separate and that does mean that it can be moved around the hut for some variation in game.

However, I felt that the ladder should at least be stored some way and so I came to a compromise between the above two ideas and mounted a storage hook to the rear of the hut (riveted through to the other side of course).

Having completed that and then sanding all the rivets flat and then looking at the possible bench vice (and not really coming up with anything suitable), I took a step back and thought that to add much/any more to the hut would just be adding things for no major purpose and as this is supposed to be a playable piece of terrain I didn't want to add anything that would restrict movement in and around the hut (any more than I already have).

And so, I have started to throw paint about (and yes it's tricky getting to all the surfaces... ). Starting with a very dark brown to give the deep shadows/contrast.
For those keeping track this was a mixture of 33 (black = Chaos black) and a little 186 (Brown = Bestial Brown), quite heavily watered down to run into all the little cracks and grooves.

Thoughts, ideas, comments? Is there something that you really think is missing? If I find an area starts to look bare I may still add something extra before the end...

Looking good, really good.

I like the ladder hook, though I store my ladders horizontally IRL. (just a thought.)

Also needed a ladder to put roof on the hut so of course he has a nice ladder, probably left around by some lazy Imperial carpenter who left the wood lying around.

And I bow to your wisdom, stop before you go to far, Looks brilliant, needs nothing but paint.

 Camkierhi wrote:
Looking good, really good.

I like the ladder hook, though I store my ladders horizontally IRL. (just a thought.)

Also needed a ladder to put roof on the hut so of course he has a nice ladder, probably left around by some lazy Imperial carpenter who left the wood lying around.

And I bow to your wisdom, stop before you go to far, Looks brilliant, needs nothing but paint.

Thanks Cam.
Oh yeah, ladders are normally stored sideways Oh well if the builder had been a bright enough spark for that, he would have built a better hut...

I can always add things later, the table and bench are staying free for variation anyway, so other things can always take their place in the future.

It's a miniature sculpture! Brilliant!

Miniature gatORKade bottles , my ork bloodbowl team would steal that idea quickly. The ladder and ladder hook are great as well.

dsteingass wrote:It's a miniature sculpture! Brilliant!

Thanks Dave. Now for the tricky part, the painting...

Theophony wrote:Miniature gatORKade bottles , my ork bloodbowl team would steal that idea quickly. The ladder and ladder hook are great as well.

Thanks Theo.
The bottles were reasonably simple to do. Just shave your piece of sprue until it's almost cylindrical, then sand it like a madman with your chosen sandpaper while twisting the sprue back and forth (I found that holding two pieces of sandpaper, face to face, with the sprue in between worked well) until it's smooth and round. Then carve the neck at one end of the (now cylindrical) sprue, decide how tall you want your bottle and then chop it off and do the next bottle. A little tidying may be necessary before paint.

The ladder pieces were done the same only thinner and without the neck.

You need to change your name to Dr Sprue! I am still blown away at what you have done with the sprue left overs, those bottles are so well done and the plants!, the plants! from SPRUE! mind bogglingly good dude!

Great work , H! You are a master of sprue, enjoy painting it up!

nerdfest09 wrote:You need to change your name to Dr Sprue! I am still blown away at what you have done with the sprue left overs, those bottles are so well done and the plants!, the plants! from SPRUE! mind bogglingly good dude!

Thanks NF. I'm fairly sure almost anyone can do these things from sprue, just give it a go.
I hope I can do a mind bogglingly good paintjob like you do with your things...

Casey's Law wrote:Great work , H! You are a master of sprue, enjoy painting it up!

Thanks Casey. I'm sure I will once I get into it...

...but first...

...some colour tests.
These will need some changes for the final piece like; weathering, mud/dirt, mould, shading depending on position, and some as yet unknown techniques to make them look more realistic... So these are just colour ideas and there will probably be more before I start on the actual model...

From left to right (the paint translations were done in a round-the-houses kind of way and so may not be entirely accurate, if I use a "=" it means I found a match, if it's a "~" then I just picked the possible closest match. Apologies if these are the old colours, most of the names make no sense to me anyway I work in numbers):

1. Some kind of red wood (like mahogany, maybe);
Over the base colour the following were dry-brushed;
186(brown = Bestial Brown) + 60(Scarlet ~ Blood Red)
71(Satin Oak ~ Bleached Bone) + 60(Scarlet ~ Blood Red)
71(Satin Oak ~ Bleached Bone)
34(White = Skull White) Patchy to give variation to colour,
Wash with 33(Black = Chaos Black) Also patchy for variation.

2. A yellow-ish wood...
Over the base colour the following were dry-brushed;
63(Sand ~ Iyanden Darksun)
24(Trainer Yellow ~ Badmoon Yellow)
Wash with 33(Black = Chaos Black) Patchy.

3. Grey (honest, there's no blue involved), bleached wood, could do with being lighter.
Over the base colour the following were dry-brushed;
27(Sea Grey = Codex grey)
64(Light Grey ~ fortress Grey)
34(White = Skull White)
Wash with 33(Black = Chaos Black) patchy.

4. Driftwood type, old and moist... .
Over the base colour the following were dry-brushed;
83(Ochre = Camo Green)
71(Satin Oak ~ Bleached Bone)
Wash with 33(Black = Chaos Black) patchy.

5. What I would call "wood" coloured, more of a chocolate wood colour.
Over the base colour the following were dry-brushed;
186(brown=Bestial Brown)
71(Satin Oak~Bleached Bone)
34(White=Skull White) Patchy to give variation to colour,
Wash with 33(Black=Chaos Black) Also patchy for variation.

Good points, ideas, hints, tips, comments all welcome...

Personally I am with No.3, I said before Grey wood, and now it screams to me. You can go mossy or desserty, but grey sun bleached and weathered wood.

I think you'll find different boards can weather differently, so mixing and matching several colors at random wouldn't hurt.

3, 4 or 5 says I! Maybe a mixture if it feels natural.

for example:

I vote a mix of 3,5,1 in that order, 3 if only going to do one color.

I vote 1 with a mix of 2.

Thanks Guys.

Yeah, I am planning of the outside being partially/mostly bleached. But there are areas (not least of all, the inside) that don't get as much sun and so those will be more wood-y colours.

 dsteingass wrote:
I think you'll find different boards can weather differently, so mixing and matching several colors at random wouldn't hurt.

Absolutely. I do want it to look like it's been thrown together from random woods and not all the same wood, maybe even patched up now and again.

and those are some brilliant examples Dave. Ta.

Just need to get mine looking as real as those...