Tutorial: Craters and Explosions (Part Two)

As a follow up to Part One of the Craters and Explosions tutorial, here is how I paint it.

After priming the pieces black, I drybrush grey over it. I used VMC Dark Blue Grey, but the likes of GW Codex Grey work fine. I use grey just because my marines are Urban-themed and the board Alex and I play on is also Urban (and he's building a new, sturdier, one. Here's his first post if you missed it).





Next I drybrush a coat of VMC Flat Earth (GW Graveyard Earth works great here too). From here I'm going to just going to be putting down muddy colors that would be under the ashy urban surface mimicking what would happen if a shell fell down and thrust the ground underneath upward.





After that I drybrush on some GW Bestial Brown...





Then a light coat of GW Desert Yellow for a primary highlight.





Finally I put a very light drybrush of GW Bleached Bone on the crater just to make the piece "pop" a bit more.




And a size comparison with a Space Hulk Terminator:




So that's it. If you want to make a more smoky explosion, you can just use Steel Wool and paint a bit of fire on the bottom. I'll probably pick some up and do a tutorial when there is a bit of lull in my schoolwork.

Tutorial: Craters and Explosions (Part One)

So here is a very simple method to create craters and explosion effects. I do warn you, though, the tissue paper takes FOREVER to dry completely so if you need a piece of terrain immediately, look elsewhere. Otherwise if you have about ten or fifteen minutes to kill in a day and don't mind leaving it to sit for a few days, this method is ace.

Step one, cut out a frame. It can be anything. I suggest foamcore, but I use posterboard here. You're just using it so you can place the wet paper down and be able to move it around so the material isn't a huge deal.


Step two is to mix some Elmer's Glue with water (it should be mostly water. I'd say about at least 5:1 water:glue)and gather your materials. I have my paste mix, some Toilet Paper, some paper clips, an old pen shell and some super glue.


CRATER
First I'll start with the crater. Simply tear of lines of toilet paper, dip in you paste substance, and create a circle with them on your base. Be sure to slope the outer edges!


Next, if you want, sprinkle on some sand to give it an extra texture.


Bam! Done with the crater construction. Now onto...

EXPLOSION
First glue your pen shell upright. This will be the main debris flying from the impact of the exploding shell on the ground.


Next, bend your paperclips and glue them around your pen shell. These will be the debris strands flying outward from the center of explosion.


Now dip small strands of Toilet Paper into your paste substance and begin to wrap it around each debris strand. Make sure you fiddle with it to make it look chaotic (like an explosion) and be sure if you have any loose strands that they point up in the direction of the debris. It is inevitable that some will fall off and some will need to be adjusted, but if you are patient it's not a big deal. The beauty of the long dry time of this paste is that it directly results in a longer work time meaning you can change anything you want for a long time after the original build.



The next step i don't have a picture for, but just like the "Crater" part of this tutorial, create a small crater directly around the debris strands. It will produce an effect as if a shell just hit the ground causing a crater and all the crap flying upwards is the displaced ground.

Now sprinkle sand on it. This will further add to the effect of ground being blown upward.



Part Two can be found here!

METEORS!!!

So I found an awesome video tutorial on Miniwargaming about crashed Asteroids
and decided to give it a go myself! This is what was produced:






I am honestly so happy with the results that I'm doing a tutorial on craters and explosions using this same method which will be posted up later in the day on Monday with Part Two following whenever the damned stuff dries!

I think it looks cool, what about you guys?

Getting drunk on terrain

Alex and I have seem to caught a bug... a terrain bug. The other night him and I began work on two terrain pieces to even further liven up our city board (see: titan terrain). Well I just finished painting my piece. It's meant to be low-key, but I think it looks great personally. The rusted Landspedder really brings character to an otherwise dull (as it should be) set of ruins. I may add some guard bits here and there with gore to throw in some more colors, but for now I'm content (at least until I finish my GD Chicago entries!)

Titan Terrain (Part 2)

As promised by Twitter (updates over there, on the right) I would post up the big-ass piece of Titan terrain Alex and I built and painted the other night. Not counting dry time, this probably only took us 4 hours to build and paint which is pretty awesome. Then again, the titan body and head themselves were already built before we dove into this project (I built a full titan last year which then got crushed by multiple things, including my foot). Anyways, here it is:








Size comparisons:




I also added an extra touch to the Titan foot (rust):






Slowly Alex and I are getting a battlefield with appropriate Terrain. Woot!

Titan Terrain

Last summer I scratch built a Warhound titan for only $30 but at one point I ran out of styrene so I naively thought that cardboard would hold its own. That is, cardboard legs with a styrene torso. Needless to say, the thing was quite top heavy and ended up collapsing on on itself (with a bit of aid from my foot accidentally stepping on it). A lot of hard work for nothing...until now. I decided "Hey! This would make for some great terrain!" so I began work. This is the first piece with the only foot I have remaining. A simple thing but it'll really bring some "pop" to the games Pat, Alex and I play together. I have the whole torso and head still and plan on making a MASSIVE piece out of that soon enough. Need to get some Valhallans done first :)

Before shots:



After shots:

Preparing for Planetstrike

On Thursday Alex and I got together for a day and did a variety of things, mainly 40k related, and one of them was Terrain building. We decided to build a few things in preparation for Planetstrike and decided, for now, on a Bastion and a Fortress (of sorts). The Fortress will end up being modular walls with assault cannon towers, but they are more or less just terrain pieces that allow tanks to sit behind (we had the fortress from Storm of Iron in mind). To add to that we plan on building some defense turrets and such. However, that is still a WIP, but gives you something to look forward too.

These following pictures are of the Bastion I built tonight which have side Hurricane Bolter turrets, two Heavy bolters in the front, two large coolant fans inv the rear, and a missile launcher up top where Infantry can stand and such. I may add some more to it as, currently, it is kind of bland, but you get the idea! Anyways, comments are appreciated!