[Project 2021] Terrain and Tau

[korocite]

My goal for this year is to complete jungle terrain for a 40k campaign that Big and I are running. It is a home grown, story driven campaign that sees two rival inquisitors, Tasetus and Ono Dile looking for STC fragments on a verdant jungle world. Tasetus has allies in the form of the Iron Hands and Imperial Guard. Dile has his own mix of Astartes drawn from various chapters.      

 

The terrain will largely be scratch built and will complement what I have already made. At the very least I plan to create a river section with removable bridge, several more jungle features, an overgrown communications bunker, a few heavy bolter turrets and some Tau terrain (Gun rig and drone port). The Tau themselves will be a secondary antagonist during the campaign. My plan is to use the units that I like the look of, and those that I already have. Fortunately there is a lot of overlap in these. Nothing much is assembled so far, just a handful of kroot. The colour scheme for the Tau will be based on a Tau super heavy assault walker that I put together a few years back. Unfortunately I don't recall the precise colours used, but should be able to get reasonably close.    

 

My chosen charity is Wires. If I am lucky enough to win a cash prize, they will be scoring a donation. 

  

[korocite]

[korocite]

I’m starting with a small kroot contingent. 61 warriors, a krootox, a couple of hounds and three shapers.

 

 

[Magos Kasen]

'Small'.

Looking good mate, keen to see this progress! Love the old Mangozac super heavy. 

[korocite]

On 1/15/2021 at 8:19 PM, Magos Kasen said:

'Small'.

Looking good mate, keen to see this progress! Love the old Mangozac super heavy. 

I’m impressed you recognise it!

 

 Progress pics of the river board, some one bark rocks and a few fire warriors + fire blade.

 

 

[Magos Kasen]

Nice progress, that's a lot of rocks!

[Thenothas]

Don't be fooled by the rocks that he's got...

[korocite]

Progress is slower than I would like. I’m about a third of the way through the kroot.

 

 

[korocite]

Twenty kroot, two hounds and one shaper done. I could find only two hounds - not enough for a unit so they may have to count as regular kroot until I can source some more that are not ridiculously priced.

[korocite]

The kroot are on hold while I concentrate on the March hobby competition and an associated side project that I will show later. I have also put a little bit of time into the terrain piece.

After mucking around creating a bridge, I spotted the Pegasus hobbies techno bridge and decided it would be ideal.

I undercoated it with army painter plate Mail and have left it to dry.

The terrain board itself has warped enough to be an annoyance. This is because I did not weigh it down after gluing the xps to the mdf. To remedy this, I bought another piece of mdf (3mm), cut it to shape and then glued the two pieces. Much weight was added. I will leave it for a few more days before taking off the weight to see how effective it has been.

[chromedog]

I've got that exact bridge.  Wide enough for a Baneblade to use it. 

What adhesive did you use to glue the xps to the mdf?    I tend to use a fast grab building/construction adhesive over pva (like 'liquid nails').

[korocite]

4 hours ago, chromedog said:

I've got that exact bridge.  Wide enough for a Baneblade to use it. 

What adhesive did you use to glue the xps to the mdf?    I tend to use a fast grab building/construction adhesive over pva (like 'liquid nails').

Wide enough for a Baneblade? That is both surprising and good to know. I don't have one of those assembled yet, but plan to do so in the distant future. 

 

I used PVA. I like your idea of using the liquid nails. I'm guessing that forms a bond fast enough to stop the warping. This was just a silly mistake on my part.

 

[chromedog]

These images are from a dakka dakka thread, but they show it well enough 

[korocite]

The bridge is on ire way to being painted. Next step is to paint the river, probably with the airbrush.

 

 

[korocite]

The recent wet weather has delayed my painting of the river. In the meantime, I decided to convert some firesight marksmen (complete with tethered cheeseburger marker drones)  and cadre fire blades. 

Edited March 28, 2021 by korocite
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[korocite]

Some updates. I had a few hours over Easter to get going on the river section. The water was airbrushed, some of the rocks added and Gaia filled.  I’m hoping to get time to base coat the rest today.

 

 The second photo is a whole load of fire warriors, breachers, fire blades, fire sight marksmen and an ethereal. All ready for painting.

 

 

[korocite]

I managed to finish off what’s have for the kroot section of this army. Still missing a third krootox and some hounds to round it out.

[korocite]

Base paint and sand done.

 

[korocite]

I noshed painting the base then spent an hour or so with the hot glue gun and some aquarium plants. With some luck I will get more done tomorrow.

 

 

[Krefey]

Looking good dude!  You going to do anything to the plants, or just leave them as is?

[korocite]

I have already hit most of them with a brown wash, and will probably do those that I missed. Maybe a  matt varnish afterwards but thats about is I reckon. I think the rocks may need a dark wash as well and they will get some moss/lichen later on. 

[korocite]

A few more plants, a wash for the rocks and Matt spray. Getting closer to the end.

 

 

[korocite]

Part one finished.

 

[korocite]

The last photo shows the piece with some of my regular scatter jungle terrain thrown in. This is in preparation for a game of Mordheim tomorrow night with Big.

[BIG]

Looking good.  Can't wait to try it out.  Is the Lizardman warband making an appearance?  Hate to think of all those Skinks swarming out of the river.....