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@ the shrouded lord. Absolutely yes, I would say appropriate for just about any game I can think of.


Keep looking at this, and every time I sit back in wonder.

Thanks MadDokMathWych.

Thanks chilledmonkeybrains.

Thanks GrimDork. You don't have to do something of this size. You can do anything you like from some bits for the base of a unit to scatter terrain to a fence to a huge building...
You could even just do the odd plank while waiting for the paint to dry on something else and then build something when you have enough.

the shrouded lord wrote:would this be appropriate for a 40k battle?

I hope so. That was part of the aim.
One of the competition rules was to attempt to make your piece of terrain suitable for more than just 40k. Which is why I chose to go for a simple wooden hut, as you will always have wooden huts whether long ago in a fantasy environment, in the near future, post apocalypse, or in the far future where there is only war...

Camkierhi wrote:@ the shrouded lord. Absolutely yes, I would say appropriate for just about any game I can think of.
Keep looking at this, and every time I sit back in wonder.

Thanks Cam.

Great work and great tutorial, I think I will have to use this to dress of a flyer base in the near future.

 1-i wrote:
Great work and great tutorial, I think I will have to use this to dress of a flyer base in the near future.

Good good. Thanks. I'm glad so many people are thinking about using this. Sprue will no longer go unloved and forgotten.

This is extremely cool, best terrain tutorial I've seen in ages.

Great job!

wow very nicely done, 10/10

Excellent dude--thanks so much for the great tutorial.

Thank you ScarletSquig, Wazrokk and Esko997.

And thanks to anyone that has +1'd this and/or voted on the images.

Great job mate. Amazing result and a clearly described wood technique that can be used in any terrain. Most important anything is free .

I was wondering for days why this post is the most popular post right now.... now I see why!

Thanks Capamaru. Yeah, wood is very useful to add a different texture to terrain and vehicles (more that likely Ork vehicles, but vehicles none-the-less).
And yes, you get some of this building material free with most of the models you buy...

Thanks SilentScreamer. I'm quite amazed at how popular this is. I'm glad to have entertained and maybe inspired some of you out there.

I hope to see some more sprue creations popping up all over this site.

One of the most usefull threads in whole Dakka. Mate, it never crossed my mind that simple sprue could be transformed to something awesome like this. You've got some wicked sculpting skills. Keep it up.

This is just awesome! Thanks for taking the time to explain how you created it, with fantasy you could create so many buildings with this technique (although maybe bigger builders would take a while!) and for very little cost.

I'm going to try and collect some sprues from the local game store as the guys I'm there are always buying boxes!

Sieggfried wrote:One of the most usefull threads in whole Dakka. Mate, it never crossed my mind that simple sprue could be transformed to something awesome like this. You've got some wicked sculpting skills. Keep it up.

Thanks. I'm glad it has proved useful.
All it takes is to keep the shapes simple and build up the detail piece by piece and don't try to carve off too much material in one go, many small carvings works much better.

noballgames wrote:This is just awesome! Thanks for taking the time to explain how you created it, with fantasy you could create so many buildings with this technique (although maybe bigger builders would take a while!) and for very little cost.

I'm going to try and collect some sprues from the local game store as the guys I'm there are always buying boxes!

That's part of what DDakka is for, sharing ideas and techniques. I've taken much from here, so I've given a little back.

Good luck with your buildings. Other than the paint and glue, this cost me nothing.

Easily one of the best, innovative and most interesting how tos I've ever seen.
Thanks very much for the time an obvious effort put into this.
Delicious.

Slow clap...


I will be giving this a go this weekend!

I want to build a whole shanty town now!!! But I fear for my fingers :(

Ratius wrote:Easily one of the best, innovative and most interesting how tos I've ever seen.
Thanks very much for the time an obvious effort put into this.
Delicious.

Thanks Ratius. Glad you liked it.

squall018 wrote:Slow clap...


