Bluddtoof here with my latest project (with help from Doc!).
For quite a while now the Code boys have been bemoaning the inevitable wear and tear on our scenery brought on by the quite heavy use it's been getting in recent years, what with running several events as well as our own regular games.
So we've started to invest in a few new sets, (hopefully there'll be many future posts about the other sets in progress), I'd suggested the idea of a tank graveyard and had originally envisioned it in a desert theme. However I couldn't decide on a way to easily make realistic sand dunes that would not only look good but also be hard wearing and usable; models would need to balance on them. So I went back to the drawing board and had the idea of a swamp theme; I've been wanting to have another go at water effects since my disastrous attempt on the Eldar Hornet base; see here .
The plan was to make a series of swampy pools with the wrecks of various tanks partially submerged and crashed in them, that way I could cut up whatever vehicles I ended up using and get multiple pieces from each kit.
Doc found the ideal solution to what vehicles to use in the form of a box full of broken old Space Marine tanks covered in lots of paint and with all their bits ripped off; all unusable as gaming miniatures even with the best will in the world. These came from Andy at Worcester Wargames, a big thanks to him!
So I set about stripping the years of paint from these bad boys; and what a task that was! One landraider had no less than 6 layers of different colour paint on it. Several bottles of Dettol and a very smelly house (Thankfully my better half is very understanding) later, I had 4 landraiders, 6 rhinos and 4 landspeeders ready for the hacksaw!!
I ended up with 12 pieces of terrain.....
The base is cut from 6mm Dutch Grey Board and the rim built up with the off cuts and plaster skim (a really useful ready mixed plaster designed for repairing plastered walls), the tank parts and random bodies and bits glued to the base. Then they were given a solid spray undercoat of grey (Tamiya).
Next step was a mega paint session with Doc in which we got all the pieces to a point where we were happy to just have the addition of weeds and plantlife and some extra weathering and detailing left, and of course the all important water effects.
So I set about this over the next couple of weeks, the plants are modelling Lichen, I put all these in place and then poured the water effects (Woodland Scenics Realistic Water). This took about 2 days to cure fully however there was some almost random reaction between the Lichen and the resin which left some areas slightly cloudy even after another day. I seem to be a little cursed with water effects! Unperturbed I decided to camouflage these areas with a muddy swampy effect, achieved by gluing green flock, washing with Athonian Camoshade, adding Nurgles Rot and a variety of rust effect liquids and powders whilst still wet and then once it was fully dry (with a very matte finish) applying a coat of gloss varnish to the areas to bring back the wet look.
Here's lots of piccies......
Overall I'm happy with the look, slightly annoyed with the clouding of the water effects, it was a brand new bottle. It hasn't come out as I'd originally intended or as I anticipated as it went along. It's definitely evolved as it's progressed. I'm pleased with how close the edges matche the cloth, we have a pre printed swamp mat on order for use with this set, so that should look even better.
Hope you all like this, as ever c and c are very welcome.
Do you think it's enough scenery for a game? How would you define the pools in a game?
Bluddtoof
