Vissy's Takes on the Tundra

[VisOne]

Right so it has being quite a while since I did a terrain diary and while I have actually made some more terrain since then in the great purge that was our purchasing our first home a tiny little 3 bedroom ex army place and moving contents the mighty man-cave, man-office and man-storage areas into one tiny room I got rid of alot of things.

I've farmed out my other 3 Infinity tables for use by the community and now about 3 months ago I decided I saw a deal too good to refuse in the form of Zen Terrain out of Poland having what amounted to a 15% off sale during the christmas ordering period. 15% off a already discount lasercut MDF terrain manufacturer is pretty good basically offset the postage costs.

So after a little google-fu and price comparisons with the amazing local producers and suppliers I thought that an outlay of I €90.19 ($140.69 AUD) worth of products at the time for about a good solid 50% to 60% coverage on a 4' by 4' infinity table was a solid investment. I might have gotten like locally but I'm always looking to diversify my collection and therefore the available terrain in my META Infinity areas.

The irony that its just another city table in a META basically full of city tables isn't lost on me though. However I have a plan for that too a little on that later.

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So lets ignore the scale of the products for now or lack of scale indicators we know its 28mm and built for infinity thats just what I ordered.

The centre piece will be the dice tower whether it gets used as dice tower or not is irrelevant to me because I've always being a believer that any good Infinity table (not set in corridors/inside) needs a varied height profile and the dice tower delivers that in spades not to mention will draw the eye of anyone perusing the tables.

So that covers the brought ready to make and paint component of the table. What's going to really challenge me this time is I'm intending to attempt my first snow table. I've never done snow bases on models, snow camouflage, weather on white surfaces or anything to that effect. Nor have I seen a table here in Brisbane like that aside from the odd hot wire cut blue foam table around the place.

So I intend of doing something interesting to add further flavour to this board and try new techniques such realistic snow effect using baking soda/bicarbonate of soda method. The other thing I'm keen to try is recreating a very interesting geological rock formation of either hexagonal basalt columns found in Northern Ireland in the area called the Giant's Causeway or the Hoodoo Rocks found in and around the USA in places like Goblin Valley. Finally to break the whole scheme up I'll use a little flock and miniature tufts to break up each little.



So thats the brief and I've started on building my Zen Terrain I've already broken one of my basic rules of not priming and painting the various buildings in different colours to save time.

I'm going to attend the ANZAC CUP in only a few weeks and I hope to have this table operating if not finished for then!

[Scorch]

Those hexagonal pillars are cool for Infinity. My GF went to Ireland with her parents last year and kept sending me those pics; 'look! Infinityyyyyy!'

[Claudius Sol]

Cool stuff, mate! I look forward to seeing the results.

A tip for snow, since I've already made these mistakes, is to not cover the entire board in the stuff. Make it sparse. You can also use old paint brushes to make indents in the snow for footprints. Just use a very very very thin amount of brown wash to line the spot and instant foot print in the snow! Snow on buildings tends to stick to the lower parts of walls and the roofs. Snow shouldn't be on the higher parts of walls, really. Of course, this changes based on the wall material.

[VisOne]

Interesting will take pictures later when I can confirm the issues but I've just had fun trying to prime HDF products again.

My hypothesis on this material is unsuitable for laser cut terrain is certainly only being reinforced.

Looks like I will have to look at other methods of priming other than using products I've know work in the past.

Granted there are some variables in play product, weather and the like may have affected the outcome this time but I don't think any of those variables are the core issue.



Pretty bad but basically it goes as follows left to right.

*Caveat areas where I applied or over applied PVA glue are taken into account as taking paint and drying differently. Nor have I applied any other form of product to promote coverage before priming as I normally do not.

Dulux Matt White 3 x coats poor coverage even with that and very odd texture as the HDF soaks up the paint at different rates. Does not take paint well but does seem to actually wick paint into the etchings later.

Motortech Grey Primer 3 x coats poor coverage again where you can see even more of the HDF base than the white. Takes secondary colours well though.

Motortech Matt Black 2 x coats terrible picture but it actually got decent coverage to continue on painting even without sprays or airbrushing.

Anyway!

I worked through it like I always do and painted the rest Black (pictured) and started my intended way of 'snowing' up the buildings a little.



First I turned the buildings over and did a zenithal highlight using the Grey (pictured) then I hit it with the White (pictured) I then turned the buildings back up right and did the same process from the top but tried to keep it mainly on the roof/areas which snow or frost would naturally gather. Thus giving the basic illusion of snow building from the ground up and settling from the air on top.

I will continue to enforce this illusion later with the airbrush and the realist snow product I will make. I intend on using the snow product much more sparingly though.

Windows will get some OSL with the airbrush and I'll pick out a few of the etched details like the doors and signage to make the buildings pop a little.

