Iron Chef Scenery:

April 30, 2008 by Guant · Filed Under Modeling & Scenery

Ok so this is the first ever Iron chef scenery and I wanted to make it a good one. AS everyone knows the theme is Heavy Industry and the secert ingedents are soda cans. Now as an experianced scenery builder I wanted to make something that looked good but was also practical for playing a game on and around. The ideas that came to mind was to do something with a power station. I had a cool looking coffee can that could be used as a cooling tower and soda cans make such good fuel tanks.

After seeing some of the work done on the other entrees I wanted to position my tanks differently then everyone else(laying down instead of standing up) To add some flavor to the scene I wanted to have one destroyed and leaking toxic stuff all over. And to finish the scene a power station building. Being that I play as the Imperial guard I later decided that I wanted to make this an improvised strong hold. This allows me to make the building and tanks to be dug in and add some cool little scene makers.

With out any further adue heres

“From Guants Workbench: Power Station”

Supplies:

12” x 10”, 3/16th” thick foamcore board
Coffee can with lid
2 soda cans
Blue insulation foam
Card Stock
Drinking straws, the bendy type
Coton Balls
Hotglue gun
Wood putty
Model Magic clay or any other air drying clay
Assorted bitz

Numbers refer to the pictures under the sectional text only!
Building Layout

AS seen in the picture that the general layout of the buildings. 1 is the cooling tower made from a folgers coffee can with the logo peeled off. The lid will be covered in cotton fluff and painted up to look like billowing smoke. This was simpley hot glued to the baseboad. 2 is going to be the power station house which is just some blue insulation foam cut into a the right shape. The top of the building will be fortified with sandbags and razorwire. And the soda cans have been glued into place at 3. 4 is going to be where toxic sludge from one of the tanks has spilt out and 5 is going to be where a tank with a bulldozer blade smashed through the fortifications.

The base is roughly 12” by 10” cut from foamcore board. This stuff is sold at Craft stores and can be substituted as you see fit. I like the foam board becuae is light and doesnt warp much. Take a knife and cut the edges at a 45 degree angle so the there is alittle bit of gradual rise from the playing surface to the board. This is called bevelling the egde and allows for a realistic transition. After that jsut map out where you want the buldings and glue them down the board. Mind you though as you are doing this use figures as referance, always making sure the there is enough room around buildings and on top of them for figures to stand. I made the power building big enough for about 9 guardsmen to stand on.

Early Detailing

After you bevel the edges is best to take some wood putty and smear it around the bevel. This adds some detail and strenght(3). I also used this and some foam scraps to build up the area where the bulldozer blade cut into the defenses around the plant. this will take shape more so when dirt is added in the next major step. You can also use the putty to blend the bases of the soda cans and cooling tower into the ground. I also made two extra lumps that will be made into graves later for detail. (Take the Snonuff, there will be graves!)

The first thing to make this look like whats going on im head was the blown up tank(5). This was done by cutting out a chunk of the can with a scissor. This is dangerous and should only done with extreme care. To minize the chances of the can cutting anyone playing with the scenery I bent the corners over on themselves and then coated the edges with hotglue. The glue will be painted later to look like the toxic goop thats inside. To make a surface that will represent the liqiuds inside I cut a piece of cardstock to the right size and inserted it. Secure it with hotglue. You might need to put something to support it inside the can but thts easy as glueing in a piece of foam.

To make the piece of cardstock look awesome you need to then coat the top of it with a thin layer of hotglue. This will be painted later. Also try to get some oozing over the sides and one large patch that forms a puddle at the foot of the can.

For piping I use bendy drinking straws(4). They cost next to nothing and can be used everywhere. Just cut to size and glue into place. Dont worry about getting hotglue everywhere, mistakes can be covered up later with the snow effects(Ill show how to do that also!!) To make overhead pipelines just trim some of the many many sprues you have left over from the GW kits to size and glue into place. Then glue a pipe piece on top of that.

For the steam and smoke coming out of the cooling tower grab some cotton balls and hot glue them to the to of the lid(1). When the glue is dried pull them off and it should leave some cool effects of wisping smoke and steam. Ill show you how to paint this later.

Some of the details on top fo the building right now are a gun shield from a defiler, sandbags made from modeling clay, a portal to represent a hatch from a rhino, and some random ammo crates from the Ig tank set. Always remember to make sure there is room for figures to stand(2).

Ok so this is the final post about detailing proir to painting. To help hide the fact that the tanks are made from soda cans I installed a catwalk ontop of them. I made by forming abase on the top of the can out of spurs. These were hotglued in place and then a piece of cardstock cut to fit and glue in place. I made some cuts in the cardstock to resemble battle damage. The control panel is just a piece from some space marine kit(most likely a predator) glued to the side of the tank.

