SW1 Posted May 17, 2017 Author Share Posted May 17, 2017 Lol ... Great minds think alike. Been playing around tonight with plant pots and some epvc trying to work out what I want to do. I'm thinking of making lids for the pots so stuff can be stored in them and I can add weights if needed. I'm thinking of adding some of the small generators that came with one of the CoD kits and maybe using some of the little boxes that came with the old school rhino to act as junction boxes with pipes and cables running down them. Lol ... The challenge will be stopping it from looking like a flowerpot. :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTaW Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 Got any pictures of what you have with the flower pots? Maybe you could cut into them and add to the structure to change its look...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted May 18, 2017 Author Share Posted May 18, 2017 Will get some pics snapped ASAP. ;) Managed to pick up some 9mm mdf. Original plan was to buy a bit and get some more. But £9 for a sheet that would cut down to 3 squares (600mm x 600mm) or £15 for a sheet that would cut down to 8 squares was a no brainer. Bit more difficult to get home but worth the effort. Half will be painted up as sump gunk and the other 4 will have 5mm foamboard that I can scribe panel lines into. I'll add other textures onto it as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTaW Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 Sounds like an mdf win! Gotta love that. Keep that metric coming by the way. I only use imperial because GW has their game broken down that way and the subtle difference between 30cm and 12" drives me nuts :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted May 20, 2017 Author Share Posted May 20, 2017 Yeah the board came in 4' by 8' but by the time you loose a few mm to the blade cut you might as well jump to 600mm or 300mm or 200mm. There's enough wriggle room with the extra 19mm for plenty of cuts per 4' length. ;) I normally work with 12mm mdf so not sure if dropping down to 9mm will impact the warping issues mdf has. So a bit of a test needs to happen. :D Been playing around with ideas for the board. If I have 4 sump sludge and 4 solid ground. I could do an 8'x4' board with the central 4 boards sludge. The mighty chimeras would rule the day with amphibious might. Maybe have the plant pot hive supports acting as high level super highway supports? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTaW Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 I like everything about what you just said. Kinda annoying that 'they' can't offer a board that accommodates blade size in cut, eh? 9mm MDF will warp more than the 12mm stuff, what you can do to help with that is either spray it with clear coat or paint it with straight PVA glue (no water for obvious reasons) to seal it before you start working on the next steps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted June 2, 2017 Author Share Posted June 2, 2017 I was planning on starting in July but the tale of hobbyists challenge is getting move forward so I need to get started ASAP. I'm on my jollies for the first week so once I'm back I'll need to really crack on. So the plan of action for June is to paint and varnish both side of the board. This hopefully will counter any warping going for 9mm mdf over 12mm will have caused. One side is a given with a brown sludge with alge blooms. It'll work for the Grimy Underneath of a Hive City as already planned and as a bonus a swampy battlefields set may also follow on from this. The other will get hopefully something that looks like space/stars. I'd like a table topper that will go for X-Wing and also look good as a backdrop for a Zone Mortalis set of tiles. I've not tried doing nebula or star patterns before so should be a lesson learned if nothing else. If I put some felt down on top of the table it won't chip/scratch whatever is on the bottom. :tu: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTaW Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 I should totally hang my X-Wing mats on the wall next to the table where we game. Maximum scenic points!! I have a feeling that just about any type of sealant painted/sprayed/whatever on to the thin mdf will be totally fine so long as it's consistent. Hopefully it doesn't take you too long to get through that stage and on to more fun stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 Back from the family holiday and feeling rather enthusiastic to get started on the project. Normally working on a Saturday but managed to get it booked off to give me some time to recuperate after travelling with the kids. I volenteered to do the big food shop and managed to sneak in picking up some hobby bits (tester paint pots, small decorating brushes and a load of different wall paper samples). So hopefully I'll get some time this afternoon/evening to add some colour to the boards. Lol ... It's been long enough!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 Taken over the kitchen table and slapped some paint on. Included the full colour details so I can get more paint if needed. - Thin coat of Wilkos 'Barely Black 050' applied by brush - Wilkos 'Java Bean 102' and 'Urban Jungle 393' poured onto a pallet and then dabbed onto the board with a ripped up sponge. It comes out looking like this ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 It feels really good to get some hobby time finally in. Need to get the varnish on before the kids scratch it or some other fun happens to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted June 13, 2017 Author Share Posted June 13, 2017 Managed to get the coat of varnish onto the boards and now it's dry I think a second coat will be required. It's looking a little patchy. Though I think a different varnish migh be purchased as the dip stuff is a bit costly. I also need to paint the edges to make it all look neat. Question is do I do something on the other side of the boards or leave them plain? Also any tips on cheap gloss varnish suitable for use on boards sections? Should I use a rattle can to avoid further warping (there's a tiny hint of warping since I put the varnish on)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTaW Posted June 13, 2017 Share Posted June 13, 2017 I'm going to be using a product called Mod Podge to seal in my board when I'm done (though matte instead of gloss). It's a sealant typically used on decoupage pieces but it gets real hard and I think it would/will work well protecting a coat of paint. I'll be sealing in a few tiles in the coming weeks and will have a more relevant opinion on the product then, though if you've already put on a layer of varnish I'd just do another coat and call it a day. Using a spray sealant to finish is usually a good idea regardless of the choice, some products even suggest it in their instructions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted June 17, 2017 Author Share Posted June 17, 2017 As I'm really stuck for time to do any hobby stuff at the moment I've spent the odd 5 mins here and there getting a bit better