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Good progress, M'cat.

Yep! Good progress and moderate weathering is the best.

 Maddok_Death wrote:
Wood glue and food coloring make a transparent color that looks awesome. I have mixed paint in with mod podge before and it looks good too, but with the food coloring its slightly see through.

Love gun towers! Is it bad that your desk is probably 90% cleaner than mine lol

Thanks Maddok_Death- that's a good tip on the glue and food coloring- I'm wild to try it now (I'll have to think up another project that needs a leak of some kind). The piers for the gun platforms were fun- I love using up scraps and bits that I've saved from other things- these are a non-needle syringe, a toothpaste cap and some greenstuff to stick them together. And geez, if _my_ desk is cleaner- you must really be prolific!

 Dr H wrote:
Good progress, M'cat.

Thanks Doc- this is a very different sort of project for me, so lots of things to try out. And of course, the direction I was aimed at the beginning is not where this build is likely to end up; too many neat choices to make on the way.

Wirecat wrote:
Yep! Good progress and moderate weathering is the best.

Thank you, Wirecat. Originally I had in mind something _very_ Necromunda: all graffiti, and heavy rust and bent and broken metal bits. With enough time, I might could manage something like that. But I play Imperial Guard for a reason: I think in the old D&D chart I'm Lawful Good, and naturally tend towards order and cleanliness. The best I may be able to manage here is slight disreputability- but we'll give it a whirl!

Thanks again all- more follows soonest.

I missed that another contest was underway, but that is looking so nice Meercat, and I hope you get your banner. Add more rivets!

Thanks shaz- and more rivets it will be! I didn't know about the contest either, until briancj threw a gauntlet at me and acquainted me with the details. The big 'goal' for me in this project is coming at a deadline; I can fritz around with a build for a lot longer than I intend sometimes, and sometimes I walk in- knowing that the moment my hand touches a brush or some pliers I'll be chained to the bench for hours- and can't make myself sit down and just _do_ it. This has been highly motivating, at a time when I needed it.


Tonight, more about barrels, and getting things jump-started towards getting finished and not buried in fun sidebars. Looking at the calendar, I have maybe seven working days, with at most an hour or so each to work, to get this wrapped up.


I think I've come up with a variation for the bottle cap astro-barrel, using these components:



Clip the ring off the milk carton pull, and start gluing pieces together (I'm using dollar store gel superglue- cyanacrolite- and it seems to be holding for now):



If you invert the bottom cap so that some are flat bottomed and some are hollow:



Then you have some barrels that can be laid over on their sides or- you can stack them:



I'll be stacking a row of various barrels as I want a parapet. Here's what they look like painted with a spray on base coat of tan or grey and then a top coat of cheap 'chalk' hobby paint. I love this stuff, it has a bit of a gritty texture and the colors are imo perfect for battered shipping barrels. In the foreground you see barrels that have been opened/sawn in half, to show that they all are filled with rubble for weight to repel boarders and to act as a bullet dump. These form 'space gabions' for defense and the cap is filled with sand, then has all the loose bits and bobs on my desk dropped on and is then flooded with dilute white glue to set up hard:



I'll appply some of what I learned during my 'Study in Rust' project to paint them up.

Fiinally, tonight I've applied some number decals to the upper deck- just couldn't get the stencil to work the way I wanted- maybe with a gentle airbrush instead of spray cans or brushes. And before I crash for the evening I'm going to hit it with rust and 'industrial weathering solution':




The smudges at the far end are from trying to use hobby pens to fill in the stencil, but should be all good once the other goop hits it.

And that's it for tonight- I'll be happy when the barrel phase is complete (hopefully tomorrow) and I can start the cracking tower getting in place and working on the gate and gun towers.

More follows soonest!

I recognize that brand of paint! Glad I’m not the only one who uses the *really* cheap paint on terrain.

It’s all looking good just needs its grunge now. For the platform are you planning on hiding the problem area with grease/sludge or corrosion? Personally I think corrosion would look better.

I may have to start saving my Dew caps for some gabions of my own...

Hey CM- that isn't just the paint that I use for terrain- that's mostly the paint I use for everything, with the odd Model Color, Vallejo and Citadel thrown in for particular colors!






