# Grimzag's Terrain frenzy.



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Ok, Somehow in my infinate wisdom i have managed to volunteer to run an apocalypse game at my house....again... last time we had a scattering of unfinished and unpainted terrain on untextured/unpainted tables and, whilst we had a good time, the effect was somewhat dispelled by all the dvdcase hills and whatnot that were around. 










Back then i pledged that the next time we played we would have a proper board and terrain. The game is now just over a month away. 

So as i've apparently bitten off more than i can chew again it's time to get building. 

As an estimate the board will be about 4'x14' I've got the boards but still need to texture them and paint them. 

To get decent cover for the boards i will need a minimum of 56 terrain units (a unit takes up about 16square"). That's rather a lot of terrain.

Fortunately i'm not starting from square one, i am doing a desert/scrapyard/madmax/fallout vegas feeling board as that's how most of my orks are based up. Fortunately i already have some terrain made in this theme so i've got a bit of a jump start. 

So far i have: 2 large polystyrene ruins









an ork village

























Tire forest









Some ruined Polystyrene walls









and a couple of othe miscelaneous odds and ends that mean i have about 20 units


NOt a bad starting point but i'm going to be really busy if i want to get up to the minimum mark in time for the game so watch this space for updates.

First up i'm going to make some junkyard walls from scrap plasticard that i have laying around, i might make a start on a meks workshop as well, i really want to get that ork settlement feel going and i'm thinking that a lot of the polystyrene packaging that i have knocking around will be idea for creating a mos eisly type desert outpost. 

Watch thisspace


----------



## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

Wot Nos comments!?

First thing to get out of they way is that I am not a fan of Polystyrene terrain myself as it never lasts long. As a quick method to cover a table in a hurry though it's passable.

Some nice stuff done already and the tire forest is fun, one thing that really caught my eye was the wind turbine though. Where is it from or is it a build?


----------



## KjellThorngaard (Oct 4, 2010)

Cool stuff. I agree with VV about poly terrain, but add that it depends on how you store it. It can last longer if you aren't hard on the storage. Single stack in shallow boxes/bins will increase the life expectancy of the average piece. That and a good bath in PVA before your paint and texture.

I like the Ork village and the can latrine. Or can can. Keep at Grim!


----------



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

As a heads up i'm posting this project on two forums so if you see a post quoted that isn't in the actual thred it's probably from the other forum. 




Viscount Vash said:


> Wot Nos comments!?
> 
> First thing to get out of they way is that I am not a fan of Polystyrene terrain myself as it never lasts long. As a quick method to cover a table in a hurry though it's passable.





KjellThorngaard said:


> Cool stuff. I agree with VV about poly terrain, but add that it depends on how you store it. It can last longer if you aren't hard on the storage. Single stack in shallow boxes/bins will increase the life expectancy of the average piece. That and a good bath in PVA before your paint and texture.


Thanks Vash, i found the same with poly terrain but i don't move terrain around very often, currently it tends to stay in the same display cabinet that my orks live in, which tends to keep it more or less protected. 
That and the fact that i have started coating my terrain in polyfiller seems to give it a bit more durability as well as letting me use spray paints on it without it melting. I would never consider using it for a club or a regular group though. 




Viscount Vash said:


> Some nice stuff done already and the tire forest is fun, one thing that really caught my eye was the wind turbine though. Where is it from or is it a build?





KjellThorngaard said:


> I like the Ork village and the can latrine. Or can can. Keep at Grim!


The ork village, tire forest, wind turbine and crapper were all bought from Deamonscape. 
The turbine needed some pretty hefty pinning as the arms are metal on it and the rest of the model is resin, i'm seriously considering basing it up to make it more stable. 



mplonski said:


> For an Ork villiage I made in the past I bought a big box of hundreds (thousands?) of popsicle sticks from a DIY store, a hot glue gun, and a straight cutter. You can build some pretty handy buildings and barricades that look quite Orky. Occasional metal plates really help the theme. I spent about 2 hours with the sticks, glue gun, and cutter and made more than 5 tables worth of terrain. One coat of brown spray paint on the wood parts and it was done.
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> Matt


Thanks for the tip, i actually have a bag of 1000 wooden coffee stirrers that i bought ages ago for an incompleted trenchworks project that i started. Maybe i should have a play with them. 



Also i've finished a few stretches of fence for going around my mekshop/tire yard once it's built. Not bad for an hour or so worth of construction (i spent a little while adding rivets to the armour sheets) and probably the same with painting. The last shot gives some idea of scale.


----------



## Ring Master "Honka" (Oct 31, 2011)

i like the walls. what did you use for the barbed wire across the top?


----------



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Ring Master "Honka" said:


> i like the walls. what did you use for the barbed wire across the top?


