Saturday 4 September 2021

BACK TO BUSINESS

 Over the past two years I haven't done a lot of new releases for the business due to first the house move and renovation, then the pandemic, now we are showing signs of coming out of it ( I hope !) I really need to get some new pieces done. The first bits I wanted to do are for an apocalyptic setting, and I've created some new toxic pools.


The first one is a smaller pool than the one we already have toxic-pool on our site, my daughter came up with the idea of having a sign melting into the pool, and as I like irony I painted it up as the warning sign, you can see the posts that it used to stand on in the front of the pool, I thought of it as the toxic fumes corroded the posts and the sign then fell into the pool.


This next one has a barrel that has caused the pool it sits in.


For this one I wanted to show the toxic fumes eating into the wheel and melting the tyre into the pool.


The last one, is a simple skeleton that could have been a body dump, or a luckless adventure who fell in.

These are all cast in translucent green resin, to aide the painting process, and I have done a little step by step below to show how I did it.

Step 1 turning the pool upside down, I start with a wash, especially if I want to show rust leaking into the pool.
Step 2 As I have an object sitting in the pool , I put a layer of the base colour into the pool area, so when you look above, you can see some of the object in the pool.

Step 3 I then added a light colour to help show shallows, now you you may notice the paint has pulled back in a random pattern, there are two ways you can achieve this, first add more water to your paint, or wipe your fingers over the area before painting, as the grease in your fingers will act as a inhibitor ( I use the second method as I like the randomness)
Step 4 Next I added the first shade of green I wanted to use, you can see how the paint has pulled back again.
Step 5 I added a layer of the second shade of green, again the paint has pulled back again, but in a smaller area. If you want to increase the paint at any point, wait for this coat to dry and then add another coat of the same colour.

Step 6 I then added a coat of the darkest green I wanted, and made sure to get a full covering.

Step 7 Once the underside is fully dry, turn it over, this is when I start adding washes and glazes to the top, first I added a yellow wash around the edge of the sign.

Step 8 I added a green glaze over the main area of the pool, and once dry then cover the pool in gloss varnish. Now obviously this is not the only way to paint these, as Mick showed recently when he painted one of our large pools, and did a great effect on his.

Hope you have found this useful, and would love to know your thoughts on all of the above, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

22 comments:

  1. Great news to hear you're back producing stuff, Dave, and those toxic pools look awesome. I think the tyre one is my fave, but they're all excellent, and that's a great painting guide you've posted too.

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    1. Thank you Simon, it's been a while, but starting to bubble with ideas again, got another two pieces I'm currently working on to go with this release. One thing I hear at shows is people not knowing how to approach the translucent resin, now I can direct them here to a step by step guide.

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  2. Great looking step by step of your toxic pools ( don't get to say that often!)
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain, indeed not a normal conversation point ! LOL

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  3. The pools look great to me and they are extremely handy for Post-Apocalypse games. I made a couple for Fallout that came out decently but I like some of the ideas you shared. Definitely food for thought whenever I'm ready to make more!

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    1. Thank you Jeff, glad you like them, and has given you ideas for projects of your own.

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  4. These look great, but as ever I'd hhave liked to see slightly bigger ones - or am I fooled by the tyre and oil drum ?
    The Waste sign slowly melting away is a great idea and done superbly, I do like the odd humerois piec ,

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    1. Thank you Joe, the small pools were a request by a customer, as he liked our large pool, but needed some small ones for a scenario, personally I like building larger scenery, but I do listen to my customer needs. The odd bit of humour can be fun, or small details that people find while painting

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  5. Nice pieces of scenery mate, and a great tutorial too, one I can see me returning to at some point in the future.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thank you Roger, simple stuff really but can add some character with scatter scenery, glad you found the tutorial useful, and always good to share ideas.

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  6. Lovely piece of work, Dave, and the painting is superb. I love the idea of the sign slowly disintegrating into the muck! And thanks for the tutorial on painting it, it's very handy and easy to follow.

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    1. Thank you Matt, simple stuff really with some washes and weathering to make it look old and rusted. Glad the tutorial was clear, as I find writing the hardest to do with the pain fog ! LOL

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  7. This looks fab Dave! Nice to see the stages from beginning to finish.

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    1. Thank you Simon, the translucent resin can seem scary to some people, but can really elevate the scenery piece. Glad you like the step by step.

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  8. Love these and the tutorials are super nice too. Kudos Dave!

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    1. Thank you Mark, trying to improve my tutorials so they are clear and easy to follow.

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    2. I think you are succeeding at that Dave!

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    3. Thank you Mark, that means a lot as I'm struggling more and more to write coherently with the pain fog.

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  9. John@justneedsvarnish7 September 2021 at 10:16

    Nice work, Dave! :-) Bet you've enjoyed getting back to this!

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    1. Thank you John, has been a bit of a struggle, after having spent so much time just working on my projects, but needs to be done, just need to keep coming up with new ideas.

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  10. These little pools looks fab Dave! Will make for some excellent Fallout or other post Apoc-type setting terrain. Have you thought to make a larger sized one, say as a nice blue/grey pond that would work well in perhaps... another blog-reader's winter WW2 setting? :P

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    1. Thank you Dai, they are very post apocalyptic aren't they ! We currently do a plain medium pool on our site https://wargamesterrainworkshop.co.uk/?product_cat=water-features but if you have specific requirements, email me the details and I'll see what I can do.

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