The Sands of Istvaan 5: Salamander Vehicle Wrecks

After the completion of the Warlord i quite honestly felt like i didn't know what to do with myself anymore, like my only purpose in life was now compete! So to try and find my hobby direction again, i turned back to my old friend, Terrain!

The Sands of Istvaan terrain set is pretty much complete except for the addition of a bit of battlefield debris. I had a few old vehicles that i wanted to smash up for terrain, so they were allocated to this project.

Believe it or not this is a Forgeworld Predator! A mate of mine butchered it trying to force it together without reshaping the warped parts....schoolboy error. He asked me to try and fix it, but i couldn't really salvage it fully. So he said i could just keep it! So i chopped it up a bit, and set fire to it - literally! This will be a fine wreck.

A quick paint job later, and we have a nice Salamanders wreck!

But whats a burnt out wreck without some burnt out corpses! These were fantasy skeletons bought cheap from my FLGS.

Miraculously i actually found a random Salamanders brass etch as well! Not so fire proof now eh lads?!

Some anti-tank weaponry has also had a crack at this Predator, just to make sure its dead!

After thoroughly enjoying the Predator, i quickly raided my bits boxes for an old Rhino i knew i had lying around. This is a proper old school Rhino, so fitted perfectly with the Heresy theme.

The Rhino's  cause of death is a little more obvious than the Predators. Its been hit head on by a very powerful anti-tank weapon.

Right the way through the Rhino! Ouch!

A few bolter holes for good measure from an over enthusiastic Traitor!

It looked like this over enthusiastic Traitor was also packing a Multi Melta!

I'm really pleased with these simple bits of scatter terrain, it'll really liven up the terrain set. As i was on a role, i chopped up an old 40K Land Speeder as well! Fortunately for my poor collection i'd now run out of tanks and vehicles to kill, so this will be the last one!

As soon as i get a game with the terrain set i'll get some pictures up!

The GunGrave

Tyranid Terrain: Spore Chimney

I've decided to take a quick break from the Warlord to cleanse my hobby pallet a bit, so i've returned to  my other love; Terrain. 

I always intended to make a second Spore Chimney for the Tyranid Terrain set (see the first Spore Chimney here) I had all the bits, so i started putting it all together. 

I started with a polysturene ring glued to an MDF base. I cut out 3 wedges around the edge where the capillary towers will fit in. 

Next i added the end of some plumbing pipe to the center of the ring. This will provide the structure for the mouth of the chimney.

A large polystyrene cone was then quartered and three of the sections were glued to the base to form the capillary towers. The top of one of the cone quarters broke off, but i'll just model it as battle damage!

With the basis of the structure complete, i moved onto the clay work. I coated the outside of the pipe piece in clay to give it some texture, then did the same for the polystyrene ring.

A bunch of tenticles were made using my tenticle maker to make it Tyranidie! (new word there, feel free to use it!)

Texture was added to the inside of the capillary towers using PolyFilla.

The outside of the towers was covered in clay and shapped into typical Tyranid chittin!

Plenty of bullet and shell holes were added to the chittin, the last efforts from the worlds doomed defenders!

Thats as far as i got for now. I took the oppotunity to effect some repairs on a couple of exsisting capillary towers that had got a bit battered through use!

I'm going to try and break up the Warlord project a bit more with projects like this to make sure i maintain my enthusiasm! More on this soon!

The GunGrave

Terrain: Industrial Generator

Its been AGES since I've knocked out a piece of new terrain. This is mainly due to storage constraints, but when i saw this bit of junk i couldn't resist!

I was in the Technicians Room at work the other day and found this in a box marked for disposal. Its a small pumping unit. As soon as i saw it i started thinking how i could repurpose this - to me it looked like a Grimdark Generator! So i boxed it up and took it home to see what i could do with it. 

A  Terminator Chaplin for scale. as you can see its quite big for 40K. It would even be big enough for some LOS obstruction for Knights.

So first things first, it was cleaned and undercoated. I used Army Painters Plate Metal for this.

Once dry i removed the smaller motor units, blocked out the middle section in black and tapped it up ready for hazard stripping.

