Terrain & Army Building Ramblings and Project Log

[Shotgun Justice]

I was going to call this thread Wombling Through a Wargaming Wonderland but thought it might not make any sense to those who have never heard of Wimbledon Common.

Anyhows, I've managed to find a rhythm to getting my wargaming projects completed at the moment so thought I'd use a project log to get advice and feedback, keep up any flagging motivation and add to the fun of it all.
I'm going to start off with two terrain projects I'm working on at the moment, but as soon as they're done there are many many Ultramarines, Genestealer Hybrids and Arbitrators to paint, along with yet more terrain ideas.

I've got two terrain sets which can be combined; the first started life as a home for my Lizardmen and so is a jungle/temple/ruins set but is mostly used for 40k atm and the second is a strictly 40k set of an imperial, most likely admech, installation. The outer buildings of the installation are ruined and the inner ones are yet to be breached. I like large terrain, in both height and footprint, makes the battlefield look much better in an over the top universe like 40k and makes finding sight-lines that much more challenging. Challenging sight-lines do not appeal to my most regular opponent but he doesn't build the terrain so pffft to him and his massive guns.

[Shotgun Justice]

I'm working on an addition for each of the terrain sets right now so firstly 2 jungle bases with removable trees and plants:



Both of them fully constructed and waiting for texturing, with 2 models for size comparison.



Jungle 1



Jungle 2

All of the trees will have long palm tree-esque leaves while the stumpy plants will keep their tendrils, just with a slap of paint.
Please ignore the very obvious miniature of average quality vodka in the background, a Christmas leftover and not part of my modeling kit I promise.

[Shotgun Justice]

Next up my ruined bunker, it has been shelled from the front so the more intact side is, somewhat counter-intuitively, the rear of the building.

From the front


From the rear



And a very shadowy top shot




The bunker is not as far along as the jungles, it needs more detailing and the rubble added from my obsessive sprue clipping sessions from in front of the telly. I remember being told about some lads who were building a city fight board and bought an old butchers mincing machine, into which they tipped years of accumulated sprues to create rubble, a great idea but I'm not on that scale yet. Would be fun I bet.

Both of the halves of the bunker are removable, as playing with these pieces of polystyrene in this configuration proved that I will inevitably put tactical marines in there and my opponent will inevitably fire battle cannons at them, necessitating access to models inside the ruin. I'll get a pick of them removed soon.

That's it for now, am happy to talk about construction methods should anyone be interested, am off to add texture and rubble.
Hope y'all have a crackin' weekend

[Crotch Lictor]

Nice use of extra sprue parts! I may have to steal some of those ideas

I've always kept a healthy supply of it for terrain purposes. Now I just need to build more terrain.

[Shotgun Justice]

Hello once again after a long hiatus.
First up I'm not sure of what the limits are on BoLS for ressurecting threads are so if this is pushing things then i appologise.
However, after a tumultous few months I have time for the GW hobby again and so have spent a few days of illness to finish the terrain projects I started at the beginning of the year, I thought I would share.


The whole piece undercoated - I had to do the polystyrene bunker halves by hand as my previous attempt to seal them had failed. It was a ballache to do as the nature of the textured, compacted polystyrene made for very slow progress with a brush when attempting even coverage.


Part way through the first dry-brush of the rubble.


Same stage but with the bunker halves replaced


The base close to completion. The red pavers were a last minute change as I felt that grey bunker sitting on grey slabs, surrounded by grey rubble and grey dust with shiny grey bits of metal would be very dull. As this is a control/command bunker for an explorator/ admech installation I felt it needed some red. I thought about making the bunker red but then got caught up pondering wheter it would be grey concrete painted red, or red concrete - i.e with red rubble and dust. I decided that having that much red would dominate so I would use it as a contrasting colour instead

[MasterSlowPoke]

I know it's kind of late, but you might want to texture the sides of the bunker with spackle or something similar. The polystyrene balls just look too strange.

Any update on the jungle pieces?

[Dreadnought]

I like the style of the bunker and I disagree about the bunker styrofoam walls - although I think they need a little extra something. Would it be possible to lightly brush a lighter grey to give them a little added depth? You might be able to get it so the walls look they are made out of cobblestone or something similar. Also maybe embedding pieces of spare sprue along the edges. Would give the walls an outlining metal beam support type system. Just food for thought.

[Shotgun Justice]

Cheers for the replies.
The balls of the polystryene are much more obvious in the photos than in real life, the small gaps where the black undercoat shows through are very stark in the photos, I haven't been able to get a shot that replicates the actual appearance yet. It was, however, a deliberate decision to leave the balls showing as they give a sense of unusual construction to the bunker, to me at least.
Is spackle a type of putty or render? I've heard the name but we call it something else in the UK.

Dreadnought - The bunker is now finished and has had several coats of progressively lighter grey brushed on to give it depth, you're right the walls are very flat in the earlier pictures. There are pieces of sprue representing girders poking out of the destroyed sections of the bunker which are painted a burnished steel but they somewhat disappear in the photos, that or reflect way too much light.
Completed photos to follow.

The jungles are currently in their emo phase, sporting just black and having been textured. I intend to get the first coat on the bases and tree trunks tonight.

[Shotgun Justice]

Took this in the evening so needed flash, hence all the colours are much brighter. The final colour of the bunker is closer to a slightly lightened adeptus battlegrey.




Completed front-shot. The finished piece was screaming out for some colour so I added some identification/ insignia stripes to the low walls.


With one half removed for access.

[Shotgun Justice]

Models-eye view 1


Models-eye view 2


Battle-damaged side


Undamaged side