Purging the scrap code

One of the less enjoyable aspects of a blog or website is sooner or later your email gets picked up by the chaos scrap-shunts and you become inundated by scrap code spam offerings for nefarious activities and enhancements. It's not that I just grow weary of their mindless drone filth, but that it becomes difficult to extract genuine mail from the background of gibbering. Such has become the case once more, so I have been forced to purge the current email address from the site and replace it with a new one. No doubt it will be compromised again in the future and the cycle will repeat, but for now at least the purity seals have been reapplied and tranquility restored.
Tonight is also my semi regular painting night round at Kev's so will probably spend it helping with his Galadhrim for Lord of the Rings as opposed to my Hormagaunts. They are not far off finished anyway requiring only a few point details and the carapaces completing to get them 'game ready'. Hopefully I should get them done this week and have some pictures up shortly.
Until then, happy gaming.
Carl

Defrost slowly

The winter period is never a productive period for the hobby for me. The light has gone by the time I get home, there are so many other activities demanding my attention and there is no heating in my workshop. Actually the latter is not strictly true as there is just so much stuff piled up in front it would be inneffective even if it was and would probably constitute a fire risk!
As is often the case it has unfortunately meant I have let permafrost find a home on the blog due to my torpor.
So in an effort to thaw it out gently I thought I had better post at least a short catch up.


The past two months have been very quiet hobby wise, but not totally unproductive. Although I have still been focusing a lot on 40k gaming terrain, such as the snow and ice boards and an even bigger 'bastion', I have also been making a start on some new armies including a slew of Tyranids to go with the ice world boards and a host of Mordor Orcs for Lord of the Rings. The latter being used as a way to jointly introduce a mate into the hobby as well as kickstart my own painting back into a regular cycle. At the moment this is a semi-regular Monday evening deal and so far it is working quite well as it is forcing both of us to try to keep to some kind of progress. More on that later.
Just to wrap things up for now the picture is of a Space Wolf Leman Russ conversion I began quite a few years back and am re-visiting. I wanted to give it more of a 'Astartes' feel to set it apart from the regular pattern Russ so built it around the Mars 'Alpha' hull and gave it recessed sponsons from the Predator. Still a lot if weathering to do to it yet before I will be happy but so far I am content with the direction it is heading.
More soon (hopefully)

Addendum: Graeme P, apologies chap. I saw you sent me a mail a while back but it got 'auto-purged' by the rather over enthusiastic servitors as I was trying to reply (in other words I pressed the wrong button!). Give us a shout and I'll get back to you ... promise fella.

The month that wasn't

Firstly an apology for the complete lack of updates throughout October, the past month has been a bit of a ‘down’ period with regards to hobby activities. Plenty going on behind the scenes, but not a lot to show for it. Work is progressing slowly, but steadily on the Space Hulk terrain front. Probably a bit too slowly for my tastes, but a lot of the preparatory work I am doing now is all designed to make it much easier and quicker to produce the parts in the future; in particular a couple more custom molds for completed corner sections and one final part that I am finding I am needing in considerable volumes. My current focus is on the subject of doors; their shape, which direction they open in and most importantly of all what colour they should be?

Back on the 40K track, the new Space Wolf Codex and models released last month were particularly pleasing for me as I am an absolutely rabid (sorry!) collector of the ‘Sons of Russ’ in case you didn’t know. I have been looking for an excuse to redo my ’99 Tournament Wolves for literally a decade now and the new plastics in particular have really got the creative juices flowing again. One job I have been meaning to get out of the way was to paint and texture the remaining four hill sections of the spare Realm of Battle set.

Originally I had planned to just paint them up as a 4’ x 4’ Lord of the Rings board, however I had a change of heart and decided to texture them as an icy wasteland instead using a combination of painting and Woodlands Scenics snow effect scatter.

The pits of skulls were filled with several thin layers of water effects and dusted with white spray to simulate and ice crust, the idea copied straight from last months White Dwarf.


Dave additionally had a nice surprise for me last week as well in the form of a Ragnar Blackmane conversion he started many years ago and never quite finished.

