Eastern Alliance

This base is for a Necron Wraith (I think thats what it is, sure Mr. Stu will correct me if I'm wrong) I've been mucking about with. Nothing fancy, but some guys in Norwich were curious about weathering so it was a bit of a quick demo figure. The concept is to have a two tier base with a lot of cables and wires running down this hole or pit. So with this in mind I dug up what I think is hatch for some imperial vehicle to use as the rim of the hole.


Stage 1:
The transparent plastic from the front of the blister pack is stuck to the top of the base with super glue and allowed to set. This is then trimmed to shape with a knife before the edge is smoothed with a file. It comes unstuck a bit, but thats easily fixed and the end result is a nice smooth surface.

The bottom "hatch" is then trimmed and sanded so it doesn't stand too tall and is then placed off centre. This meant part of the rim protruded from the edge of the base and it was cut, scrapped and filed into line with the curve of the base. (This is actually easier to see in the second image)

And the last part of this stage is the facing of the step to the second level. This is made from a couple of matches with a bit of thin material stretched and glued over it. The idea is to provide some sort of fine mesh look for the facing, though I'll admit to never having tried that before so it may or may not work.



Stage 2:
This is getting most of the pipework and cabling done. Admittedly one of them had already been done in the previous photo, but that hardly counts I find paperclips are quite good for heavy duty cabling, they bend easilly and are large enough at this scale to look quite substantial. I actually drilled holes through the base on the inside of the "pit" and they run through that so I didn't have to be too careful about getting the exact length.

The brass tubing is a bit more substantial than the paper clips and before ot was placed I actually filed a groove in the surface so hopefully when it's finished it won't just look like it's lying on the top. There was quite a bit of effort slowly filing the stuff to get it the right length and line the end up with the angle of the base, but the joins aren't too important as I intended to use green stuff on those at the end.



Stage 3:
Time to add the second level. Once more I use more thin transparant plastic (This time from the lid of a rather nice chocolate and raspberry desert . . . yum yum . . . ) cut quite large, the important bit being to line up the edge of the step and the ring around the pit.

Milliput is used give the surface something to rest on. This is quite handy as it allows me to push it from the sides and raise the surface in places when I've put it a bit too low. So a fair bit of prodding and poking later it's left so the milliput can set.



Stage 4:
A couple of steps between stage 3 and 4, although both to do with finishing the shape of the upper step. The first was to use polyfiller (The ready made stuff that comes in a tub and handy for quick household diy fixes) to bulk out the back of the base roughly in line with the angle of the original black black base. The main reasons for this are that it is very very easy to sand and it dries quickly.

This then allows me to use the cutting disc on my dremmel to very carefully cut the back of the step to the correct shape as well as removing the excess from the paperclip pipes. Actually this did result in chipping a bit of the surface off but this was then fixed with milliput. The milliput was used to add some shape to the front edge around the pit as well as smoothing in the back where a lot of water was used to really smooth it into shape and carry the angle from the original base.



Stage 5:
Not a lot seems to have changed here . . . .

A great deal of effort has gone in to sanding the side of the base with rather fine sand paper. When I did the steps on my Timurid's base I just stuck a layer of plastic around the back and instantly got a nice smooth surface, but the angle as this base slopes in would make that rather tricky here, so it's time for a bit of physical exercise.

Also the woven lacing stuff is hollow and insists on fraying at the ends so a lot of fiddling with wire and pva to give it some sort of shape and bend it into place is required. And like the brass tubing, the top of the step was filed away so it is slightly recessed. (I still need to fix up the top of the rim infront of it where I filed a groove in it)



Stage 6:
And here we are, almost done. A bit of green stuff to cover up the pipe joints and ends as well as giving the edge of the upper step a bit of detail. The toughness pof green stuff certainly seems to make it better for this sort of thing than milliput.

Just a last point to make. It had occurred to me that the pit was a bit wide and shallow to get a convincing effect of depth so I've converted a toothpick and a button from dvd player thing to make an energy spike thing that will fill the centre. That should allow for the impression that there is a deep hole around the inner edge.




Also it seems I still have several pics of my paladin, magistrate and wolfen bases, so I should get some stuff written up for those soon as well. Maybe when I've worked my way though the backlog of anime, manga, movies and other novels that have built up this last year and finally get myself a web page sorted . . . .

wooah
looks awsome so far Mr conrad

looking forward to seeing the finished thing.

Brill article, make it a sticky so it stays for all time!!!

Stage 1:
The base colours, a few layers of a nice mid blue grey for the floor (VMC Intermediate Blue) . I also did a couple of layers of metallics for the pipes and fittings even though I know they will get messed up quite a bit because it will help later.

Finally I used some very thinned black to plan out where the tile edges will go. Again these will be mostly covered in the next couple of stages but I was hoping enough would show through to act as a guide when re-doing them later.


Stage 2:
Out with the sponge and the pale green (VMC Sky Green). Nothing subtle here, just adding enough to get a good mottled effect across the whole surface.


Stage 3:
And then time for some very pale blue. Not sure of the name it's one of my old GW colours now in a mixing pot so tyhe name is long gone. Anyway, as you can probably see, the effect is quite rough at this point.


Stage 4:
A quick bit of work with dark grey to re-emphasise the tile layout and also to darken the areas next to the pipes and other edges. A couple of layers of a rather thin mixture just to start adding the shape back in.


Stage 5:
More use with thin layers, this time the pale blue and the intermediate blue base colour. concentrating the pale blue on the front right edges of the tiles and the intermediate blue of the back left, the layers blend the mottled blue/green tones of the floor into a more coherent look.


Stage 6:
Using a mix of VMC Oxford Blue and VMC Germ. Cammo Black Brown the tile structure is finished, and some additional shadows are added, using either or both. The oxford blue working well with the existing blue and green tones, while the dark brown will work well with the pastels later.


Stage 7:
Time to add a bit of wear and tear. Again it's doen with oxford blue and GCBB. No real random effects here, I just decided to concentrate the damage on the tile edges. Meanwhile more pale blue and even white is used to emphasis the edges of the damaged areas. I've also re-done the metallics in preparation for weathering them.


Stage 8:
Weathering powders (Or ground artists pastels) adding some nice dirt and grime look to the edges and joins. One thing to note is that this does dull the look of the wear and tear on the floor, so that will need to be re-emphasised a bit to get some contrast back into it.

very nice. can't wait to see the wraith on it