Tuesday 13 July 2021

FORM OR FUNCTION ?

 One of the biggest things when making scenery, is the delicate balance between how easy it is to play over, against how accurate it is to the source material. If we were making dioramas it would be a lot easier as it would be all about the accurate depiction, but as the throne room is for gaming over it needed to have areas that are easily accessible and no falling over model syndrome. With the steps I've gone for aesthetics rather than getting models on them, as it would increase the step size by a multiple of 5 !


Above you can see all the basic structures have now been built, and placed in their eventual final positions, having built all the sections as separate pieces, it's allowed me to work out what pieces need to stay separate for ease of photo's in the future.


As you can see above, these are all the pieces that will be stuck down to the base board, the large stairs corridor and edge of a room are already stuck down and I painted the sections separately for ease and being able to get the brush in on some small tricky areas. The throne isn't stuck down yet as I still have some work to do on there.


Above you can see the piston structure that I'm using to have the dais able to move forward for when watching a poor victim of the Rancor.


Now some of you were enquiring about the process, so I actually remembered to take photo's of all the different stages. Above you can see the basic board construction, this was all glued in place with PVA glue, and then left overnight to dry fully. I used a Stanley knife to cut out the sections, and sandpaper to finish off the edges. 


Next I added a skim of wall filler over the whole structure, to add a nice texture, you may need to do this in several stages, as you run out of places to hold the piece, that isn't already covered in filler ! LOL


Once all the filler was dry, I gave it all a base coat of GW Zamesi Desert, and then left to dry.


Next I gave a wetbrush coat of GW Ushabti Bone, a wetbrush coat is similar to a drybrush, but you don't wipe the brush on a cloth, so holds a lot more paint. If you've never tried this before, have a scrap piece   to practice on, until you learn how the paint will flow.


Lastly I gave an all over drybrush of GW White Scar, in shadow areas you can leave this coat off, especially if it's a small piece.


Lastly the above pictures show how you can easily get in to photograph these areas once in place.


Last time you may have seen Jeff and myself talking about an old model kit, while I was looking for some reference pictures I happened to find these pictures of the kit, as you can see this kit went a lot more on the function side than I have.

That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

20 comments:

  1. Loo9ks great so far mate, lots of clever details too. I did notice the MPC kit seemed to missing one character....sexy slave girl Leia!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thank you Roger, There's a lot of incidental bits that will be needed to pull off the total look, but probably less than Ben's house ! LOL Indeed probably not to offend parents as being a snap kit was aimed at a younger audience

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  2. Those last couple pics showing your paint results are spot on mate. Very good result that looks about as close to the film images in my head as one could get.

    And that model kit... For it's time, good. Now? Awful. LOL

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    1. Thank you Dai, still got some markings to put around the arch and a backlighted grill in the bottom corner, then some weathering in places, but happy with the basic colours on this.
      Was interesting to see how much things have progressed, and how it was simplified into one area

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  3. Fantastic work, I love how it's growing and developing its own personality. I usually face the same problem, I'd love to build reall doll houses for my minis, but then I realise it's supposed to be a board or a piece of scenery! It's expected to allow to play in there!
    Seriously, top notch work so far.

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    1. Thank you Suber, it has certainly taken over my time at the moment ! LOL It can be an easy trap to fall into with buildings, where we get all the detail we want in there, then no room left for models to move about, it is a real balancing act, to get the look we want, without just playing in empty rooms

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  4. Looking super-good, Dave. Lots of lovely attention to detail and use-ability all thrown into the mix together. great colour choices on the pics showing your brushwork too. Really looking forward to the next posting on this - should be awesome!!! So no pressure ;-)

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    1. Thank you Simon, I keep finding little details that don't show up in one reference picture, but you then spot in another, luckily these materials allow corrections ! LOL The colours turned out well, especially with only using three tones. No pressure at all then mate ! ROFL where did I put those LED's ?

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  5. Really good work, Dave, and the painting over the filler is spot on in terms of highlighting as well as general grime and grit. Thanks for the step-by-step photos, it's good to see how someone who knows what they're doing goes about making scenery.

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    1. Thank you Matt, the paint work will need some staining later on as well to give it the authentic look I'm after. No problem on the step by step, always happy to share my bumbling along, and trying to find new ways to do things.