Those _are_ GW washes you see buried at the back under the Tehnolog chemical factory sprues- I make Nuln Oil and Agrex Earthshade for myself now, but I like the others (for the convenience, if for no other reason).



More follows in a couple hours!

OK, this might be the last update I post until final pictures, or perhaps one more as I get the cracking tower done, so the pics are sort of all over the place. I'm really humping to make the deadline next week, and I believe I will make it (no extensions Cam- us procrastinators need some guidelines in the real world!).

Here's the upper deck with its first layer of grunge added:



Things in various stages of basecoating (yes, we have repurposed a pair of decommissioned spacecraft blast doors as part of the barricade):



These are castings from the Hirst Arts Trench and Sandbag set- I'll be using them as firing steps at certain spots along the barricades. Basecoat of spray Rustoleum grey, heavy top coat of brown, wash of ersatz Agrax Earthshade and still to come a light top drybrushing of peach:



Here's the control station I modified from a rhino or land raider bit (couldn't resist the whimsy):



This tank is from the Matchbox set, with a tank of some kind; settled on Pavement Black for the main color because I spilled some (on my blotter) earlier and hated to waste it, so used it. The hazard stripe came on the original toy and the combustible placard is from the set of signs Sveamore graciously provided. All signage everywhere will get weathered a bit- and this placard particularly- once the white glue has set- will get soaked in solvaset/decal fix and then the tips glued down flat:



These rusted bits of corrugated iron are made from the liner of a cookie box (cheap ones), base coated spray Rustoleum grey and then hit with a lavish coat of Micromark rust and black. They'll get hung on the railings of the heavy and special weapons platforms to act as additional armor:



These next shots are of the (almost) finished ground floor of the chem plant- everything needs dirtying up, of course:









So, what's left? Very thin wash of black ink/ersatz Nuln Oil over everything, more signage, the cracking tower, the upper deck armor, the sniper's roost, seal it all with matt varnish and then dust it with every color weathering powder I own (I have a set with something like 15 shades for doing model railroad cars, so lots) and a ladder for troops to get from ground to upper deck. If time permits, hazard striping in the usual places and some sort of mechanical apparatus in the corner where the gears are laying, to give them a reason for being there.

Thank you for looking in, I welcome your suggestions and critiques. Almost there! More follows soonest.

Looking good there MC

MC to MT: Thanks, Over!

Looking really nice Meer_Cat. I was painting rusty corrugated iron today, I wish I could have borrowed you to do it.

Work for me has been nuts so haven't caught up with a lot of threads, nice to see the updates. Great stuff:-)

Not really allowed to say too much, but I will say you have really pushed your envelope this time, so much excellent work, so much inspiration for others, fantastic bud.

I am really liking this stuff. Overdone, but still cool! Maybe too clean and bright in some places, but is the end of civilization enough reason to be all dull and dusty? Cheers!

Thanks to all for the very kind comments!

Syro: I don't have a particularly good trick for dong rusty corrugated iron- I fin my Vallejo Rust Wash is a bit too heavy for most things- it makes a very good rust base on something like a tank muffler, but it is _very_ rusty. I use MicroMark's 'Rust n Dust' set- usually just steps 1 and 2 for rust; Step 1 is a rusty wash that is particles in suspension- I can get different degrees of rustiness by how much I stir up the pot. Then, when Step 1 dries, you go over it with a particulate black wash, and presto! easy, fairly good looking rust. For this ex-cookie box sheets of iron, I just slathered the rust on and let it pool where it wanted.

Thanks Sveamore- you can see I've already worked some of the signage you gave me in, and a lot more to come! It adds another dimension to terrain pieces that I haven't messed with too much before; the firebase has some signs, but I have a whole 'nother level of placarding in mind for this project.

Hi Cam! And thank you for dropping in- I know you've got to remain impartial but I appreciate the thought and thank you for the encouragement. I remember (not so long ago) putting up my first post on DakkaDakka and chewing fingernails until someone made a comment: would my work be of interest to anyone? Will they have constructive comments to make? Will the Mets make the playoffs this year? You were the first person to comment, and I've appreciated your suggestions, advice and encouragement ever since.

