Geek in the Basement

Streets of Gray Haven- 1st board section

2012-02-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

I got a little more work done on my town of Gray Haven in the last few days. This is the first board section; right now three are planned. The base is a 2'x 4' Homasote board. I bought a bunch of it a long time ago when it was dirt cheap. Now that its considered a trendy green material, the cost has risen to the lofty heights of all things green. Bah.
I used 5/16th" rolled cork to make the sidewalks. I experimented a bit with the best way to put in the crack lines. I tried cutting out individual blocks and giving the edges a slight bevel, vs cutting in the groove with a wood burner. The wood burner is easier, but the individual blocks has the best look. I'm still undecided on which I will use in the other boards.

The roads are drywall compound smoothed over the Homasote in the areas where the roads go. Curbs are thin strips of cork with one edge rounded.

Stormtroopers keep watch on a traffic stop. These guys will end up as part of my Monster Hunters International squad in the future.

In these pictures you can see how the buildings fit into their locations and the bases fit nicely against the sidewalk. I will make other "scenery" that will use the same footprint so I can change out buildings, add ruins etc. to keep these boards as universal as possible. I painted and weathered some before I realized I had forgotten drains and sewers.

A test placement of the sewer and post.

To remedy that, I made some to be cast and installed at a later time. I guess its good I have construction barriers planned then! Also starring in these pictures is my homemade street light. I'm going to cast the base, I just haven't decided if I should just cast the whole thing or not. It still needs some work, anyhow.

Go build something,
Papa Spanky

Un- shiney new cars

2012-02-07T19:20:00.000-08:00

A little update on my town-
I added a few cars to populate the streets of Gray Haven.
The regular cars were weathered and sealed with matte clearcoat. For me the matte finish seems to go better with the scale.
The police cars were total repaints with custom rub on star transfers. They say Gray Haven Police, but it didnt photo well. The humvees were just re coated after the star was applied.

All for now,
Papa Spanky

A warehouse, a roof and names

2012-02-06T11:37:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before I was planning on making several different buildings with the plastic crates I found. The second building I made is a warehouse.

The front doors will work; the roll up door will not. There will be a billboard on the wood frame thats on the roof, advertising the business name. I haven't decided between "Broken Things Shipping" and "Welos -Yerstuf Shipping" (think about it). If you have a suggestion for a name, throw it up in the comments.

I re-did the poop brown roof on the Earlier posted Hydracorp Building. I think it looks waaay better. Oh yeah, I decided to call this building Hydracorp, because it seems that everytime I finish one detail on it, two more pop up needing my attention. Just like the mythical Hydra. Heres a shot of the finished front door. No, it doesnt open like the back door. I got a bit lazy.

I began work on some vehicles and the actual street level on my town. I figured since this town will hopefully be the backdrop to many a great battles of zombies, monsters, street gangs and the like, I should name it. So My daughter and I have settled on the name, Gray Haven. If its a haven for people, zombies or gray aliens remains to be seen.
Thats all for now,
Papa Spanky

Vacuum forming on the cheap

2012-01-31T17:03:00.000-08:00

Vacuum formed cars. They sucked.

For a long time now I've been planning a small tutorial on how to build and use a inexpensive vacuum former. You can make a lot of things with a former, but I'm going to show you how to copy cars to use as terrain. This idea was the inspiration for my project.

The Materials

1/2 " MDF board, about 24 in square

A high suction vacuum with the hose( I used a Shark I got from goodwill. Don't laugh, its got some power!)

PVC elbow that fits your flange and your vacuum hose

3/4 " weatherstripping

plastic or acetate

3/4 to 1-1/2 wood for your frames

screws, glue, wingnuts

4 sturdy plastic cups or blocks to use as risers

metal window screen

shelf brackets

Plastic for sale signs or other thin polystyrene

GOOD VENTILATION

There is a lot of info on how to build a vacuum former and the concept of its uses available on the Internet. I strongly suggest you reference other materials besides my amature how-to. Our end goal is to build this:

Please note: Your end results may vary. I'm not responsible for your project not turning out, your house burning down or any bodily harm you might cause on yourself or others. Use your brain, be safe, and don't try this if your unsure of any aspect of it.

