60. It came from the Underhive. Escher gang part 2. A blast from the Underhive's past.

This post takes me back.

If you want to skip the history lesson, tough! I wrote it in bright pink! TRY AND MISS THAT!!
(oh? you can scroll past the pink bit...fuck...).

I originally created the Undehive Hero with a view to showcase my Escher Gang.
The Bolter and Chainsword (my then main posting format) was only a power armour friendly board, so it needed a new home, and I just can't seem to take to Dakka Dakka.

That is how The Underhive Hero got it's name; the undehive is where all the general scum and villainy of the 40k universe make their living. It seemed approriate to cross this the concept of the Underclass/working class Hero (I'm quite left wing).

Anyway in post, 2. The rebellion of a promiscuous princess, I introduced my Escher gang.
The were a proper rag tag bunch then; Poorly based, painted without any reference to work from...

Then the project got abandoned. That is, until my hobby rebirth.
I have talked about how my attitude towards hobbying changed, and it is with my Escher gang, and my Sisters of Battle where I started my hobby journey...again.
So about two years after my first post I started a new post series; 17. It came from the Underhive. Escher gang part 1. Retro reboot and refit.
The models were stripped, cleaned and re-based.

And then I left it there. I didn't see any point in painting them.
If there is a theme throughout my hobby life it is tragedy and apathy.
I got super stoaked doing these when I was with my ex.
After we ended that passion died a little.
Luckily. It kinda came back

So here they are.
Undecorated and ready to cause some fucking havoc, in a city near you (though some 39 millenniums in the future).

The concept, as it was all that time ago, is to have a collection of miniatures that breaks the 'Caucasian centric' view of the 40k universe.
We're talking about a universe that could have evolved in any direction.
It makes sense that Ethnicity would be extremely diverse (though admittedly completely different to the Ethnic diversities of our reality).

Anyway. I will be attempting to diversify my Escher gang.

In addition to this it will be a mix of the Guady/80's esq look that the traditional Escher gangs have, and that Slaaneshi cults also have.
For variety though, I thought I'd throw in some more subtle colours to represent the Gang members who are not so heavily influenced by their peers and/or side more with the 'Promiscuous Princess.'

Enough words.
I have started painting these models. So expect updates soon.


If you play Necromunda I'd love to hear from you, in fact, if you do any war gaming I'd love to hear from you.
Also if you have an comments, criticisms, suggestions, advice, or just general chatter, do that too.

You can comment on this blog post (or any other blog post relevant to the topic you want to talk about), or hit my up on twitter @DarkHaZZl3
If you're already a member of The Bolter and Chainsword, I'm perfectly happy for you to talk/leave feedback on my WiP post there; just keep if board relevant!
It can be found here - DarKHaZZl3's armies of the Imperium - a WiP

Thanks for reading guys and girls and xeno's scum.
Until next time
-DH-

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-

50. Streets Awash With... Wash... Building a Gaming Board part 12.

Half a Century? Big E! wept.
Also 14th post of the year so far!
Commitment and progress? I think so!

Considering it has been so long since this project got updated I'll point you to my previous posts to refresh your memory...

Back? Did you check?
No?

Well....

First off is my tests scheme for the paving slabs (The set on the right).

Pretty simple.

- Undercoat black (Chaos black/ Any acyrlic paint),

- Paint dark grey (Any will do. I used Black acrylic and white crylic. But the GW base dark grey would be fine),

- Paint light grey (may require 2 coats; My mix was somewhere between codex and fortress grey/ Mianly white with a hint of black = Pavement grey),

- Wash with watered down black, making sure it goes into the crevices. The while still wet use some tissue paper to 'dab' off most of the paint.
This will leave the paint in the crevices and give the slab a darker tone, with a dappled effect on it.

- Drybrsuh light grey (Might have to do it twice; pavement grey),

- Very light Drybrush light-er grey (pavement grey with more white).

Done!

Better?

Well I did Stage 1, 2 and 3.




So.

Step 4.
Apply black wash.



The black wash is just Chaos Black watered done a lot.
Yes you could use a wash alternative...

But this is cheaper.
Apply this liberally to the slabs



Do not let it dry, but use a bit of scrunched up kitchen towel to dab it off.