I got the barbed wire from here.

Well the frenzy didn't really happen. however as i now only have a handful of days to get everything ready for the big battle i'm back into the frenzy mode. I spent all day today...well technically yesturday now, working on my boards and terrain. FOrtunately the weather was really nice and warm so paint and glue was drying quickly. 

Instead of 14' by 4' i am going for 10' by 4' for one it makes moveing around the living room easier, for another i don't think we could cover a table that big anyway. So i only need 5 2' by 4' boards then. 

Here they are with textured wallpaper on.








I added the warboss in the foreground and nob in the background as a sort of comparison scale. 








And here is with all the terrain that is already completed laid out.








As you can see there are still gaps. So i hammered out a few polystyrene constructions, this will probably be a mekboy workshop.









Not sure what this will be, a barracks like building/abandonned civilian building?









what will become a tank emplacement









some ruins









I managed to finish painting the board whilst i was waiting for the glue to dry on the poly buildings.









I know it's a bit patchy but i think that adds some depth to the colours, i'm not planning on doing much else with the board, just a coat of varnish to protect it. 
I also managed to do another polystyrene building earlier but for some reason i didin't take any pictures...incidentally i also managed to get the building coated in polyfiller to block the aerosol spray when i start painting and also give it a loverly stone effect. This managed to dry in the sun whilst i was squaring up the living room redy for the board to be brought indoors, and i managed to spend most of the evening adding details to it, this bad boy is alredy ready for paint.









Here is how the board looks at the end of day one, if the weather is as nice tomorrow i should be able to get all the other polystyrene coated in filler and detailed, i also hope i can get some additional fence sections built to fill in the gaps in the junk yard fence. 








Seeya tomorrow.


----------



## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

Wow mate nicely done! I seriously love all this stuff. Keep up the good work, and good luck!


----------



## Ring Master "Honka" (Oct 31, 2011)

i cannot wait to play on that board. AHHHHH SOOOOO MUCH KILLY


----------



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

JAMOB said:


> Wow mate nicely done! I seriously love all this stuff. Keep up the good work, and good luck!





Ring Master "Honka" said:


> i cannot wait to play on that board. AHHHHH SOOOOO MUCH KILLY


Cheers guys, i'm going all out to try and get this all completed but i think i'm going to be hard pushed. 

Today i managed to get all of the remaining polystyrene structures coated in filler, it wasn't warm today so stuff took forever to dry, it was past lunch by the time everything was in a condition i could do other things with. 

I undercoated the ruins piece and tank redoubt as they don't need any additional modelling to be ready.










I was going to do a load of modelling and try to get the mekshop and barracks built but the mekshop took forever, it's still not complete. It's looking pretty nice though...
First a boring shot of filler clad barracks.










I'm actually pretty proud of how the mek shop is working out.
the rear of the shop and lower balconies, this is nearly complete, there are a couple of gaps to fill at the bottom of the model and some rivets but pretty much done.










side shot










front door, still needs detailing.









shop sign, i have plans to fill this out and it will make sense once it's painted...trust me.









the selection of chimneys on the front of the building.








And the extra chimney on the side of the building. This needs detailing too.









On the roof the mek has started building....something...a tractor cannon, mega zzzap gun...i'm not sure yet.










I'm going to be working tomorrow but i'll try to get some time in to work on this stuff. Again i'l seeya tomorrow.


----------



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

So the terrain didn't really get finished last year, in the end we played on unpainted buildings but it was still a step up from the previous year. This year i've got untill July before the game hits. And instead of leaving it all to the last minute i'm going to try and get the terrain done early. Here are a couple of WIP shots of buildings which were only plain polystyrene last time you saw them. 

Barraks










Warehouse?










Ruins










Now i have months to work on the rest of the boards and as i'm not painting my main ork army the world is my oyster as far as what i could end up working on.


----------



## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

Very impressive grimzag, i especially like the mekshop. The warehouse looks very smooth too.


----------



## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

I'm not digging the really rough poly filler texture. Based in the scale those jagged bits of poly filler are quite large and seem bizarre and disproportionate for the context. I've always been a fan of using poly filler 'smoothly' to create a scale concrete texture. One needn't go wild with it to get a believable concrete.

Otherwise, I like what you have going on, and I wish you the best of luck!


----------



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Iraqiel said:


> Very impressive grimzag, i especially like the mekshop. The warehouse looks very smooth too.





Kreuger said:


> I'm not digging the really rough poly filler texture. Based in the scale those jagged bits of poly filler are quite large and seem bizarre and disproportionate for the context. I've always been a fan of using poly filler 'smoothly' to create a scale concrete texture. One needn't go wild with it to get a believable concrete.
> 
> Otherwise, I like what you have going on, and I wish you the best of luck!