Howdy Wirecat! Agreed- the far future is _not_ this clean. I've a few more doo-dads to install, notably the fracking cracking tower (or is that the fething cracking tower?) and then I figure to just dump a gallon or so of ersatz Nuln Oil on everything to get that gritty, grimy look. I've got a bunch of railroad weathering powders too, in interesting colors to smear here and there for those odds blotches of color you almost always see at industrial sites- no one knows where they come from. I also want- time permitting- to add some graffiti, but as one former colleague in the Army put it "I'm too much of a tool of the establishment to be able to put my heart into good graffiti"; fortunetaly, I have all that signage from Sveamore- it being well known that signage is the Establishment's version of graffiti.

I'm at the Farm for the weekend, but will get back to work on Monday and will hopefully have one more set of pics to show off before the final for the deadline.

Thanks again, everyone- more follows soonest!

Everything is turning out great. Love the bottle cap barrel mods you did, great little touch. I’ve been adding some of the cheap paints to my range too as it just seams like the smart way to go. I need to make my own washes, especially the Riekland flesh wash as I’m going through tons of it.

Thanks Theo! Cam is the one who put me onto making my own washes- he gave a couple formulae on his blog on how he does- looking at a lot of his ork stuff, I can believe he goes through ersatz Nuln Oil by the barrel!

From there I looked online, especially YouTube, and there are a ton of recipes and formulae, and from the pictures and videos, they do pretty well. For me, I use a lot of Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil (I do mostly infantry and vehicles) so I make those by the gallon. I bought the 'sampler' pack from my FLGS jus tto save having to experiment around for wash colors I rarely use (like the Sepia, Druchii Puple and ? Blue to do muzzle burn).

All good stuff, man, keep on truckin' !

Lots done tonight, but no pics- I'm nearly done. I'll use all the time left to the deadline to embellish, but the basic project is nearly complete, with weathering applied, 'gunkification', the cracking tower nearly complete, lots of signage added and the movable barrier that acts as a gate done. Had to build another ladder for the lookout/sniper's roost as well.

This has been a lot of fun, and I look forward to receiving your constructive criticism when I'm able to post final pics probably Wednesday.

More follows soonest!

Welp, I've posted my sobbing fare-thee-well on the LOER Terrain Contest Painting blog, sent my final pics off to Cam and there is only to put _all_ the rest of the photos up here. Thank you all for the wonderful encouragement, guidance, tips and fun for the past month. My personal goal was to bring a project in on time- work to a deadline, and I've accomplished that. Along the way, I used more signage than ever before, scratchbuilt a number of items and learned that there is an understated way to apply rust, rather than the firehose that I usually use. I'd never tried to do a piece of industrial/Necromunda terrain before, either, so that was new.

Here's the pics:

Shot of the front courtyard of the chem plant:


The whole front face:


Right side (sorry about the rotation):


Back:


Left side:


Battle Standard (Yep: Eat My Shorts):


Decontamination Station (Just like the Empire- your lasgun works and not much else):


Movable gate:



Upper Deck:


Badly welded cracking tank:


Junk pile (sponsored by Rodentine!):


Inspiring poster:


Special Weapon Firing Platform:


Elevated strongpoint:


Heavy Weapon Firing Platform:


Rodentine- proud sponsors of 'Last Stand Tonight!':


Storage Tank:


Mantlets:




Fighting Platform:


Inspiring poster:


Top view:


More follows soonest.

Great work Meer_Cat, I can just hear them all grumbling “We have to defend This?....THIS?” I like all the little touches, the rust, the worn weld on the tank, and you put those signs to great use .

Good luck with the competition.

Wow, looks great, and so much detail! I'm glad I get to see it here rather than having to wait for the contest overview pics later. I'm glad Brian threw down the gauntlet and got you to join. It's good to hear that you accomplished so many firsts with this project.

Thanks, Syro, Theo. It was nice to have the motivation to try something different and stretch a little. And now I have the perfect excuse to pick up a set of Eschers!

So, with the LOER Terrain Competition now out of my hands, and not being able to stand a clean(ish) work table, it's time for another project.