I will be giving this a go this weekend!

Cool. Hope it goes well for you.

I would like to see other people's sprue work in the fullness of time.

eclipseoto wrote:I want to build a whole shanty town now!!! But I fear for my fingers :(

If you're careful and use protection (like plasters/elastoplasts on your finger tips) you can manage it without harm.
Start small and build up over time.
Glad to have stirred something in you.

Wow, that's a lot of pictures, and great hut! Thanks for posting this.

 StyleXHobby wrote:
Wow, that's a lot of pictures, and great hut! Thanks for posting this.

Ha, that's probably not even half of the pictures I took during the making of it...

Thanks.

This is amazing, how you made sprue bits look like timber.

I have two big tubs filled with sprue and I'm gonna do this... very effective scenery for an orky village

 AntomanElven wrote:
This is amazing, how you made sprue bits look like timber.

I have two big tubs filled with sprue and I'm gonna do this... very effective scenery for an orky village

Thank you.
Good to know you will be making use of the wonder-material that is sprue.

I knew there was a reason I was saving 50% of all sprue I ever have ever had! (saving it all was apparently unreasonable :( ) And this is it! Saved into my inspiration folder. This may well be the first project I do once my hobby space gets setup in this new house!

 Big Mek Gobsmasha wrote:
I knew there was a reason I was saving 50% of all sprue I ever have ever had! (saving it all was apparently unreasonable :( ) And this is it! Saved into my inspiration folder. This may well be the first project I do once my hobby space gets setup in this new house!

Well, now you have a use for it, you have an excuse for saving all of your future sprue.
Good to hear. Good luck and I hope to see something about DDakka soon.

This I what I needed because I was trying to make one at home out of the same things but I couldn't do it. Now I know how 2

just in case it hasn't occured to anyone, this is exactly the method I wanted to use to construct a wooden bridge. Now, if only i had the space of time that would allow me to dedicate this much time to that project......

This is a great tutorial! I was keeping my sprues just for a project like this but then threw most of them out unfortunately lol

Chaos LOrd Kranon wrote:This I what I needed because I was trying to make one at home out of the same things but I couldn't do it. Now I know how 2

Good good. Glad it helped. Hope it goes well.

poda_t wrote:just in case it hasn't occured to anyone, this is exactly the method I wanted to use to construct a wooden bridge. Now, if only i had the space of time that would allow me to dedicate this much time to that project......

The time consuming bit is making the wood, and you can do that in bits and pieces while you're doing other things (like waiting for paint to dry) until you have enough "wood" and then you can build your structure pretty quickly.

chiefbigredman wrote:This is a great tutorial! I was keeping my sprues just for a project like this but then threw most of them out unfortunately lol

Thanks. Now there's no excuse for throwing out any more sprue that you acquire.

it's not just the work in detailing the sprue, but cutting it to size in advance, and cleaning it up into regular bars so that they can be detailed. There's a lot of prep work, and if i'm waiting for paint to dry, honestly, i can just move on and paint the next model. and the one after that. and the one after taht one, and then come back to the first one, and give i the next layer of paint/next color....

 poda_t wrote:
it's not just the work in detailing the sprue, but cutting it to size in advance, and cleaning it up into regular bars so that they can be detailed. There's a lot of prep work, and if i'm waiting for paint to dry, honestly, i can just move on and paint the next model. and the one after that. and the one after that one, and then come back to the first one, and give i the next layer of paint/next color....

It is a lot of prep work, yes. But you can squeeze it in. Paint a model, clip some sprue, paint a model, do a plank, paint next model, do a plank...repeat from start... and you can have a pot to one side to drop the completed planks into so it doesn't take up much room until you start to build the actual structure.

Maybe you'll even start to enjoy the plank making, it's quite zen like when you get going.
And the final product is very satisfying, knowing that not only did you make the model, but all the pieces for that model.

I'd love to see a bridge made like this.