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LoER Hobby Challenge Round 40 (Sept./Oct.): Call of the Elements (sorry I'm late!)  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in us
Preacher of the Emperor





Denver, CO, USA

Greetings, Hobbyists and Crafters!

Welcome to the League of Extraordinary Riveters Hobby Challenge, Round 40. This round's theme is Call of the Elements (described below) and the round ends on Monday, October 31. Our goal is to elevate and celebrate the aspects of the hobby beyond painting miniatures-- the scratch-building, theme-evoking, and detail-obsessing construction efforts that help immerse our models in a believable and richly textured world. Come one, come all!

The theme for Round 40 was selected by public poll and was originally phrased as follows:
CALL OF THE ELEMENTS: Your build should invoke a "call of the elements" in some way, including weather and weathering, changing seasons, storms, the chemical elements, and the lure of mineral wealth, energy sources, and so on. [NOTE: This theme matches the current Terrain Building Competition theme on the terrain building subreddit, a contest (with prizes) which ends on October 3. More details here.

Please consider building and painting playable terrain pieces, decorative terrain, display plinths and dioramas, table tiles or modular components, game aids, restoration or conversion projects... if it isn't a wargaming figure, it probably qualifies. Feel free to stretch the limits of the theme as much as you can, just make it work!

Please complete the build and paint phases in the course of the two-month challenge period. Please post up to six (6) high-quality photos in this thread before the deadline expires in your local time zone. A member of the League will compile and post the finished work for public review. Please post materials and progress photos here as well, ask and answer questions, offer insights and advice, and celebrate the work as much as the finished products.

   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka





Surrey, BC - Canada

Well this round I might not have time for a scratch build. I have some GW nachmund terrain and some Rampart Eternal Cathedral that could be made to 'resist' the elements or show the impact of the elements.

Cheers,

CB

   
Made in jp
Regular Dakkanaut






As mentioned before my idea for this round was to build some sort of furnace to act as a smelter or maybe energy generation. This idea was to be a centerpiece project that would have a footprint of about one square foot and likewise reach up about a foot in the air. I was planning on having it be a three tiered piece that can be used in 40k, Killteam, and Necromunda. I did some sketches and started thinking about materials and before I could start I ran into a pretty serious problem. I would have no space to store the finished piece. I am quite limited on space and realistically probably shouldn't be making terrain pieces but it is just so enjoyable. I went back to the drawing board along with checking out various images online to see if I could come up with an alternative. I stumbled across another design that I think can work. It wont be as large but I think I can build it in pieces to make storage easier and if I use similar measurements to my modular shanty town these pieces can be combined with them. I am slightly disappointed that it wont have the size I was intending, but I think it will still be well playable and more importantly, storable. Here is a rough initial sketch.

   
Made in us
Preacher of the Emperor





Denver, CO, USA

I got something pretty big rolling... I cut big bases from a 2'x2' sheet of 1/2" XPS to build two big rock outcrops. I added big chunks of 2" XPS that I scrounged from a construction site to raise the elevation, cut some rough steps and added little stream channels. I'll add a bridge between the two sections, pour some water effects and hopefully run some simple electrical and have another go at building bonfires out of hot glue. If I claim the cliffs and bridge as air, then I've got earth, fire, and water for the elemental theme. It's big enough to use a photo stage, but hopefully also playable on large tables.


Spoiler:





   
Made in us
[DCM]
Boom! Leman Russ Commander





United States

OK, I'm fixing to try to get something entered in and done for this contest. My entry will be an Unobtanium Extraction Facility, a largely automated mining installation for the only known substance which can counter governmentium- the naturally occurring element Unobtanium (atomic weight 367).

The principle structural component is a new toilet tank float (I needed the flapper valve cover from the repair kit, the float has been lying around begging to be used for something for months) and a wooden block base. I used a Forstner drill bit to carve a recess that the plastic locking nut on the float stand could fit into (had to shave the locking nut down a bit to fit) and Bob's your uncle:





Here are some of the bits I'll try to use to fill out the design including the ballast from an old fluorescent light, the push button from a bug bomb aerosol can, a AAA battery holder, a burned out GFCI receptacle and a washer/connector from a sink:



Also, having enjoyed working with LEDs in the Shadowbox project, I want to include some for this one too. If I can figure out what I want (in time to actually sumbit the project) I'll stash the battery and switch in this 3d printed sci-fi bunker, that will act as the control room for the automated mining apparatus:





I'm hoping to strictly adhere to both a strong regimen of actually working on the project and also of sticking to the KISS principles of construction (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) so as to make the deadline- which was always more than reasonable, I'm just late wrapping up the Shadowbox and getting in to this one.

I figure, glue everything down, spray paint it all grey, dump some home-made Nuln Oil on everything and throw some sand at it for basing and I'm done.

Wish me luck, more follows soonest.

"He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to a single touch; to win- or lose- it all."

