Fimm McCool
Member
That's a nicely detailed piece. Lovely painting on it.
symphonicpoet
Moderator
I like it! 
I think I like that one a little better than the one with the wrecked tank, even, though both are good. (And variety is the spice of life.) Lovely stuff!
I think I like that one a little better than the one with the wrecked tank, even, though both are good. (And variety is the spice of life.) Lovely stuff! 
EricF
Administrator
It's exactly that, pour into a silicone mold. It's just self skinning (typically) polyurethane foam, building foams don't always skin as well as those designed for the purpose (although there are lots of different options from softer foam used in movie props to harder ones used more structurally). You buy it as a two part mix just like most other chemically curing resins.
The main pain I've noticed are trapped surface bubbles - which of course tend to appear on corners and edges and therefore take chunks out of the detail. Alas unlike conventional resin casting I guess can't really do it in a vacuum or degas the mix - given the whole idea is it generating gas to expand!
The main pain I've noticed are trapped surface bubbles - which of course tend to appear on corners and edges and therefore take chunks out of the detail. Alas unlike conventional resin casting I guess can't really do it in a vacuum or degas the mix - given the whole idea is it generating gas to expand!
EricF
Administrator
Thank you. I was a bit unsure how I'd tackle them. GW sold them painted black with static flock already stuck round the edge and a light zenthal type highlight to bring out the detail.
In the end I found it was fairly easy to just avoid trashing the static grass and I airbrushed them a dark brown to start off with. Then going back over the sandbags and other bits in their base colours. Bit of shading with the airbrush along the edges of things and then finished off with some washes and highlights by brush (I use these for smooth highlights on larger surfaces) before detailing. I was rather chuffed with how well the sandbags came out. I think doing them in a couple of (slightly) different colours has helped just break it up and make it more interesting.
EricF
Administrator
So I hear, if you've got an open surface pour like a river or lake then a small chef's blowtorch or heat gun can be effective although I've never actually tried it myself. I have visions of setting fire to some piece of terrain I've just spend weeks working on. Then again doing resin pours on such things always terrifies me!
Whilst I've never tried it we have a piece of random tupperware with a little pump to remove the air and I keep thinking - would that work to degas a resin that had a reasonably long open time? Might be easier to justify (to anyone else in your life) than a proper vacuum chamber?
Whilst I've never tried it we have a piece of random tupperware with a little pump to remove the air and I keep thinking - would that work to degas a resin that had a reasonably long open time? Might be easier to justify (to anyone else in your life) than a proper vacuum chamber?
ManicMan
Member
mmm.. don't know if it would give a good enough pump as, depending on your resin and it's temp and stuff, it can be quite thick stuff so you would probebly end up with bubbles still in it. Looks like you can by a cheap set of two 'vacuum food storage containers' (1L + 2L) with a pump for £13 so that isn't too bad.. doubt I'll get the energy to test though.. still got a couple of moulds to make (one of a figure I .. erm.. sculpted and I want to do a cast to refine it a bit better.. still not gonna be great but.. shouldn't be horrible.. or atleast, recognisable..
EricF
Administrator
So continuing with the old terrain collection we have another staple, piles of barrels and crates... nothing too exciting painting wise, just a few colours to make the browns less uniform and some black pigment in the gaps between pieces where of course there is resin that wouldn't be there "in real life" so you get the illusion of a deep matte shadow.
These are also from Micro Art Studio, so keeping with a theme!
These are also from Micro Art Studio, so keeping with a theme!
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sewers.of.estark
Member
Such an inspirational thread Eric, very lovely stuff. Terrain is something I really need to work more on, and your collection is wonderful!
twisted moon
Moderator
lovely bits of scenery.
EricF
Administrator
So my contribution besides the kick off mummies for Deadcember is my Chapel Graveyard. Also I've not posted on my terrain thread for a while so it was about time I did something new. Lets open with a shot of the whole thing then I can bore you with endless production snaps from the phone.
So with all large pieces firstly we kick off with some planning - or rather "what shall I do with all this Tabletop World terrain". So I had a basic idea from the old GW chapel on the hill terrain piece I'd always admired, so that was the starting point I tried a few layouts. Initially with a little graveyard to make use of the walls.
