54. Bad Casting. 40K Urban Terrain - Pavement Side Crater part1.

In one of my posts on the Underhives bulletin board (I don't know what I'm talkign about), I was talking about casting some stuff for making terrain.

The basic story is, on what once was a fairly nice bi-weekly trip to a local town, I picked up a plaster cast kit at a charity shop (which was pretty random, I'll admit).
I bought it because
A) It was from the British Heart foundation (Y)
B) It was cheap
C) Why not? If I could make something usfull with it, then we we're onto a winner.
A while back (when I got the hobby bug again) I thought I'd try it out.
So I grabbed a couple of the Rhinos from my 'car pool,' and...



What?!



THE BUBBLES!!



Needless to say, it did not go well at all.
I know when casting you're meant to tap/vibrate the mould/surface to aid in releasing the air bubbles, but it just didn't seem to work.
I've cast many smaller pieces before using a two part liquid silicone.
This stuff was a 1 part powder and 1 part water mixture.
It just... NO!

The good thing about plaster of Paris is that it is fairly malleable, so it was fairly easy to get rid of those crazy air bubbles.





Looking a'ight for ruined vehicles?
That is what I thought! So I continued on, but it wasn't long until I found another problem.

I'll get to that in a moment.


With these new found trashed vehicles, I thought I'd do some more themed terrain.

Enter the crater;





This terrain piece, like all my others, tells a a little story about what has been happening on this battlefield (in relation to my armies).
In this piece the Space Marine (Probably a Marines Malevolent captain) lies dead in the crater left behind by an explosion.

The cause of the explosion? The destruction of his command Rhino;



I love the concept.

I was going to add large chunks of shrapnel to make it look like it had one of its flanks and part of the under carriage blown out by a mine or something.
This would visual explain why it is in the position it is in.
The Marine would be one of the casualties thrown clear from the wreckage.

All going well? WELL FUCK YOU DARKHAZZL3!

Here is where we return to the aforementioned problem.

PLASTER OF PARIS WONT GLUE TO ANYTHING FOR LOVE NOR MONEY!

Seriously!
I tried Super glue, Plaster of Paris, Polly filler, green stuff, milliput., PVA...
You can't pin it either, or it just crumbles.

So this terrain piece will likely be the last to be finished (if ever!), as I figure out a way to fix the rhino to the base, or just re- model the crater a bit to make it look like one created by an artillery shell (maybe from the entrenched gun position).

Either way. I promised a post about this experiment.
So unto you; The Underhivers, I deliver.

If you have any experience with Plaster casting then feel free to drop me a comment.
Weather it is words of advice, words of frustration or examples of casts done by you.
You can do it below this post, or at my WiP on the Bolter&Chainsword!
Failing that you can tweet me @Twitter - @DarKHaZZl3

Until next time.
-DH-

48. Random Update part 10. Going, going, gone! Some Experiences of the Second Hand Mmodel Market.

Hey guys, I know I said there would be another modelling update. I half lied.
My bad.

This update is about buying models on the internet.
Specifically from sources other than shops.

What sources you ask?
Well;

ebay,
Trading groups...

And well, that is about it.

Ebay
Now we all know that ebay is full of bargains and rip off, amazing service and complete bastards.
But despite being the soul destroying auction site of evil i managed to find some great stuff on there recently.
So I thought I'd share (and rub in) some of my loot.

SKULLZ ULTRAMARINE.



This guy I got for £10. Which, is really quite cheap considering how rare he is.
He has a little wear and tear; he's come off his base peg and there is some excess superglue, but nothing that isn't fixable.

GAMES DAY 2006 DWARF DAEMON SLAYER.



This is my bargain find (more so than the Skullz guy). £9.03 plus postage (£2.99).
Sure it isn't in the original packaging, but as I intend to build it I'm not bothered.
Came with an extra Damon head too!
DWARF COMMAND DRAGON SLAYER



The Dragon slayer from the dwarf command box. I probably paid too much for him (he is 1/5th of the £20 box, so say £4? I paid £6), but is is still less than, say, the new GW plastic slayer.  I can that win enough which is win for me. Especially considering....

AVATARS OF WAR DWARF BERSERKER REGIMENT (Well, half of one...).



Yup. Avatars of war do a regiment box for Dwarf Beserkers.. In other words, plastic slayers. With command options.
The box contains enough to make 20 'slayers,' but this was only half a box.
I paid £10.03 and £3 postage.
That's right! £13.03 for ten plastic models, as opposed to GW's £40 for 10 metal models.

Between this and my Dwarf bitz I'm sure I can throw together an interesting unit.
When you add in the Games Day slayer, The Daemon slayer and the Skull Pass plastic slayer, I only need two more for a 15 strong unit.
Which brings me to...

AVATARS OF WAR DWARF BERSERKER.



Make that 1 more.
I really like the Avatars of War Dwarf stuff.
I'll admit I didn't bid for this one, it was a buy it now and BNIB so I paid a little extra for him.
But still, he was only £9.95 including postage, and a much better sculpt than, say, the new GW plastic ones.

1:24 SCALE RED BRICKS

Another buy it now, and no image for this one.
£8.99 for 500 bricks. I don't know if that is a good price, but I love them!
Well, I love the idea of them. I am yet to use them. But I reckon they could be used to make some amazing basses and/or scenery.
Overall I think I did well over the past few months.
(I also bought a couple of GameCube games, which I was grossly over charged for. Swings and Round abouts, eh?).

Moving on...

Trading Groups.
The other source of models is via trading groups, such as those of Dakka, Facebook and so on.
These are often a mixed bag, with peoples issues being immediately obvious to everyone.

I've had a couple of bad scenarios occur (Items not turning up, people committing to buy and then letting you down/not replying to messages)

I'm here to endorse such groups though.

So long as you buy through paypal you are pretty much guaranteed a refund,

And as long as you send items via a reputable courier service (royal mail, for
example), you are covered for almost all losses (at least in monetary terms);
you get your postage cost back, as well as the value of the item sent (proof
required, sorry limited edition models) and the buyer as stated gets their
refund.

He's one of the best;



£20 including postage. Brand new.
I'm not complaining.

I've had some great trades too; I got rid of some OOP scouts in exchange for
the Space Hulk Genestealers. Both parties were happy; not only did we both get
something we want, we also got rid of something we don't want or need any more,
with the postage our only expenditure.
I also traded a Tau Etheral for Griff Oberwald.


Times are getting harder and harder, and hobby activities only ever get more
expensive.

So next time you're thinking of starting/expanding an army, have a look at your collection.
Do you need all the stuff you own?
Why not offload some of those projects that are never going to get done.
Use the money to buy new models, or second hand ones.
You might even find a good swap deal out there.



Got any nightmare stories about ebay/trading groups?
How about success stories?

Let me know in the comments an/or on twitter @DarKHaZZl3
Peace out, and thanks for reading

-DH-