Montrose Toast


 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Boom! Leman Russ Commander





United States

Some progress tonight:

I spray basecoated the fluorescent light ballast- which I have decided is some sort of generator for the control building/bunker. Good old Dubya Dubya Eye Eye (WWII) USAAF bomber green. All this needs before gluing down is some rivets (this is the 41st Millenium, after all), some Nuln Oil wash and some rust spray painted on. Maybe some dusty pigment powder.



On the subject of spray painting, I've replaced my good and faithful airbrush that held up for nearly six years of on again/off again use. Air still flows all the way through from hose attaching point to needle cup, but it won't draw paint. I've disassembled it several times and can't find a blockage. Oh well. The new one doesn't want to be disassembled for cleaning- run cleaner through the cup, block the needle cup recess and backflow cleaner through that, repeat until no more paint. Marvelous. I used Rustoleum 2x (primer and paint) white to base coat the control building and then hit it with Thrash Metal white to dull it down. It will need some yellow ochre airbrushing to weather it and a little bit of detail painting. When complete, this building will fit in with the several other 'mining/desert planet' projects I've done- I'll post a pic of them all when finished, I really think it's enough for a decent board.



More follows soonest.

"He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to a single touch; to win- or lose- it all."

Montrose Toast


 
   
Made in jp
Regular Dakkanaut






I have my project finished. It's not what I envisioned when I started, but I am short on time and at least it is finished. I have a few take aways from this project so if nothing else things were learned. For starters I used EVA foam for all the ribbed accent areas. I wanted to have thick accents and since most of my cardboard pieces are thin I started looking for other materials. My first thought was simply a thick cardboard or chipboard. I was unable to find anything suitable in cardboard so I started looking for alternatives. Enter EVA foam. It had a thickness that was acceptable and being foam made it relatively easy to cut. It was mostly easy to work with. The downside which really dawned on me a bit late was that it has a porous surface. This resulted in me using multiple coats of paint to try to hide the porousness of the material. I think it has been covered well enough, it just took extra paint to get there.

This was also the first time I used a new rust color paint that I bought. It isn't a rust effect or anything, just a reddish orange brown color that I like. The big issue was in my application. I wanted to indicate an old an heavily rusted furnace so I went heavy with my rust paint. The result was just a mess and even when I realized that I was going too heavy I kept going heavy. It doesn't look terrible on the metallic pieces, but it just wasn't good on the center piece. In the end I went back over the rust areas with the original paint color and tried to tie everything with washes. I think at this point I would probably want to do a whole repaint for it to get it in more in line with what I want. Don't have time for that now so I'm calling it done.

There are a few things that I think turned out better that what I expected. The exhaust stack came out well and I also like the scrap receptacle. Overall I can see where improvements can be made, mostly with my painting techniques. Definitely want to work more on rust effects.




   
Made in us
[DCM]
Boom! Leman Russ Commander





United States

Very excellent work Peterhausenn- your effort with the paint was worth the investment, I think. The stack is perhaps the best feature, but the whole model hangs together as a composite whole, everything 'belongs' where it is. The scrap bin is perfect.

Some progress also from me, tonight: a couple of WIP shots showing things roughly/loosely positioned and with colors other than primer. Also, a few of the several placards, warning signs, postage and graffiti that I want to put on:







Hopefully more work gets done tomorrow, too. In any event, more follows soonest.

"He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to a single touch; to win- or lose- it all."

Montrose Toast


 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Boom! Leman Russ Commander





United States

As they say: "stuff got done, tonight".

Applied the last thin coat of bright, base color to the extraction centrifuge tank, and stenciled on the mining unit number- used the airbrush for tighter control than a rattle can and it seems to have worked out nicely; you can see the start of basing material on the shaft platform:



Also added some graffiti, because what remote, automated mining facility wouldn't have some?





I used the airbrush to apply Vallejo Rust Wash to the generator housing:



And soldered leads onto the last two LED bulbs and soldered in the switch to turn everything on and off:



I actually remembered to position the shrink tubing before soldering on the lead or the switch, so all the connections should be nicely isolated from each other when everything gets stuffed into the control bunker. All that's left wiring-wise is to start gluing major diorama components down so I can see where/how to run the leads from the aircraft warning light on top of the drill rig and the yard light underneath the centrifuge tank.

Then the real weathering and detailing can begin, for as long as I have time. Frankly, for me, this is where I add the most 'rivets' towards showing that attention to detail that might make my piece worthy of consideration for the LOER. Everything gets a two thin sprays of flat matte varnish, then some 'dusting' with yellow ochre from the airbrush, then homemade Nuln Oil wash for all the moving parts. And a ton of litter in the form of pipe sections, coils of cable, shipping packing , etc.

I may get some work in tomorrow, we'll see. More follows soonest.

"He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to a single touch; to win- or lose- it all."

