On Thursday I made a start on the hills. I managed to cut out the ones from the 25mm and 50mm thick sheets, but hit a snag with the 75mm thick sheet - the AC adapter for my Foam Factory cutters seems to be knackered and no current was making it through to the tools (I'd used my battery powered cutter to do the thinner sheets). I carried on with the battery powered cutter and shaped the ones I had cut out, then sanded them down.
In the evening I took a look on t'internet to see if I could buy a new AC adapter for my Foam Factory cutters but couldn't find one. Instead I decided to order a new cutter off Amazon, one which Big Lee had done a review of on his YouTube channel. It arrived yesterday afternoon:
I decided to try it out almost straight away. It worked like a dream, cutting through the 75mm XPS foam with ease. I very quickly had the rest of the hills cut out and shaped:
And a lot more that won't be any use:
The next stage for the hills will be to stick the foam down onto bases. As none of them will fit properly on the MDF bases I have, I've decided to use artists mountboard, although I'll need to buy some A3 sheets as a few of them are too big for A4. That means a shopping trip into central London, probably on Monday Tuesday (I'd forgotten the bank holiday).
In the meantime, I've decided that I might as well start on some other terrain. This afternoon I dry-brushed these 20mm shipping containers and skips:
I was going to drybrush the 6mm ACW buildings as well, but remembered that some of the resin had got chipped when I was removing them from MDF bases, so would need to be re-primed:
As I'll have the airbrush out, I will also be putting the base colours down on the containers and skips. The "zenithal" highlights from the drybrushing should give suitable shading without needing to do any actual highlights or washes. With that done, I can then do the metal details and do some weathering effects.
You have been very busy Tamsin, and great to see the off cuts being utilised for additional scenery projects
ReplyDeleteI hope those hills don't end up too steep for your lovely figures to stand on!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing them finished to your usual high standard!
Dear Tamsin,
ReplyDeleteGood on you, girl, for pushing forward with this project despite having a tool problem. It will be very nice to see the finished products.
All the best, always!
Jerry
@ Dave - you might be surprised to hear that cutting out, rough-shaping and sanding those hills was only about 3 hours' work. :)
ReplyDelete@ Herkybird - Some of them probably are too steep, but they'll be for LOS blocking. :)
@ Jerry - thanks! :)
Glad the review I did on the foam cutter was useful. I'm waiting on delivery of more XPS foam to make more hills... You can never have enough!
ReplyDelete