Pirexian's WH40k - Terrain

So, I've been working on terrain for my gaming group, and I decided I wanted to try out some water effects. For this I made a couple of lakes with MDF boards; I cut them with a jig-saw, file the edges and glued on some poliestirene, shaped it with a hot-wire cutter, then covered all with some arts craft white paste, once dry and hardened I glued with PVA glue some sand to texturize it.

After that, brush on some paint an here it is:


Now, I'm not done yet, I still need to add the water effects, I've got some crystal clear resin compound as you can see on the picture (HA-HB), I just have to mix it 50/50 and MAYBE mix in a little bit of cyan pain.. or maybe ink.. I'm not sure yet... I'll do some testing before applying to the terrain, I'll keep you updated with the results.

It's my first time using resin/water effects, so I'm a bit nervious, wish me luck.

So, I pured the resin already, I added a couple of drops of cyan blue to the mix, I guess it'll work as a subtle transparent wash/tint.. at least that's what I'm hoping for, so far so good, it looks just fine.

Very nice work!

Looks very nice! You've obviously done your homework!

Water effects are not the easiest of things to get to look good/right. Yours looks GREAT...FINE WORK!

That is well done, great blending of colors to add depth.

I finished some craters from the GW Moonscape set.

Those are some very sharp pieces...your FINE brushwork & color choices bring them to a higher level. Considering it was hit with a comet, those would also work well in Mordheim..multi-purposing is The Way. VERY WELL DONE!

Thanks Deaf =)

Also, I started a little project, I want (some day) to have a desert/rocky game board, so I began to work on some rocks and terrain elements.

Materials:
- MDF boards (for the bases)
- White glue.
- Poliestirene glue.*
- Fine sand (any sand)
- Some aquarium gravel.
- Cork sheet.
- Poliestirene sheets, different sizes.
- Modeling plaster.
- Cheap craftstore Paints.



I cut the MDF boards with a jigsaw, and filed the edges, then glued the poliestirene sheets on top (which I cut with a Hotwire foam cutter).
With a lighter, I kind of burned the poliestirene's surface (I was very carefuly not the burn the whole thing), to get rid of the sharp edges and the little annoying "bubbles" the foam has.
Also this way the whole surface looks more natural and organic, you achive a smooth surface with convex and concave curves (like real terrain).
To glue the MDF base to the Poliestirene sheets, I found white glue is not that awesome, so I used some special poliestirene glue, that takes longer to harden but it's way better.



Once the glue was dry, I covered the whole surface with Modeling plaster, this step was the most messy and troublesome IMO.
I waited for the plaster to harden (It should take like 8 hrs, or probably less than that..) and mixed 50/50 of white glue and water, then covered some areas with sand, cork and some gravel here and there. I didn't cover the areas I wanted to look "rocky". When the glue/sand was dry, I went back and gave the whole thing a couple more coats of white glue, just to make sure that sand wont pile off with time/use.



You can compare scale here, this particular piece has just enough space to fit a rhino/vindicator/trukk in the middle.



Now I just have to prime the pieces, and paint them, but I think I'll make a few more.
I really want some tall terrain pieces, tall enough to completely break line of sight for Flyers.

Nothing enhances Little Warriors like placing them in an appropriate setting. Your new terrain looks GREAT...even unpainted the Space Marines look better for their surroundings. Have FUN with the Beasty...of course, making terrain is highly addictive.

thanks!
Black primer done.

Now comes the fun part...

By the way, the modeling plaster I used to cover the whole surfaces was one like this one: (also it's thanks to this stuff that I was able to cover the pebble foam's horrible texture, it works pretty well! I was able to use spray paint for the black coat without having the foam melting on me)


I started painting already, the final result will match the craters' edge texture as well as the base texture of the lakes.


Here's the first brown (the darker tone) I really thinned down the paint, so that the paint would work as a wash on the rocky parts, that way it shows some of the black of the base coat, I'll start working with the rock texture from there.


Lots of drybrushing to do... Hopefuly I'll be able to finish these two pieces by tomorrow.

That is coming along very nicely. I've heard good things about Das, although I use Woodland Scenics Foam Putty myself. The base color looks GREAT...a bit of dry brushing should make it even better.

I love this thread.

It is most informative.

I just like how Pirexian breaks down his methodology in a step-by-step manner and shares his materials in the process.

Wonderful stuff from a very creative master!

Oh and by the way, I love how you painted the craters!

Those are some nice pieces. Bought those same craters, but haven't got around to painting them yet. Looking forward to the finished rock/sand pieces!

Finished ! I'm happy with the results, I'll definetly repeat the process, but those will be larger pieces of terrain for sure, I need total line of sight blocking.







And a little Photoshop editing here and there... and we have a sample of the way I want the game board to match my terrain.

The bottom Photo is SPECTACULAR...the combination of FINE terrain & minis is a joy to see. VERY WELL DONE!

Cool! That terrain looks great, and even better with some minis. I particularly like the colour contrast between the rock and the sand - well done!

I spied your terrain over on C.M.o.N. & voted. Figuring the rest of the Forum Folk might like to contribute a vote also, here's a link:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/315548

Thanks a lot guys! =)

I finished applying Modeling plaster to another terrain piece, only that this time I gave it a little extra texture to the rocky parts (something that I totally missed for my previous finished pieces).

Very early stage of this piece, but that's the main idea... total Line of sight blocking... even for flyers. Need to mold a little bit the foam, then cover it with modeling paste of course, this is just the core shape.

LOOKS GOOD! It has the strange, tortured shapes as some of our Southwestern rock formations. Keep up the GOOD WORK!

A little progress, modeling plaster applied. I added some texture, before the plaster was dry I kind of poke the surface with a rock, giving it a little bit of texture.



and added a little bit of character to the piece, a friend of mine got a few dakka jets, he's not using one of these bombs so yeah... =)

So I added some sand, rubble, couple of rocks, and primed the piece black.







I added a bit of extra rubble and rocks down below where the rocket crashed.