Mercenaries defend a hidden facility.
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| Doorway & bricks. |
These photographs show some close-up detail of the doorways (3D prints), bricks (Linka) and stonework archway (Hirst Arts).
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| Stone arch and doorway. |
NCC Combat Cyborgs with a Claymore support vehicle prepare to assault a mercenary outpost. This is a Linka building plus a few Fir trees.
Mercenaries ambush an NCC Marine Lancer IFV. Some Woodland Scenics deciduous trees add some variety to the usual preponderance of Firs.
Corporate troops survey the area. These are GZG Foreign Legionnaires exploring my gaming board.
The steps were carved from insulation foam and glued in place before the plaster cast rock faces were fitted around them. A toilet paper pulp and plaster mix was used to blend the various elements together.
A planetary survey team set up camp for the night.
Their ride is a repainted Matchbox vehicle. The tent comes from
Alternative Armies and the survey team themselves are GZG
civilians/colonists.
Scenery is my games board plus some cheap Fir trees, with some of my real garden in the background.
Bandits break into a concealed supply dump. This includes GZG figures, a repainted Matchbox vehicle, cheap Fir trees, Reindeer Lichen and 3D printed crates. The door is a 3D print attached to a Linka brick panel embedded in the cliff face.
Mercenaries make their way down a forest trail...
I took some photographs on my big gaming board many months ago and only ever posted a few of them on this blog. Time to remedy this! These are Ground Zero Games infantry and lots of cheap trees plus some Reindeer Lichen.
This 3D printed R-CEE robot comes from the talented Evan Carothers. Mine has a few ridges on the arms and legs, but this is due to user error (or "incompetence" if you will), not any problem with the file or printer. I am always very careful to ensure the screws for the resin vat are done up tightly, but on this occasion I failed to tighten the bolt on the print head, leaving it to wobble around. Despite this astounding stupidity on my part, a bit of superglue fixed the worst problems, so it's fine to use as a bit of background scenery.
The scenery includes a lino sample, some Hirst Arts blocks for the walls and hatch, Lego wheels for the barrels, and a few small 3D printed crates and oil cans.
I've reprinted the robot since I took these photographs, and it turned out much better with the build plate securely fixed in place!
I used my home-made foam flock on my photography backdrop.
The flock was mainly a very fine mixture, including 2 or 3 different shades of green.
Drenched thoroughly, the PVA would seal everything into a solid layer which should avoid bits falling off every time I use it.
There are a few bigger clumps of foam to give the impression of larger plants growing.
The thick application of the sealing mixture also ensured all the rock rubble along the edge of the cliff was very securely fixed in place.
I was careful to use a stiff brush to move some of the flock around to blend it into the edge of the rocky areas and also to keep the stream clear.
This stage was left for 2-3 days to dry thoroughly. This is another part of the process that requires plastic sheeting or lots of old newspapers to protect your work surfaces. Old plastic cereal packets work well for this, something like a giant box of cornflakes will have a huge bag that covers a very large area once opened out flat.
Once dry, the matt varnish in the mixture ensured there was no glossy shine on the cliffs or the flock.
The flock crept into the edges of the rubble in a way that I thought was reasonably realistic.
Although the photo backdrop could be used in this condition, there were a few more finishing touches that I wanted to add and I'll cover these another time.