So lets get Started!

Making the board

This is the board, topside. I partially drilled a hole larger than my flange size in the top of it. Then I completely drilled a hole exactly the flange size through the board. I sanded the edges some, the idea is to create a black hole effect increasing the suction velocity as it narrows.

The boards bottom side. I glued and screwed my flange on the bottom, lined up with the hole. I used apoxy, but you can use silicone if you prefer. The main point is to make sure its sealed completely. My PVC elbow is threaded into the flange with thread seal tape. I also glued on plastic cups to give it some lift so its more like a table and everythings not balancing on the elbow. (ignore the grid, it was from another project)

This is why i used that elbow size, it fits the hose. adjust yours accordingly.

Building The Frame

Frames are going to have different size variables based on several things: the size of your board, the size of your mold material, and the size of the object your copying. Instead of giving you exact measurements and the like, I'm going to lay down some hard fast rules you need to follow when you make it.

1. The frame set must be smaller than your mold material. if there are any gaps, you will not get a a seal and the process wont work.

2. The bottom frame must have all the corners sealed with caulk or glue.

3. For every frame set you have of a different size, you will need a matching weatherstrip pad. (more on that in a bit)

So In my design i used two matching frames. The bottom frame is sealed and is where all the action happens. The top frame is there to just hold the plastic in place while its all hot and melty. I lined these up with a bolt and a wing nut.

I used signs as my mold material. they're pretty cheap and come in a variety of thicknesses.

The weatherstrip pad (cause I can't think of what else it should be called)

On my board, I put down a sheet of acetate that was bigger than my frame with the center cut out of it. You can just cut enough so its not obstructing the hole, if you prefer. I glued down my 3/4 weatherstrip to the acetate the exact size of my frame. I again sealed any joints or corners with silicone caulk.

Onto this I laid out a single layer of window screen. This acts as a diffuser for the suction.

I then taped down the acetate edges, just to make sure there were no leaks.

The Process

I used clamped-on shelf brackets as a guide to line up my prepped frame. Speed is key to a sucessful form, so this will help you align your hot plastic and frame quickly.

Center your object or objects so there is space from the sides of the frame and from each other if doing multiple projects. A word of caution, multi projects can cause the plastic to "string" from one object to the other, kinda like a wet bedsheet. After everything is set up, turn on your vacuum and place your prepped frame in a pre heated oven. (about 350 degrees) I put mine on a wire frame that keeps the plastic off the racks and the oven bottom. This process will take only seconds so dont go anywhere. I dont even close the oven door all the way so I can keep an eye on it.

* safety note* You are about to melt a sizeable chunk of plastic in your oven. Besides needing to be extra cautious so you dont have your body parts shrink wrapped, You need ventilation. Run your exhaust fan. Open your windows. Run a fan. Wear a respirator if you have one.

Your plastic will start to ripple, then it will smooth out, and then start to sag. When it sags its time to move! Take it out quickly yet gingerly, line it up with your shelf brackets, and drop it down on your project. Let the suction pull for a while. If, when you gently tap the plastic, its ridgid again, you can turn off the vacuum. Thats it! Remove the item you copied and cut off any excess sheet and finish it as you would like.

For these cars, I cut them out and gently heated them with a heat gun. Then I carefully smashed them down in appropriate places. I expirimented with cutting along hood and door lines prior to heating on some with some good results.

This site was really helpful and is where I got most of my ideas from.

Have Fun,

Papa Spanky

Modern building made from Dollar Tree container

2012-01-30T12:04:00.000-08:00

A while back I bought a foldable storage bin from Dollar Tree because it looked interesting as a possible building. Well, after some re-working this is what I have so far:

Front side- I havent finished the doors yet.

Back side- the door is hinged and opens

This is the second floor. When the roof comes off, the outside walls go
with it leaving an open floor plan. That design was dictated a bit by the
plastic crate, but I really like it.

This is the ground floor. Notice that the second floor comes off by itself.
In the back left corner you can just see the stairs.