organised. So if do do get 30 mins or more I don't loose any time finding what I need and it should save me money as well. For example a 1.25 ltr tin of the Barely Black paint from Wilkos is £9 and the testers are £1 for 75ml. I'll be using that colour as a basecoat on almost every piece of scenery so it's worth saving a few £'s getting it in the larger tin. Its not worth the outlay on most other colours as I won't use that volume of paint. I also water it down 1 part water to 4 parts paint before using with a drop of washing up liquid. Doing that every time especially in smaller amounts can get a bit messy (tins of paint are not designed to be poured onto a small pallet) and waiste time. So I decanted 400ml of paint into a 500ml pop bottle and pre-mixed it. It's already paid off as I found myself with 30 mins spare yesterday and managed to paint the edges of the 4 muddy boards. I probably wouldn't have had enough time if I'd not decanted some. Actually having something finished is a really big mental boost. The question now is can I wait till mid next week for more hobby time?!?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted June 23, 2017 Author Share Posted June 23, 2017 The local pound shop has finally started stocking car primer again. :D. :devil: There was just 3 tins left so they were acquired for the buildings heading to my brothers. Which was enough to get about 2/3 of them now undercoated. :tu: So it looks like my scratch building may end up being a little delayed as I work on his stuff. It'll still fit into the overall underhive idea as it can just be part of a hab dome that's been destroyed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted June 27, 2017 Author Share Posted June 27, 2017 Hopefully the pound shop will have some more spray in tomorrow to finish off undercoating the rest of the buildings. I still need to group the parts into full buildings so I can paint each one slightly differently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 The shop had the rattle cans required but the weather didn't allow me to get any spraying done outside. I did complete the varnishing of the brown boards the gloss varnish has made it look much more blended which I was hoping would be the case. :D It's mainly smooth but I've managed to keep a few slightly rough patches that look like something's just under the water level. If I give it another coat of varnish I'd loose the effect. Lol ... I think the hardest part of the creative process is to know when to stop. I've also been playing with the airbrush trying to get the old hand to eye co-ordination sorted. So I ended up with this ... It's very busy but it's just a practice run. When I incorporate these into the board sections they will be much smaller and there will be less of them!!! I also started having a play with cloud/nebula structures in a bit more detail. Currently finished off the shading. Need to tint it with some colours for the final effect to come through ... The question is what colours should I tint the cloud with. Yellow/green/blue or blue/purple/pink or yellow/orange/green or even an orange/red/purple? (I'll edit the pics in when I'm not on the phone) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 So I'm confident enough with the airbrush to pledge the next 4 boards which will be with the star scape design on them. The one with lots of fairly large galaxy's will probably get knocked back to black. The nebula one I reckon I can salvage and use without dropping it back to black. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corswain Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Those boards look great, you should be proud of those results. Any chance of sharing some of your techniques? It's not something I will work on for a while but I do have plans to do something similar in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trixie Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Some great scenery is gonna come from this project mate :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 @Corswain - The muddy board or the space one or both? @Trixie - I'm hoping the quality will be where I'm aiming for. I've got over 2 decades of scenery building experience and I've also got the amazing support of fellow fratter to trouble shoot any issues I come across. :tu: Now a word of warning the was a big lesson learned last night. I got lazy with the airbrush and didn't wear my mask. Ended up having an Asthma attack early hours of the morning and it's wiped me out today. Yeah .... That wasn't really clever!!! When people are advised to get a decent mask listen!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corswain Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 All of the above. :) I'm particularly impressed with the space one though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 To quote earlier an earlier entry for the muddy boards ... - Thin coat of Wilkos 'Barely Black 050' applied by brush - Wilkos 'Java Bean 102' and 'Urban Jungle 393' poured onto a pallet and then dabbed onto the board with a ripped up sponge. It then got a coat of dark tone dipping varnish (I didn't want to use a wash as it would risk warping the mdf) and finally 2 coats of clear gloss varnish. The space board had cheap artist acrylic black slapped on. Then with a sponge stippled a charcoal black over it. Then with a stiff brush I splattered with GWS white (held the brush a foot or so from the board and flicked the bristles so the paint splattered onto the board). Make sure you've got it on a surface you can clean or put news paper down. Then I just got a load of pic's up on google of galaxy's and played around on a board trying out different shapes. I've been using the airbrush for a few years just basecoating and highlighting models so it sort if came naturally. Though if I started one shape and messed it up I just changed it to something else. The yellow cloud bit really didn't do what I wanted it to do as I tried to just build up colour without having any preshading underneath. The second board with the big white cloud was an attempt to make some shading before hitting it with colour. If you've not got much experience with an airbrush get lots of scrap paper and get a feel for the brush. There's 2 main ways I use the airbrush freehand and with templates. There's loads of tutorials youtube by proper artists and I'd recommend having a YouTube binge with the airbrush set up and stop/start the tutorials and try to emulate what you've seen rather than just watch and then try on a model/board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 Finally got to uploading a pic from Sunday nights attempt to finish the nebula http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/gallery/image/212305-image/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW1 Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 Still out of action with the chest. Breathing protection has been upgraded. Just need my chest to improve enough to use it. Think I'm going to be a bit out of sorts for a few weeks at this rate of recovery. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.