-I have a 1/48 scale BA-64 armored car and some grots that need doing

-I have an M40 self-propelled gun to go with the Phaethon ammo hauler I did awhile go

-I have an idea to use the gun barrel from the Soviet B-4 Heavy Artillery piece in a 'orbital defense disappearing carriage' piece

-I've got my Heresy Girls Kickstarter figures to paint

-I've got a squad of 'Emperor's Sisters' (Sisters of Battle ersatz) from Grimskull to paint....

So this is what's next:





We rescue Shetland ponies and have four that are our 'permanent herd', having each of them special factors that make them endearing and hard to place with fosters at the same time. So they are our 'kids'. The wife has been teasing me about 'stop wasting time on all the sci-fi stuff and paint something serious- like ponies!'. I got these with an order from the same Russian company I get most of my Tehnolog/Robogear stuff from; they came as a set of 12, six different poses, for about $4.

I'll do these first four up pretty much as straight pony colors, with the markings that each of ours has to make them unique. The _next_ four I want to do up as Superheroes (Superman, Spiderman, Batgirl and maybe Wonder Woman) as a surprise and use greenstuff to help make the costumes.

Hey, my hobby keeps me off the streets at night!

As always, your suggestions, observations and constructive criticism are always welcome. More follows soonest!

I am not a my little pony person, but since it crosses over to your other hobby I think this is an awesome project. Since Superman had a kryptonian pet horse I think it’s only fair that whichever one you make into superhorse should have a pet human.

Hey models are models, gives you a good chance to experiment with shading and blending across those large areas of flank.

That chem factory is awesome - so much going on there! Painting ponies is as good a challenge as any, really....

I think it's really funny how you found these ponies, and why. It reminds me of how my girlfriend asked me why I'm always sculpting monsters, when I could make some nice birds or flowers
In that last pic, the pony on the left looks seriously pissed off, is that just the angle or the sculpt? Maybe add batman to the super hero sculpts for that one. I think it's really great that you foster those real life ponies, that must take a lot.

 Theophony wrote:
I am not a my little pony person, but since it crosses over to your other hobby I think this is an awesome project. Since Superman had a kryptonian pet horse I think it’s only fair that whichever one you make into superhorse should have a pet human.

Hey Theo! I'm not a My Little Pony person either, really, but She Who Must Be Obeyed is really a good sport about my obsession and I like to do things that tie her in when I can. She's even at the point of noticing bits of broken junk in parking lots and saying "Hey! is that good for anything?"

 Camkierhi wrote:
Hey models are models, gives you a good chance to experiment with shading and blending across those large areas of flank.

Thanks Cam! I'll try for a bir of blending, but really I want to try to capture that chibi style of manga that Odin's Grandson used to do. We'll see though- they come out how they come out.

 kestral wrote:
That chem factory is awesome - so much going on there! Painting ponies is as good a challenge as any, really....

Thanks kestrel! I suppose with the last set of four I could get Wirecat to sculpt me a team leader, fasten firkkin' laserbeams to their heads and use them for a kill team!

 Syro_ wrote:
I think it's really funny how you found these ponies, and why. It reminds me of how my girlfriend asked me why I'm always sculpting monsters, when I could make some nice birds or flowers
In that last pic, the pony on the left looks seriously pissed off, is that just the angle or the sculpt? Maybe add batman to the super hero sculpts for that one. I think it's really great that you foster those real life ponies, that must take a lot.

Hey Syro! Yes, pretty much the same thing. "You're so good at building the models, why do you care if it's some old monster or a cute pony?" Equivalency- it's a dangerous thing. The real ponies are a handful, no doubt. They say if you want to make a small fortune in horses, start with a large fortune- and we didn't start with _any_ fortune! But it's very satisfying working with them, and it keeps me in shape. And if we had some more disposable income instead of ponies, I'd just be tempted to buy more stuff I may not live long enough to paint up!

Thanks all for looking in- more follows soonest!

I suppose with the last set of four I could get Wirecat to sculpt me a team leader, fasten firkkin' laserbeams to their heads and use them for a kill team!

That's one of the best things I've read in a long time

 Syro_ wrote:

I suppose with the last set of four I could get Wirecat to sculpt me a team leader, fasten firkkin' laserbeams to their heads and use them for a kill team!

That's one of the best things I've read in a long time

Need power hooves too