Barns in Space

Here is my latest building for the ACW games. It also fits in well for the Weird World War project too funny enough.

The two Cybertronic towers are also completed in the background. They have had some of their wash rubbed off with a damp rag leaving a weathered look.

At first I thought you could buy hay bails to go inside this model, but on second look this doesn't seem to be the case.

I think the model with the sculpted interior was the first version of this barn. It appears to me that they remodeled it by cutting out the windows and door to save resin. It also makes the building a little more interactive being hollow. Signs of this first version can be seen around the door where a base has been cut away.

So, with the hay bails now a thing of history, I thought I would hint at the interior by adding some hay of my own. This was done by adding 4mm static grass (hay).

I gave the model a good coat of Matt varnish to seal the paint and lock the static hay in place.

A large gap in the barn was given some static hay to make it look like the barn is full.

I also added some hay around the doors to help tell a story.

Hay on the ledge and barn doors look good too and look better the the original sculpted resin model.

 Looks like Aliens have landed in the Midwest.

The original model with its sculpted bails and grass based. Interestingly, the model is still shown like this on the website, it's a little confusing when the actual piece arrives.

There's something very familiar with this resin barn...I just can't put my finger on it.

Make it snow!

I tried a few snow effects on my Weird World War bases a couple of years ago, some worked better than others. The blizzard paste from GW I thought was the best. I found the Vallejo snow basing mixture a bit hard to work with. On revisiting the figures I found the snow had gone quite brown and lost something.

So today I rummaged around and dug out some snow flock. As I had already spent some time adding snow, I was very careful with this new flock and just added a tiny amount.

 

Here are two before and after shots. The new snow flock is above, it just adds a bit more white to the snow layer.

The snow on the actual figures is the Blizzard effects from GW.

The snow flock works well when put over grasses, making them look frozen.

This brute arrived today, I think he is from the Trench crusade game. He's massive, much bigger than I thought, I plan to use him as someone in power armour. Here he is with a Tommy robot.

The new flock added carefully to the vehicles just to add some pop 

It's nice to see the new guy is still dwarfed by the huge Gothic robot.

German power armour with support.

I'm really pleased with this new figure as it almost matches the one below, which I love. I used this colour scheme for my Prussian forces, so it's nice to get a figures that resembles it.

Cybertron 28mm

I spotted this set of cheap prints off eBay and thought they would be good for the Cybertron project. They were about £21 for four buildings which I thought was quite reasonable. I was pleased to see they were bigger than I thought and will offer some good cover on the battlefield.

I didn't want to spend too long on them so the painting was quick and easy. I started by spraying the building in a purple undercoat. After this I drybrushed with various GW paints to create highlights. Finally a brown wash was put all over the models.

I later wiped off a lot of the wash with a damp cloth, this created some nice contrast in the hue of the models. This allowed some of the bright colours to shine through the wash and created a more interesting finished piece.

Finally, I used a silver Sharpie pen to create some worn metal edges on some of the corners. This just added a bit of contrast to the purple panelling.
 

These extra pieces certainly helps to set the mood for the Cybertron project. I will continue to keep an eye out for cheap terrain for the heavy metal war.

Update: After the success of these buildings I thought I'd order some similar designs.

These are much taller than the buildings and give off an excellent Cybertron vibe.  I did try to save money in buying hot wheels toy bases for scenery, but you can't beat these 3D prints.

They are a nice scale too with the figures.

Okay, so now they have some base paint on them, it's time for the wash. My plan is to let this dry then wipe it off with a damp cloth. It worked well for the houses so I thought I'd do it again on these bigger structures.

While the wash was out, this barn roof got a coat as well. It looked much better for it too.

Here we see the wash rubbed off slightly with a damp cloth creating a weathered look. The Matt varnish really changes the colours of the models. This is something I learnt from doing the houses earlier. Lots of different hues come through creating a more interesting colour scheme.