Chucked on some yellow. I went old-school here with one of the old GW Foundation Paints 'Tausept Ochere'. I think these are one of GW's better paint ranges, i wish they still did them. They're nice and thick, perfect for stuff like this.

Finished hazard stripes.

For the smaller motor units i sprayed them bronze with the airbrush.

Then reattached to the main unit. They were screwed on, so dead easy to remove and attach.

Finally, a generous wash of black oil paint diluted with white spirit. I also applied a small bit of GW's Oxide paint to some of the rivets and joints.

Voila!!! An Industrial Generator ready for the battle field. I'm very pleased that i managed to make something this good looking out of a bit of junk i found in a box at work!

When i was next in work i had another rummage through that box and found another pump unit! I'll be having that! I quickly made a second.

When i manage to get them in a game I'll upload a few pics.

The GunGrave

The Sands of Istvaan 5 (4)

Progress continues to be a bit slow on this project (and the Star Scrapper project!) but I'm nearly there with this one. 

I put the finishing touches on the bunkers this week. They look a but more 'ravaged' now! Once the paint and washes dry ill get them varnished and that should be it.

There will be 3 more additions; a wrecked Rhino, Leman Russ, and Predator. I''ve made a start on the Predator. believe it or not, a mate of mine really struggled with this kit. The parts were badly warped but instead of calling up Forgeworld and asking for more parts, he tried to force it together. The results were....interesting! He asked me to try and save it, but sadly the damage was to bad.

So he said i could use it for the Istvaan terrain set! Happy days! Here's where i am with it at the moment.

Once the Rhino and Leman Russ are all wrecked up, the set will be complete!

The GunGrave

The Sands of Istvaan 5 (3)

Its been a while since i did any work on this project, mainly as the campaign planning took a back seat for a while on the run up to Xmas and New Years. However, me and my buddies have revived it again and have been drumming up some interest for participation at our FLWGS, with about 8 interested players so far. The new start date for this campaign is now March 2015, so i decided it was time to crack on with the terrain!

Last post i had just completed these bastions. now they've had a lick of paint, but are still work In progress. The bastions and the rocks were given a coat of Army Painters Chaotic Red. I'm going to leave it at that in terms of the red, i quite like the look of them!

Some access hatches will be added to the roofs.

Heres the rocks - i dont think i'lll be making anymore of these for this terrain set, as the covering was sufficient for a 6x4.

A mate of mine alos has a FW Predator Executioner that was ruined during the build (long story) which he has donated to the project as a wrecked vehicle!

More soon.

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain - Star Scrappers! (1)

Its been a long time since i created an Apocalypse Terrain piece (about May last year i think with Imperator Bridge) As usual, the prospect of another upcoming Apocalypse game gets the creative juices flowing, so i resurrected an old idea i had a few years ago - Star Scrappers! not just one, but two, connected by a Skyway.

Now, it goes without saying that the actual build won't truly represent the name, but i hope the scale of the terrain will be impressive enough.

As with any ambitious terrain project, a degree of forward planning was required. I measured and sketched out the dimensions of the towers onto the bases. These are cut from MDF, and will be removable from the towers themselves for easier transportation and storage.

The main body of the towers will be 6mm MDF. Originally i was going to build the towers from GW building panels, supported by nothing else but each other! This would've created imperfections in the build, and it'll more than likely end up wonky! The MDF will be clad in GW panels and hopefully give me a tower with nice straight  sides.

The first tower with the sides assembled.

The sides are supported by pine strip wood, making the towers very stable.

There's a 6mm recess in the top of the towers so i can sink a roof into it.

Finally a scale shot! That's a Mechanicum Thallax on the base!

I've got until may to get this project finished so i'll casually plod along with this one.

The GunGrave

The Sands of Istvaan 5 (2)

I made some fortified positions for the Istvaan terrain set which I'm quite pleased with

I used the same expanding foam as i did with the rocks and then built the fortification into it. I had some spare bastion bits lying around so these were ideal.

These will really jazz up the terrain set, so im keen to get them painted up and out for a playtest! 

The GunGrave