New table, new terrain! [Part 2]

Now that I've finished with college, I have had some time and motivation the last two nights to get some work done on those bunkers.  First thing I did was cut out all of the windows and doors.  Next, I decided I did not like the angled tops, the lines were not very straight and they really did not fit too well.  So, I got some styrofoam sheet and cut it to fit.  Then I glued on some tabs so they stayed in place while on top of the bunkers.  After that I added some battle damage, some with the knife and some with the soldering gun.

Today I started the painting process.  This began with some craft store charcoal gray.  Once coat on the inside then another one on the outer surfaces.

Next up came the first layer of dry brushing.  For this one I used Vallejo Green grey and a broad flat brush.  The color is pretty green, but it really helps add tonal differences beneath the grays.

After that came a layer of codex gray, again using the large brush for drybrushing on the paint.

Lastly I used another gray I have, which I can never remember the name or brand of.  It's a bit lighter than codex gray, but with a slight yellow/green tone which I really like.

After that I added white identification banding to all of the bunkers.  Along with roman numerals.  Finally I added some scorch marks to the damage I added with the solder gun.  This was was done with MIG productions black pigment.  Finally I painted the doors boltgun and washed them in delvan mud.

Here's the back of the bunkers.

Some troops manning the defenses.

Lastly, here are some guardsmen on the outside for scale.

Thanks,
hope you enjoyed the post, feel free to comment.

New table, new terrain! [Part 1]

So, along with constructing a new table to game on I will be expanding and updating our range of terrain.  What's the use of a pretty new table if the terrain you're using is quite rough around the edges.  A lot of what we use will still be good, but I will need to touch it up and re-polish it so to speak.

So, the first new piece of terrain will be this small rocky outcropping which should look nice out in the wastes/plains.  My friend gave me that old sentinel cockpit some time ago and I'm finally painting it up to use on this piece of terrain.  As it is we don't have much pure LOS blocking stuff, so that's why I made this in such a fashion that you can't place troops on it.

Here's a view from the other side, if you can zoom in you can probably see the pilot's head is a skull and his left arm is all bones from one of my brother's skeleton spearmen.

There's even a wee little well spring up in the top there. This thing was made mostly out of pink foamboard and some rocks, gaps were filled with air-drying clay, the same as I used on the table.  Painting the rock I started out with Vallejo Green-Grey dry brushed on there rather liberally, then I put on some codex gray which I mixed with black and finished with straight codex gray.  The grass is a mixture I made up using GW green and dry grasses as well as some of the old style flock mixed in.  I would put this down randomly and then add pure green or dry to other spots to get some variation.  The dirt and adhesive for the flock was some thick acrylic medium mixed with brown paint and watered down a bit.  All in all It worked well, better than many experiences I have had using elmers.  It dried a lot faster and saved me a step of painting the ground brown or adding some other surfacer.

The water was made with clear resin and I dropped in some green fuzzy stuff which looks like algae and some leaves which I also scattered all about. The grass is horsehair which was inserted with an old sewing pin and then trimmed to varying heights.

I've also got a trio of foam bunkers ready for cutting, painting, and basing once I get this one done.  There's also a bunch of foam terrain at Kevin's house which I will be painting up soon as well.

Stay tuned for more goodness.

Building a Gaming Table [Part 2]

And so the adventure continues!
First up this week I added the sides to the table.  This consists of 3 1/2 inch pine board, screwed into the plywood, which will form the border of the table and a lip to keep stuff (dice & models) from sliding off of the table.  It also added a lot of rigidity to the edges of the board.

Next up, for further support we added trusses to each end of the table where the most overhang was.  It took away whatever slack that remained.  We also filled all the countersunk screw holes with some elmers wood filler in preparation for staining next week.

Next,  it was time to install the foam-board.  Turns out the people who make this have completely forgone all reason and sized the boards to 2ft and 1/8in.  Leaving us with an extra 1/4in of foam when we tried to place it in the table.  Absolute madness.  I cut out the slot for the river on the near half of the board, you can see it's in 2 separate pieces there, and we set to work gluing it all down.

For extra heresy repulsion the table will have this permanent Aquila beneath it, which will hopefully help with my dice rolls. [Probably not]

Now, we wait.  The glue had to dry some before we [I, mostly]  did anything else.  So we put some useless books to use weighing it all down.  While the rest of those people were talking and slacking off I began to draw up a more formal plan for the table going onward, which I left at Kevin's house, so no pic.

However, you can't just work without having any fun, and so the paraLOLogram was born from the cut out river section.  Andy here is a very skittish lad and is using it for protection.

Once the glue set a bit I set to work adding some light texture to the board using some air drying clay. It's very subtle and isn't noticeable yet, but I will hope it will break up the flatness of the board once it is finished.  I also installed the arches where the water will go underground, you can sorta make them out if you zoom in.  Smeared the clay over the whole board in hopes it will be a better surface for the flocking to stick to once it comes to doing that.  Did the same to some hill/dunes we made a while back.  Was a dirty job, as you can see from my hand.

That's it for this week, come back again next week for another table update.