Laserburn project WIP12 - Prefab subcontractor telecoms station and more toys

Some more toys. Kinder Hot Wheels surprise toys? In Aldi? At 49p, you say?

'Hmm, they can't be as big as normal hot wheels can they?'

No, they're not - that makes them perfect for 15mm, eh? Street scene? Car chase? - I'll have 12!

Ah good, one of each and three for conversions. Win.

The cars come in two bits and snap together. Stickers optional.

I'm not sure at this stage if they will be undercoated and painted, or if any of my washes will work on that surface. 

The Warbases HQ building is started.

It's had a white drybrush and some brown staining. The roof is WIP, but has so far been done with black wash, then black, white and two tones of grey POSCA markers. 

There are several panels on this. They're done in GOLDEN green gold high pigment ink. The idea of this odd colour is that is branding for the comms tower's corporation. I'll be putting branding on those.

The brick wall is the start of a pile of sacks or goods.

I intend to dirty up the precise lines on the roof, and put more prefab panel lines on the grey/white walls.

More soon.

Laserburn project WIP11 - finished buildings, started buildings.

These astoundingly cheap Amera buildings have been a joy to paint.

In this post, I'll run you through how I did them, start to finish:

1: Purchase buildings. These are vac-formed, £1.50 for the small ones, £1.75 for the larger.

2: Raid your bitz boxes for suitable add-ons. Halford's grey primer.

3: Drybrush white all over, then follow that with a yellow ochre wash (Americana yellow ochre, thinned)

4: Brown ink wash. (Vallejo Game Color Smokey ink). Black inks pin washed into the windows and painted into shadowy areas (Chromacryl Black).

5: Highlight/drybrush with a mix of yellow ochre and unbleached titanium (Liquitex Heavy Body unbleached titanium)

6: More brown washing with smokey ink. Further highlighting with unbleached titanium

Paints I used in this process so far

7: Yet more inking

8: And here's the selection of paint markers I used to finish off the detail. I also scoured my decal envelope and added a selection of further details. Most of the decals are from old 1:100 Macross kits, the numerals by each door are from an original land raider.

Here's Building 1. The doorway effect is black and two brown tones. The paving slabs are all done with markers. The water effects is clear granular gel with an ink wash. The aircon (?) unit is from an old USS Grissom miniature

Building 3. I wanted the buildings 'the same but different'. Turning into a bit of a motto for me, that.

This building sports an alternative roof protrusion, and an odd solar panel thing with branding in an alien script. The alien decals are from Macross Zentraedi models.

Building 5 has something industrial going on at the top of their steps. The 'No step' decal is from some aircraft kit.

Building 7 is fairly bog-standard apart from that massive unit strapped on the side. It's an old Klingon d18 that got cannibalised at some point. The rear stairs feature a raised fin for some reason.

A view of the home improvements

Compare the stairs, the hilarious new game show.

Side walls

That's the finished buildings, now for the one I've started, you saw it flat packed in the second photo.

Phase one, make it, and stick more bits on.

Not sure about the green cap. I haven't stuck it yet, and I may mount something else there.

Phase 2: grey undercoat, ready for a similar treatment to the others.

Whilst we're on a Laserburn tip, some of the decals I got to complete my vehicles

So, four things off the painting table, which is looking a bit crowded at the moment.

More soon, lilliputian aficionados.

Laserburn project WIP10 - terrain and more

So I've done some work on the terrain pieces I bought at Salute. A quick raid on my bits boxes and the four cheap Amera buildings got some tech.

They've been undercoated with Halford's grey primer and then dry-brushed with white in this picture. Next, I used a cheap Americana (read folk art) yellow ochre to provide the basic imperial khaki base colour...

You can also see the matchbox imperial ground attack aerodyne getting the same treatment in the corner there. Here's how that one got to that state too.

Other recent acquisitions have been some transports for the redemptionist forces in the form of republic gunships:

They're 1:172, which is more 10mm than 15mm, but I think they will work. A snip @ £4.99 from The Works (a UK based retailer that sells off bankrupt stock). More on those later. 

I'm still looking for the right decals for my other vehicles, but I'll update you all when they get sorted.

It's Sheffield Triples in a couple of weeks, so I'm hoping to find something suitable there.

Laserburn project WIP03 - Mercenaries and judges

As I visit shows around the country, I usually call in on the GZG stand, if not to purchase, then to pick up a couple of freebies from their 'take one' box of random 15mm. I sifted to make some elite mercenary choices.

They're pretty much finished apart from the bases, which need to be drybrushed.

I've also made a start on my judges, which I shouldn't need just yet, but will no doubt need for Tarim Towers Heist.

The vehicles are starting to take shape too.
Finally, an overview of some of the stuff getting done.

Tutorial: 1:1200 island in 20 minutes

With the recent surge in interest in all things 1:1200, I fished out my polystyrene cutter and purchased a new 4.5v battery to power it. It was whilst I was doing this that I found an old bit of expanding foam that I knew would be useful some day.

The original piece of expanded foam

So, this tutorial assumes that you've either constructed or found something useful as a base - the techniques should work the same.

As this was just a trial, I started flocking one area first. As a rule, I'd usually paint first and flock later. If you do get flock in your brush, it needs cleaning immediately.

Size 8 Sceptre brush

The brush I used is an old size 8 'sceptre' - I believe it's nylon. I wouldn't recommend using a new one as it's going to get some wear.

Clump foliage

What you'll need;

PVA glue

• a suitable base to work on (in this case the expanding foam).
• PVA glue
• flock
• 'clumpy' flock for trees
• three tones of grey/brown paint
• water
• several sheets of old paper (a newspaper or magazine cut along the spine will do)

Glue on foam

Work in progress

So as I said, I went about it slightly the wrong way and flocked first. A blob of PVA on the newspaper was watered down and painted onto the areas to be flocked. Once the glue was on, I dipped it into my flocking trough (a large blister pack). Shaking off the excess, I then applied more glue to the areas that had been missed, and repeated with the clump flock.

Grey cliffs and rocks

More drybrushing

first drybrush

The painting aspect requires that you identify the rocky areas. Paint them all over with the darker grey shade. I used a bluey-grey. Once that's dry, the mid-grey should be drybrushed over it. Finally, a lighter drybrush with your lightest colour - in my case white - will bring out the detail.

I've been using this very cheap white for some years now. Not worth paying citadel prices when you get do much more at the art shop for your money.

Chromacryl white

Back to the flocking. You'll still probably find 'missing bits' even after a couple of rounds of flocking. This is where the sheets of paper come in. Re-glue those areas (by dripping or painting the glue on) and pour the flock over the remaining areas. Each time you do this, turn the island over to let the unstuck bits fall off, then move it onto a new sheet, using the remainder to pour again - if you put a crease in the edge of the paper at 90 degrees, you can use it to aim the flow. The old paper can then be thrown away.

Eventually, no more bits should drop off. Your island is complete. Mine took about 20 mins - yours may take longer.

Scatter your flock and clump foliage over glue, pour off excess and repeat

Just a final note - give that brush a clean with plenty of water again, even when you've cleaned it once. If that PVA hardens on the bristles, you can say goodbye to the brush.

Happy world-building, and please let me know if you make one of your own.

The bubbly rock from a lava flow

Cliffs

More cliffs

Final drybrush with white brings out the detail

Cliff detail

There it is, the finished island

Looking good

Here's an overhead view with ships for scale.