Completed Tower

Finished the tower late last night. I've included a few progressive shots of the paint job and the finished product. Contest was today, along with a 2,000 pt tourny. I played my Grey Knights for two rounds and had to leave early. I'm not sure who won the terrain contest, but it was worth the time spent just for the excuse to get started again with the blog and the fun of building stuff. Let me know what you all think.

This post is very pic heavy. Pictures after the jump...

Mick and the boys would be proud

It's all painted black - that is. Since I had a lot of foam from the foamcore showing, I had to brush on black paint first, then spray paint. If you use a rattle can on the exposed foam, said foam will melt. It can create a cool effect if you're trying for it. The brushed on craft paint gives a good seal and then the spray paint helps to hit all those hard to reach spots.

The building will get gradually lighter shades of grey until I get the effect I'm trying for. After the metal look is done, I'm going to back and add some color to a few panels to make them look like scrap grabbed form various Space Marine vehicles. Rust and corrosion will come after that.

Rivets, rivets and more rivets

I've spent the last few nights working on all the rivets for the tower. I bought a multisize hole punch a few years ago just for creating rivets. I used it a couple of times on plasticard sheets. That dulled the blade edges a bit too much. The pieces were also very difficult to get out of the cutting cylinders.

I'm using a cereal box for my material this time. The challenge now is that the blades are dull enough that sometimes that don't make a clean cut - may be time to buy another punch.

The amount of time to cut and glue all of these will definitely pay off. The detail will give this tower a realistic look.

Next steps are to base the base and mount the tower to the base. After that I'll start painting. The competition is on the 27th.

Up Go the Walls

Some update photos of the Ork Alert Tower. Put the solid walls on and then covered them with "sheet metal." Main construction is from foamcore and the sheet metal from card stock weight paper. Next steps are to cut and add rivets and build the alarm horns.

Ork Alert Tower

So I went back to check the details for the terrain competition and found that I forgot to read all the rules. The theme for the terrain should center around "communication." Plus, the size for the piece is 6x6x6. There goes my idea for the wrecked titan. I'll save that one for my next project.

One of the armies I have is orks. I decided to build an orky piece of terrain for the contest since I usually don't see much of it on the table. I didn't want to build a Waaagh tower, but did want to do some type of tower. I decided to go with a tower that has an alert horn mounted on its platform - kind of like the civil defense horns. I also want a large area all the way around the platform that the lookout crew can shoot from.

I've started on the construction. I've got the base cut from masonite, the support beams and floor from foamcore and the ladder rungs and skull from cereal box cardboard.I'll be working on the project this week and will post updates as I have them.

Back from the Warp

After a year and a half, I am back. We've had some major life events that have kept us very busy. We've been able to play every so often and even get some painting done on our models, but no terrain. I no longer have a basement with lots of room to work in. It's been real frustrating to not be able to do one of the things I enjoy the most.

Near the new house we're in, my youngest son and I have found a hobby shop that just recently became an authorized GW seller. The shop has a large area for table gaming of all kinds. The Battle Bunker is about 20 minutes from us now, but this store is about three blocks away. We are excited to now have a close location that we go to and play and paint without having to plan a trip.

I checked the store's facebook page  and found that they are having a tournament and a terrain contest on the 27th of this month. The second item has inspired me to make the most of our current situation and start working on terrain again, despite our lack of workspace. My boys harass me about my plans to scratch build a titan. I found a set of plans years ago, but never started doing it (just talked about it). Well, I'm not going to build the whole titan, just a part of it. I'm going to use a 12" square board as my base and build the wreckage of a warhound and a hill with trees.

I've sketched a few ideas and am ready to get started. I'll start on the feet tomorrow, which gives me 20 days to get the whole thing complete. I'm looking forward to creating and sharing along the way.