September Update: Back into the Terrain Trenches!

-

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone, but I've got some good progress to report!

As was promised quite a while ago, I finally settled on a method for making Normandy bocage that I'm really happy with. A lot of the time, I see hedges as waist-high decorations, but the bocage of the Normandy campaigns were truly formidable obstacles. I've modeled these as having a dirt berm a bit taller than the mini, and then having the foliage extend an inch(ish) higher.

These bits of bocage are in about 1 1/2 foot segments and designed as scatter terrain for a Normandy table that I am building up slowly. I took some photos on a smaller piece of board I am using as a mini-photo set. Enjoy some of the bocage pictures, and let me know what you think!





Terrain Experiments!

After finishing the bocage, I was looking for another mini-project to work on while I waited on some bits for the final display board to arrive. Walking around Hobby Lobby one day, I noticed they sold a 1x1 1/2 foot section of the faux fur used in those mats I've been seeing everywhere. It was only $3, so I decided why not, and to do a little experiment with the fur. 

I trimmed most of it with regular scissors and then set in with some spray paints I had laying about. I used ochre, ivy green, and a hunter green. After getting some patches down, I blended them with the comb, and the set to work on using some acrylics. I used every green I had laying around, some yellows, a khaki, and some flesh tones, as well. It really doesn't matter exactly what you use, because the more varied the colors are, the more realistic the look. After more comb blending, I let the fur dry overnight. Afterwards, I came back through with the comb and combed the fur out nice and smooth. From there it's really easy to ruffle it up with your hands to get a nice long grass result. For 30 minutes of work I think the result was absolutely worth it. When I start in on building a real 6x4, I will definitely use faux fur as my grass. 


As you can see, when viewed from really close up, it looks ultra-realistic, and no piece of fur looks the same - just like a real grassland. I love the look, and decided I had to have some pictures with my minis. Enjoy the result, and crank out some faux fur of your own. It's an amazing result, and requires almost no time at all!





Previews!

Even though I mostly stick to historicals, Killteam has been going insane at my local shop and I've decided to paint up some Black Legion Chaos Space Marines. Look forward to those soon!


With Halloween not too far off, I'm thinking about making some homemade decorations this year...If they turn out any good, I'll make sure to bring you guys an overview of some easy halloween decorations on the cheap!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hobby -- Week 3/7-3/12

-
Image
  Organization After buying and setting up the new shelving unit last week, and reorganizing my hobby space, I bought some "acrylic nail polish storage racks" on Amazon to store my paints, which were getting out of control. These had a wide enough shelf to store both Vallejo, Citadel, and Tamiya paints, which were great. I'm really happy everything is now organized and I have more space to work, instead of my desk being so cluttered. Next week, I think I'll buy some lights. The new desk location has more space and access to the pegboard wall, but lacks good light for painting. I'll either pick up some Ikea desk lamps or a big garage overhead light. We'll see which is a more effective solution. Snow Bases My friend wanted a quick basing tutorial on how I did my Age of Sigmar skeletons' snow bases, so I'm going to post it here as my virtual noteboook so I remember how to do it in the future. I used Vallejo's texture paint and some large(ish) pebbles
Read more

Hobby - Week of 3/29-4/3

-
Image
 Not a lot to talk about but one major change to the hobby organizational space is my new light.  After I reorganized my hobby space, I very quickly realized that the light in the new corner was very poor. I had to sort that out immediately. After a few weeks of pondering whether to get big studio lights, cheap ikea lamps, or something in between, I settled on the Daylight U32500 Triple Bright Lamp, as was recommended by a lot of hobby blogs and videos. It was pretty expensive, but as I've worked with it over the past week or so, I'm pretty happy with my purchase. It has perfect light color, and is really easily adjustable to throw its bright light in a concentrated area or all over the table. It wasn't the cheapest option, but it's worked out quite nicely, and more importantly allowed me to get back to actually painting after what felt like an eternity's break organizing, building shelves, and deciding on lighting fixtures. After hearing about the remaster of the o
Read more

Welcome to Divisonal Maintenance Company!

-
Image
Take your vehicles to the next level in a few super simple steps! I have recently bought some vehicles, sprues, and bits from a friend and member of the local Bolt Action community, and thought that his paintjobs could be enhanced with some weathering. (Plus, I had some techniques that I really wanted to try...) With more forethought than normal, and some before and  after pictures, I'll break down the process I used to take the tabletop standard models to the next level with only some super simple weathering. Panzer IV. Ausf. H Before The Panzer IV already had some decals applied and had its dunkelgelb base and camo stripes applied.  To start off, I took an old hobby knife and carefully scraped off the star wars Imperial decal. As much as I wish my Star Wars: Legion forces could have some armor support, I wanted to try out more battle damage, and thought that the decal would be distracting. After gently scraping it away, I took som e Vallejo Luftwaffe Camo
Read more