Here some plactic rods were made to look like pipes running on the ground from the control building to the tanks. These were made from plsticard pipe on spurs for bases. I made one pipe broken cuase it looked cooler that way. My fence posts are the same plasticard pipes cut to size and put in to the extra tread supports from the IG vechile spur. Im not putting up the fence yet cuase it might get broken while painting.

I also made graves here by lumping up some wood putty and putting dirt over it. Ill p[aitn it different later to make it look different then the surrounding ground. Finally I palced a grave marker behind it, I used a piece from the cities of death set. But anything can be used.

And here you can see the turrent gun that was put in as well as some extra details on th building and more sandbags.

Tonight I prime it and tommorow I should in theory start painting it.
Ill update this thread as more is completed, for now back to building.

Ok so here we have the base coats done all of the big things. The ground has been painted and the only thing left to prime are the plastic pieces on the foam building. I couldnt use a spray primer cuase that woud eat the foam so im going to have to use a paint on primer later.

Right now I let a freind use my massize amount of paint so Im colorless save three colors(red, green and grey) Ill be getting all of my paints back soon so then Ill start really painting everything up. Till then enjy the small update.

Ok now I started to dirty things up with my air brush. Everything was coated in a few layers of black for soot, followed by dark brown for dirty and such and finally a quick coating of rust. That is just general weathering, Im going to do more with brushwork later on after I finishing painting the base. Im still waiting on my paints from a freind which I will be getting tommorow. Then I can finish up that and the other detail painting needed. And then on to the snow.

This is the cooling tower with some wheathering. The smoke/steam made from the cotten earlier has started to be colored.

This is one of the soda cans with minor weathering done and the walkway detailed. I used the same screen that I made the fenceing from to make the metal grating effect on the top of the catwalks.

The fence is in and made from spare screen i had laying around. The white pieces are those that were hand primed and yet to be painted. Yay for making things look grimy and gritty.

Ok finally got my paints back from a good friend and that means my piece will be done soon. This is the final update before the final piece is revealed.

Everything on the base got another helping of weather now that I got my paints back. I started with a dark brown wash, followed by an offcolor orange to simulate corrosive leaching, brown, sand, rust, and finally a good helping of black. To make a wash just water down some paint till it flows like water and it slight transparent. Remeber this is supposed to be dirty and grimy, tis heavy industry.

To start off I went in and dry brushed the entire base with a sand color, this highlighted the sand and wood filler making it look alot more intersting and giving it some much needed depth. I also went over the graves and the are where the tank crashed through the fence with a much darker bornw to simulate wet and recently over turned dirt. To complete this effect I painted a gloss varnish over the dark borwn and dry brushed a lighter brown over that to give the effect of drying dirt.

These graves were easily made by placing a grave marker(something from the cities of death spur or anything you see fitting) behind the piles of dirt made from the wood filler. A little paint and a shovel in one of the piles and BAM, instant little scene that adds alot of flavor and effect the the piece.

Another crowd pleaser thats finally done is the toxic overflow. This puppy was base coated in a hunters green and then recoated with a lighter green. After that I started to dry brush a mix of green and yellow ontop, each time adding more yellow to the mix. The last high light layer was a mix of sand, orange, and yellow; just to add alittle flavor to the mix. Once all of the paint was dryed I alos coated this in a gloss finish with one drop of green and yellow added to the gloss. This give the impression of a wet surface and flowing liquids under it.

And well heres the final product after all the dry brushing, weathering, and minor detail painting. Note most of the pieces that were seen ealier with the white brush on primer where never painted, they picked up there awesome paint job from the many many many layers of weathering and washes. Hope you enjoy it and the next little blurb will show you how to make this dirty piece of scenery look even cool by adding snow and the likes.

Alright so here it is, the final product. Enjoy and hopfully learning something from his tutorial.
Comments and suggestions are always accepted and I look foward to taking place in the next Iron Chef of Scenery.

Snow effects: Ok I use a product called snowtex sold in Michaels Craft stores. It comes in a paste form and is easily applied to the scenery with a brush. Use real life referance pictures to help make the snow placement look natural. Also try drybrushing it over the base to get that flurried on look for the ground. To help add to the lack of snow covering everything on the piece of scenery you can add melt water coming off the towers and buildings under where you put snow. To do this take some glossy finish and brush it on under the snow drifts and run it down the side of things where it seems water would naturally flow. This can add some cool effects when done right. (That why certain parts of the scenery are reflective and alittle white, the gloss was still kinda drying)

And thats the end of another installment of From Guants Workbench