I had forgotten completely about this until he brought the completed version around to leave with me along with a copy of the original to compare the difference. The first thing I will do is mount it onto a more heroic base size and add Ragnar’s famous Fenrisian wolves; I have exactly the two models in mind which would work very nicely.
I must resist these distractions however as I still have a lot of pieces to cast this week and have already been distracted enough by the arrival in the post of the Forgeworld weathering powders set and a sheet of brass etched Imperial Aquilla for the corridor sections. Hopefully next update I will have a few more sections assembled as the pile of tiny bricks is looking healthy once more.

Until then, happy gaming.

Opposites do attract

After a couple of minor set-backs last week involving some elderly RTV silicon, I am now back on track having salvaged and cleaned up the errant parts from their gooey fate. All of the masters were recovered without needing to be reproduced and aside from needing to wait out the week in order to let the white spirit fully evaporate they were no worse for wear. All have now been re-molded over the weekend with fresh silicon and I am just waiting a few days now for the molds to fully cure and firm up ready for use.


Planning ahead there are a few ‘sub-components’ that would also make assembly of rooms and corridors a lot quicker, such as a generic corner section and the door frames. These are candidates for further molds, so I ordered more from Tiranti’s over the weekend.
The two test sections are now complete and mounted on 1” foam sheets. These may initially appear a little excessive as they add a lot of height to the sections, but there is a method to my madness as the extra height gives me another dimension to play with; depth and ‘under floor details’. More on that at a later date. I also tweaked the palette slightly for the junction to add more green into the mix and it is probably this mix that I will carry forward into the rest of the set. I am pleased to say the magnets have performed excellently holding the sections together perfectly without being overly aggressive. I have tested the joins across different combinations and the opposing corner sections marry up every time. This was a small worry for me as, although it should all work in theory on paper, until you actually test it out a little doubt always creeps in that you have aligned something up incorrectly.



With the first two sections successfully finished and the molds curing nicely on the shelf, this week will be spent mostly continuing with the existing casting as well as starting on some new panel pieces which I will require in volume for the rooms. In between I will make a start on some more corridor sections also. Not sure how much of that plan will actually get done though as I am out a couple of evenings and would also like to go see District 9 as I have heard some good reviews about it.

Until next time,

Carl

Second section meets sticky silicon

Work is steadily proceeding on my 3D Space Hulk terrain with the second section now constructed. This is the first of several ‘T-Junctions’ in the set and makes use of some additional components to those used in the corridor section. I built on what I had learned from the corridor and this time instead of trying to assemble the section all in one go, I instead broke it down into a number of sub-assemblies, which were pulled together at the end. This ensured each section had set completely and was not disturbed or misaligned from trying to add too many pieces at once. Another useful tip is to use a template to ensure sections are lined up correctly before the glue sets. For this purpose I use a small corner wall made out of Lego which I line flooring and walls up against to keep them straight and true. This is critical in this particular build as the sections must line up with one another very precisely otherwise any small deviation will end up being magnified.
It hasn’t all gone to plan however, as I have been making some custom silicon molds to allow me to more efficiently produce some of the high volume parts. The first mold came out fine and is currently curing for a few days before I use it. The second however I foolishly made using some silicon and catalyst I had left over in the workshop which was probably too old. I should have trusted my gut and bought fresh as it looks like the catalyst has gone over and isn’t reacting with the silicon leaving the mold pretty much liquid still. A rookie mistake and serves me right for trying to cut corners instead of buying fresh. Not a disaster though as I can easily make new masters, but a messy operation to clean up to recover my molding box. Lesson learned.

Akozz asked about which paints I used on the corridor section, which I have included below. It is a bit of an eclectic mix, but it gave me the finish I was looking for which mirrored the cold dark look of the card tiles as closely as possible without looking dull.

