Accidents Happen (Walker pt. 7)

More of a show and tell than a proper update (Ed. Thus is a stupid opening line, all blogs are show and tell, it's not fine litereture). I further developed the "TP-mache" lump, and applied a bunch of texture. Some grays on the rocks and bits, and Doom Bull brown on the "dirt". A whiff of Agrax here and there, and things were looking pretty good. There was some gentle drybrushing, probably with Zandri Dust.

The addition of the squashed comrade was either pure genius, or pure stupidity. To quite Bob Ross, "we dont make mistakes, we have happy accidents". Which brings us to the title of today's post, "Accidents Happen". Keen observers will notice that Dobby has been squished while facing the walker, but in he should have been charging the enemy... perhaps he heard a noise and turned, only in time to see the cause of his gristly death

I'm fairly certain that this is the perfect title for this piece. The reasons for this are twofold; 1) it correctly depicts the scene, and 2) it's how we arrived at the situation we currently find ourselves in.

Regardless of whether he should have been coming or going, he's not moving now. 

So that about sums it up. Until next time. Dont miss good while looking for perfect. DMGWLFP

Hack

Grot Walker Pt. 6

Last night, while my spouse sought inner peace and tranquility through guided human pretzel-fication/chakra alignment, I sought inner peace by working on death and destruction in the 41st millennium. 

I began by planning where the walkers legs were going to be positioned and then I started gluing bits of cork to the base with Modge-Podge.

After the initial application I added more of the goop, and then 1 single square of TP. Using a damp paint brush I gently worked the TP into the base, added another layer of goop, then repeated the whole process. 

After cleaning up the edges I let the base dry overnight. The next morning this was the result. 

Pretty impressive, right? I was quite pleased with my discovery, until I realized that I was and old man playing with what amounts to papier mache. Not much of a discovery...

Sometimes it's the journey that matters, while other times it's the destination. This is a fine example of the latter; a natural looking randomly uneven surface upon which more materials can be applied. 

HMP

Pigments, Chalk, and other powders.

I've posted on this before, but I'm doing it again because I've changed my approach.

The Ground Beneath Their Feet

Well, I'm still basing. I hope to actually add little green men to them this week.

Left showing plaster chips, sand, grounds, right shows after Zandri Dust

Nothing new here. I used super glue to attach the large rocks to the base. This way when you add the smaller debris it looks like the bigger rocks are actually buried, otherwise you end up with boulders sitting on top of a field. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just a different look. I added the grit and smaller stuff by running tape around the base and then flooding the bottom with Titebond II Premium Wood Glue, then pouring on the grit stuff (coffee grounds). Once everything had dried I removed the tape and sprayed everything down with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) before washing with 1:1 glue water mixture, to seal the surface. The IPA just helps break the surface tension and makes everything wet better. The finer sand was applied using super glue and covering it with sand.

After washing, dry brushing, and grass!

For painting I based everything with Zandri Dust and then washed with Reikland Fleshshade for the big rocks and Agrax Earthshade for the smaller grit. Added some Nuln Oil here and there. Then dry brushed with mixtures of Ushabti Bone + Zandri Dust, re-washed the big rocks where they got too light, and then added the grass.

That's all that's new.

Working on Basing

Basing isn't one of my strong points, and often it shows. Here's my latest crack at it.

The subject

Very thinly sliced cork

White Glue!

More white glue!

Sand

After cork/sand

After cork/sand/plaster chips 

Cork/sand/plaster chips/Zandri Dust/Ushabti Bone/Fleshshade/Agrax/Ushabti bone

Right, there's no magic here... Very thinly sliced cork covers the big hole in the middle and adds some height. Once dried, covering the cork with glue and then sand gives the most ghetto of finishes (attention table-top). I let this dry completely before saturating with more glue and shaking it in my bag of plaster bits. Plaster bits are nice and sharp and you can easily remove all the fines by screening it. Depending on how much time you spend with the hammer the plaster can vary in size. Now the plaster tends to drink paints so it's worthwhile to seal the whole deal with a 1:1 white glue:water mixture. Let that dry.

Come back a day layer and paint it up. I find for Martian surfaces a random mix of Reikland Fleshshade and Agrax Earthshade breaks things up nicely. I would say that at this stage we gave reached the level of table-top+. I just made that up, and I'm going to tag it.

DMGWLFP

Static Grass Application

If the grass at your mini's looks like it needs Viagra, then you should probably keep reading. For large area coverage, like a train set, you can't beat a real static grass applicator. But for miniatures large area coverage isn't really an issue, so pro applicators are a bit overkill. This leaves 2 options, buy pre-made clumps, or, have grass that looks like it was the sight of a Jenny Craig square dance.

Note the bad grass shown below, it's not just bad because it's growing out of cobble stones, it's bad because it's trampled flat.

Bad Static Grass

Below is an example of good grass, upright and alive amid a field of decay.

Good "Static" Grass

To make good grass tufts, all you need are some static grass, some fine tip tweezers and some superglue.  

Use the tweezers to take up a small clump of grass, comb off the excess with your fingers, so that all which remains is aligned, then just dab it into a drop of superglue. After 5 min or so blow off the excess. 

The clump of grass

Here is the clump after combing it with your fingers. [Use the thumb and forefinger of your opposite hand to push off the excess by moving your thumb and finger across (not along) the tweezers. When done correctly the excess material will be removed and all that remains is the grass held by the middle.]

Our dot of super glue is in place

Use the tweezers to stand the grass clump up in the glue, it will still be a bit bushy right now.

After blowing off the excess. A perfect tuft!

You can add it in clumps or little lines, they blend together into odd patters that look cool , sometimes less is more

Now go lay some turf! If you have questions, just ask.

DMGWLFP