How To Build Life Size Ruins, Practical Modelling Take Two

We're taking a siege break but will be back with at least two additional posts so stay tuned!

Now, one of most popular blog posts has been How to Build Warhammer 40k Building Ruins. It was liked so much by someone who saw the "Practical Modelling" post we were asked to super size it for a stage backdrop. Here you see it in action, now we'll show you how to build your very own!

Start with 4 x 8 foot sheets of polystyrene insulation board. We'd recommend at least 1" thickness or greater for the vertical boards. The thinner boards are not as rigid and will bend.

We used 10 of the boards on the entire set. Above is the left side and here is the right, placed in the pattern to be cut. You can see approximate placement of the door and windows.

The front of the stage will use three more boards. Here the left side has been cut out using a utility knife.

And the right side is cut to the pattern.

Don't worry to much about straight lines, you'll never notice once everything is installed and weathered.

Here you see the same piece weathered by beating on it with implements of destruction! Also the edges were broken off for a rougher appearance. You can do this with a knife, saw blade or your fingers.

We gouged out bullet holes with the utility knife by sticking it in at a 45 degree angle and spinning it around.

To hold the pieces together we back the seams with spare chunks of foam and use coarse thread screws.

Now to test the size and design in place before painting starts. All worked out well...

now the right side (sorry for the blurry image).

Here is one of the foreground pieces being weathered with blast marks.

When painting, use drop cloths or a surface you don't mind getting paint on! This will get messy.

Everything was coated with a dark grey to start.

A dark brown was added to simulate dirt, mud and debris flying around during the explosions.

Finally the light grey was dry-brushed on to make the details (like cracks and bullet holes) and edges stand out.

Here all 24 feet of the three foreground boards are being installed.

This is the right side after all the dry-brushing was finished.

And here's the left ready to go. A brace was placed across the doorway opening to support the board when being moved. it'll be removed later.

The finishing touches being applied after installation.

Right side adjustments being made

Left side is in. It is 16 feet tall and 16 feet across at the bottom.

And there it is, ready for action.

Here's a nice shot of the left side peak.

Now add some fantastic apocalyptic lighting and you're ready to go. If you want to see it in person and are in the Pittsburgh Pa area, drop us a note or leave a comment.

Final lighting was worked out for maximum affect.

We hope you like it as much as we enjoyed building it. The whole project took two days to build and install.

Enough for now,

Have a Great Battle,
The Old Crow

Warhammer Goblin Spider Riders How to for your Siege Campaign

Continuing the Warhammer siege theme in our posts, nothing gets you over the walls like a batch of Goblin Spider Riders! We like deals as much as anybody and are always looking for ways to save you money on projects. You can use the Folk Art and Apple Barrel Colors paints by Plaid and Americana paints by DecoArt instead of the more expensive paints. They typically cost 1.59 - 2.49 depending on color and can be bought at your local craft store.

We tried a couple color schemes and decided on a brown and green assuming they would blend into the forest. The riders were assembled and primed with black. We started with burnt umber on their bodies and upper legs.

Second we added avocado onto the front and upper legs and also on the back of the spiders abdomen.

If you are painting some of these guys don't worry to much about the underside of the legs and body, you'll rarely see them

Next we used light leaf green on the tips of the legs. We also dry brushed the upper legs, face and mandibles to highlight those areas.

Lightly brush it across the abdomen to catch all the edges and bumps.

There are two body styles for the spiders. The bumpy one here at the left and...

one with a recessed skull pattern.

Here we've dry brushed the light leaf green over the avocado to really expose the pattern. With the black primer still in the recesses it shows up very well.

The last green we used is kiwi which really radiates nicely. We used it on the tips of the legs, eyes and mandibles.

We started the rider with a base of olive green and then a Folk Art color, Hauser Green Light.

We based his cloth, straps and shield with burnt umber and highlighted with either raw umber or nutmeg. Pick corresponding colors for the feathers they all wear. Here is a finished rider. This guy is the standard bearer for the "Nasty Nippers"

His spider has the skull pattern on the mandible and we did some craziness on it for decoration.

The story we invented for these guys is they raided the Rowdy Red tribe and knocked off their leader. They used his former spider as their banner to indicate the great triumph! Four layers of red were used to get the final result.

The bases are modeled with great texture and little extras like rocks, tree trunks, webs and little spiders! Use a simple drybrush to bring out the features and then add touches of color to the details. Here is the leader of the Nasty Nippers, Yarvit.

Goblin Spider Riders have the "Wall Crawler" and "Creeping Assault" special rules meaning they can go right over castle walls and the rider and mount can both attack. This gives the Goblin riders an increase in their armor save for being mounted.

So get those spiders crawling and
Have a Great Battle
The old crow

Warhammer Siege Log Battering Ram

Sorry for the lapse in our Siege Warfare articles. You have your siege tower, now lets continue with a log battering ram for extra muscle to bash in a  few castle doors!  Nothing like a good battering ram to do the job. This one will be for a Warhmmer Orcs and Goblins Army so historical accuracy won't matter. We'll give it an iron head to batter wooden doors even faster.

I had found a spare GamesWorkshop hound head in my bits box. Could have been a chaos hound, something from Necromunda or even GorkaMorka. Anyway it looked mean enough to take on some heavily barred doors! We took a 1/4" dowel cut to 4" in length, drilled three holes down the side and inserted round toothpicks. After they are glued in place, clip off the pointed ends. We attached the metal ram head before undercoating it.

Undercoat with black spray primer or give it a good base coat wash of black liquid acrylic.

The steel head was base coated with metallic gunmetal gray and dry brushed with metallic aluminium.

The "collar" on the ram head was detailed with Pure Bronze for a nice warm contrast to the head.

The log consisted of overlapping layers of browns dry brushed from dark to light.

The colors used were Burnt Umber, Coffee Bean, Territorial Beige and a final highlight of Mushroom

And here you see it is in action! Orcs bearing the Yellow Hand of Sourdough are using the ram to its fullest potential, attempting to take down the gate of a castle.

Enjoy!