I haven't glued down any of the interior walls yet, that will happen after painting. Also please excuse the poop colored roof, i needed a thick paint for a tar and stone roof technique and that paint was the thickest I had. The more I look at it though, the more I dislike it and probably will change it soon.
As far as uses this is going in my town that I m building; usable for zombie games, Combat Zone, some post apocalyptic and the like.

Let me hear from ya,
Papa Spanky

15 feet of post apocalyptic highway

2012-01-29T21:43:00.000-08:00

Ok this is is what 15 feet of road sections look like all together. I never did a how-to on these, and honestly I dont think I will as this wasn't my most stellar of projects. Dont get me wrong, I like the way these turned out, but they could have been better. Why? Well the main reason is the base. I based these on foamcore board and, try as I did to prevent it, some of them still warped. Iv'e been making terrain for 16 years now. I know better. MDF should be the only thing you base larger terrain projects on, ever. Oh well, maybe some day I'll redo them ...

3 more cars finished

2012-01-02T14:30:00.000-08:00

I realized as i posted my battle report that I never posted the updated pictures of the last cars I was working on, so here they are.

Enjoy,

Papa Spanky

Adventures in the Lost Lands Battle report

2012-01-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

This Christmas my wife got me “Adventures in the Lost Lands”by Two Hour Wargames. From the minute I unwrapped it, my kids told methat they wanted to play it since it looked cool with the dinosaur onthe cover. I decided we would have an impromptu game on New yearsDay. Not having any Pulp style figures, dinosaurs or finished jungleterrain however proved to be a bit of a problem. So we improvised andused my sons Imaginex figures! For jungle terrain I used my frocks,some plastic trees and handfulls of unbased, unfinished foliage I hadfor when I actually do sit down and make jungle terrain. Since thiswas a learning game, I limited our teams to one star and twocivilians; if they were armed with a gun it was a big game rifle andif they had a close combat weapon it was a generic edged weapon.

The Game started out with all the teams cautiously advancing. Thefist encounter turned out to be a flock of birds that did nothingmore than startle the groups. But just as they calmed down, CONTACT!A Greenasaurus (thats what my youngest called it) charged out frombehind a rock. Quick firing and working as a group made short work ofthe beast. My daughters star character lopped off the dinos head, butnot before it killed one of her gunmen.

A turn later and the scent ofblood rule brought out more trouble, this time a T Rex(ish).

The TRex advanced under a torrent of fire from all groups un-phased. TheWinter Dark Knight (Batman, run by me) charged at the beast while theMr. Freeze twins provided cover fire. Spurred on by The Dark Knightsbold move, others joined him in the assault. My daughter, still giddyfrom her earlier success, declared “ I want my guy to jump on thatrock, onto his (T Rex) back and stab him from behind.” We discussedhow hard that would be, assigned a roll value, and she succeeded!

Unfortunately, she was unable to do any damage and the Rex shook thestar off next turn, causing him to hit his head in a rock and beknocked out for a turn.

T Rex seemed to be unstoppable as he wiped out all of my sonsgroup, even swallowing his star whole. The Dark Knight also fell, butthis distraction allowed both my daughters groups to get into a rearattack. One star scored a wound with shooting the same turn the rearattackers scored two more. The T Rex decide he could dish it out butnot take it, and ran from the fight, right off the table.

My sondecided that since his star was in the stomach of the T Rex he Killedthe dino from the inside and made his escape. Sure, sounds good!
A good time was had by all, there were some cinematic moments, andthe kids were pretty patient while I flipped through rules.

Papa Spanky

3 more WIP cars...

2011-11-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

This first one is more "Rat Rod" style, heavily armored with extra large fuel storage. Based off a Camaro die cast, it was a bit of a pain to work with.

Here is a view of the rear ports, presumably for some sort of drop weapon. My models are not built to represent any exact setup, just a representation of a car used in a game.

This is going to be a more high tech "off the showroom floor" Car Wars car.

An SUV, fitted with a ram. I experimented with the side weapon mounts on this car to both see if I could do it, and see how it would look.

Painted Car Wars cars

2011-10-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

Finished painting up two of the cars, I added the Necromunda figure for scale.

