Monthly Archives: May 2014

Sci-Fi Pipes and Generator

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Another smallish update today. Basically, I haven’t been painting much at all over the last few weeks, and so I’m sharing some more “back-catalogue” scenery pieces. As usual for this stuff, these are at least 10 years old, yadda yadda. They were painted during the heyday of Necromunda, and have been used in many an underhive battle and on 40k tabletops since then. I’m also sure they’d fit in just fine for Warpath, DeadZone, and pretty much any other sci-fi tabletop or RPG games.

Armorcast (I think) pipes. OLD!

 

A view from higher up of the Armorcast pipes.

Rear view of the Armorcast pipes.

This piece, despite looking like the sort of thing that you could easily assemble from a few bits from your local hardware store is actually a purchased resin piece. Probably cost between AU$10-15 back in the day. It’s a slightly rough cast, and I think it’s an old piece from Armorcast – or possibly Forge World – not the current GW-subsidiary, but the US-based company that produced 40k-scaled Epic stuff back in the 1990’s. It’s a slightly rough paintjob on a rough cast of a rough terrain piece, but it’s good enough for most tables. I went with blue-grey because Necromunda, and as you can see, I wasn’t quite sure on what happens to the orientation of hazard stripes on certain things. Not sure what the iron sights on the pipes are in aid of, either.

Once I get past the batches of fantasy figures and terrain I’m working on right now, I may well wander down to the local hardware store and pick up some plumbing fittings to create some new and better-quality variations on this theme. Maybe some more exhaust ports like the above?  The traditional outflow pipe into a small pond of toxic sludge? There’s an endless supply of clichés to mine, after all…

 

Kit-bashed Generator

Kit-bashed Generator – Rear View

This generator is made of an old broken toy part that many of you have probably already recognised – yes, the Hoth Generator from Empire Strikes Back. It’s from an old, old Micro-playset that was a bit broken and busted up from many play hours as a kid (and was second-hand and incomplete when I got it) The main body is made of two audiocassette cases glued together, the box on the side is a random part from a model kit, and the control panel on the front is a thumb switch from a kids’ flashlight. Some flyscreen mesh and a rectangle of card over the top to finish up. Mounted the whole thing on some MDF, then add paint and a couple of decals to finish.

Daemonette Statues, Imperial Fountain

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A quick update today. Just a couple of pieces of scenery to share. These three pieces were all done at least 10 years ago, so it’s really a back-catalogue update.

First up, a couple of Daemonette statues. Once again, these are based on some Scotia Grendel (hey guys, send me some free stuff!) scenery. Back in the day I collected my Space Marines and Imperial Army Guard and whatnot as armies, but I also tended to grab anything else that took my fancy just to paint – much as I do today, really. Most of my Chaos figures of the day were procured just to have them, and since I wasn’t a serious WHFB player (outside of my Dark Elves, then Orcs & Goblins), I wanted other figures to be individuals, as I noted in the last post with the Fleshhounds.

So what to do with doubled-up Daemonettes?

Turn them into scenery, of course!

I took a couple of the Grendel pillars, jewellers-sawed a channel out of the tops of them, then glued the model tabs in there with Araldite.

Daemonette of Slannesh. Oldhammer.

Daemonette Standing Stone Statues – front.

Daemonette of Slannesh. Oldhammer.

Daemonette Standing Stone Statues – Rear.

I painted them with pink highlighted into white, and added blue marbling-style veins to them. I thought the pastel look worked for Slaanesh, and yes, there’s a conscious subtext there as well. The bases were originally done in green flock, but several years later when I changed my basing style to the dark brown I painted over it, added the static flock, and also glued a bunch of soft seashells around the edges of the base. I felt that they had the right soft, pastelish, smooth, sensual look to them to fit in with the Slaaneshi scenery as offerings made by the chaos tribes.

More recently, I added the flowers to the bases, to add a little more interest to them. And besides, who said everything Chaos touches needs to be blighted wastelands?

Italieri Fountain, 40k style.

The back side of that Italieri fountain.

This one’s as simple as hell. While perusing a model store years ago I saw this cheap Italieri kit on the shelf. I thought I could use it for scenery, and bought it. One simple assembly, four old-school Space Marine Banner tops (you could easily do the same with easily-available brass etch these days), and a quick base coat and drybrush followed by some thinned down orange paint for rust streaks and you’re golden. And yes, it’s still available today. What I especially like about it on current reflection is that it’s still generic enough (even with the Aquilas) to be used in Historical or Fantasy gaming. Simple, cheap, effective and good looking.

Like me.

Ok, so I’m not as good looking as the fountain.