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  6. Steps and stairways are always a pain to compromise about. I tend to have a landing half-way up a flight of stairs (like yours) to enable a figure to be 'on the stairs'.
    Hiding joints betweenwalls is also a pin, but you've got it covered (no pun intended).
    The biggesst problem I have is similar to your own, namely size and for (or detailing). It needs to be big enoough to be imposing, but not so big as to engulf the whole table- you got that sorted tout too when I compare to the commercial version.
    For detailing of houses for example, I put in just enoughfurniture to suggest the room's purpose always leaving enough toom for figures - to shoot out of windows etc.

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    1. Thank you Joe, I was lucky that the platforms were included in the original set, so I was just repeating what they had already done. The wall filler texture is great for filling those niggly gaps.
      It's always a struggle getting any balance in scenery, and your buildings always look amazing.
      Luckily there isn't a massive amount of furniture to get in the way with this one, infact there's only about the same amount as Ben's house, but a lot more space to fit it in ! LOL

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  7. Its funny that you went and found that model too. After we talked about it, I was thinking to myself, maybe I should look at that one more time just to make sure that I was right that it was cool but not cool enough that I should buy one and make it haha! It is great for inspiration and getting a sense of how Jabba's Palace is laid out. Another thing you could dig up are the Star Wars Cross Sections books. There has to be one of those that contains Jabba's Palace and while it is probably made up by the artist to some degree, it might give you ideas for little details to include. I know want to pore over some of those books now thanks to this conversation :D

    Getting back to your work, I'm obviously completely impressed and enamored with this project. Its already looking so great and I really wish I had the desire and aptitude to make this kind of thing. In addition to Jabba's Palace and Mos Eisely Cantina, I've always dreamed of making a version of Rivendell and it would take a lot of the same skills you're using here. Alas, I'm better at painting minis and generally find terrain to be mildly enjoyable at best and a chore at other times. What I would be interested in making would be more of a model than terrain for the reasons you talked about too. And don't get me started on the storage issues it would create. Either way, I'm watching what happens next with great interest!

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    1. Thank you Jeff, I found the box cover by accident, but once I had the exact title and manufacturer it was easy enough to find a painted example. Have found some of the cross section pieces online, and your right they do have slight variations down to the artists impression. So far this week I've watched the whole Jabba's scene about 5 times, just looking for little details that may have been missed from the reference pictures, and found a few, also clarified other bits that were blurry in the reference pictures.
      Scenery is like painting mate, the more you do and learn the better you get, but I do find a lot of people would rather just pick up something that's already done, which isn't a bad thing, it's all about what your comfortable with. I have made so many changes on this build, where I thought it would be better if I extend this section, or the plan missed this bit, so I need to add that in, so being able to adapt comes in handy. As for storage issues, I tend to build then worry about it after ! LOL

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    2. I wouldn't have even thought to Google that. I actually want a copy of the book now just because it sounds fun to own one of those again :) Poring over those details will pay off in the end too I reckon!

      I agree with you that I learn more every time I make terrain but if you don't enjoy the process as much, you're not going to spend as much time on it at the same time. I tend to be of the mindset that I always want to improve at terrain but I don't always look forward to making it. I look forward more to the getting it finished part :) Don't underestimate your abilities to build things from scratch either! My brain just doesn't work very well for that kind of work. I'm not as good of an outside of the box thinker as I am an inside of the box thinker. You make it look easy, my friend! :)

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    3. I really must get round to getting some more of them, the only one I've got is from film 7, so doesn't really count ! LOL
      We are all different mate, so can understand the wanting to improve vs not enjoying it dilemma, we all struggle with that one at some point, mine is trying new mediums.
      Luckily I have two different engineering backgrounds which helps with problem solving, and spent some time doing R&D which ment lateral thinking was a must, and that really helps problem solve ! LOL

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  8. John@justneedsvarnish17 July 2021 at 14:03

    I'm a bit behind as usual, but this is coming along nicely Dave! :-)

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    1. Thank you John, no worries, I believe the old saying was fashionably late ! LOL Doesn't matter to me, the fact that you took the time to comment is what counts mate

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  9. Great looking progress, although I was a little shocked at the idea of using GW paints for terrain, I'm firmly an emulsion and cheap craft acrylics man on my scenery, looking good whatever!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain, your right a very expensive way to paint scenery, really must find a cheaper alternative, especially on these big projects ( already on my third pot of Zamesi desert)

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