One side done to show the difference in shade.



Continue until all your pavements are done.

And that's all the update I have on that.

It is a bit laborious/back breaking.
I suggest doing it while sitting at something almost chest height.
It is that or suffer


That will do for today.
I have more to share, but I'll save it for tomorrow!

As always, thanks for reading.
All feedback welcome and such.

Over and out.

-DH-

36. Follow the Grey Slab Road. Building a Gaming Board part 9.

So... much....grey...

Dies.Yup, I've been painting my board some.
It doesn't really look like I've done much (When in reality I've spent about 5-8 hours on it... I've lost count. I hate life).

So I thought Id share some bits and bobs with you.

First off is my tests cheme for the paveing slabs (The set on the right).



Pretty simple.

- Undercoat black (Chaos black/ Any acyrlic paint),

- Paint dark grey (Any will do. I used Black acrylic and white crylic. But the GW base dark grey would be fine),

- Paint light grey (may require 2 coats; My mix was somewhere between codex and fortress grey/ Mianly white with a hint of black = Pavement grey),

- Wash with watered down black, making sure it goes into the crevices. The while still wet use some tissue paper to 'dab' off most of the paint.
This will leave the paint in the crevices and give the slab a darker tone, with a dappled effect on it.

- Drybrsuh light grey (Might have to do it twice; pavement grey),

- Very light Drybrush light-er grey (pavement grey with more white).

Done!

  Yeah, it is not a masterpeice of paintwork, but I think it looks a'ight. Especially when they'll be a shed load of them.
Adds a bit of texture prior to any detailing that might get done.

I've already done the base grey on all the pavements;



Looks a bit shitty at the moment. But it does end up like the first picture, so I'm okay with it.
Glad they're out of the way.

Things left to do;
- Finish slabs (Wash black, Dab, Drybrush x 3),
- Finish road (Very light blue-grey drybrush),
- Paint details (Drains, man-holes),
- Paint lampposts,
- Clean up edges (Black boarder).

And that should do it.

SO GODDAMN CLOSE!!
-DH-

31. A Strong Learning Curve. Building a Gaming Board part 6.

Following in my rich vein of form (and terrible puns)...

This update is about the board.
So. If you want to follow along;

You will need:

• PO210 00/H0 Self Adhesive Paving - found here: http://www.metcalfem...adhesive-paving
• PVA glue - While the tiles are self adhesive, the adhesive quality is poor. Glue them down.
• Tea Stirrers (See previous post about making the curb)
• Curved curb pieces (See previous post about curved curb pieces; I made a press mould of mine)
• A LOT OF TIME!

Lets do this!

So the first thing I wanted to do was figure out how exactly to build the bit where the two straight pavements meet.

This involved a lot of terrible prototypes, this was the best (before the one I was eventually to use).



The main problem here is that the pavement slabs don't match the same pattern as the pavement pattern I have previously used.
So I came up with a better idea;



These are the two slab patterns used to make my pavement. I've glued them to a piece of paper, and cut them out.
this way I can check the width of my pavement at any time.

Using this, I came up with this, which incidentally is...

Step 1;



Attach the above to the board. DO NOT GLUE ANYTHING DOWN (This is just in case you find something doesn't fit/ does fit better when you personally attempt this).

That weird curved bit? That is the 'frame' the tiles come with. The width is the same as a narrow slab.
This makes your template/boundary for the curved part of the pavement.

Step 2;

Using these boundaries, build the pavement as normal until you reach the apex of the corner.



Step 3;

This is where it starts to get complicated. You can no longer lay down equal length of tile.
Jostling the slabs until they fit can be quit tricky, and they will never fit exactly right, so you kinda just have to man up and deal with it not being perfect (this made me a very sad panda).

If you follow my pictures bellow you should be reasonably okay.



Step 4;



Step 5;



Step 6;

Glue it all down, except for the 'weird curved bit.'

As previously stated, when I did this I found some tiles didn't fit exactly right, and I managed to tweak my original design a little to make it fit better.
You should be able to replace the 'weird curved bit' with the relevant slabs, as per the slab pattern that has been used throughout.
The only exception to this is the apex of the curve.

