Monday 6 May 2019

Desert Hovels

Just the briefest of posts to showcase a couple of dwellings, planned for a Tatooine inspired Star Wars: Legion Board.  These were from 'TTCombat' and were a simple cost effective solution to setting the scene.  Having put them together in no time at all, I was curious to see if they could be enhanced to disguise the angular, rather boxy look?  Wet strength tissue paper and PVA were used to seal the dome with the addition of some ‘eroded’ blue Styrofoam supports around the base.  This was all given a coat of All Purpose Filler.  On reflection I probably used too much on the first building and reigned that back a bit on the second attempt, striving for a crude, Adobe wall like effect.
Once dried additional sand texture was added along with some A/C Greebles from ‘Combatzone Scenery’ with the coiled wire and bulkhead lights coming from ‘Zinge Industries’.   The whole piece was then given a diluted PVA glue protective coat.  Painting just saw them primed in a suitable sand like colour, washed with Agrax Eathshasde and then dry brushed.
From start to finish, this was a refreshingly quick build, which went much as I had hoped.  I had everything crossed when I gave them a spray coat of matt varnish as this has eaten into the blue foam before, but the protective PVA layer seemed to hold and all was well.  With a couple of hovels under my belt and some new techniques secured, I am hoping to progress to a slightly more challenging build next.

56 comments:

  1. Great looking buildings Michael, your extra work has been well worth it.
    I thought when you said desert dwellings you’d painted your nomad tents

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    1. Thank you Dave, sadly I haven't started the nomad tents yet, but there are definitely on my list! :)

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  2. The stucco effects really take these away from immediately "identifiable as mdf" and instead "these must have been done in resin". Excellent work Michael.

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    1. Thank you Dai, as experiments go it certainly seemed to pay off.

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  3. Terrific stuff, Michael. Absolutely terrific. You've vastly improved upon the original design with your extra efforts :-)

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    1. Thank you Simon, I perhaps wouldn't go as thick with the filler on future projects, but overall very pleased.

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  4. Lovely work Michael. I'm not always a huge fan of MDf as it often gives a too precise silhouette that I find jarring. BUT your stucco approach mitigates this very nicely and I really like the addition of the infrastructure/HVAC bits.

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    1. Thank you Curt, I know what you mean about MDF and it is by no means a cheap alternative these days, with some companies charging comparable rates to resin buildings. That said these were so simple that they were crying out fro some embellishing which I was happy to do.

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  5. Nicely done. Shows how commercial products can benefit from a little adaption.

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    1. Thank you A.J. and yes, as a starting point they were exactly what I needed.

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  6. Stunning as I would expect from you.

    Cheers Roger.

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  7. Excellent job Michael, evocative and beautiful!

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  8. Well done disguising MDF into something that looks ocmpletely scratchbuild, which beggars the questions "Did you really need the MDF core in the first place ?".
    Great "conversions" Michael, top-notch modelling.

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    1. Thank you Joe and what a good point. I think I lacked the confidence to build the structure initially, but when presented with a carcass to decorate, I was happy to oblige.

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  9. Rust effects on doors and small bits turned out just great!

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    1. Thank you Mr. Nimrod, those were the bits, I enjoyed doing most.

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  10. Fantastic work as usual, Michael!

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  11. Gorgeous, although you should have used that last photo first.
    You do put out some great stuff.

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    1. Thank you so much Mike. I did toy with that arrangement of photographs, but I wasn't happy with the lighting in the shot. I hope to take some more a little later.

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  12. I was looking at TT Combat MDF buildings this morning. I may have to get a few. Good job mate and great to see these up and running.

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    1. Thank you Clint. I have a couple more to try at some point. They are no nonsense kits that can be simply sprayed or detailed to death. Perhaps not as elegantly put together as Sarissa, but sturdy and strong.

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  13. Great work with the PVA and tissue. Really improves the peices!

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    1. Thank you. The tissue, when dried is surprisingly strong, yet manages to describe some of the angles.

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  14. They look way better after your Treatment.
    BTW,,,what is "Wet strength tissue paper?"

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    1. Thank you Paul. We use wet strength tissue paper for construction projects at school, particularly lantern making. It is a stronger version, normally available from craft shop, but when dry is noticeably stronger.

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  15. The daub look turned out extremely well Michael! Have you seen the new "NOT" Star Wars GF9 building kits that have been showing up of late?

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    1. Thank you Terry. I have seen the generators which piqued my interest. They look reasonably priced too.

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  16. They look great now, after you added texture and painted them. Cheers, Karl

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  17. These look great. You have given me some ideas for Burrows and Badgers terrain. Seeing how you cobbled these together.

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    1. Thank you Simon and that's great to hear, looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

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  18. Nicely done, Michael. A vast improvement on the original buildings and very much in keeping with the intended setting.

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    1. Thank you so much Jez. It was fun just seeing what little changes could be done to lift them.

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  19. Wow! After seeing the header photo and reading on, I thought TT Combat had started producing resin cast buildings, and was already wondering what others were in the range and upcoming...
    What a genius idea to use pva soaked tissue!!
    Marvelous job on these Michael and you've got me wondering how else this technique can be used to 'lift' mdf kits :-)

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    1. Thank yo so much, such positive feedback and I am delighted to think that, in some small way, these might help you bring your own creations to the table.

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  20. More iconic Star Wars stuff in miniature form, very nice little vignette Michael.

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    1. Thank you very much. May seems to be the month for Star Wars.

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  21. What an improvement, it's a simple technique but it makes a whole lot of a difference.

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  22. You‘ve done an excellent job on these originally rather basic pieces! Love the addition of the AC.

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