An Update 'Afore We Set Sail......

As pirates naval warfare be close to our 'eart - the thrill o' the high seas, the smell o' gunpowder, the creaking o' the plank......
So 'tis with a piratey fondness that we present Space-Fleet! Select yer vessels from one o' eight races an' take to the void! Whether ye be launching a planetary invasion or terrorizing petty landlubbers with a good ol' fashioned raid, know there be no mercy in the dark o' space......
(Cap'n's Note: While most races be pres'nt in this here update, all ye Colonist gamaarrrrs be left out o' this one! Though be not disheartened, nay, we be likely to fix this in a future update!)

Also, 'tis confirmed that we be traveling abroad o'er the seven seas aftaar New Years, so ye be unlikely to hear from me or me crew over the next 3 - 6 months.

From the 40k Pirate Crew, may yer Chris'mas be merry, yer coffers full, yer decks swabbed, timbers shivered and yer sailing fair fer the New Yeaaaaar!

Scratch Built Triarch Stalker

As much as I would like to take the credit, this little killing machine was made by my brother. 

About now I'd like to go on with a tutorial or a series of WIP pics, but unfortunately by the time I thought of that it was too late and my brother had already gone and finished it! Luckily I did get in there before any paint was applied.

This Triarch Stalker was completely scratch built from cardboard, paper, chopsticks, toothpicks, marbles and spare screws. For the 'shoulder' joints he used part of a Leman Russ template, with a standard octagonal template for the base of the body. Some interesting circular piece from the inside of a dead computer was used just behind the front 'arms'.
(Note: For those interested - super glue does not stick on marbles! However two part epoxy glue works a treat!)

Some more pictures of the finished product (sorry about the lighting, didn't notice that window in the background!) 

In my opinion, an awesome result considering the resources we had to work with!

All associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer 40,000 universe are either ®, TM and/or © Copyright Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2012, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.

Thar be life in 'er yet....

Ahoy thar!

Fear ye not landlubbber, 40k Pirates be not dead - nay, me 'n me crew be still sailin' the seven seas in search o' new plundaaar!  Our goal be tae give ye new proxies aplenty forrr ev'ry race, so the next update is lookin' tae be a biggun! Unfortun'tly, the terrors, chores and hardships o' the high seas - along with the size o' this planned update be meaning ye very well may not be hearing from me or me crew until aftaarr New Year.

'Tis 'ard tae predict what foul storms we may encounter o'er these next months, so should we run afoul o' the weather I bid ye a Merry Chris'mas and an 'Appy New Yeaaaarrr!

40k Pirate

Scratch Built Ruin

(First off, this isn't a tutorial, though I will explain how I made it there are no WIP pictures.)

I decided the other day that we desperately needed a building of some description to help fill our relatively open battlefields.

Making the building was relatively simple, really all we did was find a box, base it and then brutally attack it with a knife! The floor of the top story is also made of cardboard and was put in after we'd cut the top to shape.

All the debris you can see are just chunks of cardboard strewn about the place, while I stuck dirt to both the base and building to both texturize it and help make it look more 'ruined'. Pieces of foam act as additional debris on the top story.

I then cut out strips of cereal box to frame the doors, I made sure to fit it in with any 'battle damage' I applied during construction to give the impression that it's seen quite a bit of conflict.

Painting was simple enough, I basecoated the entire thing black and followed this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN6SaDrbmhM
First I dry-brushed the whole thing grey, following with a lighter shade of grey on all the edges and a very light dry-brush of white on the edges again. I then dry-brushed all the sand brown, added a small amount of metallic paint to the beams on the top floor then went around doing light dry-brushes of black at random spots to represent blast damage.

This was the first time I'd used dry-brushing for anything other than a small highlight, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Scratch Built Thunderfire Cannon

With a friend's birthday fast approaching, I've been doing some serious thinking about what to get our resident Space Marine player. After checking the GW site, official models are most certainly out, so it's down to scratch building.