Enjoy the pics,

Papa Spanky

Cars n Guns

2011-08-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on some 1/43 ish scale cars for use in an Up scaled version of Car Wars. It is fun game to model for; you can design cars that are post-apocalyptic and ones that look like they rolled off the showroom floor with factory installed state of the art weapon systems. This is perfect because these models are going to be used with a variety of post apoc and future wars type games I've been wanting to try.

These two have magnets glued to the inside roof so I can add and remove a turret as needed.

This is an view of the armored ball turret as a side mounted weapon.

That's all for now,

Papa Spanky

I WANNA ROCK!

2011-08-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

A bunch, actually, so I made some!They are based off of this awesome model rairoad technique:
Frocks
I modified it slightly by using vinyl spackle (its more flexible) and adding PVA to the mix. To paint them I experimented with paints while they were wet, and woodland scenics earth tones when they were dry. for a bit more durability, they were sealed with a water based matte varnish afterward.

Of course, I also had to experiment with other ways to change or improve this idea, because thats what I do :)

This is the above technique, just with heavy amounts of wall spackle in places. Works well, just not as durable.

This one was coated in cheap white paintable caulk. Two coats, Mcfly.

The result? A super flexible rock that can be literally thrown against the wall without damage.

The only downside is that caulk and the scenics pigments diddnt hit it off together; I had to use paint and drybrushing to get it even remotely looking like a rock.

thats all for now, Rock out with your... rock out.

Papa Spanky

Wrecked Cars

2011-07-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Tis been a long time since my last post, sorry life just gets in the way. Anyway I have been working on some other games/ figures/ terrain, other than strictly 40k stuff. My latest has been wrecked cars for modern/ future war games. Most of these were wrecked because they were either too big or too small scale-wise. not really suitable as main focus model, these do just fine as background terrain.

Ok this first group I did years ago, but I thought

I would inclue them to show how my painting has changed/ progressed.

This is one of my more recent wrecks, seems to be more realistic.

These two were weathered using a 2 part rust effects solution. While time consuming and hard to master, this technique seems to provide the most realistic rust. (probably because it is actual rust)

These three are just more filler; generic wrecks that can be used in anything from zombie games to road warrior style games.

I have some more coming, as well as a small tutorial on how to make vacuum formed copies of cars and terrain.

Winter Fire Warriors

2010-01-17T22:23:00.000-08:00

I finished up My first full squad of Fire Warriors last night, and they sport the winter camoflage of my meager army. I know it seems timely painting winter themes and all, but this poor army has been sitting on my paint shelf since the Tau frst invaded the 40k universe.

I didn't like the blue skin the studio painters use, so I went with a paint scheme more on par with the movie Alien Nation. (Old Shatterhands uses a similar scheme, Probably where I got the idea.)

Anyway, enjoy till next time,

PapaSpanky

Rounding Off 40k

2009-12-10T00:30:00.000-08:00

The other day I was thinking about how I could re-laminate this really great 5 foot round table I got as a castaway from a school and turn it into my main dining room table. Often as it does, my mind wandered off to gaming, and I started thing of many alternate uses for such an item. The most obvious was as a card or board game table, because surely you couldn't play 40k on it, could you?...
That got me really thinking. First off, was it big enough? well doing some quick math I found the surface are to be 19.625 sq. feet. (3.14x radius squared) that equals a table that roughly 4ft x 5ft. Not bad for small to medium games. A 6ft table would give you 28.26 sq ft; roughly 4 sq ft larger than a 6x8 table.
Next was deployment zones. I did a quick mock-up in google sketchup, here's what I have so far:

Now this is an example of the 5 ft table quartered with a 12" deployment zone shown in light green. Having a circumference of 15.7 ft, you could divide up the zones for any number of players easily. Want to make infiltrating more challenging and random? Mark off roughly 15 ft around the table edge, then assign then numbers between 3 and 18. When your infiltrating reserves come in roll 3d6. That will change your strategy.
I see a lot of potential for some fun games on a round surface, but there are some downsides too. Castling up would be a bit trickier. No more hiding arty or objectives in the corners. A devastator squad in the center would have range everywhere on the table. And lastly, not everyone has access to a round table.