I decided in for a penny in for a pound and expanded the graveyard to include the gravedigger/coffin maker's hut and make the entire piece a little more playable. I'd tried to make sure the piece had several ways in and out - hence the broken bits of wall and there is a little crypt door on the back of the hill so essentially each corner of the piece has a way in/out.
Having sketched out the positions for bits on the foamed PVC base I peeled back the film and glued down some offcuts of XPS foam into the rough shape added some plaster rock mold pieces then threw a load of Sculptamold at it to work out the shape. I was playing with mixing in some paint into the Sculptamold hence the, err lovely colour.
Time for a quick test fit again and to draw the layout of everything on the actual board. This was so I could come up with a suitable layout for the the gravestones.
I started laying out some stones, pressing a few into the hill and trying to make the others make some kind of vaguely logical layout sense without it all just being rows of graves.
So I put down a bit more sculptamold to make up the surface and I pressed the graves into this to mark their positions. I numbered each gravestone on the bottom and printed out a few photos of the layout and scribbled on the numbers on so I could position everything again once I'd painted them.
Time for a gravestone painting session. Keeping things fairly muted and not going overboard with weathering or anything they came together quite quickly.
Then we're back onto the main board and putting some some Vallejo Dark Earth texture paste over the paths and edges.
I also used a bit of Apoxie Sculpt and green stuff to replace the roots on one of the trees that prior to some hacking away overhung my cliff edge. It was at this point that I attached the trees since they needed a bit more blending into the base. All the other pieces were still loose so they would be easier to paint.
I'd included a few 3D prints of bone piles along with various plastic skulls and bones I had. The steps were mostly made from some tiles from Fenris games and I used Apoxie Sculpt to add some additional ones in an attempt to make them look slightly less uniform, although I think the steps would have benefited from having had a second attempt.
Now it was time to lay down the primer coat. I did this with Vallejo coloured primers and used my airbrush - bit of a pain since with the trees it doesn't fit in my spray booth properly. Everything is still in sections here. I'd glued the wall sections together, but kept them loose from the base to make painting easier.
Wanting to see some progress I glued all the graves into their, err final resting places. I also did the steps and skull piles and trees at this point. The base has also received a few dry brushes to pick out the rocks and provide for a bit of contrast anywhere I might miss with the flock.
I then painted the walls and the buildings. Nothing too clever here. Vallejo Cold Grey through the airbrush to pick out the stonework and then onto the manual painting of bricks in various shades of grey for some variation, a wash and drybrush or two. A similar process for the roof of the little shed. The roof of the chapel at this stage I did in a brown/dark bronze mix as a base layer. I
I finished up the roof of the Chapel with a heavy drybrush of a Verdigris colour and picked out the trim in a copper colour before dulling it back with washes and then some Model Mates Verdigris weathering. The railings on the benches and all the metalwork was done a basic gunmetal followed by a wash and then a lot of rust applied with a sponge.
Once I was happy with the sub-assemblies I glued them down to the base and it was onto the fun and games of adding some plant life to blend it all together! Well actually firstly I did the path with various pigments. So out with the static grass and I layered down increasing lengths of autumn grasses - I wanted to keep a slightly more tired look to the piece. I used a summer grass round the outside edge so it would blend into my gaming mats better, but tried to blend it back little so it wasn't too harsh a transition. That mostly worked I think.
After the static grass came the foliage. I had some Woodland scenics "briar patch" that had been looking for a home, so I used some pieces of that to soften the transition between edges and hide the bits where the walls meet the hill. It was then out with the tufts ... lots and lots of tufts. Always useful to help blend pieces together and hide transitions. Of course having done this piece in sub-assemblies the joins between pieces were much harsher than if I'd blended it all together in the earlier stages (but then it would have been a pain to paint).
So after a final scattering of clump foliage and so forth, a few more pigments and some sealing with watered down PVA I decided to call it done. You can go on endlessly with a project like this and there are bits I'm not 100% happy with, but I don't want to spend more time on it now so beyond giving it a coat of varnish at some point it's done.
Of course I have no where sensible to keep it because I never think of storage before starting a project ... and having said that I've not thought about it for the next three graveyard pieces I have in mind to finish up my remaining Tabletop World pieces, but that's a bridge to cross when we get to it. Come to that matter there is the bridge to paint one of these days...
