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 jabbakahut wrote:

Ha, sorry. More accurately, green scouring pads.



You can cut them, glue them, burn them, paint them... Useful texture additions.

Never thought of that either! I've already learned a lot from this thread.

@ giraffeX- That's cool dude. Part of the idea of this contest is that it should be easy for people to do the contest and also end up with something they can use, but then again you have to be serious to win! That's why I made the secondary prize. Also, i don't have a problem extending the contest if there are a lot of entries coming in late, so there is a chance that might happen, you never know.

Made more progress on the shrubbery guys... I figured out a great technique for making gnarly trees/shrubs. Short version is that it's copper wire of various sizes twisted around in a tree shape and covered in hot glue, then paint thickly with acrylic paint, hot glue the spongy stuff on and season to taste. I'll give some pics later.

I love the terraformer stuff as well, my hope is that we come up with some stuff of the same caliber as those tutorials/scenery.

jabbakahut wrote:

 Viktor von Domm wrote:

jabbakahut wrote:It's a shame I cannot compete. Some people might enjoy the tip of using green scrubbies, I got a box of these things from work once and it has been supplying me for years.

what the hell is

scrubbies

???

Ha, sorry. More accurately, green scouring pads.



You can cut them, glue them, burn them, paint them... Useful texture additions.

thanks jabbakahut!

a friend of mine now that you point me in that direction too taught me to build mossy trees from these!

thanks for the explaining hint!!!

These are my experiments so far, using the wire+gluegun method. The alpine tree is on a 40 mm base btw, I know it could use more swag like little plants poking out of the rocks a bit more and some better paintjob or covering up the base. I think I should do a tutorial for this once I've perfected it a bit more, unless somebody knows a better one or a description of this method somewhere.



Like how this one turned out too, working on some more but I'm not quite sure what to do with them yet! I really like the alpine tree bases and I might try to use them for my iron hands dudes when I get around to finishing them.

Those look really really good!

Those are very nice. Maybe you could make a forest (or at least scatter some trees around your Chaos scenery). It always seems odd to me when people have a tree or something similar following them around on their base.

I've spent quite a long time on my entry in the last couple of days and it is is coming along nicely. Unfortunately my camera is bust and I am not sure I want to give too much away anyway. Suffice to say it won't be quite so wholesome looking as your rather scenic bits... but then you don't really get healthy looking shrubberies in Necromunda.

 Bruticus wrote:
Those are very nice. Maybe you could make a forest (or at least scatter some trees around your Chaos scenery). It always seems odd to me when people have a tree or something similar following them around on their base.

Thanks! the big tree is not part of a model's base, no. The base it's on could be a removable part of some terrain, but it's more an experiment (I've got a some bigger ones now). The alpine base, I'm hoping to turn into one for some true-scale iron hands, because of the whole metaphor you know, they've been made strong through adversity but not without sacrifice to their bodies.

I've spent quite a long time on my entry in the last couple of days and it is is coming along nicely. Unfortunately my camera is bust and I am not sure I want to give too much away anyway. Suffice to say it won't be quite so wholesome looking as your rather scenic bits... but then you don't really get healthy looking shrubberies in Necromunda.

Really looking forward to seeing what you come up with... even if it's a little teaser! My tree method could be used to make gnarly, dead twisted, grimdark trees as well it's mostly just leaving the leaves off and bending them a bit more. Also I would just have to sculpt tiny mechanical owls to roost in them

my participation will depend on whether I can get my workshop set up before it ends...

 Galorn wrote:
my participation will depend on whether I can get my workshop set up before it ends...

Like I said if enough people feel the need for extension, it's not a problem. We appreciate your moral support Still you got 3 weeks.

people that are looking for a great way to make vines or roots, check out the outside of a coconut... those things are covered in dry stringy material that can be considered as vines and roots and they look perfectly natural because... well... they are

DijnsK wrote:
people that are looking for a great way to make vines or roots, check out the outside of a coconut... those things are covered in dry stringy material that can be considered as vines and roots and they look perfectly natural because... well... they are

Great Idea! And they're tasty too!

Twisting any kind of wire together and then coating it with LGS works well too.

 dsteingass wrote:
Twisting any kind of wire together and then coating it with LGS works well too.

yeah that would work too. That is probably better for tiny shrubs that it's hard to reach all the little branches with the gluegun. I'd really recommend the glue gun though, they are very cheap to get and to refill the glue, and when you are doing a lot of big trees with LGS it will probably get expensive fast. The glue gun gives the benefit of adding bulk to the tree, and naturally forms shapes that resemble the organic knots and fibers of a tree... as for the bark texture, it's easy to get some crappy $1.29 paint at walmart that is mostly binder, and slather it on until it gets fairly dry, then stipple on or use a brush with big hairs so the brushstrokes show, and it makes bark texture.

Oh wow Meade, your trees look incredible. I must make some of those!