This isn't going to be so much of a tutorial as a series of WIP pics, as there is no real template to follow and I haven't got an idea what I'm doing!


1- I started with what seemed logical, the barrel. While I don't mind the 'multi-barrel' look of the official Thunderfire, I wanted something that would scream cannon! Rummaging through the bits and pieces in my desk drawer I found an old super glue lid that looked like it could make a good barrel with a bit of modification...



-I then glued a piece of cereal box cardboard around the rim.



-I found a piece of plastic I ripped off a dead computer which looks awfully similar to a sight, combined with a hexagon from a failed Predator turret and we have the basic shape of the cannon and main body. (Hexagon can be found in Predator Mk II - Part 01 of 01.gif in PaperHammer 40k.rar. Click on the 'Scratch Build Templates' link in the right sidebar or in the resources page.)



2- For the tracks I took the rhino tracks in 'Rhino MK II.pdf' and scaled them down to about 33%, backing them on cardboard for thickness.


-I then folded these into a circular shape to form two wheels...


-...and added details



3- With the tracks completed, I moved on to the piece that would join the cannon and tracks. Once again salvaging a piece from an old predator (it can be found on the same page as the hexagon), I extended it by adding a sloped front.


-I will use the end of a chopstick to attach the cannon to the above piece.



4- At this point I ran into a problem. I had not anticipated the amount of weight at the front, so the cannon tended to lean forward, lifting the back tracks off the ground. (It doesn't show very well in this photo, but the cannon was very unstable!)


-To try and put more weight over the back, I made two 'stabilisers' with a toothpick and some carboard.



5- Next I made the armour plating using the template below:


(NOTE: The bottom left of the template was trimmed to give the armour more of an angle.)

-A couple of Imperial symbols for decoration:



6- Now there is one thing missing, a way for the Techmarine to control his Thunderfire Cannon. I made the control panel out of a toothpick and some cardboard.


-Attached to the Thunderfire using yet another toothpick:


-A few minor details here and there, and it is done!




The Thunderfire was then basecoated and given away, so it is unlikely we will see a picture of the finished model.






All associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer 40,000 universe are either ®, TM and/or © Copyright Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2012, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.

How to Scratch Build a River

Setting up for a game of 40k last weekend I found myself fretting over terrain more than usual. Nothing seemed right. It all seemed so boring, there was nothing to make the battlefield unique and exciting. Stepping back and looking at our small inventory of terrain I saw the problem, it was the terrain itself! With only a couple of sad, unpainted cardboard buildings, an assortment of craters and a small pile of green plastic crates, there wasn't a lot of variety.

At that (and with the onset of the holiday) I decided to make a river, and not just any river, a big river! In this post I will show you the relatively simple way to make a paper mache river.


For this project you will need:
-A sheet of thick cardboard or plywood
-Stickytape or glue
-Latex glue, clear drying varnish or PVA glue
-Flour
-Water
-Lots of scrap paper!
-Paint (and related accessories)

1- First of all you need a base. For anything about 12 inches long I find thick cardboard does the job fine, however I'm making my river in 4 foot and 2 foot lengths, (this way you could choose to have a river running parallel to either table edge) so I used 3mm thick plywood (in hindsight, it would have been better if it were a little thicker). On your base you need to draw the general shape of the river banks.
-Cut a sheet of thick cardboard to the shape of each bank and stick it to the base. It is not important for the cardboard to be firmly stuck in place, as the paper mache will secure it later.

-Now add another layer of cardboard, this one a little thinner than the last. You could continue adding cardboard for taller or steeper banks, but I think two layers is plenty. You now have the basic structure for your river.



2- There are many methods for making paper mache, and it really comes down to a matter of preference, I mix about 3 cups of flour to 4 or 5 cups of water (with about 3 tablespoons of salt to try and prevent mold). If you boil the paper mache it will thicken up nicely, but I have recently read that unboiled mache is actually stronger. (Though I don't know whether this is actually true....)
Once the mache is ready it's time to put those skills you learned in kindergarten to good use! Tear the paper into strips, soak it in mache and place in on the base, remembering to overlap the edges of each strip.


