EricF
Administrator
Thread Contents
- Windmill
- Barn
- Graves
- Barriers & Walls
- SciFi Windtraps
- Processing Plant
- Ponds
- Ruined Cathedral
- Cargo Containers
- Black Cauldron
- Outpost Vents
- Orc Totem
- Craters
- Barrel Barrier
- Wizard's Tower
- Outhouse
- Ruined Inn
- Fuel Dump
- Watch Tower
- Beacon Tower
- Gothic Ruins
- Crashed Flyer
- Fuel Pipes
- Chaos Skull
- Shattered Aquilla
- Temple
- Large Rocks
- EPIC bunkers
- Wire Fences
- Ramshackle Hut
- Snake Pit
- Rocks
- Bunkers
- Crystals
- Graveyard Tombs
- Chaos Portal
- Dungeon Treasure
- Field Walls & Fences
- Chimera Dugout
- Dugout
- Barrels & Crates
- Chapel Graveyard
Going on the premises that I enjoy seeing photos of miniatures and models on this board I thought I'd plough through some of my terrain and hope you enjoy seeing it. We'll probably visit a few old pieces (assuming I can lay my hands on them) that would be oldhammer in age, but most will be newer pieces since I started painting again. Hopefully either way you'll find something interesting to look at.
I've a few photos in the can so there are a couple of posts I can kick off with. So lets start with my lockdown project, yep back in the day when things were going to be just a few weeks and I fancied a fun project. I thought perhaps I'd give an MDF kit a go having always been curious about giving one a try. So I picked the Gloomberg Old Mill model - I'm a sucker for a good windmill. This is the kit in question:
I've always disliked the blocky nature you sometimes see with MDF kits and I think that's still justified. The other concern was how well the laser etching shows up under paint (quite well actually) and how 2D it looks (too much for my taste). However I think with a bit of work they can make a good basis for a nice bit of terrain. The kit itself was nicely cut out and the instructions were clear and easy to follow. The areas I was concerned with off the bat for this model were: The roof tile etching; the stonework at the base; the rope and hoist hook; the stonework columns at the top; the crates; the ropes on the support framework.
Lets jump to the finished result:
So onto the detail and notes. The door had an engraved door knocker which just looked wrong so I sculpted a replacement from green stuff which made all the difference. I also took the opportunity to etch (just with the top of a craft knife) more woodgrain detail into all the planks to give a bit more texture to the planks (I carved out a few chunks as well). I wish I'd done that before some assembly, but alas only decided to do it after I'd started gluing! I also carved all the edges of the steps and boards to make them look more rustic and less uniform. I think the edge carving made a big difference to the model. Finally I used some watered down premixed filler to add some texture to the panels. You can see the limitations of MDF kits on the hoist platform just on the edge of that shot with the corner. I painted mine as metal, but looking at it now I expect the long spars are actually supposed to be rope going to rings at the corners.
The base of the windmill is supposed to be stone, the etched texture is okay. However you have huge gaps where the edges butt up against each other. So I covered the whole lot in Aves Apoxie Sculpt. Expensive stuff, but great to work with. Spread some on, carve out the basic stone work. Use a stone to add some texture and then tidy up the edges a bit as things cure. The mortar was done with some pigments washed in with the excess cleaned off the stonework. The crumbled plasterwork was just some plaster from the rock molds soaked in wash to give it some colour.
Onto the top section then. The columns that support the roof are supposed to be stone, but just look bad as they are. They would probably have been better making them out to be wood I think. Anyhow I ended up coating them with Apoxie Sculpt again and carving some texture in. Overall I think it was an improvement, but it's not perfect. I probably should have made them a little wider or something at the bases or perhaps added some cross braces, as they still look a little spindly. The roof had a reasonable texture on it, but it was going to look out of place with the rest of the model so I tiled over that with cardboard shingles. I also added some purlins underneath to add some texture. You can also see the string I added to replace the MDF "rope" on the hoist. This didn't have any texture on it and just looked silly so I put some corse string in it's place - here it's actually stick to the original MDF "rope" because I didn't want to compromise the strength of the model. On the more visible sections I did cut away the MDF and just had my string in its place. You can't see it in the photos but I added some strips of card under the top platform to represent the underside of the planks. There isn't any texture etched on that side and the large slab of MDF needed something. The strips just gave a hint of the planks and broke up the surface a little.
So here you can see a few of the crates and barrels I scattered around the model. The ones that come with the kit are cute, but just look like small lumps of MDF stuck together so they went in the bin and I used various resin pieces from the bits box. I did keep the cart that was included (not in the shot) but added some wheel rims from card to make it less flat. You can again see the extra texture on the decking I added, it does make a big difference to the dry brush and make the wood more convincing. I also carved some additional bits on the handrails to make the various pieces more distinct and avoid it looking like one large piece of continuous wood. You can see one of the ropes I added to the bottom frame in this shot. Overall I don't think they worked that well. Better than the MDF originals, but in retrospect I think I'd probably just loose the original elements and not replace them, or if I did use finer string. I also added some nail heads using Vallejo plastic putty to add some interest to the planks making up the supporting frame. The base was some XPF foam roughly painted and flocked with a mix of sawdusts and static grass. The path (not in this shot) was dusted with pigments to give it a nice dry look and lots of tufts and clump foliage added to make things more interesting. The rocks (not in the shot) are some casts from Woodland scenics.
Finally the sails. I added a spare shield to the sail hub which was looking bit plain. I still think the hub lets the model down a bit, but wasn't sure quite what to do with it. The sales were made using tissue paper stuck down with PVC and then wetted with dilute tinted PVC and torn and distressed. The end result being a stiff cloth like texture. You have to remember to choose an orientation for your cloth to droop in of course! I made half a dozen mockup sails first trying out various different tissues and colour tints before committing to the final go. I think it came out looking rather good.
Overall it was fun to build and paint. I don't see myself buying more classic fantasy MDF terrain. Some of the Malifaux-esq stuff perhaps and maybe the odd sci-fi piece, but most of my other terrain is resin and the ascetics don't match (not that they are liable to be on the table at the same time given the size of this piece). Besides I think when building terrain I actually prefer scratch building from nothing. I'm very pleased with the model, I think it looks good and it was nice modding it to give it a bit more va-va-voom.
So ponds or a barn next I wonder...
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