Thanks guys, yeah the rough texture on the barracks isn't somting i'll repeat. It was the first time i'd used the polyfilla for something this big and i couldn't get it smooth easily, afterwards i worked out that i could water it down to make a polyfilla wash and i would still protect the styrene from the aerosol paint. all of the buildings aside form this one will be smoother like the warehouse. Even the ruins are smooth by comparison.

Here is a bit of a side by side shot, left is the warehouse, right the barracks. From now on all buildings will be smooth like the warehouse, though some of the natural rock formations and earthworks will be rough like the barracks.


----------



## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

This stuff all looks amazing man, really digging what you're doing with styrofoam packaging. What do you spray on it to seal it against being its usual self?


----------



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

ntaw said:


> This stuff all looks amazing man, really digging what you're doing with styrofoam packaging. What do you spray on it to seal it against being its usual self?



I've been painting it with watered down Polyfilla which i know in the states is called spackle. Don't know what it's called in Canada, basically a tub which contains a paste that you can fill holes in plaster walls with. You should be able to pick it up from a hardware store. It gives the terrain a coat of hardened plaster over the outside so that the damaging agents in the aerosols don't melt it.

Polyfilla is specifically celulose based so it doesn't crack or shrink very much, really useful on models.


----------



## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Very cool. I want to make two new 2x2 sections for my trench table but I didn't make it myself originally. I was curious as to how to build it up with craters, and this might just be it. I have access to all three stores I work at's packing materials that otherwise get thrown out after orders have been unpacked, so build up a few layers of flat pieces then chunking away I will go!


----------



## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

Aaaaahh good stuff. I let my 'spackfilla' too long and it totally dried out, rendering it unusable. I'll get some new stuff when I've sculpted the Polystyrene I'm going to be using to create my 'strike cruiser interior' board.


----------



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

well i've eased off of the frenzy a little, the pieces now have flock on them so it's just the armour plates and details i need to work on but i really want to get some of the backlogged tanks finished as well, so in the meantime whilst i was waiting for my tanks to dry off i threw together these objective markers.


----------



## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Cool objective markers. What did you use for the crystals?


----------



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

ntaw said:


> Cool objective markers. What did you use for the crystals?


They're resin crystals from Anarchy miniatures. 

http://www.anarchymodels.co.uk/inde...&category_id=2&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=5

I bought a couple of the small bags just in case i found a use for them, then i read "Baneblade" where there are highly psycho reactive lorelei Crystals and decided that they would be a cool focus for my orks to be on an otherwise ruined world.


----------



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Realised that the ruins set that i had sat next to me actually has no armour plates to paint, all it needed was details so i chucked some on.


----------



## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

Hahahhaha brutal. How unlucky to be killed whilst chalking up 'days survived'!


----------



## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

This makes me so happy. Zombies forever.


----------



## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Days survived is epic. +rep! (must spread rep around before..bla bla..fuck this shit. :laugh


----------



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Iraqiel said:


> Hahahhaha brutal. How unlucky to be killed whilst chalking up 'days survived'!





ntaw said:


> This makes me so happy. Zombies forever.





neferhet said:


> Days survived is epic. +rep! (must spread rep around before..bla bla..fuck this shit. :laugh



Cheers guys, all this thought of graffiti got me thinking, i've got an airfield that is sorta at the design and planning stage. Well whilst i was thinking how cool it would be to do a couple o really large detailed pieces of graffiti i did a bit of research with pictures online.

What i want is a building that looks like it's the place kids came to hang out and it's ended up tagged to within an inch of its life. Kinda like these.

















The problem is detail....most of the smaller squiggly tags where people have put a logo or name in a singal colour should be simple enough, just a little time consuming. The larger more artistically gifted pieces are another matter altogether. I'm simply not skilled enough to recreate something similar even on A4 let alone at a scale that would work for warhammer. 

At about this point inner Grimzag woke up. "Oi Assface, you don't need to be able to paint the zogging thing."
I'm pretty sure his abusive manner is why we don't get on very well.

"You can print the damned things on either paper or waterslide sheets and then attatch them to the scenary. You've had the ability to print stuff for a couple of decades....use it."

With that he went back to sleep, he had a point though so i've had a trawl through the internets and come up with some cool images that should work on my buildings, i'm going to use the warhouse as a test piece to see how it goes. Wish me luck.


----------



## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

GrimzagGorwazza said:


> Wish me luck.


Good luck! Though, to be fair....I feel like your level of skill will easily outweigh any of this 'necessary' luck.


----------



## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

Good luck! Secret weapon also sell transfers of graffitti.


----------



## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Iraqiel said:


> Good luck! Secret weapon also sell transfers of graffitti.


Yes. Good luck and good shopping


----------

