HTP: Corregidor Bases

Color recipe for my Nomad/Corregidor bases.

HTP: Aleph

I've been working with the contrast paints alongside my traditional painting techniques to try them out and see what I can make of it. Here's some findings and recipes for the results when I choose to add to this force in the future. 

- Wraithbone primer over black zenithal. Magos purple is diluted with medium and water in a 1/1/1

- Not a fan of the wraithbone. it's spotty (it's a rattle can) but also it makes the models look like 90's computers. if you try to highlight with white it's too high a leap.  so reprimed black then white zenithal through my airbrush.

- repainted using inks. Not a fan of the golden because it's a bit glossy, but maybe that helped with the flow of the contrast. Mostly I wanted to make sure this layer was really thin so I didn't lose detail.

- Keeping with the idea that she's going to be primarily white, this time I painted her entire body with only the contrast medium. I loaded my brush with the diluted 1/1/1 magos purple and hit the details so the contrast could flow into the cracks still wet with medium. using all those water color painting skills here. around the armor plates where I wanted more depth to the purple I used undiluted magos purple and carefully lined the armor.

- Rudra gunbot with the thinned magos purple first, painting towards the bottom and shadows of the mini so the contrast pooled correctly.
- Iyanden yellow was next followed by blood angels red.  should have done the red first but it worked out.

- picked out the metal parts with leadbealcher, washed with space wolves grey, then highlighted with ironbreaker (pretty sure, or runefang silver)
- white armor edge highligted with white.
- purple is VMC 70.812 violet red, then magos purple over it, and repainted to highlight up to white just like I mix for marine lenses.

- The test piece for the metal recipe. I really enjoy the blues in the steel.

- gun is leadbealcher, then I put basilicanum grey over the 'brighter' metal parts.
- iron warriors metal went over the darker parts. and was washed with black templar.
- I later highlighted most of the barel and 'light' bits with ironbreaker, as well as edge highlighted the parts painted with iron warrior and BT.

- base is first the metal cross. it's iron warrior, then leadbelchear, finally iron breaker at the outsides. washed with basilicanum grey, then edge highligth with iron breaker.
- I filled in the little tech details of o-o and the rectangles with ironbreaker (maybe runefang steel) and then painted on the black.
- once dry I painted the o-o details with space wolves grey, and the rectangles with Talassar Blue.
- LOS line was painted with the silver vallejo aclohol paint and lightly glazed with blood angel red, not allowing pooling, just to tint it a fun red 'threat' line that's metallic too.

Progress keeps marching along.

Building City Fight Terrain

Terrain is the one model you use every game you play. Here's how to show it some love!

1. It's gotta be sturdy.
2. Have a plan.
3. Make it last.

Some general advice here. Whenever you make something, make sure you play the game you're making it for. There's subtlety's to how mechanics in the game work that aren't always apparent from the start. Also, don't wait till it's done to play games on it. Often I'll build a whole table and play on it a lot before making adjustments, or taking the time to paint it.  Nothing worse than spending months on a project and you find out something simply doesn't work, or isn't used the way you intended.

It's gotta be sturdy. 

Warping, weight, and damage over time are all things to take into account.  This comes down to the materials you use, and the tools you have access to.

Warping

Warping is common when using Masonite/hardboard. The product is great but you have to use adhesives that have a low water content.  PVA glue, even wood glue, can be absorbed by the wood causing it to bow up.  I use the masonite board with a textured white finished side and super glue my resin/plastic to it.  Followed by adding sand with wood glue.

Whenever possible use something sturdier, I learned the hard way and used some heavy books to hold the wood flat while it dried.

Weight

Weight means the terrain isn't going to be bumped and shoot across the table. This is where choosing the right materials matters. Drywall compound is your friend here! Have some Munitorium containers? Pack some drywall compound in those bad boys. Want your ruin to be more solid on the table? Fill in some steps with insulation foam and smother them in drywall compound! Cleans up with water, you can break it off if you need! I have gallons of the stuff. Here's a step by step on how I did this with some classic soda can terrain.

Give it plenty of time to dry, and as it does you'll see cracks start to form.  For the taller building below, before I glued the roof on I coated the insides with a healthy amount of drywall, especially near the bottom.  for the shorter one, I piled it in before gluing on the tiles, then used wood glue to cover the drywall with sand, leaving some cool cracks that naturally formed.



Once you add sand and some paint, you really get a cool affect that helps add weight to the terrain and makes it look like the floors collapsed down! I also like to leave overhangs with the tiles here, sometimes adding details like cabling, or fallen support structures.

Another useful tool is to pick up some ABS Pipe (black plastic pipe) and use it to reinforce the levels of a sector mechanicus walkway.  Don't make my mistake and use PVC (white plastic pipe) because if the paint gets scratched off it's really obvious.

The pipe was cut with a miter saw and I used 2 part epoxy glue (do this outside, the smell is awful) and attached the pipe to the platforms.  I added some bass guitar strings and zip ties for added detail.  The plastic round bit is the flange from the back of my airbrush booth I put a 4" DIY snowglobe into.

