Revisited 40K Warzone Desert Table #1: The Pinnacles

The Pinnacles, and the mess that is my apartment. Notice the stack of Zone Mortalis rooms in the upper right hand corner of the photo, and the pile of boards leaned against the wall in the upper left hand corner of the photo.

After using weathering powder on the other 2 desert tables and seeing how it added to them, I decided to add a tiny bit of Medium Earth to The Pinnacles table, along with some static grass. Here are some proper close ups.

This area of difficult ground has a special place in my heart. It has been repainted multiple times and dates back to the first table I made specifically for home. Its probably 12+ years old. Now with a tiny bit of weathering powder. 

Each stone spire is so tall that you really can only photograph the base.

The base of the largest spire. It is over 15" tall.

Broom bristle "trees". One of my favorites to make. 

More boom bristle trees. The base is lightly shaded with some Medium Earth.

More subtle weathering.

Natural berm. I should note that all of the mesas and dunes on these boards in part are made up off all the off cuts glued and covered in masking tape to create a more natural shape, which is then covered in spackle, smoothed, and left to dry before being coated in sand.

Aerial view of The Pinnacles.

40K Warzone Desert Table #3: Sanguinary Valley

Desert Table #3: The Sanguinary Valley

To make this table a bit more distinctive (and to give it a cool name), I hit the valley with a bunch of red and orange weathering powder. These two tables were originally built to be used for the Koth Ridge scenario last year for my Piscina IV event but they weren't completely finished in time. Over the weekend I dry brushed both, added weather powder and flock, and just flipped one of the tables around to convert it from a ridge line with a tight gully into a valley.

Here are some quick shots:

Close up of the ridge stretching into the Sanguinary Valley.

Close up of the weathered valley.

The backside of the ridge line.

Topside shot of the center of the valley and the reddish dust that gives it its name.

Aerial view.

40K Warzone Tournament: Desert Table #2 The Retaining Wall

I just finished Desert Table #2, The Retaining Wall. I'm really happy with the look and feel of the table. Hopefully it proves to be fun and exciting for the players.

Difficult ground.

Massive mesa.

Close up of the Retaining Wall for which the table is named.

Model eye view from up on the Retaining Wall.

Close up of a hill with a make shift barricade.

Close up of difficult ground.

Dune with forgotten supplies.

More difficult ground.

 This is one of 4 tables that will be used for the Blood Soaked Sand or The Desert Outpost scenarios.

There will be fast and furious updates all the way up to Adepticon so feel free to follow closely and feel free to make comments or ask questions.

Thanks!
-Nick

40K Warzone Desert Board #1 The Pinnacles

Quick update: This is the first desert board roughly completed for the 40K Warzone Tournament at Adepticon. Lots of wide open desert and not a lot of cover. Blood Soaked Sands indeed. It just needs some splotchy static grass and some weathering and its ready for the big day.
-Nick

40K Warzone Tournament: Zone Mortalis Room

Just a brief snapshot today. Here's a picture of one of the rooms from one of the Zone Mortalis boards. Proceed with caution in this room.

The Learning Curve: Casting My Own Models.

My hobby activity has been constant the last month or so. I have been heavily juggling my 40K Warzone tables and Wreck-Age projects. To compliment both I've started learning how to make molds and cast my own pieces.

In this series you will see one of my failures and some of my successes.

This first  image is off a mold box filled with urethane rubber.The first mold making kit that Anton (Hyacinth Games) and I worked with was for making urethane rubber molds. That was a huge mistake. The next stage from this pic is to demold the originals. The walls of the box are removed and the mold is peeled away from the urethane. Not only did I have problems with the urethane latching onto the finer details of the original masters, but additionally, the resin had a tendency to bond with the urethane. After several attempts like this one, I gave up on urethane rubber.

After giving up on urethane rubber I decided to switch to silicone rubber. This made a huge difference in my results. Here was my first attempt at silicone. I made two blank oversized bike bases and two bases with custom details for specific Wreck-Age models. One is for their Caravaneer Cart and has a cinderblock modeled onto the base for the cart to prop up on, and the second base is modeled with a small iron tether bar so that Wreck-Age Pack Boars don't wander off. 

Here are the finished detailed bases all painted up.

After these successes I decided to get crazy. This next pic is of a mold box all ready for pouring that has all the pieces necessary to build an Industrial Dumpster. The long side walls are converted from the Wreck-Age Weathered Storage Container and then the rest is all scratch built by me. 

The mold came out with a few hitches. On the first couple pours I had some undercuts that were creating air bubbles and I also found I had a tendency to run the resin slightly over the top of the mold. My solution to mitigate these problems was to cut channels to create a sprue.

All of the pieces of the Industrial Dumpster on the sprue.

Here we have the Industrial Dumpster all assembled. I was in a hurry and glued it together all crooked. The pieces actually work together much better than pictured.

Finally, here is the Industrial Dumpster fully painted and weathered. I'd say it exceeded my initial expectations and I'm really looking forward to expanding on what I've learned from this project.

Thanks for reading.

-Nick

Being Incorporated Into Wreck-Age Art

I've been quietly working on terrain for the 40K Warzone Tournament at Adepticon and haven't been blogging as much as I would like, but don't worry - its coming along. 

That's not what I've come to discuss today, however. Over the weekend I got myself wrapped up in an unexpected side project. I had seen the art for the upcoming Stakers Box Set for Wreck-Age and thought it was awesome. Not just the models, but the whole box. The borders they used and the landscape they dropped the photo of the miniatures onto - it looks fantastic. I suggested to the guys at Hyacinth Games that they box up their resin Storage Containers into a box set at a slight savings and do the same thing with the art. Anton responded, "That's a good idea, except we need three painted crates then!" I had just inadvertently volunteered myself for a very busy weekend. 

After some discussion I arranged to pick up a couple of Storage Container models on Saturday and then I engaged in a marathon painting session that lasted 6 straight hours that night and then I put in another 2 hours on Sunday. I brushed on the finishing touches (mostly sponging and weathering powders) while two thirds of Hyacinth Games were sitting in my living room eating popcorn. As soon as they were done we grabbed my girlfriend's camera and Anton shot a half dozen or so photos that were slight variations of this:

The original crate in the center took me around 20 hours to paint. I did two knock off's to match in approximately 4 hours each. I haven't painted that fast since my GW Buffalo manager days.

Now where things got really exciting for me is that today Anton e-mailed me an image that one of their artists whipped up using the storage containers I painted. I think the consensus was the art was too elaborate for the box set, but they're probably going to use it in the rule book. It came out awesome, and seeing my painted models incorporated into their art is kind of thrilling, so I wanted to share it. Here's the digital art by Kostas using my storage containers. Pretty freakin' cool!:  

Digital artistry by Kostas. Crates by me. So stoked!

Also, while I'm rambling about Wreck-Age I want to hype their upcoming Stakers box set: 

Soon to be released Stakers Box Set for Wreck-Age.

I didn't paint any of those models but I think it looks great and I'm really excited to see Hyacinth Games making progress!

Finally, I want to mention that Hyacinth Games are going a promotion where if you buy a Wreck-Age model this month, paint it, and send them photographic evidence - they will send you a free model as a reward for your efforts. Pretty cool. You can get the full details on the Wreck-Age Forum.

-Nick