This should be made from the apex of the 'weird curved bit.' It may have to cut into a tile a little to fit snugly.

See bellow.




Step 7;

Glue inside curb down and carry on with pavement.





Inisde curve done!

The outside curve should be roughly the same.

However, if the above seemed way too fiddly for your liking, I prepared a different way of doing it (which, due to my outside curve being slightly larger than my inside curve, I had to use).

So...
Step 8;

Prepare outside curve.
To do this I super glued the pieces down on to a piece of paper first, and then just cut it out.



Step 9;

Glue this curved piece down.

You need to match the right angle corner with where the two curbs meet on the inside.
When you do this there will be a large amount of space between the piece you've just glued down, and the curved curb. Don't worry about it.
We fix that in...

Step 10;

Remember that 'weird curved bit? It kinda makes a comeback.



(Apologies for the upside down picture).
Basically take that corner and cut it to size.

I know it doesn't fit in with the rest of the pavement, but it you replaced it with slabs you would break the slab pattern anyway, so it is kind of a no win situation anyway.

I think I plan on putting something here. Suggestions as to what are welcome. So far all I can think of is a crash barrier.
Anyway, moving on to....

Step 11;

Carry on with the pavement as per usual, adding the outside curb.



And there you have it!
Curved pavement complete.

Next step is sand (which there wont be a step by step for because I have already covered it in a previous post), and then it is onto painting (and maybe some more detailing).


That is all for one day haha :P.

C&C welcome!

-DH-

27. Follow The Grey-Concreate-Slabbed Road. Building a Gaming Board part 6.

Sooo, about that update...

And as usual it will come in fits and starts. Expect an immediate update on my Sisters of Battle.

  I managed to sort some board out. I've finished the pavement on the two straight road pieces.
I wrote up a little step by step if you want to steal/borrow/use the concept for your own stuff.

You will need;

• PO210 00/H0 Self Adhesive Paving - found here: http://www.metcalfemodels.com/00-self-adhesive-paving - I suggest about 4 packs; two per road. They are well worth it to be honest as the can be used for basing too. I used them on my Necromunda gang
• PVA glue - While the tiles are self adhesive, the adhesive quality is poor. Glue them down.
• Tea Stirrers (See previous post about making the curb)
• A LOT OF TIME!

Seriously. It takes about an four hours to do one board.

First off take a look at the slabs.



You'll be using the long slab, and the short slab. Put the squares and curves to one side.

Step two.

Using the lines you should already have on you board as a guide, put a row for long tiles out.
This should be about 5 long slabs.

Attach a curb piece (cut as before) as you go.



Step three

Unless you want a uniform running row of tiles, you need to mix it up a bit.
Using 4 long slabs, and two short slabs make another row.



Step Four
REPEAT!
Until you get halfway.



Step Five

Flip the board round and do the same on the other side.
This allows that half of the pavement to dry.

Step Six & Seven

Flip. Repeat.

DONE.





I love the way they look. Sure it takes a fair whack of time, but it is quite addictive and therapeutic.

A couple of tips;

• Make sure to straighten each row as you go,
• Have a cloth or sponge to soak up excess glue is necessary,
• Save detailing (damage, weathering) until after it is dry,
• Have a jewellers saw handy just in case you manage to go over.

This week I'll attempt to do some of the curved road piece in between bouts with the new Sisters list.
Harumph.

All feedback welcome.
Ciao

21. Selling Sand to the Arabs. Building a Gaming Board part 5.

 A bit of a quick one, 'cus I keep forgetting to take pictures/do theory/ do much to the Gaming Board.

I did some tests for a suitable basing material (Sorry there are no pictures for the majority of this, just words).

I picked three types of basing sand for consideration.

The old style coarse Games Workshop sand,
The new style fine Games Workshop sand,
and 'Calcium Sand,' from a local pet shop (Used for sand based animal habitats; Lizards and such).

Test1: Basic glue and sanding.

Coarse looks good for a bit of ruble, but is way too rocky for general purpouse in a urban environment.
Fine is a bit too fine, but has great flat coverage.
Calcium is a nice medium.

