Sanctum Imperialis

Sanctum Imperialis, the place of devotion to the God-Emperor. I have been using this building in games for years, though I only finished its paintjob recently. I have to say I love both the modularity and fine detail of this kit. Building it was simply fun even though I went for the basic look - which, while a bit boring, looks quite impressive. Only annoying thing was cutting the doors out of the large wall section, and gluing them in a proper position later. After few games, I actually removed the open doors completely, as they were just taking place that could be used by units.

I went with a red color scheme - the headcanon behind that is that the building is situated on a Newfound or some other planet controlled by the Genesis Chapter. To make the shrine even more pompous, the statues are painted in Shining Gold. The lamps are painted with Administratum Gray, washed with Nuln Oil and drybrushed with Vallejo White.
  

I didn't pay so much attention to the inner side of the ruin, so the paintjob is much more rushed there. I'm still thinking about the layout of ruined buildings for gaming - is it more useful and practical to have one-level buildings, two-level or even three-level ones? Is it more economical to split the kits into multiple, smaller ruin sections? Let me know what you think.

Pillbox made out of a CD and yoghurt!

Just a quick update showing one very simple terrain piece - a pillbox bunker made out of a yoghurt cup!

The whole thing was made by taking an old CD covered with a paper, onto which the yoghurt cup was, surprisingly, glued upside-down. Basing was done on top of the "bunker" to give it a more natural feel, and craft putty together with deco stones were used to make the rough terrain around it. Small sheets of plasticard (though paper could have been probably used) were glued and pinned to the cup to make window and doors. Finally, it was painted.

 

The result is a pretty nice, though small line-of-sight blocking terrain usable as a building for small squads. I was thinking about adding some freehand or decal identification numbers on the side, or perhaps even an aquila... Though I haven't decided in the end and moved onto other projects. I'm still thinking about making more of these and perhaps adding some larger terrain pieces (barricades, fortifications or even trenches) to make a larger warzone terrain set. Hmm... I'll better start stocking the yoghurt cups.

Scratchbuilding Craters out of CDs!

I'm working on terrain lately, and any good battlefield has to have plenty of shell craters around... Right? I've decided to start small, so the first few craters I've made actually use old CDs for bases. Why CDs? As anyone who lived in 90's, I've got plenty of these around, many of which are not even working anymore, so they make a really cheap alternative if you live in flat and can't go crazy with cutting MDF planks. And if done correctly, the resulting crater is big enough to make cover for 5-6 models.

Materials used for these are as cheap as possible: CDs, paper, sand, decoration stones and Creall Do & Dry modelling material. First, paper was glued over the CD to cover the obvious hole in middle and to work as a more adhesive surface for the Creall. After that, deco stones were glued onto the surface; while this is not required, it gives the terrain more character and more support for the modelling material.

Last step is the most fun one - using the modelling putty to make your own unique crater. I've made two so far, both not exactly beautiful or eye-catching, but they work!

My girlfriend took the idea bit further, and actually made her crater look good. In fact, she hasn't made a shell crater, but a small volcano - and she did a pretty good job with both the modelling and painting part!

The lava was made with PVA glue - first it was poured into the crater to make level of certain height, then (after waiting a few days), the bubbles were made on top of it using more glue. I'm using the volcano as a mysterious lake in game, though the size is limiting. But it looks great on the tabletop!

Quick & Simple Drop Pods (Papercraft)

Just sharing a picture of a very simple papercraft Drop Pod. So far I'm planning to use it as a small piece of scenery (possibly with the Ammunition Dump rule) and perhaps as a Drop Pod proxy in friendly games. The base didn't end up good, I should have used putty to make a proper crater - mistakes happen.

You can download the absolutely stunning template at Louis Taylor's website. It's very simple to make and it is available in many different colors! Paper size might be a problem thought, I had to actually print it two times since the template is too large for an A4-format paper.

Quick & Simple Papercraft Imperial Bunker

Just wanted to share some pictures and a template of an imperial bunker I found on the net. It's a very simple colored template, which makes it ideal if you need to quickly fill up your table and don't mind large, blocky buildings!

I like that it's size is large enough to have an ingame impact; I'm too busy working on my armies so I don't have much time or resources for Citadel or scratchbuilt terrain; this one will make a good proxy for now. The template and instructions are available at Ralf Engels homepage. The template is very simple, which makes it easy to experiment with. I'm thinking about adding battlement walls to this one.

I wish I had more time for Warhammer - but duty always comes first, at least the Emperor says so! I have way too many projects in the status of "nearly finished", including a Deff Dread, sternguard and bike squad and even some Tyranids - hopefully I'll finish some of these by Christmas. More paper terrain might come meanwhile - I'm having lovely papercraft saturdays with my girlfriend (really the only day in week I have time for the hobby at the moment).

Anyway, glory to the Emperor! I mean, have a nice day.