So some nicer shots of the finished piece from the different sides:
Note the little crypt door ... what adventure awaits beneath?
A closeup of the gate showing the rust on the railings. Although I said it was finished I might go back and add some more rust with some of my rust effects to beef it up in a few places.
The chapel itself
A view from the main gate looking over some tombstones to the "old break" in the wall. I have yet to go back and add some OSL for the candles, but adding a little should help seat them in place, although who lit them is a mystery!
And looking over the wall to the left of the gravedigger/coffin maker's hut we've the obligatory open grave on the hill.
The small hut, little over exposed this shot (sorry). Our coffin maker has her tools out ready and waiting, with a couple of finished coffins lying around the place.
Since the top of the spire was cropped in the earlier photo, here it is. I picked out some of the rivets in copper again to provide a bit of a highlight, but otherwise it was just very basic drybrushing and then adding a few darker washes at the bottoms of the tiles. Looks okay from a distance! The gold cross cam out nice with some brown washes over gold, despite having been knocked off and broken I think four times!
Finally a couple of more atmospheric shots of the Chapel:
The hill of bones has spewed forth again...
One funny thing I find with terrain when building new pieces is that it often makes me very nostalgic for older simpler bits. I always feel like I want a game with bog brush trees and cardboard buildings and lichen hedges, despite having a lot of nice terrain! I suspect part of it is that I've done less totally from scratch modeling over recent years and I think my fingers are twitching for foam core and balsa.
So with all large pieces firstly we kick off with some planning - or rather "what shall I do with all this Tabletop World terrain". So I had a basic idea from the old GW chapel on the hill terrain piece I'd always admired, so that was the starting point I tried a few layouts. Initially with a little graveyard to make use of the walls.
I decided in for a penny in for a pound and expanded the graveyard to include the gravedigger/coffin maker's hut and make the entire piece a little more playable. I'd tried to make sure the piece had several ways in and out - hence the broken bits of wall and there is a little crypt door on the back of the hill so essentially each corner of the piece has a way in/out.
Having sketched out the positions for bits on the foamed PVC base I peeled back the film and glued down some offcuts of XPS foam into the rough shape added some plaster rock mold pieces then threw a load of Sculptamold at it to work out the shape. I was playing with mixing in some paint into the Sculptamold hence the, err lovely colour.
Time for a quick test fit again and to draw the layout of everything on the actual board. This was so I could come up with a suitable layout for the the gravestones.
I started laying out some stones, pressing a few into the hill and trying to make the others make some kind of vaguely logical layout sense without it all just being rows of graves.
So I put down a bit more sculptamold to make up the surface and I pressed the graves into this to mark their positions. I numbered each gravestone on the bottom and printed out a few photos of the layout and scribbled on the numbers on so I could position everything again once I'd painted them.
Time for a gravestone painting session. Keeping things fairly muted and not going overboard with weathering or anything they came together quite quickly.
Then we're back onto the main board and putting some some Vallejo Dark Earth texture paste over the paths and edges.
I also used a bit of Apoxie Sculpt and green stuff to replace the roots on one of the trees that prior to some hacking away overhung my cliff edge. It was at this point that I attached the trees since they needed a bit more blending into the base. All the other pieces were still loose so they would be easier to paint.
I'd included a few 3D prints of bone piles along with various plastic skulls and bones I had. The steps were mostly made from some tiles from Fenris games and I used Apoxie Sculpt to add some additional ones in an attempt to make them look slightly less uniform, although I think the steps would have benefited from having had a second attempt.
Now it was time to lay down the primer coat. I did this with Vallejo coloured primers and used my airbrush - bit of a pain since with the trees it doesn't fit in my spray booth properly. Everything is still in sections here. I'd glued the wall sections together, but kept them loose from the base to make painting easier.
Wanting to see some progress I glued all the graves into their, err final resting places. I also did the steps and skull piles and trees at this point. The base has also received a few dry brushes to pick out the rocks and provide for a bit of contrast anywhere I might miss with the flock.
I then painted the walls and the buildings. Nothing too clever here. Vallejo Cold Grey through the airbrush to pick out the stonework and then onto the manual painting of bricks in various shades of grey for some variation, a wash and drybrush or two. A similar process for the roof of the little shed. The roof of the chapel at this stage I did in a brown/dark bronze mix as a base layer. I
I finished up the roof of the Chapel with a heavy drybrush of a Verdigris colour and picked out the trim in a copper colour before dulling it back with washes and then some Model Mates Verdigris weathering. The railings on the benches and all the metalwork was done a basic gunmetal followed by a wash and then a lot of rust applied with a sponge.