I think I will have to experiment more on this subject, in the meantime tell me what you think or if there is something glaring that I missed in my ramblings.

Do you want your own tyranid ravener?

2009-08-30T16:40:00.000-07:00

I found this while searching a Halloween prop site.

Chapter Changing

2009-08-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

So I've decided to change about 3000 pts of space marines from my current "made up" chapter to the Mortifactors chapter. Mine (the one on the left) wasn't too far off from Mortifactors anyway, so I didn't have to strip or reprime. Even the my chapter marking was a maltise cross with a skull in it, so all I need to do is paint over the cross. I though it turned out pretty decent.

I plan on using several chaplain models for actual chaplains, librarians and maybe even veteran sgt. for vet squads or sternguard.

Questions, comments welcome.

If Orks went to school in the fall...

2009-08-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

This would be their big yellow bus!

Ok, It would probably be a battlewagon, but since I didn't just finish one of those I guess this will have to do.
Anyway, HURRAY! I finished it! Its magnetized pretty extensively so a lot of parts are poseable, I have his CC arm in a casual position in the above picture.

Here I moved it into more of a guard position.

And here is the WAAAAAGH! or attack position.

these are the structure point markers I made, painted to look like fire and smoke. As I said before in an earlier post, I think these will come in handy when the bullets start flying...

The three rockets, since they are a one shot weapon, simply remove one when you fire it, so its easy to keep track of your shots.

All of these parts are magnetized, making storage a little easier.
This was a great model to build, I had a lot of fun with it. Its size caused far more painting procrastination than I anticipated, but I got through it.
What I didn't do:
Grots- I left them off, just a personal preference (da mekboy has uver plans for dems anyway)
modifications- just the eyes really, this model didn't need much.

What I wish I'd done:
Magnetize the shoulder big shooter.
Make the back door open with hinges and a removable ladder. (its not on now at all, the way the ladder looked bothered me).

Thats all for now, comments always welcome!
Spanky

Gaming table conundrum

2009-07-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

OK so I have been thinking about building a table for a while, but I have not been able to decide on a solid plan yet. I keep going back and forth on some key design points and now I'd like to hear your ideas.
Here's what I am set on:
The table having its own support.
The table having a 3" ledge around it so terrain can go subterranean as well above ground.

Here's what I'm having trouble with:
Permanet vs collapsable tables

Permanent:

Pros:

sturdy
can have storage under it
is set up and ready to go for a game

Cons:

Can be in the way and is difficult to move
Is set up and ready for my wife to pile Christmas wrap/clothes/ craft stuff on

Collapsible:

Pros:

Can be stored or moved out of the way
No temptation to use it for storage

Cons:

More difficult to build
has to be set up before gaming
no storage

My other issue I face is size. To me 4ft across is too small, especially with 12" deployment zones, but it seems to be the standard. So 4X6? Well what if I want a larger game, do I make the table expandable to 4x8 or 6x8? This brings me to ask: what about making a side of the board 5ft? reaching to the center of a board 6ft across can be arduous at best, a 5x8 ft board is much more manageable for large games. If I did this, what would be the dimensions of the board not expanded? 4x5 or 5x6? And why are odd board sizes are blasphemy to the Emporers STC of game tables?

I look forward to hear anything you might have to say on this subject.

Spanky

Oh just finish already!

2009-07-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, Im working on it. Here is some more progress on the Stompa model.

Heres where I'm at right know:

I finished the back piping, rusted and weathered nicely. On this part I used pastels thinned with testors paint thinner- not as easy to use, but gives a little different look. It has its uses.A shot of the patina, came out well I think.

Back of his head

His mug shot, soon to be on imperial wanted posters everywhere...

Not finished with gun yet, heres my progress so far.

Your still working on that?

2009-06-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

Yes I am. Sad I know. Been working on a milliion non- game projects lately, but I did find some time to do some more painting on my Stompa.

This is the finished fully weathered close combat arm. Although after looking at these pics for a while I think I need some dark circular scrapes on the round blade. Ok so its 99% finished now.