Stage 1: Both walls and deck were primed in white GW spray primer. The walls were basecoated in Adeptus Battlegrey and the deck a 50/50 mix of Charadon Granite and Boltgun Metal.
Stage 2: Both walls and deck were given a coat of Johnson’s Klear to prepare the surface for the next stage and left to dry. A stain wash of undiluted water based Kiwi black liquid shoe polish was worked into the detailing using a brush. This was done in small sections at a time and wiped off using kitchen roll to leave only the darker recesses and shading. It is then left to dry overnight.
Stage 3: The walls were dry-brushed with a 3:1 mix of Graveyard Earth and Shadow Grey and followed with a second lighter dry-brush of 4:3:1 mix of Rotting Flesh, Graveyard Earth and Shadow Grey. A final very light dry-brush of Fortress Grey helped tie all the sections together.
For the decking a dry brush of pure boltgun metal was followed with a wash of watered down Badab Black. A final light dry-brush of Chainmail Silver helped pick out the texture. The pipe work was a mix of Boltgun and Tin Bitz dry brushing followed by a Devlan Mud wash, a Chainmail Silver light dry-brush and some stippling in Gryphonne Sepia wash.
Stage 4: The entire section was given a coat of gloss varnish to protect the acrylic paint from wear and tear as much as possible as well as the final weathering stage.
Stage 5: weathering powders from ground earth and rust coloured pastels was painted onto piping and into corners and fixed with mineral turpentine. Streaks and staining was added before the turpentine had fully evaporated by drawing the pigments down with an old brush.
Stage 6: (not shown). The entire section is given a coat of matt varnish to neutralise the gloss and homogenise all the effects.

Painting the T-Junction is next and I fully expect that to keep me busy the whole of this week while I also get back to casting more parts and replenishing the component bins. Now I know what a Forge feels like!

Have a great week
Carl

Mission One: Corridor One

If I have been distracted this week it is because my copy of Space Hulk arrived and I just had to rummage through all the goodies in the box, especially the de-bossed heavy card corridors and room sections. There is very little I can add that hasn’t been covered to death already. Yes, the models are fantastic, yes the overall look and feel of the boxed set oozes quality, yes, it really does weigh over 4Kg (Quite how this has become some weird measure of quality I shall never know?)
With the exception of the miniatures, it is the gaming board that most interests me at the moment as it is that which I am looking to replace. Having had a proper chance to examine the board sections in detail, I have decided to use them as a kind of template for the painting as well as they really are beautifully themed, each one unique in its own right to one degree or another. With that in mind I have revised my plans slightly to produce each section independently as the project progresses and where possible base any detailing on its card tile counterpart. I am aiming to come up with a compromise between the original Project Hulk floor plans which are all identical but ultimately quite neutral and a set of completely unique sections which may visually clash when put together. The key I think to this will be keeping the extra detailing subtle; a hatch in the flooring where a grate is on the card version, hazard stripes in certain doorway or a few paint effect details like leaking pipes, blood or oil stains.
The other decision I made was to base the order of construction on the sequence of missions in the book. That will hopefully keep it manageable as I will gradually build the hulk layout up one mission at a time, adding in the missing sections as I go.



So, to get the ball rolling this weekend I started assembly on the tiles for Mission One: Suicide Mission beginning with the Space Marines entry point and a T-Junction. These two pieces were used as a kind of ‘prototype’ to check a number of things such as the resilience of the casting, how well the magnetic sections worked and how well they went together and reacted with the paint. Very quickly I discovered a few ‘issues’ which will need to be corrected for future builds, but nothing too serious. The first was that the PVA glue I was using for gluing the plaster blocks was really not up to the task. I replaced it with ‘Tacky Glue’ instead and just in case that didn’t perform any better as a fallback plan some seriously strong eurethane wood glue used in the building trade. I figured if it could be used to glue the front of a house on, it was probably strong enough for my somewhat smaller needs.
The second was the power of the magnets and the Herculite 2 plaster. I have noticed already some worrying ‘chipping’ around the edges of the magnetised blocks due to the strength of the magnets pulling the sections sharply together. I plan on trying out the Crystacal R next as it is supposed to be an even harder casting plaster, but if that doesn’t work I will switch to a more impact forgiving resin for the magnetic blocks instead.


