The Neon Folf (WhiteWulfe's Infinity board terrain build)

[WhiteWulfe]

So, a little over a year ago I got my paws on a decent amount of MDF terrain, specifically with the goal of using it to build up a nice Infinity board.  After narrowing it down, I wound up ordering some things from Warsenal as well as Global Evil Corp.  Warsenal was because I loved the look of their Cosmica Line, and Global Evil Corp because I absolutely love kerf cuts and the fact they utilized such to have ROUNDED CORNERS on buildings.  Oh yeah, and the sliding windows and doors gimmick was a pretty big draw too.

 

Last month my goal was to get it all primed, because I was tired of the raw MDF, plus I wanted to use it as inspiration to keep moving on my Infinity miniatures...  This month I'm going to see what can be

 

^Let's just say there's a semi-reasonable amount of terrain involved....

 

^An okay amount for a diverse, two level 15 point (Code One) or 150 point (N4) field, although I could use a few more options...

 

But definitely not much in the way of full on variety for a full on 30 point (Code One) or 300 point (N4) 4x4' table.

 

^Before I forget, this is what attaches on to that cube frame.  Looks so much nicer built up, even if I uh, haven't built the last panel yet due to lack of space on the desk.

 

~

Anyways, they've been raw MDF for far too long in my opinion, so let's get things staged over by the airbrush....

^Mr Hobby Mr.Almighty clips are rather handy....

 

^And primed.  Yup, classic black primer with a white "zenithal" (for lack of better words) across things.

 

^After a few hours, we now have this.  Okay, stage is set, but it feels like something is missing....

 

^Aha, looking a lot better.  Initially I was going to try and go crazy on the colours for the exterior, but hubby and I just like the basic light kinda blue colour we've got going, so onwards to accents...

(Colours used: Mission Models Blue, with a small amount of black added in, as well as a reasonable amount of white - goal was for a bit of a greyish blue, and while I didn't quite get it how I wanted, eh, close enough and we like it)

 

^Decided to show the roof progress a little more in depth here, partially because I remember @Kangaroorex inquiring about the opacity of those Wicked Colours Opaque colours.  The Dioxazine Purple I think was five drops of colour with two drops of Vallejo Thinner Medium, and on the right I had a moderately wet hybrid brush that was dipped into paint, and then traced along.  Not sure what happened on the right side, but somehow I managed to go almost all the way around without running out of paint, but I also wasn't able to repeat it, although it was only a few inches before it started becoming see through.  I'll still try to remember to do an actual test over white paper with print at some point.

 

^Now, as for those roofs...  Sure, I could mask things, or even create a airbrush template, and I might still, but at the same time...  The basic blocks have been laid down, with Wicked Opaque Pthalo Blue on the inner triangle like bits, Wicked Opaque Pyrrole Orange on the inner thin line, and Wicked Opaque Dioxazine Purple on the outer line.

 

What's the current plan?  Well, naturally I'm going to get the basic colours laid down on the rest of the items, but I'm going to test out Pthalo Blue on a roof section to see what thoughts are.  Originally, the two lines that go around each building were going to be orange, but after a quick though they're going to be purple.  Warsenal stuff will see more oranges and reds, as well as purples to them, at least that's the current main plan ^_^;;;

[Glitterwolf]

Neat collection of terrain!

Go for it!

[Jordan Peacock]

I really like the look of those buildings with the curved corners.  I've been focusing a lot on retrofuturistic/post-apocalyptic structures (Fallout or Fallout-inspired), and for those, curved corners and such really help with getting that "Googie architecture" look -- but until fairly recently, that sort of thing would seem to be the *antithesis* of what you could expect from boxy MDF kits.

 

I'm very curious about that staggered-slit method of cutting the material to get it to curve around corners like that.  Before, I'd seen a few attempts to get around the problem of curved sections (e.g., a stagecoach from Multiverse Gaming) and really fine details by using cardboard, but that has its pros and cons.  (The "cons" would primarily be that it's not as durable as the MDF, and doesn't hold paint the same way.)

I look forward to seeing how your kits turn out.  🙂

[Inarah]

Looking good. Watching to see how it turns out.  Love the corrugated holders for the clips on skewers. 

 

[WhiteWulfe]

43 minutes ago, Jordan Peacock said:

I really like the look of those buildings with the curved corners.  I've been focusing a lot on retrofuturistic/post-apocalyptic structures (Fallout or Fallout-inspired), and for those, curved corners and such really help with getting that "Googie architecture" look -- but until fairly recently, that sort of thing would seem to be the *antithesis* of what you could expect from boxy MDF kits.