After doing this test I concluded that the Calcium sand was the best general basing material, however I was was not satisfied with the coverage.
As with all basing sand it tended to rub off a bit too easily. I know another coat of glue would do the trick, but I wanted to give it something more....robust.

Test2: Pollyfiller and sanding.

Basically mixing pollyfiller up and adding sand.
This works surprisingly well.
The Calcium sand looks great as urban wasteland, where as the fine sand make for a great tarmac effect. Coarse sand didn't go down too well.

I decided that was how I was gonna do things... then add a bit of glue and sand to fill any gaps.
So here is my wasteland board tile:


All of them look pretty much similar.
Gonna spray them Humbrol Tank Grey Spray and then work from there (I managed to get a load cheap when Model Zone went into administration).
I've sprayed one so far. Two to go!

I've actually put the tarmac on the roads too... didn't get any pictures mind. I'll post them next time.

Done!

-DH-

15. Urban Outfitting. Building a Gaming Board. Part 4.

Insert Update. Upload Enjoyment.

 A while back I mentioned I was waiting on some bitz so I could moved forward.
Well, a week or two ago they arrived. I did all the stuff last week, so here it all is broken down into sections.

Drains.

 Real streets have drains right? So mine will too.
After having a mooch around I decided to try a couple of drain types out.
Simply put, for an imperial world, the brass etch drain from the GW urban basing kit is by far the best looking option.
Insert prototype.



So theory time (boo!).

  I went out for a walk to figure this out.
On my road drains are roughly 20 curb slabs apart.
In my previous theory post I've stated a slab is approx 3ft long.
So;
3 x 20 = 60 / 2 = 30 cm

A board side is 2 ft / 61 cm = 40 slabs of curb.

So we end up with two drains a side.
Two drains, two board half's. The logical step is to stick them in the middle of each half.

This leaves the drain on the other side. When I was walking around, I saw that drains tended to alternate on each side of the road.
In which case the next logical step is to stick a single drain on the opposite side of the rod, in the middle of the board; the middle of the two drains.

Here's the result;





Drains done!

Next step. Lamp posts.

 Same reasoning as the drains.
If you walk down a urban road, you're are fairly likely to find yourself basking in the light provided by a lmap post.

Again, only one option jumped out at me for this;



Cities of death lamp post? YES!

Theory time...

Lampposts turned out to be between 55 - 70 curb slabs apart.

3 x 50 = 150 / 2 = 75cm
3 x 75 = 225 / 2 = 112.5

Quite a large distance. Certainly there can only be one per side of the road, and due to the modular nature of the board having varying positioning of features is not possible. Modularity won out in the end so I decided to have 1 on either side of the road (again, like drains they tend to alternate), and equal distance away from the board edge, and quite far away from each other.

In the end I went for having the lampposts 10cm from the board edge; 50cm apart.
This means that each lamp post will always be 60cm apart from the next lamppost on their side of the road.



 Now, I couldn't exactly attach them to board; it wasn't based or painted, and painting them would be a nightmare.
More importantly they were bound to get damaged during storage.
Enter the magnets!



 I've put one in each lamppost, and one in their corresponding position on the board; 10 cm in, both sides of the road, on both board half's.
This means that I can detach them at will (painting, storage, to remove obstruction in game...) and it will help to retain the boards modular nature. The board pieces will be able to placed anywhere, and maintain the lampposts distance.

Boom.

NEXT!

Another feature of your local streets and roads is...

Manholes.

T - H - E - O - R - Y

Very simple this time. there is one every 60 slabs / 2ft (roughly).
So that is 1 per board piece.
The only way to keep the manholes 2 ft away from each other is to put it directly in the middle of the road.

As for what to use there were a few candidates;
A space marine top circular hatch thing...,
The top of a Tau Shield Drone,
An Ork Hatch.

In the end, I went with the most imperial one, The Space Marine ting... pictured here.



I'd post what it looks like, but it is boring as hell.


Anyways folk, that will do for one night.

Some updates will be thrown at you soon. Basing is up probably next on gaming board agenda.
Those big blank squares wont look like urban wasteland on their own.

I will be throwing in something else soon. Think it is about time I revisited some old friends from the Underhive

Until then any comments and/ or criticism would be welcome.

-DH-