Destroyed Ford F-30 LRDG with Bofors 37mm (UK, WW2)

 3D printed destroyed vehicle for WW2 games in 28mm. Plant based gray elegoo resin.

Sprayed camo tan Krylon paint and primer combo. Washed with Secret Weapon (SW) Dark Sepia brushed up and touch ups SW light Dust. Weathering with Forge World (FW) weathering powder Black Soot. Edge highlights for damages SW Engine Metal. Ground cover Army Painter (AP) Highland Tufts and Lowland Shrubs.

A few other projects on the desk. Notably a WW2 german Sd.Kfz.9 from the same file collection. Its really illustrative in terms of how massive that vehicle really was compared to other vehicles in its class. 

Also appearing are a couple of “nearly dones” from the Junkfort, some fishing boats and a small ship for use with Blood and Plunder and general Roleplaying games.

Back to the grind!

Forward Base: Habitat 5 part 6 wrapping up

Wrapping up Hab 5 construction by adding the exterior steps, some resin details, and the exterior light acrylic.

Antenocitis Workshop have recently released some new steps and stairs for Forward Base which use acrylic steps for a super cool Sci-Fi look. I've not used them on Hab 5 because its a Vehicle Garage and Maintenance building so I rather liked the industrial grate feeling of the stock step but I will be using the new kits when some of the entertainment and command buildings show up on my desk.

As steps go these are pretty easy. I set the stringers in first and then set the steps while there was still some flex in the glue.

There are two exterior personnel doors.  In retrospect I might have made the steps removable for ease of storage between games... that may yet occur if the prove too vulnerable jutting out as they do.  The vehicle ramps are hinged and fold flat against the side of the building when not in use so they are much less of a concern. 

Next up are they acrylic exterior lights.

One of the upgrades to the building included full light brackets instead of the tiny resin caps that are usually used for mounting the lights. I really like the full brackets but they have a small disadvantage in that they have a set length... (Doh! I have, somewhat belatedly, realized I "could" have cut the bracket to alter their length a bit.  It would have been fussy but totally doable... oh well... lessons learned!)

  The acrylic rod provided with the kit was just a bit short of what is required to fully fill all the brackets.  With the stock endcaps I would measure the rod and set the individual light length according to rod supply... except... that I think of Forward Base as a modular system with many interchangeable parts which means, for example, all lights used for all "Hab 1" style buildings should be the same length... so it looks wonky fast if that is not the case. 

Left you see the universal jig that is evolving to cover the various Hab light lengths. 

Right we see... I ran out of acrylic rod! Not to worry I'll swipe some from the next building I open and fill it in. Antenocitis also sometimes has acrylic rod available separately which is super useful.

The fixture count was odd.  There were six brackets but 7 scribed locations for them. Its not a big issue as this middle location is a bit camouflaged by the other scribed details.

You can see here the Bay Doors in their closed position. The resin face is inside the bays as thsi orientation gave the best fit.

I didn't have any vehicles close to hand for a comparison but I did have the Forge World Gargantuan Squiggoth on the table for some repairs. The poor thing took a hit to the tail and some of the Big Shootas during the move here. Its all better now. You can see the Hab 5 is large enough to offer even this big fella some cover!

It also occurred to me that Hab 5 might make a good Lair for a Supers Game... Its a really big space with room for a couple of vehicles and multi level combat internally... food for thought!

 

 

A-Z Mart (Weathered)

The first building out of the gate for the Post Apocalypse terrain set is the A-Z Mart (weathered) from the "Survival" line over at Antenocitis' Workshop

This is a super cool model with great details and a lot of playable interior space.

 In addition to the usual great photo print details there is a lot of damaged glass for the windows and the doors to the coolers, which give a really convincing 3D effect to the coolers.

The building is Prepainted MDF which really means that the MDF is covered with a single color surface process that helps make it look less like MDF and when you go to do some additional painting its a great starting point.

 For this building I've gone with the prepainted color scheme and just added some weathering, decals (Antenocitis Workshop and Ginfritter's Gnomish Workshop), and the odd bit of flat art to that.

Weathering was accomplished mostly with Forge World Weathering Powders Medium Earth, Black Soot, Red Rust, and Orange Rust.

I didn't additionally weather the glass because the cracking effects might be obscured.

The Newsboxes on the outside are also from Antenocitis Workshop and I used some of the photo elements from the A-Z Mart to create newspapers and other signs on them.

The Newsboxes are very heavily weathered like the pay phones from the previous post using the same technique but with red instead of blue.

The AC unit on this model has been swapped for one of the MDF units from the Lazy Dog Saloon.  The AC unit provided with the model is resin cast and has a sleeker rounded look and a lower, longer shape.

Next up is the Pristine version of this building and LED retrofits to the Undertown table.

Data Trust interior details

 The interior resin details are done for the Data Trust.

I replaced the little searchlight that I had scratch built to use as a grip for removing the roof with a resin and metal drone control and coms array.  The dish antennas may prove tricky in the long run and complicate storage so I may, at some point, add magnets to these... I'm not certain of the benefit vs the risk of damage as the dishes are metal and there is some weight stress on the connection points that might not be great for magnets... we'll see I suppose.