Once I was happy with the sub-assemblies I glued them down to the base and it was onto the fun and games of adding some plant life to blend it all together! Well actually firstly I did the path with various pigments. So out with the static grass and I layered down increasing lengths of autumn grasses - I wanted to keep a slightly more tired look to the piece. I used a summer grass round the outside edge so it would blend into my gaming mats better, but tried to blend it back little so it wasn't too harsh a transition. That mostly worked I think.
After the static grass came the foliage. I had some Woodland scenics "briar patch" that had been looking for a home, so I used some pieces of that to soften the transition between edges and hide the bits where the walls meet the hill. It was then out with the tufts ... lots and lots of tufts. Always useful to help blend pieces together and hide transitions. Of course having done this piece in sub-assemblies the joins between pieces were much harsher than if I'd blended it all together in the earlier stages (but then it would have been a pain to paint).
So after a final scattering of clump foliage and so forth, a few more pigments and some sealing with watered down PVA I decided to call it done. You can go on endlessly with a project like this and there are bits I'm not 100% happy with, but I don't want to spend more time on it now so beyond giving it a coat of varnish at some point it's done.
Of course I have no where sensible to keep it because I never think of storage before starting a project ... and having said that I've not thought about it for the next three graveyard pieces I have in mind to finish up my remaining Tabletop World pieces, but that's a bridge to cross when we get to it. Come to that matter there is the bridge to paint one of these days...
So some nicer shots of the finished piece from the different sides:
Note the little crypt door ... what adventure awaits beneath?
A closeup of the gate showing the rust on the railings. Although I said it was finished I might go back and add some more rust with some of my rust effects to beef it up in a few places.
The chapel itself
A view from the main gate looking over some tombstones to the "old break" in the wall. I have yet to go back and add some OSL for the candles, but adding a little should help seat them in place, although who lit them is a mystery!
And looking over the wall to the left of the gravedigger/coffin maker's hut we've the obligatory open grave on the hill.
The small hut, little over exposed this shot (sorry). Our coffin maker has her tools out ready and waiting, with a couple of finished coffins lying around the place.
Since the top of the spire was cropped in the earlier photo, here it is. I picked out some of the rivets in copper again to provide a bit of a highlight, but otherwise it was just very basic drybrushing and then adding a few darker washes at the bottoms of the tiles. Looks okay from a distance! The gold cross cam out nice with some brown washes over gold, despite having been knocked off and broken I think four times!
Finally a couple of more atmospheric shots of the Chapel:
The hill of bones has spewed forth again...
One funny thing I find with terrain when building new pieces is that it often makes me very nostalgic for older simpler bits. I always feel like I want a game with bog brush trees and cardboard buildings and lichen hedges, despite having a lot of nice terrain! I suspect part of it is that I've done less totally from scratch modeling over recent years and I think my fingers are twitching for foam core and balsa.
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KingOfTheLeadPile
Member
Looks awesome! Increasing the size was the right choice, the final build looks realistic, size wise, to my mind. Nice little details.
OuteRimTim
Member
The graveyard look great. I love the ways that you've blended in the individual elements and told little stories with their placement. Thank you for detailing your process.
EricF
Administrator
Thank you for the lovely comments.
I've also been toying with adding some moss to the trees and wondered about some vines/ivy type growth so they are less just "plonked there" Still not quite happy with their colour, but diminishing returns and all that!
You've just reminded me there is a little Citadel cross/hitching post down at the front that is suppose to have a raven on it. I knocked it off, but his little feet are still there - I must go and find it, paint it and glue it on! I do have some other ravens and a few grave digging tools and the like that might add some more character in places. I just always forget to rummage for them when doing a project! Well I have three more cemetery projects to do to finish up my bits and pieces so maybe I can plan ahead next time!?
I've also been toying with adding some moss to the trees and wondered about some vines/ivy type growth so they are less just "plonked there"
Still not quite happy with their colour, but diminishing returns and all that!
Fimm McCool
Member
What a glorious thing!