YouTube Vid - Earthworks tutorial

Well, I've spent the afternoon working on the earthworks youtube vid and I've had to split it into two halves. One, because YouTube only allows 10 minute vids and two, because I haven't filmed the sanding and sealing bit yet.

So, here's the next installment. This one covers working with polystyrene (stryofoam for you yanks) and covers the hotwire cutter and using templates to cut polystyrene. Hope you like it.



Please let me know what you think, good or bad. I should have the next video done for the weekend, if everything goes to plan. Right, I'm off to work on my command and heavy squads.

YouTube Vid - Bases tutorial

Well, I've been thinking and I don't want to wait until I've finished the trenches and edited all the tutorials before publishing them. So I'm going to release bit as I get them done. There's only one hitch, the very first part needs the finished trenches to show people what they're building but I can't film that until I've finished. So, ironically the fist part will be coming last. Please accept my apologies for this in advance.

Right, back to the good bit, I've finished editing up the movie and posted it to YouTube. It's a 10min guide to using MDF for wargames scenery. Hope you like it and let me know what you think.



Making earthworks out of polystyrene next ...

Modular Trenches - Earthworks

My new hotwire cutter turned up today and what a shiny new toy it is! It's mains powered unlike the GW one, so no more dead batteries or wires that arn't hot enough. So, with my new cutter in one hand and a camera in the other (not literally!), I cracked on with trench system.

I only managed to calve one trench piece as filming took quite a while, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. Here are the pics :

I'm going to work on the rest of the pieces over the weekend as I've got a couple of busy days ahead of me.

Modular Trenches - Bases

Well, I've spent the evening working on the bases for the trench system. I've put together four boards, each one 2'x1' (well actually 10" on the edges). Two of the boards are going to have pillarboxes on them, the other two and simple trench lines with firing steps and heavy weapon dugouts.

I've made them out of cake boards, which may sound strange but they're dead easy to get hold of, most supermarkets stock them. They're cheap, 8 12"x12" boards only cost me £6 from the lovely old dear who runs the cake and sweet shop at our local indoor market. Finally, they're really easy to work with, you can cut them with a steak knife if you need and I often do when I'm bevelling the edges.

Anyway, here's the pics of what I've got so far ........



Next stage is the earthworks. I'm going to make these out of standard builders polystyrene. I know you can get specialist modeling foam but personally, for general hills and stuff, this stuff is just too expensive and difficult to get hold of. So, once again, I'm going for the cheap and easy option. I've ordered a 2 inch thick sheet of 8'x4' from my local builders merchants. It's only cost me £11 and I'm only going to use 1/4 of it (one long edge 8'x1').

I've also ordered a new hot wire cutter from EC Scenics along with some replacement wires and some new tall grass tufts that you can just stick to your bases. Although, in hindsight, they're not much use in a cityfight army....... they'll probably end up on my Eldar or Grey Knights.

Hopefully, it'll be here early next week so I can get cracked on with making the earthworks. I really don't want to have to use my GW wire cutter, this woodland scenics one is mains powered, so it'll cut through it like butter and I don't have to worry about batteries going dead.

On the video tutorial, well, my wife has given me some space and I've aleady done the footage for the planning and base making. I'll get it captured tomorrow and have a look at how bad it is .... I hate seeing myself on camera - lol

Modular Trenches

I've always liked the idea of guard armies massed in trenches awaiting an enemy attack. I searched for quite a while for trench systems online and they're either way too expensive or just not suitable for 40k. So, I started searching for tutorials on how to scratch build them and bummed out on that one as well.

So, I've decided to make my own. I'm looking to make initially four 2'x1' tiles that I can line up for make an 8' trench line. So far, all I've done is draw up some simple cross sections and sketched out a few layout ideas.



As a tip, if you're going to make your own terrain, especially stuff that models can move inside, I highly recommend taking a little time to plan it out and make sure you can actually fit models inside it, as building a model that you can't use is heartbreaking, trust me ............. I know.
As a side note, as a project, I'm going to try to film the process and do a video tutorial for youtube. In all honesty, this might get sidelined by family life, but I'll try my best.