The control point was painted over a black primer with Orange Heat (Secret Weapon) which is a really interesting technical paint I highlighted with Orange Rust (Secret Weapon) and glazed with Orange Wash (Secret Weapon) lining was Rust Shadow (Secret Weapon) which is fast becoming my favorite liner.

The dishes are metal primed black dry brushed with Silver (Vallejo) washed with Armor Wash (Secret Weapon) red panels are Blood Red (Reaper) glaze of Orange Heat, glaze of Orange Rust liner with Rust Shadow. 

Grey Panels Stormy Grey (Reaper) Brush up with Sky Grey (Reaper)

  I love that you can see details through the open windows and that is my motivation to eventually add LED lighting... once I find the bits!

Raging Heroes Void Elf for scale today.

Exterior Weathering is mostly Forge World Weathering Powders, primarily Medium Earth.

Ground Floor interior details: Food Vending Machine, Large TV, Coffee Station, Interactive Table and two Bench Seats. Details glued to the walls except the table and seats which are magnetized and can be removed as required.

I had already constructed the doors before I looked at the contents of the resin upgrade pack.  The upgrade pack includes replacement door frames and doors that are armored. 

I decided to keep the office style doors that I had already installed and use the armored door elements later... maybe when building a NERVE (Neon Genesis Evangelion) outpost or SD-6 (Alias)style hidden facility.

Moral of the story... always check the upgrade sets before building the base structure!

Data Trust Upstairs interior features four Data Walls and a master interface terminal.  The Data Walls are glued in and the Interface Terminal is magnetized so it can be reoriented or removed.





There is still a lot more of the Undertown to do including an awesome Game Shop! but... its pretty playable at the moment so I think I'll veer into the Post Apocalypse buildings for a bit and get a baseline of buildings set up.  Since we're running Fallout:Wasteland Warfare from time to time I'd better get something more suitable for that built.

Back to the desk!

Modern and Post Apocalyptic vehicle wrecks and trash bins

 While the ubiquitous ruins frequently found on my table, and the tables of almost ever 40K player, can do great service as Post Apocalypse terrain I have just begun generating a more genre specific set primarily for use with Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, Gamma World, The Order of Vampire Hunters, and all things related to the Zombie Apocalypse.

 Starting with an old favorite Antenocitis Workshop from their Survival Vehicles category: Flipped Car, Bricked Merc, and Fender Bender.

These are really fun sculpts with lots of character and the resin material is the typical super high quality that comes from Antenocitis Workshop... smooth, very little cleaning required, and takes paint readily.








The base colors were accomplished via rattlecan Primer+Paint combos from Krylon and Rustoleum. Dry-Brushing to bring out the detail which was bloc painted in basic colors. 

Weathering started with Brown, Red, Yellow, and Orange Rust from Secret Weapon and finished with Forge World Powders Orange Rust for the Brick impact area, muffler cases and some parts of the iron beams.

 A quick side trip into an assortment of bins (Also from Antenocitis Workshop) which are useful across the genre barrier.  Sprayed Krylon Camo Green and dry-brushed these represent some common types of bins encountered in residential and shopping areas.

 Back to the wrecks!  The Flipped Car, shown with a Star Saga Veermyn lurking nearby, is covered in viney growths indicating that its been like this for quite a while.  It out of place in the Undertown and would be more at home in a junkyard or in a setting like Fallout.

 Fender Bender reminds me of the Yugo... if anyone remembers those... the implication is that the car was struck by the motorcycle and was bent by the impact... made of repurposed bubblegum wrapper!

... then there are metal beams and even a kitchen sink on it...

who know why those Plague guys are hanging out near it... but time to meet my little friend!

The Bricked Merc is fun and I wonder where all the brick came from... so I think I'll have to make a collapsing brick building in this theme just to have it sit near this one.

Plague Abomination and operative from Star Saga.

Its always fun working in a new theme.  I think a convenience store and a petrol station... and maybe a shanty saloon would make for a good start... oh and a mat...

Back to the desk!

Ork Mortars from Bitspudlo

 A while back I went looking to fill a gap in my Ork Lobbas.  I have three of the Forgeworld models magnetized to swap out between field carriages and the weapon mounts of the Gargantuan Squiggoth and I wanted another three in case I decided to use the Squiggoth and the field artillery... or just didn't feel like digging out the Squiggoth to swipe the guns for a game... anyway... I was surprised to be unable to locate them on either the Forgeworld or GW sites.

 I play a lot of legacy models and play in different editions of the game so I went looking for a replacement model and, after some sticker shock on Ebay, discovered Hexy Shop.  They carry a variety of third party conversion bits and a few complete models.  I located the Lobba replacement with a company out of Poland called Bitspudlo.  At $13.23 a pop I thought I'd give them a go.

The resin is good quality cleanly cast with sharp detail, a dry, and very paintable, surface but is a little on the brittle side and there were a few bubbles in the road wheels.  No major flaws and they fit the theme of the GW Orks with glyphs and a cobbled together appearance.