This really seems to be how things go with MDF, probably because it tends to make the most use of the MDF, and doesn't involve going for a lot more time in the laser cutter as well.  Some companies do an okay job with staggered layers (Warsenal's Cosmica line comes to mind, with 2-4 layers in many areas), while things like old WW1-WW2 houses just seem to work well with it due to them having been built boxy in the first place.  Probably my favourite of the bunch that I want to order from would be Brutal Cities, who used that whole boxy building bit to do, well, their favourite type of architechture (brutalist).

 

47 minutes ago, Jordan Peacock said:

I'm very curious about that staggered-slit method of cutting the material to get it to curve around corners like that.  Before, I'd seen a few attempts to get around the problem of curved sections (e.g., a stagecoach from Multiverse Gaming) and really fine details by using cardboard, but that has its pros and cons.  (The "cons" would primarily be that it's not as durable as the MDF, and doesn't hold paint the same way.)

I definitely agree.  A number of companies will go with 1mm cardstock or even thin acrylic in order to add in the curved bits and it just doesn't feel the same as  using the same material.  I think that's why I like how Steak (yes, the owner of Global Evil Corp goes by the alias "Steak") went with kerf cuts to get a nice flexible 3mm wall that seems like it would be pretty sturdy.

 

25 minutes ago, Inarah said:

Looking good. Watching to see how it turns out.  Love the corrugated holders for the clips on skewers. 

 

Me too.  Sure, I purchased Mr. Hobby Mr. Almighty clips (two of the GT90 packs) as well as their GT68 Paint Station (aka four of the GT89 clip bases in one pack) and there are DIY alternatives out there, I just like the pre-packaged ideas.  The clips are fairly well liked in the gunpla community too.

 

~~

 

So, mixed up some Wicked Opaque Pthalo Blue mixed with their 4011 Reducer and shot it through the airbrush....

 

^First up we had some test pieces (bottom left, as well as the right), and once I was happy with what it was doing it was time to roll on with a few other things...

 

^Wound up using some stairs pieces as testers, since I had done up one with a darker kind of shading, and the other with lighter...

 

^And then it was on the all the "cake pops" as hubby playfully calls them, because they literally remind him of those cake pops you can buy in many bakeries.

 

Yeah, I'm absolutely ~LOVING~ that blue, and I'm rather certain I'll be picking up the rest of Wicked's opaque line.

 

The only downside?  I, uh...  Won't be pushing any more Wicked paint through the airbrush until I've picked up a proper respirator, because yeah, the stuff they use in their 4011 Reducer, while it does an amazingly wonderful job of thinning things also happens to be a lot hotter on the nose, so yeah.  Three layer cotton mask really doesn't cut it with this stuff.  Oh well, was planning on getting a 3M 6xxx mask with 6011's and pre-filters by the end of this month anyways, but yeah. ^_^;;;

[WhiteWulfe]

It's been a little while, but some progress has finally happened thanks to a few different things, namely having a half mask respirator.  Downside though is it seems I probably should have ordered the large, but we will see if it's me having worn it not quite right next time.  Hopefully that's the case, if not I get to spend another $40 CAD on safety gear, whee! 

 

 

Anyways, pretty much all of the blue things wound up getting their additional coat of Wicked Opaque Pthalo Blue, and I'm definitely liking how this is looking now.  Haven't quite decided what colour the antenna thingy will be yet, but I'm fairly certain the crates will wind up being a mixture of orange and purple.... More than likely with each crate being most of a single solid colour. 

[SotF]

For the patterns on the rooftops, if you're wanting more color there with an easier way, a friend had a similar thing he was working on shortly before the lockdowns at the store hobby days, he was using a chisel tip paint pen for it and it worked better than other things for keeping the lines straight looking there

[WhiteWulfe]

46 minutes ago, SotF said:

For the patterns on the rooftops, if you're wanting more color there with an easier way, a friend had a similar thing he was working on shortly before the lockdowns at the store hobby days, he was using a chisel tip paint pen for it and it worked better than other things for keeping the lines straight looking there

Huh, Molotow markers would make that a lot easier, that's for sure.  Or Montana.  I might consider such.  Brushes aren't necessarily all that difficult, but they bring about their own problems with cleanup, mixing paint, etc etc, so I'll definitely keep that suggestion in mind!

[SotF]

1 hour ago, WhiteWulfe said:

Huh, Molotow markers would make that a lot easier, that's for sure.  Or Montana.  I might consider such.  Brushes aren't necessarily all that difficult, but they bring about their own problems with cleanup, mixing paint, etc etc, so I'll definitely keep that suggestion in mind!

He'd gotten them from one of the craft stores with some of the paint pens/markers at the time.

 

Something about the way it laid out and fewer issues with buildup around the edges as you go