Apocalypse 40k Terrain

[bugbait_nz]

Glad to be of assistance I had problems when I made some small walls for warmachine, very hard to get an even thickness, especially if you want to carve in details.

[bugbait_nz]

Update

Plaster, sand, plaster, sand, plaster, sand etc etc, it’s the waiting for it to dry that is making this stage drag. 3kg of plaster later and I have most of the walls and towers done except for the external gun positions. Cheap kitchen knife ground to a tanto style is proving very handy with getting into the corners.
Do the “tap with the fingernail” test, if your fingernail goes through then it’s not thick enough, had to redo two walls, must have sanded too much off.

Also decided to do the reinforcing on the inside of the doors so still cutting out the pattern, polyurethane varnished the outside with no problems.
You wondering why I use polyurethane? Did some shipping containers made from corrugated cardboard, inspired by Ross's Wastland shanty town bits, painting it with straight PVA did not make it very hard, nor did spray paint, poly worked well and the random spray can of paint did not have any problems sticking. Must put them on my things to finish list and paint them up one day.

Bugbait out

[N810]

Wow Those containerized cargo thingies look great !

[Your Evil Twin]

Holy ***** that fortress is cool! Do you have a massive bourd to fit this on?? Also how are you planning to paint it?? and lastly do you have any templates for this or was it just cleverness?

Excellent work mate keep it up!

Your Evil Twin

[HolySanguinius]

I have a question. Did you use the powder, "mix your own plaster", or a tub of the premixed stuff?


I have had troubles with lumps in the powder form.

[bugbait_nz]

@Y E T - I have some Dulux Granite textured spray paint (thanks Dev for that idea), will do some testing with that to see if it will give a good result.
Found two bits of 4x4ft ply so a table will exist one day, as will some templates when I have everything fitting together.

@HS - I used interior grade powder filler from whoever is the cheapest, Sellies, Polyfilla, use a cup to mix it in, start with 1/4 cup of water and add a spoonfull of powder, mix it up with a flat stiring thing, repeat until it is smooth and not to hard to mix. I made one batch two stiff and it dried crumbly so too wet is probably better than too dry, bit like toothpaste.

[Dromedar]

looking Great! =)

Working on my own wall thingy (more like a stronghold ^^) so I can't wait to see the
results of your project

[LordWhiteWolf]

looks great. I was considering doing some city walls for my ruined city somthing like this would work great!

[bugbait_nz]

Update

Have employed slave labour to help with the plastering, here is gremlin #2 hard at work and doing a pretty good job as well! (she missed less bits than I did)
I have my first samples of granite textured paint drying for testing, looks promising.

Bugbait out

[bugbait_nz]

Update

Work has been progressing on the centre section, arches are made out of 1mm thick card with the dark card being cereal box card. Still have to finish off the plastering. Doors have a coat of spray paint, don’t close very good anymore, will have to sand back the overlapping bits before the final colour goes on.

Bugbait out.

[Easy E]

Nice work using the little ones. We must groom them while they are young.

Looking good. The tops of the towers are inspired.

[Skankin_Catachan]

I'm loving those doors. you gonna add some turrets to the walls?

hope to see those pdf's up!

[bugbait_nz]

The plan is to have 2 or 4 Autocannons on top of the guard towers, 4 Lascannon Tarantulas on the walls (you can see two mount points on either sides of the main gate), and 4 or more free-standing heavy bolter sentry gun towers away from the walls next to troop walls/bunkers, thats the plan at this stage, will have to see how hard it will be to scratch build them all.

Bugbait out.

[THE CHIEF]

Wow - I had a look at this a while ago when you were just starting and I thought it looked 'OK' (I'm a snob when it comes to using polystyrine in scenery!) This has turned into something really special. I'm now hooked

Out of curiosity, do you have any issues with cracking plaster after a while? The idea of a soft core with a brittle shell just fills me with fear so I've written off this technique in my own scenery making. Is it OK if you make the plaster thick enough, then cover it with a really hard varnish then? Cheers!

[bugbait_nz]

The only problem I have is with the thickness of the plaster. There is a bit of sanding involved and I have sanded off too much plaster on some sections to get it smooth, had to redo those walls again, next big project I will use 2 or 3 mm thick balsa strips as my depth guage, 1.5 was not enough.
I use hi-density white foam, once plastered it will handle very firm hand pressure with no problems, it can be picked up by grabbing any part without any worries, the guard stations made from foamboard are the bits that I am worried about.

What would you have made the walls of? mdf maybe? I did think about that.

Bugbait out.

[andymeechan]

Lessons learnt, get lots of those snap-off blades from the $2 shop, foamboard must be cut with a VERY sharp knife.

Using black foamboard seems to give more leeway on the life of blades. That is, it can be cut with blades that would shred the white stuff.

Just a pity that pencil lines don't show up as well as they do on white!

[THE CHIEF]

What would you have made the walls of? mdf maybe? I did think about that.

Bugbait out.

Possibly - or even thick card could work well. In both cases you would have to make supporting struts to minimise warping though. Yeah high density foam is good stuff - but very expensive! I think I might have to give it a go with the plaster because it's really starting to look 'real'. The added bonus of being able to etch detail into it afterwards is a real bonus too. Cheers for the info!

[bugbait_nz]

Update

Have added some details to the gate guard positions and started on the arches, this 1mm card is tough to cut, scissors don’t do a tidy job, have to use my Stanley knife, still have all of my fingers at this stage . . .
Would love to do some statues in the arches but don’t have the hand skills yet, will try that one day.

Bugbait out.

[devolutionary]

Oh dude, that's so sweet! Truly, that's a great looking fortress gate. I totally want to blow it to bits with a Vindicator Line Breaker formation now

[bugbait_nz]

Can you wait until its bristling with Lascannons?