I painted them up in a state of very poor repair using the Secret Weapon rust line augmented with the GW Technicals; Ryza Rust, Tyhphus Corrosion, and Necron Compound.

All my basing supplies are packed so I'll have to base these on the other side of the house move. 







Packing up the house is going quickly now and my Ork models are all stowed so I grabbed, an about to be packed, Tinkerbell from the Twisted Game to use for scale. 

We're out house hunting so no updates for a couple of weeks... and then... I might... maybe... get one more out before everything is too packed up to continue working.

Cheers!

3D Printed Sci-Fi wheeled APC and wheeled ARV

 The Jailbirds got a couple of new vehicles this week but they, themselves, were out of reach for photos!  We'll make do with some of their potential adversaries like trusty Canoness Veridyan (GW).

The vehicles were 3D printed on a Snapmaker at high quality.  The files came from a Duncan "Shadow" Louca vehicle Kickstarter.

These continue the badlands nomad theme that is basically a Flesh Wash (Secret Weapon) over the standard Khaki workup.

 The wheels were painted Rubber (Secret Weapon) and the weathering was done with Secret Weapon technical paints.  Old Mud, Caked Dirt, Engine Metal, and Rust Shadow.

Rust Shadow makes an excellent liner and gives a "Borderlands" style shadow.  I think it will look really great with some other vehicles colors which I'll get into when I'm doing some of the civilian vehicles pressed into service by the caravan.

 Repo-Man! is a very vital vehicle for the Jailbirds.  Their gear is mostly second tier except for their bikes which are cutting edge.  The Jailbirds basically drag anything they can get off the field although they tend to focus on wheeled vehicles since they are easier to operate and maintain in their caravan lifestyle.

 The Jailbirds are much more organized and uniform that the typical "Mad Max-esque" Badlanders as they also form semi-regular military formations.  Basically they wear uniforms of a sort and their vehicles are identifiable as part of a regular, if somewhat eclectic, military unit.

 "Tailgater" with Mantic Star Saga marines and Forgeworld ripper swarms for scale.  I used magnets for the turret and for the hatches with the idea to optionally use Raging Heroes Ash, Tank Gunner as a vehicle commander.

 Repo-Man shown with Travelling merchant (Anvil Industries) or Trader Joe as he is known to the Jailbirds.

I saw some construction cranes the other day that had all the moving surfaces finished in a rubbery black color and thought that would be better than a shiny metal, attention attracting, surface.

A last look at Repo-Man with Raging Heroes Void Elves for scale.





















Last, I did basing and prep for a couple of Reaper minis for an RPG character.  A halfling Ranger, a couple of big dogs, and a triad of pups.  One of the dogs to be a Saint Bernard the other probably a Rottweiler or something similar to make the dogs easy to identify.

Adventures with static grass, and Undertown Tri Screen adverts

 A lot of fun the past couple of days!  I have never applied static grass other than manually... by sticking wads of it into adhesive with varying degrees of success... so I was very excited to experiment with a new Static Grass Pro Box from War World Scenics.  The box took some getting used to and a far bit of invective but, once I got the hang of it, did a great job applying the static grass to these festive mouslings!

A lot of close in shots how how nice the grass went in.  This first run I only used a 2mm spring mix and did not attempt do do tufts of longer grass.  The box handles 4mm static grass as well so it should do great... I'll give that a go next time.

 The box can shock you and rubber gloves are recommended.  There will be sparks and pops... its generating static electricity after all!  Also the grass travels quite a way so I learned to contain the work area in a box and use paper liners so the excess grass can be easily recovered for future use.

 I applied the grass to these bases after the figures were painted and mounted.  While the results were good I think it'll be a lot easier to do when mounting the models after completing the static application.  These models have integrated bases that I incorporated into the, slightly, larger square base so were not good candidates for static application before mounting.

All in all I'm really happy to have another tool fro my terrain kit!

 Moving on!

Revealing the pile of unprocessed resin from the last post...

Tri-Vid advertisements from Atenociti's Workshop's Undertown!

These are the small size screens.  There are two larger sizes which I will cover in future.

Shown here with several models for scale... these make great scatter and partial cover.  They are Made for Infinity but work quite well in a lot of games.

The Models are two parts plus three acrylic rods. I used the rods this time but think they would have been fine without them.  During assembly I intentionally put a couple of the signs together somewhat askew.  These are intended for undertown and most signs of this type I would imagine to be in poor repair.

The assembled models were sprayed with with Rustoleum French Vanilla primer and paint combo then dry-brushed with Hobbycraft Pure White. Blues were Reaper HD: Dragon Blue a dry-brush of Lightning Blue and then a glaze or two of Army Painter Blue Ink heavily thinned with Vallejo Glaze medium.

Weathering was done with an initial splatter of Caked Mud (Secret Weapon) followed by weathering powder Light Earth... paying special attention to the seams around the photo signs, and Grey Ash (both from Forge World) paying extra attention to make the glossy photo signs and acrylic rods appear to have smudged glass.