Straight corridor wall section (outside) with ducting.


straight corridor wall section (inside)


Corridor opposite wall (outside) with ducting.


Corridor opposite wall (inside). Note blood spatter up the far right hand panel. This is to tie in with a large stain on the flooring which featured on the card version, so I thought it would be nice to include it.

The photos show the first corridor piece after the initial coat of gloss varnish for protection. At this stage it is roughly ninety percent complete and the only remaining tasks are to give it a final coat of matt varnish to neutralise the reflection, add a few last detail touches and mount it onto protective 1" styrofoam basing.

That’s all for now as I have just realised all this casting has resulted in a number of tiny white footprints leading from the workshop into the house and having a modicum of survival instinct some cleaning/vacuuming would probably be wise at this stage before CSI Wife links the evidence back to me!

Have a great weekend

Carl

How many bricks does it take to make a Hulk?

Well, by my calculations, roughly 4,500 apparently. Or to put it another way:

• 97 0.5" Diamond pattern deck tiles
• 201 1" Bevelled corridor edging sections
• 434 Half cylinder vertical wall modules
• 320 0.5" x 0.5" Lower door track frame
• 80 2" Bulkhead panels
• 64 2" Extruded vertical beam terminals
• 524 1" Recessed wall corner edging
• 150 1.5" x 1.0" Recessed rivetted wall panels
• 374 1.5" x 1.5" Pipe Conduit panels
• 193 1.5" x 1.5" Metal deck plates (diamond pattern)

... And the list goes on to cover 21 other individual components. All of this, as the title eludes to, is to produce a proper three-dimensional 'Space Hulk' board to game on. Now I cannot even remotely claim credit for the idea, or even the design as all the hard work and clever gubbins was done back in 2006 by the guys who produced Project Hulk. There have been any number of really cool Space Hulk terrain projects over the years, all worthy of praise, but for me, this was the daddy. The sheer amount of planning and thought that has gone in to the design, as well as the exterior detail and clever integration of magnets is what sets it apart for me and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have a go at reproducing it myself.

I have to confess I have become somewhat obsessed with popping all those tiny porcelain like panels and floor tiles out of the Hirst Arts molds. Its a little bit addictive, which is probably just as well considering the list above. They have somewhat taken over a wing of the workshop, not to mention a lot of shelf space for all the tiny pots to sort all the parts into. The breakdown of parts needed has also required a bit of a re-think as some of the molds would require over 500 casting runs, which is just not practical. I am almost certainly now looking at creating a number of ‘masters’ for the high volume components like the skirting panels in addition to the magnetic components from which to create temporary Silicon RTV molds. After a bit of re-planning, I have managed to reduce this to just 7 specific components out of a required list of 31. These ‘high volume’ 7 should fit into a maximum of three new molds for the duration of the project. Even with these ‘volume’ molds added to the schedule two of the Hirst molds will still need to be used over 160 times! At a steady 2 runs per evening, that will still take a hefty 80 days just to produce all the parts needed.



To try to make the project bearable and stave off ‘casting fatigue’, I plan on assembling and painting some of the sections as I go once my parts inventory starts to stock up. This way I can build the set up as the project progresses and keep it interesting. I am also going to need quite a bit more plaster as well as I have consumed close to 5Kg of Herculite 2 already (the molds that is, not me personally!).

So, the little pile of bricks continues to grow, but that hasn’t stopped me painting totally, just slowed it down a bit. The three Necron Destroyers are almost finished and I have moved onto making some bases for them. I really dislike flying bases as a general rule, only using them for stuff like Epic aircraft or Gothic/Babylon 5 ships. For the Destroyers I have ditched them altogether in favour of standard 40mm round bases and a length of brass rod. These are more than adequate support and also match with the bases the Wraiths and Scarabs use.
Next up for the army will be three Wraiths and the Necron Lord, but before I do those I have a few more bricks to pop out of their molds. I am not addicted … honest!

A quick shout-out before I sign off also to ‘Slobberblood’ as it was his Birthday I believe over the weekend. Congrats!

Carl