Here he is with most of his pieces on. His head, upper cc arm and gun arm are only about 50% finished. Speaking of his head...

Here it is! I really was pleased with the way the eyes turned out.

Two more shots showing the weathering/ rusting that I've done with this guy so far.

Questions, comments?

Stompa project- quick update

2009-05-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

a quick update on the Stompa project- I've got about a third of it weathered. Its a long slow process, but it is progressing. Thats all for now.

Some of my older efforts

2009-05-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

While cleaning up my pictures I found some shots of terrain I have made over the past years.

These are some ruins I made using some walls from a now out of business company.

This was a Games Workshop "Eye of Terror" campaign board. The shop I play at was kind enough to let my take it home and add things and paint it up.

More stompa goodness...

2009-05-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

More details painted, it seems every time I look at this model I see another detail piece I missed...

None of the weathering is started yet, and ther is a lot to do.

An update, without the stompa

2009-05-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on the stompa project, I'm just in a stage that not photo worthy yet. In the inter um, I was also working on a test paint scheme for my Tau. I liked it and decided to paint two (or one large) squads of them.

I varied the location of the camo pattern to differentiate the two squads, I'm going to have to experiment to see how this can translate to multiple squads of the warriors.

Another technique

2009-04-14T18:33:00.000-07:00

I skipped the step of using the latex on these panels, instead using the sponge brush with my rust tones directly on the lower edge. I also used pastels to weather the metal areas as well as the areas in the corners, around the bolts, ect.

Thats a lot of yellow...

2009-04-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

I started painting the Stompa the other day, and thought "Wow that's a lot of yellow".

I'm gonna break it up with metal panels (some are masked off under the paint) and weathering, but its always just a little scary to commit to such a bold color. I've been expirimenting with different painting and weathering techniques, heres a quick tutorial of one of them:

I first paint over a black undercoat with fiery orange, scorched brown, and vermin brown. (vallejo colors). I use a combination of a large brush an a foam brush. You could also use blister package foam, or offcuts from any of the foam from army storage cases . Dab all over, use lots photos of rust for reference.

Using the foam brush again, I dabbed on liquid latex everywhere I thought damage and paint chipping was most likely to occur. Since this is one of the feet, I figured it would get the most damage on the bottom and the leading edges as the Stompa smashed his way along.

After it dried I sprayed scarfulous (?) brown all over. You can use a regular brush if don't own an airbrush. I actually did on his other foot. Just thin it so you don't remove the latex. Yet.

This time I'm using orange yellow and spraying it on as a first layer of highlights. Centers of flat panels, top edges on the outer foot, ect. Don't go to the edge or spray over areas that should be in shadow. Again brushes are welcome.

This step I highlighted more, this time with bad moon yellow. Don't cover all of the orange yellow, this is the final highlight so use it on the edges, the very center of flat panels, ect. Yes, you can brush again.

Ok, now the fun part! Using your finger, a rubber eraser, a toothpick and tweezers, gently rub the liquid latex off. The paint will flake and chip, thats what you want. The end result will expose the first layer (the rust). Use the toothpick and tweezers to pick off all the little bits of latex and paint chips. Get all the spots of latex, you didn't forget where you put them, did you?

Last steps! Using the foam and regular brush, I painted boltgun metal over areas that were just exposed. I Didn't do all the areas, just ones that I wanted to look like they recently were chipped or have wear. I then used brown, flesh, and sepia inks to put in final shadows.

Ork Stompa damage markers

2009-04-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

Hey welcome to my geek blog! Time to jump right in...

I'm building a Stompa for my Warhammer 40k ork army. As you might well know, superheavy vehicles and titans are fire magnets. With armor 13 the Stompa is tough but not invulnerable, so its gonna take some damage during a game. I figured what better way to represent this than to have a few damage markers:

These are magnatized from the inside, so there are no visible magnets on the outside of model.

To make these, I glued a magnet to a small button, then glued Woodland scenics clump foliage to the button, building up and off of it in a smoke pattern. When the glue is dry, prime in black and paint in shades of yellow oranges and reds, with greys and browns for the smoke. (remember: white is the hottest, followed by yellows, oranges, and reds.)