Montrose Toast


 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Boom! Leman Russ Commander





United States

Last update for the Unobtainium Automated Extraction Facility #4, as I just need to splash some more weathering goop on and I'm ready to take final photos for the League of Extraordinary Riveters competition. This one deliberately doesn't show much of the whole she-bang, just the last soldering and what I had to stuff into the bunker looked like.

I cheated a little, in that I didn't do 'linear' soldering of wire connections, but pig-tailed the ends together, soldered them and then applied shrink tubing over top to isolate the join. Is it professional? Feth no! Is it pretty? Double feth no! Does it work! Heck yes! And I had the space to store all the extra wire and somewhat bulky soldered joins, so no problem:



I'm giving myself the rest of tonight to put away all the tools and materials from this project and clean up my little desk to get ready for the next- and man, I've got a ton of things I want to do! Tomorrow will be reserved for just photographing the diorama and getting the pics sent off to the LOER and then posting them also here.

More follows soonest.

"He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to a single touch; to win- or lose- it all."

Montrose Toast


 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Boom! Leman Russ Commander





United States

Here are final pictures of my entry for the LOER competition. This is Automated Extraction Facility #4; its programed mission is to extract ore containing the rare element Unobtainium (which cancels the negative effects of governmentium- atomic weight 1,867), centrifuge the ore to separate the element and store the refined element until remotely piloted drones carry it away. Field mechanical teams visit once per year for routine maintenance or more frequently when something breaks down.

This unit is located on the desert moon #4 of the planet Sturgeon (thank you for everything, Theodore!).

The theme of this LOER comp was 'elements'. I believe my entry meets this theme in two ways: it has as the subject of the vignette extracting an element (albeit an imaginary one) and it has itself been weathered by the harsh elements of its environment.

The main part of the rig- the extraction bore, tower, centrifuge and storage tank, are the unused float stand for a toilet repair kit (I needed to replace the float arm and chain, but never needed the stand. It is wired with three LED lights (the red aircraft warning beacon, amber door entry illuminator and the blue recall beacon set in the roof of the bunker) powered by one 9v battery all hidden in the bunker. The switch is set in one of the vision slits for convenience.

The wiring for the red aircraft warning beacon runs down through a piece of PVC tubing, through the storage tank and out through a flexible drinking straw and into the bunker through a vision slit. The green generator unit is the ballast from an old fluorescent light. The vertical bore drill guide is the cut off barrel of a Strongium Paste syringe (a medication for our rescue horses). The junk around the base of the centrifuge tower is everything from the windings from an old electric motor I took apart (its pallet is actually a 3d printed 'birch' door from a Celtic house model) to off-cuts from the wire I used for the LEDs to Nuln Oil stains to some gear-looking bits and bobs from a bag of 50 I got at Michaels, once.

Things I learned/practiced:

* Got better at soldering through adding the lights, need to plan out better running my wiring harness
* Started off using my airbrush quite a lot until it died, then had to find a way to duplicate the appearance with brushes and washes
* Made great use of Greenstuff as a fixing agent, as opposed to relying on 2-part epoxy
* 3d printed the bunker and improved my print settings a bit, but need to go a bit finer, I think
* I tried some new weathering techniques- liquid pigments especially- and like how some came out (the storage tank really needed the salt method- a missed chance, there)

Biggest thing I learned: Get it done! Don't let the perfect (or different) be the enemy of the good.

Thanks very much for looking in.

Here are my six photos:














"He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to a single touch; to win- or lose- it all."

Montrose Toast


 
   
Made in ca
Stormin' Stompa






Ottawa, ON

I little late, but I should be done by the end of November. My first piece of terrain on a PLC printer. I figure a big rotten shack in the swamp should fit the themes.


Ask yourself: have you rated a gallery image today? 
   
Made in be
Gargantuan Great Squiggoth





Not where I should be

Watching at last. All looking amazing.




 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Boom! Leman Russ Commander





United States

Do we know how we are going forward for the Elements competition?

"He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to a single touch; to win- or lose- it all."

Montrose Toast


 
   
Made in ca
Stormin' Stompa






Ottawa, ON

I'm a day late, but I am done.




Ask yourself: have you rated a gallery image today? 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Boom! Leman Russ Commander





United States

That is a wonderful use of colors to imply textures (beyond what the 3d print creates) between the wood of the tree and the wood of the shack.

"He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to a single touch; to win- or lose- it all."

Montrose Toast


 
   
Made in us
Krazed Killa Kan





USA

Is this the most recent LoER terrain comp? I miss following them.

   
Made in us
Gargantuan Great Squiggoth





Not where I should be

Ok bloody stunning work on display. Who won. Where's next competition. I'm in. Back from the dead.




 
   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka





Surrey, BC - Canada

Well if you would like some chaff to be crushed by the great productions I am game. A little issue took me out of service halfway through October.

CB

   
Made in us
Speed Drybrushing





Colorado, USA

New round is up! I'll circle around with MacPhail and see about the results from last round.

Head over to view the challenge here

   
 
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