Narcissus' scenery WIPs

Hi everyone,
I've been lurking around the scenery and terrain threads for a while. I thought I would finally get it together and post some of my projects up on here. So far I have lots of WIPs (so I can at least game on them!) and not much finished. I tend to get too excited by one project and jump to the next. Hopefully this will help me to keep it on track. I am always looking for advice too.

First up: storage tanks. My home forum (chaoticorder.ca) is having a terrain contest for halloween. Has to be a bit spooky. So for some reason I decided on a little storage tank facility. I want to have a small industrial area in my Mordheim city (plus it could be used in 40k or Deathsquads too...). I am invisioning a dingy area with warehouses, some factories, storage, and a dock type area. Lots of fun terrain. I think it could have a nice little steampunk vibe too. This first piece should have okay gaming potential with little walkways on three levels. I still need to add a ladder to the base and then get painting it.

What color should the fuel tanks be? A chipped paint (if so what color)? Rusted steel? Corroded bronze?




Are these images too large?

Comments and criticisms appreciated!

VERY NICE WORK! I must admit I have a weakness for Industrial Chic...storage tanks & catwalks are cool to moi. AS far a spooky goes, there was an Inquisitor piece with a warped creature clawing its way out of a tank that epitomizes creepy at least from a 40K perspective. Color-wise: grays, rust, & warning signs spring to mind.

Now on to a painful subject...you might consider moving this threat to the Sci-Fi Shout It Out section unless you're planning on adding Mordheim related thingies to the thread. Give the word & I could move it over.

I am hoping the fountain can be painted to fit into the Mordheim setting too. Maybe really rusted out. They had to store stuff in Mordheim too, right? I am hoping for a bit of a steam-punk style fit. We shall see though...

Here is a completed Mordheim fountain. Dozer's thread inspired me to make this one. Made from pink foam, an old model, and some WS water effects. Water effects somehow lifted the blue ink from under the paint. It made the water a bluish color, which looks alright. Based on a CD.



And a blurry close-up of some gore.


This next piece is two small houses connected by a walkway. I still need to sand and paint the base. I also need to add two stairs and a wrecked roof and then it should be pretty much done. Mostly happy with it. The texture is a little thick though.

VERY COOL! Both are EXCEPTIONALLY NICE pieces. I LOVE the multilevel effect on the twin buildings...the doors, window, & the arched walkway are GREAT touches. The verdigris effect on the statue is EXCELLENT. VERY WELL DONE!

Those pieces both look great. What did you use for the wall texture? The pictures don't look like it is to thick they look good.

Can't wait to see the house when the base and roof are complete.

That's some cool stuff you have there. That fountain is very atmospheric.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. I am hoping this helps to get me to finish more pieces!

Dozer wrote:

Those pieces both look great. What did you use for the wall texture? The pictures don't look like it is to thick they look good.

Can't wait to see the house when the base and roof are complete.

The texture is done with spackle. I applied it with a torn piece of cardboard. My newer pieces are using a small piece of plasticard the apply the texture in thinner layers.

I am trying to make my buildings partially intact. I don't love the intact front, non-existant back look. I am trying to have buildings that still maintain their shape but are playable on many levels. Hopefully I will finish the base and post up the finished model next week.

I have some more WIP buildings I will try and post up soon.

Next projects: more storage tanks, more buildings, temporary dwellings, dice tower, board(?).

Very very neat! congrats! keep us updated!

The scenery section of the board has been pretty slow. I took some pictures so now I have some new pieces to update you with. I am still not totally finishing pieces, but I am getting better. I have one more totally (???) finished.

Here is my storage tank. I am hoping it will fit in alright in Mordheim and in a 40k setting.

The rust is sponged on bestial brown, vomit brown, and a little blazing orange. It doesn't look quite so orange in real life.


The base is pink foam cut into strips with the shape of individual bricks cut into it. Maybe a bit too time consuming for a base.


The supports are balsa wood. The tanks are pop cans with plasticard rivets, pipes, and patches. The ends are made from cardboard.

And here is a little bridge that I made back in September. I need some rivers for it to go over now!

I still want to add some moss to this one. Either stippled green paint and some wash stains or I may try glueing on some green flock. Which would look best? It definitely looks too clean right now!

Both are EXCELLENT pieces! The storage tanks would look GREAT as part of a Dwarven Brewery or some such thingy. How'd you do in the contest?