Have a plan

There's a lot to take into account when starting.
- How much terrain are you going to make?
- Does your mat have roads? Have you laid out the bases of the buildings to fit inside those roads?
- Will multiple things fit in various places on the map? If not your table could become stagnant fast.
- How will the terrain block LOS?
- How will your terrain encourage player interactions?

For our latest project I gathered all the resin battlefield in a box terrain and laid it out on a city mat to make sure it fit between the roads well.

Then taking those pieces I made 3 template buildings that the rest of the terrain will replicate. This uses the most pieces, and helps streamline building.

Once done I built a prototype after a quick run to the hardware store!

I used 1/4" particleboard as a base and a 2"x3" plank of wood as a floor. it looks very obviously like wood but the proof of concept is there. Afterwards we used 1"x4" wood planks and a thinner base. Because these are solid resin buildings I had to drill into the walls and the base with a 1/4" drill bit and used a 1/4" wooden dowel super glued in place as a huge pin.  The resin will break before this thing comes off that base.

These buildings block LOS at ground level up to 3" from the front and side. They allow you to take cover, but be exposed, or be behind the walls on the back so I could still come around the sides and shoot you, and they're super sturdy!

Make it Last. 

Having durable materials and building things sturdy will go a long way to make sure your terrain lasts.  A few additional things to keep in mind. 

- Save the colors you used during the project.  (That's why I started this blog lol ) 

- Make sure it's stored well. 

Not everyone knows how much work goes into terrain. If someone at the shop is mistreating something politely remind them to be careful and how much work goes into making it.  I've never seen it done out of malice, only absent minded neglect.  That said, I've seen people stack heavy rule books on top of MDF terrain I spent months on. Or shoving terrain haphazardly around causing it to get damaged. Asking for their help in keeping the terrain nice has always stopped those behaviors.

Few things with storage. 

For weekly used terrain shelves are great or even ready to go on tops of tables. The less handling the terrain needs the better. 

Storing terrain loose under tables means it's getting bumped and damaged as players shuffle it around between uses. it also means that it collects all that game store dust, plus runs the risk of being kicked, or hit with chairs.  

Having bins from the start helps a lot as well. you can build your terrain to fit well inside the bin, keeps the dust out, and you protect the plastic from random kicks, spilled sodas, or whatever else. 

Most important of all, ask for help.  You can go fast alone, but you go farther together.  Our FLGS has a lot of folks who had the time to pitch in and we'll have more new terrain done in a few weeks than I could have done in a few months, maybe years.

If you'd like more pics of terrain we've made.

HTP: Haqq Bases

To start the bases had sand applied in various irregular area's. This scheme was made to match a former commission artists job.

The finished bases are ready for grass and whatever other plant life we may want to add.



1. Liberally apply Citadel Martian IronEarth Texture.  Specifically leaving globs of the stuff in the open areas between the sand.

2. Apply Desert Yellow to portions of the sand. I didn't want a clean edge so I would put the color down and dry brush it around the edges of the solid color to feather the edge.

3. To match the highlights that were used before I drybrushed Yriel Yellow to the desert yellow.

4. To prevent the texture from flaking off I put a non diluted PVA layer over the flat area's on the base.

5. The PVA put a bit of a shine on the texture. To flatten it back down and add depth (ha) I went over the red area's on the base with Reikland Fleshshade.

HTP: Tunguska

Start by priming the entire model black, then follow up by airbrushing charred stone from above. keeping black in the shadows.

As a highlight to the charred stone, airbrush Rock in a few spots.

As a base for the red I painted all the hexed muscle armor with burnt red.

At this point I picked out some details I wanted to remain dark with pure black. this helped break up some of the armor without adding unnecessary colors.

For the vents on the back I used ironbreaker.

For a few of the metal details I used leadbelcher. this way the brighter metals were on the gun and towards the top of the model. the leadbelcher is on the bottom of the model.

With all the base colors finished I washed the entire model in nuln oil.

Starting the edge highlighting I used London grey on any parts of the armor that are charred stone.

Carefully I used sky grey to finish the charred stone highlights.

To highlight the red I used Flat red. painting with dtos of paint more than actual brush strokes. I'd use a drop of it on the brush and simply set it on the surface.

The black portions of the armor I wanted to remain distinct. I highlighted those with only a single color of Dark Grey.

To airbrush the glow I used Blue Green mixed with airbrush thinner. I mixed white with the blue green (mostly white) for the first glow affect. I then brushed on pure white in the very center of the glowing parts.

HTP: Sicaran Battle Tank.

Most of the tank is painted the exact same as my standard imperial fists. However I wanted to save what metals I used on the accelerator auto cannons.

The metals are done with Leadbelcher followed by Runelord brass on parts of the armor. Once dry I washed this with Seraphim Sepia.

For the rounds in the chamber itself I used Gehenna's Gold. This one took two coats to get a good coverage. Afterwards I washed it with Agrax.