The refinorium is built!

   This week was all about getting the Sector Mechanicum terrain finished.  In my last post, I showed off how much stuff there was to complete.  It took a little less than a week (because I injured myself and couldn't work as fast as I needed) and my son helped.  We finished it all (at least to a table-ready standard) the night before gameday.  Assembly line process for the win!

  With the painting frenzy over, we did a little 'admiring' before retiring.  In fact, we even got into a stacking battle trying to see who could get their tower the tallest.  My son barely won.  It was a blast taking advantage of that modular nature of all the terrain.  GW knew what they were doing (we both even agreed that we wanted another set...)

  After cleaning up the fallen piles, we discussed our future plans to bring these up to a crazy-awesome standard.  Pipes, hoses, control panels, and other details could be picked out to really 'step-it-up', but it was late and these were ready to be used.  

  There were some things that we didn't paint- all the ladders, the hanging accessories, and even the prometheum pipes.  I didn't plan on using everything and making the most awesome board just yet.  So some stuff was deferred to allow for project roll-out.  

  Next post will be about the games themselves, showing off the terrain in-use.  This counts as another quick project completed with far too little time.  Now I have to find another- oh yeah!  Don't forget that I'm working on the Only War stuff too!

Happy Hobbying!

Only War still going

   This project is now 2 months behind schedule.  I'm a prolific planner but an expert procrastinator, so one can imagine the friction that can cause.  At any given time, I have two projects going at the minimum and this one has been part of the workbench for that long already.  I am worried that my very gracious buddy will think that I'm ignoring his grace.  

  There are some obstacles.  First, my work schedule kicks up during the holidays (physically harder than retail, I tell ya!), then the weather has been atrociously random (humid, then hot, then humid and hot, and now humid and cold- none of it as good conditions for priming models), and I may have just bit off more than I can chew.  Back in the old days, I had an entire shop, and entire staff, and new tools and materials to make everything easy.  Now it's just me, my leftovers, and the one room in my house that the wife let's me get away with bogarting for this stuff.  All of these obstacles are just me making excuses though, and that's not very professional.

  In project management, you learn how apt the "cheap, high quality, and fast, but only two out-of-three" addage is.  Since I already achieved the 'cheap' part (did I mention how humble I feel for my buddy's grace?) and am obviously destroying any hope of 'fast', I need to make sure that this is high quality.  And for that, I am trying out some techniques.  

  This Only War set is packed with detail and absolutely stunning from top-to-bottom.  While certainly less intensive than the GW Cityfight buildings, there is still a lot to paint up.  Because I lack the time to paint in each nook and cranny (crack and crevice or whatever other pair of terms you'd prefer), I'm going to invent my own wash.  But there's some prep to do first.  In my last post about this terrain, you'll note that I already primed the buildings and even airbrushed on the coffee brown color for the bricks.  I then chose two of the ruins with the most universal details to test.

  The first step was adding in the basecoats of the two main colours- silver and brown.  I used Ironbreaker (GW) for the window shades and all the metal reinforcment, and I used Rhinox Hide (GW) for the wooden planks nailed across the windo.  Obviously, there was spillover, so I just mixed some coffee brown and Abaddon Black (GW) together for the touchup.  

  Next up is one of the most important steps in the experiment- I need to varnish these pieces!  And not just any varnish- it has to be a glossy varnish.  The reason for this is so that my home-made wash needs the smooth surface to run across and be wiped away (those that paint with enamel washes know what I'm going for here).  Hopefully, the Rustoleum Universal Clear Topcoat is the answer, but it didn't spray out too kindly.  Here's to hopin'!

  Once that sets and dries, it will be time to pull out the ingredients for my wash.  That will be another post, so stay tuned!  And as always, check this terrain set out and Happy Hobbying!