I really like the storage tanks now. Couldn't see where you were going with the WIP shots. Excellent job on the rust.

For the bridge I'd spend some time looking at cianty's scenery. Love the way he does stone.

Thanks for the positive feedback.

DeafNala-I didn't get the piece completed in time for the contest. I had too much going on and was two weeks late. That's okay. It is just a club contest and we are trying to get a monthly competition going to generate some interest and things on the forum. I like the idea of using the pieces with a brewery. Would definitely fit in well next to a Brewhaus. I like making my terrain modular so I could make them combine in a few different ways. Thanks for the idea!

The rock is pretty rough on the bridge. It is the first piece I completed and my first experiment with rock on a bridge. I have seen cianty's work before. I think he does base colors and then individual colors on some of the individual stones before the final highlights. Is that right? I think I will try that on some pieces in the future.

Here is an almost complete urban hill/platform. I just need to touch up the wood and add some drybrushing to bring out the grain. Then I may do some stains and things on the rock. I am moving in a few weeks and I want to get some big and simple projects done so I am not moving raw materials around.

I hope to be able to use this to give buildings some elevation, as a hill in warhammer, and possibly as a quick base for a temple. I thought about making some simple pieces to go on top of it. Little ruined walls and things as a quick way to flesh out some scenery. I am fairly pleased with this piece. I think I will make a few more similar hills as they seem like a great way to diversify the terrain a bit.


It is made with pink foam and some balsa wood. The back stairs are wide enough for a % wide 25mm base regiment. Front is wide enough for a horde!


I still need to add some stains to the rock work and to finish up the wood. A pretty quick project with some good playability.

Next up I have two large storage tanks I built from junk. I'll put up some WIPs when I get the rivets done on them. Another quick project, although with more of a 40k slant. I just really want to do some more rust!

Looks good! Hope to see more soon!

Sorry that the images above are gone. A local forum that had picture hosting closed without warning, deleting the pictures. I will search my computer to add some back in.


This is a bit embarrassing, it has been eleven months since I have built any terrain. Or at least finished any!

Even more embarrassing, here is a painted model that I constructed in November, 2010! Two years ago! I half painted it and then didn't finish it. Today I decided I would experiment with airbrushing terrain using this piece. The pictures are a bit washed out as it is too big to fit in my light box.

Total painting time was about 1 hour 10 minutes for the airbrushing and then about 10 minutes of dry brushing and adding the runs with a wash. I had already painted the buildings brown and had done a little bit of work on the white areas previously (I painted over it with the airbrush though).




I showed the burnt areas using some black.


I painted the roof, each tile individually, in under 10 minutes including colour changes.


Most of the areas have at least 2 highlights.





Comments and criticisms appreciated as always!

Don't sweat the time lapse; "real" life often intrudes on our projects & a break often refreshes our interest, getting the creative juices flowing, & stuff like that. The basic building is cool, but the paint job brings it to another level. VERY WELL DONE!

Here are some pictures of my painted modular canals. I started this project a year ago and even included a tutorial on my blog on how to build modular canals. At the time I promised they would be painted by the end of the month. Oops! I guess I was waiting to improve my skills. The first set is completely painted now.


These models were actually really quick to paint. I painted chips and wear on the side using a sponge and brown and silver paint as I showed in a tutorial on chipped metal. I used a big sponge brush and painted it very quickly. I then used my airbrush to airbrush rust stains in places (used Vallejo Model Air Burnt Umber).


I then painted the water areas using a mix of a dark green and black (craft paints). While it was still wet I put a line of light green down the center. I then used a large brush to roughly blend it in the center of the water section. I was careful to use long strokes along the length of the water to ensure there were no places where the lines stopped.


To seal the model I quickly coated them in matte varnish (Testors Dull Coat). I used Americana "Triple Thick" gloss varnish on the water. I painted it on with a brush, once again being careful to keep the brush strokes in the same direction as the water.


This all went very quickly. I probably spent only 2 hours or so after the initial grey base coat. The pieces are modular and can be arranged in a wide variety of different ways. These sections are 6 feet in total. Once I paint the other sections the versatility will be greatly increased.

VERY WELL DONE! The highlights in the water give a great sense of motion. The color you chose is realistic, but also disturbing enough to discourage wading across.

I like the house and espcially the painting.

Damn, I need an airbrush