Funny, there was an article about using coconuts on BoLS today...
http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?26323-Basing-With-Coconut

Funny, there was an article about using coconuts on BoLS today...
http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?26323-Basing-With-Coconut

I was looking at that link and I was sure I had seen that exact base before somewhere... sure enough: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/487376.page

Looks great.

Well, here's another vote for extending the deadline. Thanksgiving week will be vacation and family stuff, and this week and weekend are also pretty much going to be devoid of hobby time. Need another 8 hrs in the day!

 Cave_Dweller wrote:
Well, here's another vote for extending the deadline. Thanksgiving week will be vacation and family stuff, and this week and weekend are also pretty much going to be devoid of hobby time. Need another 8 hrs in the day!

Okay! Honestly it's whatever the other contestants want though. I might wait another week and a half or so, then ask everyone and see what we're working with at that point. Also it helps if you at least post a little bit of WIP at that time.

Dude those trees look great. I have a skullvane manse I've been steampunking out (on the back burner ATM) and those would be great additions! What exactly did you use to make the foliage? Sponge? Or something I order online?

 AirborneGinger wrote:
Dude those trees look great. I have a skullvane manse I've been steampunking out (on the back burner ATM) and those would be great additions! What exactly did you use to make the foliage? Sponge? Or something I order online?

woodland scenics clump foliage. It's a pretty good product IMO.

I LOVE that alpine tree... I think im gonna have to give the glue gun method a shot.

And hey I actually did work!!





As you can see, I made a cactus!
The bottom will be turned into a prickly pear, the top is a saguaro. Taken with el-cheapo brand webcam, but you should get the gist of things!

that's great! you managed to get the grooves into it nicely. A lot better than the ones they sell.. hmm did you use fimo?

Thanks! So far, this little experiment is turning out nicely! The prickly pear on the other hand is tough to get the right scale xD
And its Milliput- I find it dries a lot harder than fimo and other polymer clays. Plus, this air-dries, so no need for oven!

Tried something new with a second saguaro- sculpted the ridges instead of carving them.


Im not as big of a fan of it as the first method. I think the old one (right) one looks far better. Faster too.

To be honest I have nearly finished my entry, just got to give it a heavy varnish as I used some polystyrene and it is already chipping. Quite irritating but hopefully a few coats of purity seal will make it a bit more durable.

Here is a teaser pic:



I only have a really terrible camera at the moment so a blurry teaser is about as good as I can manage to post anyway.

@Ramos: yeah I like the first one better, although I guess if you wanted you could combine the two techniques and use sculpt the bigger ridges, then smooth them somewhat and carve smaller ridges to get a cactus that is not just round.

@Bruticus: Awesome! looks like some nice variety and different textures/techniques, and I'm wondering what that big yellow thing is in the shadows...

Looking good Bruticus and Ramos!

I tried my hand at making a tree from scratch, except I don't have a hot glue gun, so I just used news paper - papier mache =) The wire was fun, but adding the paper was really fiddly =/ I think a thinner paper like tissues might have been easier, I might use that to give more detail in second coating.

 Two Spartan wrote:
Looking good Bruticus and Ramos!

I tried my hand at making a tree from scratch, except I don't have a hot glue gun, so I just used news paper - papier mache =) The wire was fun, but adding the paper was really fiddly =/ I think a thinner paper like tissues might have been easier, I might use that to give more detail in second coating.

Cool! you definitely have the wire twisting part down... I guess if you want to use paper I would go with the toilet paper. Also if you have crappy goopy paint it does the job of painting and adding texture in one shot.

Hot Glue guns are awesome though... for so many things. Nearly all my stuff I sculpt from scratch starts off with wire + hot glue gun.

'Dis thread's way ta silent fer me likin'!!

I realy like all the entries so far, guys.
Ramos, Your cactus looks great. How will you do the spikes?

Spartan, thank you so much for posting that! I don't have any hot glue and somehow wasn't able to come up with paper mache myself! Thanks, and that tree looks great!

And 'cmon Bruticus! Don't torture us like that! Show us the piece already!!

Oh and Meade... Started working on your prize!
Thought an ordinary boy'd be too small for a proper prize, so I got a box of nobs and started rummaging the bitz box... here's what I have so far:



I'll build him a big, swampy base now....

Okay everybody.... We're a week and a half out! I've decided to just ask on the thread and everybody can put their vote in for whether we have the extension or not (yea or nay)... and if you want to do so anonymously please PM me. If nobody responds I'll just extend it, or if there's a tie. (think there was at least one vote to extend already). But if you've been working hard on something and are eager to win and get your prize, don't be shy to vote to keep the deadline!

 MrMerlin wrote:
'Dis thread's way ta silent fer me likin'!!

My head's been in the chaos forge lately

Oh and Meade... Started working on your prize! ....I'll build him a big, swampy base now....

I love the gun and the knife... He is rambo enough for my liking. And also different than what I would have done but in a totally good way!

Glad to hear you like him!

How would you have done it?