My first mod (Dwarven Forge Narrow Caverns "T" intersection)

[sigmaone]

I saw someone do this mod some time ago, and I really liked the idea; their's looked great and it seemed simple enough, so in a pique of ambition I took my hobby knife to carve a little "T" intersection out of one of my still-unpainted narrow cavern pieces.   Well, that was easy but then I was stuck with a cavern piece that had been pretty butchered and looked silly. Ambition waned and confusion and consternation set in. I wasn't really sure what to do to actually make the carved out bit look at all natural.  

 

Cut to today (about two moths later) and I've got the green stuff out for only the second time ever, the last time being a year ago, and I've got hill giant gaps nicely filled with room to spare. I thought, as I did last time I played with GS, "Let's pretend I'm a sculpter! What should I sculpt?"  I thought to do a shield or helmet, but then remembered... rocks. "I can surely sculpt a rock!" I remembered this piece, pulled it out, and started slopping the GS on it. It wasn't to hard to continue the stone floor pattern and make it look at least somewhat natural (if not nearly so nice as Stefan Pokorny's sculpting).

 

It's not beautiful, but I think once I have it painted, it will blend in pretty well and look like a natural piece. I assume I have to prime GS before painting it? I think I'll prime and then do brown liner over the GS, then just do the standard pokorny paints cavern color scheme.

 

It's not much at all, but it gives me hope that I can do more mods... I've seen some great stuff to make the caverns come alive, and I'd like to try some more. 

 

 

 

[ub3r_n3rd]

I think you did a fine job with the modification, just keep at it and trying new things, don't get down about it, it'll also look a lot better when primed and painted up.

[malefactus]

LOOKIN' GOOD! You matched up nicely to the style of the unaltered sections...your work is at least as nicely done as the original. GREAT WORK!

Be warned though, now that you've started playing with the green stuff there's no turning back; you're doomed to a life of cool creations.

[sigmaone]

@Ub3r, Thanks for the support. I'm actually not down about it. I'm happy! It felt pretty good doing it. There were two batches of GS there and the first may not have been mixed quite well enough, so we'll see how well it holds up. I'm looking forward to trying more things with the GS. The terrain is far less intimidating than the minis. 

[ub3r_n3rd]

NP, try small things with minis at first, things like adding a beard or hair or some basing elements. 

[sigmaone]

Yeah, I'd like to do some interesting bases... cobbled stone, etc. 

[Chaoswolf]

You did a great job! It's gonna look just right once it's painted.

 

As a recent GS user myself, I'll echo what Ub3r said; just try doing small things at first to get more experience. You'll be doing some pretty cool stuff in no time.

[Mad Jack]

 When mixing binary putty, do this - Start by separating the two colors if they're not already, then roll each color out into a long strip. Then place both strips together and start twisting the ends in opposite directions until just before the pieces snap. Once you've twisted the whole thing together, fold it in half and twist it again.

Then you can squish it all together into a ball and start kneading it. Make sure you keep kneading it and folding it over in different directions for at least a good minute or so.

 

Any time you have leftover putty, use it to sculpt a random rock, brick, etc., or roll it out into a tree branch or snake.

It's a great way to accumulate random bits for your bases, and doing that can help you kill time when you're waiting for the putty on your main project to cure.

Plus, pretty soon your "excess-putty-catchers" end up being things like campfires, tree stumps and fieldstone walls.

 

 

 The key to using green for modifications is to always blend your edges as well as possible and to use a light touch. And always remember to keep your tools lubricated enough to slide over the putty and push it rather than dragging it through friction. (Although, with a bit of practice, you can learn to use the friction as well.)

Edited July 20, 2015 by Mad Jack

[sigmaone]

Thanks for the tips!

[Mierot]

First step is the hardest, but the most fun!

[sigmaone]

Made some more progress over the past few days. I finished that piece up, below with an original for comparison:

 

   

 

I wanted to make the wall-piece that I cut out free-standing, and I was encouraged by how nicely this worked out to start another piece:

 

Free-standing wall WIP: 

  

 

The photo quality isn't great since my lighting wasn't well set-up, but I'm extremely happy that this piece that had a "u"-shaped bottom is now free standing and looks really natural. The only downside is it can [edit: I mean cannot] squeeze into its original tile to make a removable wall / hidden door. 

 

New water pool mod WIP: 

 

Original for comparison: 

 

Again, I'm just extremely happy with how the Green Stuff turned out.  Definitely this kind of terrain is the right place to start for beginners, I think.

 

Finally,  since I got the advice to use actual stones to get the stone pattern nice, it occurred to me that some of the gravel outside my house has nice fossil formations which might help me form cool and interesting patterns. So I grabbed one for future use:

 

 

 

 

Also, I had enough GS left over to make a cool little base. My first sculpted base. Cobblestones, of course.   The paint job is a bit flat, but I'm happy with how easy it was to do a pretty decent sculpt. It will benefit from maybe some dirt and some mossy flocking.

 

Thanks for looking!

Edited July 23, 2015 by sigmaone

[Mad Jack]

 The Green is strong in this one...

[Ludo]

Awesome job. I couldn't tell the tee was a mod after you painted it.