[Mob of Blondes]

I would go with microballoons instead of baking soda. They don't react over time if you have any part not fully sealed.

[VisOne]

Did not even know that was a thing will look into price and possibly of use when I have time.

Not going to lie baking soda might win out as I already have it at hand. Issues with reaction and discolouring are considered though don't get me wrong.

[Mob of Blondes]

It should be avaliable from places that sell things to patch boats, surfboards, etc. There it is used as resin filler. Also named glass bubbles or hollow microspheres. Also in RC airplane shops, but those normally ask for premium price.

[Section9]

Those hexagonal pillars are cool for Infinity. My GF went to Ireland with her parents last year and kept sending me those pics; 'look! Infinityyyyyy!'

She sounds like a keeper!

@Vissy: After priming the Impudent Mortal scifi bar and the Warsenal Kum Garage this weekend (and the Warsenal Torii gate earlier), you really need like 4-5 coats of spray paint before you get good, consistent coverage. Yeah, I killed one ancient can of Citadel Shadow Gray and about 3/4 killed another between the bar and the garage. Used up about half of a Testors Flat Red mini rattlecan on the Torii. I'm kinda frightened to consider what to do about the Impudent Mortal pool house, I think it's going to need 2-3 cans of primer, all by itself.

If you do decide to go with the microballoons, make sure you wear a dust mask and vacuum the hell out of the area afterwards. Those microballoons are glass, and do NOT belong in your lungs. Try looking for them at an auto parts store that has things like Bondo and other body-repair items, that should be the cheapest way to get them.

[Mob of Blondes]

If you do decide to go with the microballoons, make sure you wear a dust mask and vacuum the hell out of the area afterwards. Those microballoons are glass, and do NOT belong in your lungs. Try looking for them at an auto parts store that has things like Bondo and other body-repair items, that should be the cheapest way to get them.

Because sniffing baking soda is fine!

No, really, all last "dust" products I have bought in recent years come with "don't inhale" or similar kind of warnings. We are getting in the way of natural selection too much.

[VisOne]

Yeah I don't follow that train of thought I've got 2 small children the risks aren't worth it. Not with glass which is not a water soluble product the body can break down should enter in a manner other than baked goods.













Sooo monochrome sooo need the colours.

[Claudius Sol]

To help with MDF/HDF buildings, I use Gesso. This seals the wood and also takes to primer/paint/whatever very well.

You can get Gesso in Spray cans here in the States. Not sure about Australia. I know Scorch uses spray gesso for his terrain.

I can't recommend the stuff enough. It's normally used by canvas artists that want an even/primed surface to paint on.

[VisOne]

I've being defining the colour scheme more as I start working on etched details.

Happy with the black, white and yellow contrast should make for a great looking board.

I'm also kind of the mind that the yellow paint is some safety paint that helps keep dangerous areas frost free and increases visibility during blizzards and the like. Yeap thats why its applied so haphazardly and only on areas you can see.



These are the three camo patterns I had intended on giving a go but my priming issues dropped them in the bin real quick.



I simply don't have the time to piss fart around putting multiple layers of paint down and then masking off or using blue tac to create something like this.

[VisOne]

You can get Gesso in Spray cans here in the States. Not sure about Australia. I know Scorch uses spray gesso for his terrain.

I was in yet another art store last weekend and I've yet to see Guesso in anything other than its paste form. I actually have some here but I don't like the texture of it. I use it as a basing material well the paste at least.

[Claudius Sol]

Interesting. You might try amazon?

http://www.amazon.com/Krylon-Gesso-11-O ... pray+gesso

http://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-Professi ... RYMFPN0SVB

Some examples of stuff I've seen in the states.

[VisOne]

No wonder if it's krylon we will almost never see it then. I've seen the liquid before but again I'm not going to use it.

Terrain should not be an expensive investment once you move past the initial purchase of the terrain itself. It's bad enough as it is to invest so much time in assembly but to have to buy specific products to prep for painting is just too much. Especially when their are other producers and other materials that don't suffer from the wicking, burring and colour seepage issues that HDF presents.

[VisOne]

So OSL can suck a huge fat dick cause its hard as hell to do well.



I'm going to get rid of the window OSL because its just too much.



The rest can stay I might .... might give them a hit with some white but I'm worried its just going to make it look worse thanks to the already enhanced (airbrushed) snow and sky highlights.

[VisOne]

P.S. why do my threads always go all OT over the place might need to be less ranty I guess.

[VisOne]

That's enough time wasted on this part of the build. If I can get the dice tower and other assorted bits and pieces to this level in time for the Anzac cup I'll be happy.



The OSL is something I can continue to work on more if I want to or on other projects.

I'm not going to have time to do my tundra snow/rock components of the board at this rate. I might however get time to at least make a table mat to give the impression of snow. I can then fill the table out with my metric tone of other scatter terrain and what not I own.