-Once the first layer is finished it is best to wait for a couple of hours before applying the next layer. Continue until you have applied 3 or more layers, more layers = more strength.
 
     Half of the second layer done.


When applying pape mache to anything, chances are it will bend as it dries, and even with a plywood base the river was bending upwards terribly! Here are the ways we found to reduce and/or stop it from doing this:
*Apply the same amount of paper mache to the back (can still bend)
*Cut along the paper mache, flatten the terrain and fill the cracks with latex or rubbery glue.
*If the paper mache is only bending during warmer parts of the day, seal it with spray paint while it is flat (though this could result in moisture being trapped inside, promoting mould growth and essentially rotting it from the inside out)
*Smaller pieces of terrain based on thick enough cardboard will not bend if you only apply one layer of paper mache to them. This may work on larger projects, but there's no guarantees!


3- Once the paper mache is dry you can texturize the banks. Most people would use flock or specialised modeling sand for this job, however for the 'budget-aware' (like myself) I find sand or even dirt works fine - so long as you can find some that is fine enough for the job.
Texturizing is a simple enough process, you just need to spread your glue-of-choice thickly on the area, then apply sand.


-When using dirt to texturize a piece of terrain, I find that it rarely sticks completely at first. To avoid pieces of dirt coming off in your house I mix a lot of glue into water, then liberally brush it over the dirt while it is still drying.



4- There's the structure of the river completely finished - all that's left is paint. Now, I'm not the world's greatest painter, but for those that just want their models painted to a bearable, 'table-top' standard I'll show you how I painted mine.
First I base coated the river sections completely black, top and bottom, with spray paint. Then a liberal coat of green was applied to the banks. It's best to cover the banks and water with paper, along with anything else you don't want to become green!



-This was followed by spraying a far lighter green over the top, from about 15 - 30cm away in a random, 'splotchy' pattern.











-Next, heavily drybrush the banks a brownish colour of your choice. Also paint out from the banks a little to give the water something to run into.


-If you're like me and using dirt/sand you found on the ground for grass, then chances are some larger pebbles will have slipped into the mix. At this stage it would be a good idea to pick them out, painting them brown and drybrushing the immediate area brown as well. This also helps break up the solid green of the grass.


-Now use the same paint and mix it with water to make a wash. The paint has to be watered down a lot, taking on the appearance of muddy water.


-Spread the wash thickly over the banks and grass, very, very thickly - drown the thing! The wash generally will dry more clear than you think, and you may have to apply several layers of wash to get the desired effect. The aim here is to make the grass look less plastic-army-men-green, and more natural, and make the banks look muddier. Wipe off any excess paint with a paper towell.

 

-Once a couple of layers are dry it should look something like this:



5-To paint the water section, apply a coat of dark blue (or green, or brown, or whatever colour your water is going to be).


-Then, using a dark, similar colour, create a wash and paint over the first layer.....


...which should look something like this when dry:


-Once the wash is dry, paint along the banks with a lighter, slightly watered down colour. For the best effect use several layers, with the first layer starting close to the bank, painting other layers over the first and further in towards the centre of the river.
 
 

-You may want to finish off the shallow water with a small strip of lighter colour close to the banks.


-A darker wash can be used to further blend the colours.
 


-Now for the finer details. A drybrush of much lighter brown on the banks, followed by small touches of white near the edges of the river and you can put away the paints.
 


-All that's left is to make the river look wet. For this you could use latex glue, clear-drying varnish or PVA glue. Though I can't stress enough, test it before you slop it all over your river! The brand of latex glue I used dried clear initially, however after a day it began clouding up, to the point where you could barely see the painted river underneath!

 
 



Well there you have it! That is how you scratch build a piece of river terrain. Note that this paper mache technique can be used to make pretty much any landscape you want - hills, lakes, craters, swamps, canyons, anything!

I hope you found this tutorial useful,
Happy scratch building,

40k Pirate