Shop window display

Finally enough spare time to add my newest creation to this blog: a display I built for a coin and gold dealer.

I used a chocolate gold ingot and coins from a board game as they have the same size as the original ones I couldn't afford to buy to make this display. ;-)

The gold dealer's logo has got the same blue tone. So it fits perfectly into the shop's advertising concept.

Sorry for the crappy cellphone pics. I'll add better ones and one showing it decorating the shop window as soon as I return home from travelling.

New year resolutions ...

1. Post more often in your blog.
2. Abandon all new year resolutions and do what makes you happy - in real life and on this blog.
...
:-)

Long time, no see ... despite an extremely high demand in my RL job in the last few weeks, I managed to progress two creative projects: my 'torre de los muertos' and something that might look familiar to you ... it looks a bit like the dwarf mine I made for Armies on Parade ...

In fact, my local GW shop decided to keep the mine and display it in its shop window. Another shop owner saw it, spontaneously went into the shop and wanted to buy it!
As it would have been too expensive and wasn't exactly what he needed, I decided to build another one, suitable for his needs - a shop window display for coins and gold ingots:

I'll start painting it this evening.

WIP pics of the orcs for my torre de los muertos:

Just a few basic colours to give you an idea where this is going ... Suitable for a Mexican Mariachi band or not? What do you think?

Armies on Parade 2016

More than happy with the outcome of my very first participation at AoP.

Here are a few pics of how the dwarf mine looked like in the end:

Still can't believe I went home with this cool gold medal ...

I'm really glad that so many people liked my dwarf mine and voted for it. Thank you very much!!!

Let meeeeee entertain you!

Hearing that song while painting does lead to wild experiments for sure.

I'll come back to that in a minute, but first a few pics of the normal progress I have made regarding the dwarf mine for Armies on Parade:

This is where I started this morning.

It took me a while to highlight the door.

And then I was listening to that song ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy5fXM00JNA

... and suddenly things got weird ...

 

1 (!) day to go ...will I make it in time?

Dwarf mine - new WIP pics

I'm progressing the dwarf mine.

Here's a pic of the hemisphere after having used the granite-effect spray I mentioned in my first tutorial. I might add a golden dwarf face / rune or something similar to it, but most probably not in time for Armies on Parade.

It also took me some time to correct a stupid newbie mistake: Check whether your bases fit into the slots as planned and don't forget to remove sand leftovers in them before sand and PVA are dry. It will save you a lot of work. ;-)

I managed to correct it though. Here's how far I got with painting:

Black primer, two shades of grey so far ...

It still looks a bit dull. I'm going to add different inks today so that the rock looks more varied, and maybe a bit of earth instead of rock. Door, frame and a few bones are still unpainted. More drybrushing and preparation of the miners' bases this afternoon ... So there's still time for suggestions what else you would like me to add to the mine.

Spray paint and styrofoam - it can be done

Here's a short tutorial on how to spray paint styrofoam terrain:

I'd like to use stone effect spray for the dwarf mine I'm building. I guess we all made that bad experience of what happens to styrofoam when you try to undercoat it with primer spray. It just melts away.

Therefore I've just done a test piece:

Step 1

Undercoat your styrofoam piece with 'Belton free primer'. Three layers, one layer every 20 minutes.

Let it dry over night before proceeding with ...

Step 2

Use 'Belton Special Granite-Effect' spray (or any other Belton special effect spray for the stone effect you want to achieve). Three layers every 15 minutes.

Step 3

Seal it with 'Belton clear lacquer for all effect paints'. Done.

N.B. Belton didn't give me money to post this. It's just the only spray paint I found in Germany suitable for styrofoam. If you know other brands that could be useful, I'd be glad if you leave me a comment including the country where this brand is available.

I've already started undercoating the dwarf mine. New WIP pics with stone effect spray tomorrow. So stay tuned!

And leave me a comment if you like this tutorial and/or have anything to add that could be useful for other painters and/or terrain builders. Your feedback will help me and others to improve their painting skills.

Dwarf mine (brandnew WIP pics)

Brandnew WIP pics of the dwarf mine I'm building. I've now added a kind of 'frame' using plasticard ...

... and adapted this frame to the rock:

Next step will be to close the gap between this frame and the rock with Milliput.

How do you like it so far? Anything you would have done differently? C&C greatly appreciated!

Dwarf mine - WIP pics

Pics of the next steps:

After reconsidering the miners' positions and whether to add rails and a lorry or not, ...

I started to add different sizes of rubble and a few skulls to the mine:

Slowly adding more and more details to the dwarf mine

Thank you for your comment, Realjuan!

I agree with you that simply using cork to represent rocks isn't enough. It doesn't look natural IMO. I therefore used Millipult to add further details to the structure and close the gaps between the rocks and the door.

This is how it looks like atm (still WIP - please click on the pics to see more details):

Next step will be to add several layers of debris / rubble / small pebblestones.

Anything else you would like me to add?

Dwarf mine - new WIP pic

Progress I've made so far:

One problem I'm facing at the moment: I need something to make it heavier at the bottom to prevent it from falling over. Any idea what I could use to stabilise it? *unsure*

And the winner is ...

I think we have a clear winner here!

Von Kurst, you're right! It's a dwarf mine, a display base for my miners to present them to the jury of the painting competition 'Herzog von Bayern' (Duke of Bavaria) in April this year.

Congratulations!!!

Please send me your address by e-mail (Warhammer-Weib@gmx.de). I'm looking forward to sending you your surprise miniature!

Play & Win ... Update!

Thank you for all your comments. They're making this project even more fun!

Here's another pic to give you an idea where this could be going ...

Who wants to venture another guess?

Play & win ...

Here are components of my next terrain piece ... what could it be?

The one who is closest to what I'm really going to build wins a surprise miniature! Just let your imagination run wild and leave me a comment under this blog post.

Edit: Here's an update of what I'm going to build!

Ziterdes hardfoam building - finally painted

I love painting buildings now and then ... a different scale for a change, the possibility of just splashing a lot of paint on them without being too careful ...

Here's a Ziterdes building, a birthday gift, I finally painted, in different stages of painting:

I like the building a lot. However, the hardfoam quickly shows wear and tear when you use it for gaming. Has anybody else had this problem? How did you fix it?