[Claudius Sol]

For the "white" parts, I would recommend a mix of white/yellow leaning heavily to the white. Then I would mask off areas and apply very focused points within the light with the white. This makes it so the light is glowing and not the wall around it.

[VisOne]

I've managed to get a little more done for this build over the long weekend.

You will be able to see I'm getting very close to finishing all of my Zen Terrain pieces I brought especially for this build and I'm now adding some of the other pieces I've had around the house to further flesh the table out.

These other pieces however come from a different business and are not HDF or MDF but rather cardboard. Neil over at http://www.lasercutcard.co.za/ supplied them to me back in 2014. Card differs greatly from HDF and MDF especially in what you can do with it and how you as a end user work with it.

What you will be able to identify in the following shots are a Ratel IFV a series of Packing Crates and Skips and Bins set. I actually have allot more to build from my Laser Cut Card order but I may or may not use it all on this table.

Anyway enough about where I source things and what their made out of lets have a little look at where the build is at.



Pretty happy with it as it stands aesthetically. I'm kicking myself for misplacing my 4' by 4' tabletop in the move I honestly have no idea where it is or how good my board coverage is at this point though. I'll mark out a 4' by 4' on the floor once I get my Dice Tower built and decide if I need to add more like my Container Site Office or my other vehicles





I think the widgets just add allot of character to the buildings wish they made a full set like CNC Terrain do just for adding to plain buildings/DIY builds.



I love the Ratel IFV so much only thing I would like more is a Bushmaster if only Neil made one of them but alas he is a South African so it just makes sense that his go to is SANDF vehicle. I'm really looking forward to giving it some camouflage treatment so far its just being hit with a rattle can grey primer. I will preshade some areas and give it another going over with another grey as the base of my snow camo. Then either hit it with the old blue tac + 2 or 3 colours or maybe a fly screen mesh version. I tried to get some of those amazing stencils/stickers that have being getting around from Anarchy Models but I didn't get in on the kickstarter so sourcing some is hard.



Not allot to say about the crates other than the fact they have gotten CHEAPER then when I ordered them last. They are worth their weight in gold ..... is that a pun? Because they are seriously light I actually put white metal sprue/flash offcuts in them to give them a little weight. Anyway if you don't find anything else you need from Neil then this is certainly the product to buy and try.

[Claudius Sol]

Brush4Hire also sells some of those stencils! Might try looking into them, though I'm sure the shipping would be expensive.

[VisOne]

Yeah the interest rate in Australia is going down .... again so basically all purchases using anything other than the AUD is not going to end well for me.

Not to mention I'm totally broke my kids have more savings than I do right now.

I hit those OSL areas with white as you mentioned but I'm still not happy with the results I really need to get my Sotar 20/20 out and use the fine needle in that for any further OSL things I do but that will have to wait getting this table assembled and painted to a decent standard is more important at this point.

[Crushar]

Loving what I am seeing so far!

And where did you get these? Or what are their names??

[VisOne]

Crushar here is picture from the store in the original packaging. Brought them at a place in Austrlaia called Overflow Discount Variety Stores its a slightly more upmarket $1.00 store really.



They don't scale well with the roll cage intact.



So I removed them and used some plasticard and a little green stuff .... bad job to make them look like remotes.





When I have a little more time I'm going to use some simple casting techniques to clone the Traktor Mul remote lens assemble and put it on top of the plasticard error to make it look even more like a low to mid tier working remote.

[Crushar]

Thanks sir. I like the idea very much.....

[Claudius Sol]

If you have access to InstantMold, you can use it to cast that part, should you want to. I've used it now several times to reproduce the Spetznas Boarding Shotgun head. It wouldn't be much more difficult with the Traktor Mul.

[Mob of Blondes]

What do you mean with fly screen and camo? Do you have any example of the result?

[VisOne]

If you have access to InstantMold, you can use it to cast that part, should you want to.

Yeah thats my intent just haven't got any handy right now.

What do you mean with fly screen and camo? Do you have any example of the result?

THIS!

Flyscreen meets vehicle!



Then I totally over weather it with the airbrush and the stencil disappears sighhhhh.



Going to finish the details on it and airbrush the screens then call it done. The rest of the day is Dice Tower building and maybe painting.



Ohh and here is more or less what my table is covering right now ....... less the table part.

[VisOne]

HaHa more shitty OSL effects.



Another shitty view.



Learning on the not important things.

[VisOne]

Ohhh noe's I'll fall of the modeling diaries main page if I don't post something. :unsure:

Quickly build, airbrush prime, pre shade, base coat and weather something.



Ha Ha eat a bag of dicks terrain backlog I've got your number.

Airbrushes make painting things like this up soooo much easier.