Wednesday 16 September 2015

Swamp Thing! A new Terrain set for The Code 40k

Hi All

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

11 comments:

  1. Wow, cant believe you have finished it all. Its great to see the project come to a close and look forward to our game on the 28th with the new swamp mat in place. Photos now doubt don't do this justice. I like the lichen and in particular like the rhino piece that looks particularly submerged. The edges now look better with some definition. Overall dude great job!

    Cheers

    DOC

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  2. Those look really great, well done! Hopefully get to see them up close some time over a game!

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    1. Cheers Tom. BTW I liked your recent knight pilot. Good work.

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  3. A fantastic job, the painting is great, but then again that is not too surprising.

    Far too many people overlook building some decent terrain (which reminds me to crack on with more of mine)

    As for enough, probably but not by itself. I think you need some tall LOS blocking terrain.

    With so many big nasties out there, us little marines need something to hide behind!

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    1. I'm considering adding to the set with some free standing lichen clumps and rocky protuberances!

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  4. Freaking awesome! I'd call the pools difficult or dangerous. (dangerous if acid). You should look into getting some sort of mat that fits in with these lovely pieces to tie it all together! Agree on LOS terrain as well. Should have LOS terrain big enough to hide an imperial knight pretty much.

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  5. I'm going to rely on everyone to spot and sing praise, as I'm going to be that guy that offers (constructive, when you calm down and think about it) criticism.

    [rant]
    This confuses me.

    14 vehicles make 12 pieces of terrain?

    Cut each vehicle on half and that's 28 pieces. 12...? O.o

    I know some had two vehicles per piece, but use two halves for that and you still got two halves for two more pieces. Did he eat some or something...? ;)

    A lot of the cut vehicles are very straight too, no natural angles ~ everything is cut at 90 degrees and is sinking at 90 degrees. It makes my eyes itch! How do I itch my eyes!? I'm rubbing my face on the floor like the dogs rubs it's bum. Also, where the dog rubs it's bum (I figured he must know the good spots) so know I got itchy eye stinky face!

    And the one with the rocks on it, are they Martian jumping rocks...? How'd those massive boulders get up on top of it. It just doesn't look right.

    And the ones that are sticking straight up vertical, nearly made me spew... And not the fun kind of spew.

    Google "sinking vehicles" or something, how many haven't sunk but have big rocks on them. How many are at clear 90 degrees angles. How many (had to pause for composer, giggling so much I've pissed a little bit) are sticking straight up with less submerged than is in the air! :D
    [/rant]

    Awesome water affects though! :)

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    1. I'm pleased you liked something at least. Thanks for taking a look.

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    2. I liked a lot! Lots of good effort and affects here ~ I just figured I'd focus my comments on the angles as it caught my eye the most, and if you did some more pieces or if anyone else was thinking of givin this a go, then that's the main thing that I thought could be improved :)

      The water affects are really good and do actually look like it IS water, instead of a sheet of glass or a mixture of paints to create something that looks "like" water.

      The mud and scenic paintwork is really nice too, bringing the vehicles and bases together.
      The paint jobs on the vehicles are good too (better than mine atm which I actually play with!), some nice weathering across them all. I did think for a moment that there should be some rust streaks going down the vehicles in the position there are now in as they've been there a while and been rained on (tank graveyard), but then I thought maybe they've not been there that long. Maybe this battle was last week or last month.

      I think some battle damage, blackened burned areas, and some loose tracks would really help to add some more scenic flavour and give that "after battle" feel.

      There's lots to compliment here, and you've made an awesome themed set if terrain ~ Also, these can be used to replace vehicles if any "tank destroyed" results come up, I'm always a fan of seeing tanks replaced with "some" kind of scenery rather than just suddenly disappearing from the battlefield because it got shot :D

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