Terrain: Imperial Streets 003

The other six sections of road complete, I turned my attentions to the bombed out section. Starting with a compass, I marked out the locations of the craters. With these sizes in mind I started cutting triangles of styrofoam to build the skeletons of the craters.

I used hot glue to secure the styrofoam wedges to the hardboard of the base. I cut a few wedges, glue them in place, and repeat until the craters are complete. I've found through trial and error that this method works best: you don't tend to mix up the pieces.

Styrofoam all in place. At this point I start adding DAP wall filler, and waiting. Once the first coat dried, I repeat the process with a thicker layer of DAP, and then off to work. It was dry by the time I got home, and so I applied the third layer, forming the details of the craters and building up the lip.

After these layers of DAP were done, I painted the whole section in Delta black and PVA. Once it dried, I started layering on pieces of cork. Broken bits were used around the edges of the craters. I used PVA to secure them and constantly checked the placement of everything with the cork sheets I had sized for the each end of the section. The PVA securing these initial pieces of cork would be further reinforced with more DAP.

Layer by layer I added cork to the cratered section. The last two pieces to be added were the ends of the street. Before I added them I traced crosswalk marking on them with a permanent marker. After all the glue and DAP was solid, I took to digging out all the cracks on the board. Once again I also peppered the section liberally with cork debris. Finally, I picked out the crosswalk with PVA.

I painted the whole works in two coats of watered down Delta black and PVA, then picked out the pitiful remains of the crosswalks with PVA once again. Blue Grey Slate and Seal Grey came out again for heavy drybrushing. The crosswalks were painted in the now familiar fashion of Space Wolves Grey and Skull White. Graveyard Earth was used in drybrushing the crater interiors, as well as some of the rubble deposits. Black wash followed by another drybrush with Seal Grey. Finally, I used a wash of thinned down Rhinox Hide on the craters and rubble that received Graveyard Earth.

With this section complete, my Imperial streets are done for now. I look forward to expanding the 'set' in the future. Just like when I was a kid playing with Matchbox cars... there was never enough road.

Terrain: Imperial Streets 002

I Googled images of cracked asphalt to help me detail the roads, and the images returned were promising. I also looked around my neighborhood to see what inspiration I might find there. After marking the locations of dividing lines and crosswalks with a permanent marker, I scribed a pattern of pencil lines on each road section, to be picked out later with my x-acto blade and dental pick.

Gouging out all the cracks is one of those things that ended up being more labor intensive than I expected. In some places the cork tore out in chunks, and on a couple of the edges long strips peeled away. It didn't matter. I saved all the debris from the process and once all the cracks were dug out, I used it as rubble in the voids and in piles on the street. After all the rubble was in place and the glue set up, I used a filbert brush to paint the lines on the road with PVA.

After giving the roads a coat of watered down Delta black, I painted the lines with a second layer of straight PVA. The idea here is that the definition from two thin layers of PVA will serve to make the lines visible through the painting process without my having to constantly retrace them... Here's hoping. The final step before the roads are ready for drybrushing is to give all the rubble a coat of watered down Delta black mixed with PVA. This will serve to help the deposits of rubble not to erode as I drybrush over them.

Two years ago I bought a pint each of Blue Grey Slate and Seal Grey. All my craters, rubble deposits, roads, etc. will share these two base colours to ensure that all my terrain is tied together. The roads first get heavy drybrush of Blue Slate Grey, then Seal Grey. The PVA did its work wonderfully: the rubble stayed and the road markings showed through wonderfully. After drybrushing I picked out the road markings with Space Wolves Grey and then Skull White. Everything then got a coat of black wash. Once the wash dried everything got one last drybrush of Seal Grey.

Now all that remains of the road construction is the cratered section.

Cheers,

CJ

Terrain: Imperial Streets 001

Well defined roads has always been a thing on my to do list when it comes to terrain, even if the rules that inspired me to begin with are a few editions out of date now. In the 2001 edition of Chapter Approved, there were optional rules for craters and roads. These rules inspired me to crank out a pile of craters, and I was always dreaming of when I could have some nice Forgeworld Roads... long OOP in 2014. I've finally hit upon an affordable solution to the problem.

With the sidewalks of my terrain being 1/4" thick, I decided that the 1/8" cork I could find locally would make a good road, and there would still be variation between the sidewalk and street when terrain is laid out. I sat for a few minutes, sketching in my graph paper comp book, and the above picture is what I came up with. Using deductive reasoning and the size of the RoB tiles that GW and FW produce, I decided that my roads would be 8" wide.

With a quick bus ride to Home Depot and JoAnn Fabrics, I picked up the needed supplies: a 2'x4' sheet of 1/8" hardboard and two 2'x1' rolls of 3/32" thick cork. With these items secured, I beat a hasty retreat to my sweltering laboratory. Using my square and steel ruler, I marked out the pattern of sections I had laid out in my comp book. Using a sharp utility knife, I then cut out all the pieces of hardboard and the corresponding piece of cork.

Here is what I ended up with. Since the cork came in rolls, it wanted to stay curled up. No worries, I applied PVA glue liberally to the hardboard and the cork sheets, and then sandwiched the all the pieces together under a stack of books. I used a piece of tinfoil between each road section to ensure they wouldn't stick together.

That was last night. Now its 12 hours later, and they the PVA isn't completely dry yet. I did shift the pile and then restack it. Once I get home from work I will see how much more drying they will need.

The cratered section of road will be tackled a bit differently from the rest. Before I add the road, I have to build the craters.

In other news, I surpassed 50000 hits some time yesterday and wanted to say thank you to all.

Cheers,

CJ