Ishoo Wun-Firteen: Planter boxes

Wow! Two ishoos in a day? That hasn't happened in... I think it happened once before...
While I was working on Orkness Station, I had a bit of spare time waiting for PVA to dry just after I carved the chimney. I was looking at the chimney and thinking that it was a good technique I'd like to showcase in a piece somehow - possibly an ancient dome granary, when I realised there was an easier option - plater boxes. Town councils are always trying to pretty up their public spaces, and no matter what time period, planter boxes seem to fit in. So here's a quick and timeless project. Unleash the eco-freindly Grot!

At this point it's also worth denting in some of the bricks with the blunt end of a paint brush - I forgot to get a photo of that stage... You might also want to roll a ball of crumpled tin foil across the surface to roughen it up too.

And there you go! This is a quick, easy and very effective technique. The brick/stone work really stand out at a distance too - I'm sitting across the room from one of these planter boxes (about four meters away) and I can clearly see the individual blocks. This would make a great effect for some sort of ancient and weather beaten building like a witches tower... hmmm... that's got me thinking...

15mm Fortnight: Tiny Tuna Towers Remix

Way back in Ishoo Six, I showed you how to build a Tiny Tuna Tower. I always liked the design, but the paint scheme never really worked. Well, now that it's 15mm Fortnight, I've taken the opportunity to repaint the tower to match the new stuff I've been building. It's amazing how much a little paint can change a model!

This is the original tower (the paint looks better in the photo, in reality the colour was odd and the ink around the milk bottle top looked awful)

And here's the new version!

So remember, if you have some old terrain which you don't like any more, it's probably worth giving it a new paint job to fix it. Repainting and repairing old terrain is quicker than making new after all!

SF MONTH QUICKIE: Concrete Walls.

When you work on large terrain projects like My First Underhive you tend to find you have a lot of downtime - waiting for paint or glue to dry mostly. This time can be put to good use working on quick little projects which will enhance the whole thing. Like these concrete walls designed to give cover at ground level.

These really are quick - I made six of them at once, although not all of them as as fancy as this one. And they are handy too - you can never have to much cover in a game of Necromunda!

Anyways, My First Underhive Part One should be up in the next few days, there are just a few more details to take care of before painting.

SF MONTH: Using found objects

In the SF Terrain Shopping List I mentioned always keeping your eye open for interesting shapes and finding ways of putting found objects together. Well, today I was at the $2 shop looking for wooden cubes for an idea I had (they didn't have them) and I spotted some cheap plastic spinning tops for 25 cents each. They were kinda satellite dish shaped, so I bought four. Then I got kinda creative.It's important to keep all the interesting shapes and pieces you've found somewhere handy. I have a Cupboard O' Doom for that. Everything I used for this project was found with a quick rummage. I have a lot of model kits in there which I bought solely to become parts donors for this sorta thing.

Don't worry, this doesn't mean My First Underhive is being ignored - I knocked this together while I was waiting for the bar-code stickers to soak off the PVC plumbing parts I'm using. And besides, this IS part of the MFU experience - I'll be posting a few other quickies showing some other small pieces of cover which go with the set.

Until next time - treat all objects as shapes and try to see how they can fit together to make something new and different!