Zone Mortalis 8 - Back to Basics (Again)

I have been away for a couple of days doing my other hobby.

As such I've not got anything done model wise since the last update on the Junka. However while I was working on that I was able to put together another ZM base and grab pictures of the process as a few people asked me how I did them.

So here we go:

To begin I take a base and drill a crap load of holes. Believe me when I say it is a lot easier using the Dremel than drilling them all by hand as I did on the test bases. All of the holes were increased in size using a knife and then cleaned up. The top surface was sanded.

The objective is to create in essence a 'mesh' that will allow the resin to flow from the top surface to the inside of the base, firmly holding the resin on the top surface in place. You probably don't need as many holes as I do, but I tend to start and just keep going. I make sure there are holes running all round the base near the edge.

Resin is then mixed up and simply poured onto the area where the base is going to go. Enough is put down to cover the area the base will take up. The base is then placed onto the resin. I'm undecided if you need to weigh the base down but I tend to anyway:

Once that resin has cured the weight (if used) is removed and more resin is mixed up and poured into the base. Once this has cured you get a base as shown below right.

When carefully removed from the mould you have a lot of excess resin. With cutters, a knife and sand paper this excess can be removed, resulting in the result on the right.

The base will need a bit of clean up with GS but otherwise the base is now done.

Zone Mortalis 7 - Back to Basics

This past week I have had very little spare time due to being on a course for work.

So all I've been able to do is start putting together some bases for my "soon-to-be-done" Ork force.

I wanted bases that actually matched the Zone Mortalis board.

To begin I did a bit of experimenting by knocking up a small mould of the top surface of one of the flat ZM board panel.

From that I could knock out a few 40mm bases.

The 'spots' you can see are holes I cut through the base. This allows the resin to not just sit on the top surface of the base but also to flood into it and lock it in place. Without that the resin would far too easily peel off from the plastic.

Each base I did had more holes.

Once undercoated I was pretty happy with the results.

So much so I recycled the first mould and did a larger one allowing 60mm bases to be done and also to give more variety.

The first two I did was another 40mm one and the first 60mm, this time covering the large vent on the flat ZM boards.

And with a Deff dread in place...

That large one was a bit of a pain. Due to the vent I ended up with some thin sections of resin round the edge, in a few places they came off and have to be super glued back in place. For the bases done after that one I put a series of holes close to the edge so help secure any detail near the edge.

Since then I've knocked up a few more bases:

The all need a bit of clean up work (and GS probably) but otherwise I think the end results are pretty decent.

(In case anyone is tempted to ask I won't be selling these, I'm doing them just for my own army).

Adeptus Mechanicus Icon 3 - Basing Up

While I am now feeling a lot better than I was I am finding I still have little time to do any hobby stuff due to work annoyingly taking over.

All I have managed is the odd half hour here or there on a couple of mini-projects.

The first one is trying out the AdMech icon I cast up on a base.

I thought about having the icon popping out of some rubble, so I set about knocking one up.

By angling the mould you can get some part casts which are perfect for that half buried look...

All they need is a quick sand for a flat base and then they can glue them in place onto a base (a mini or a terrain base).

After an undercoat it looks like this:

Considering how quick I knocked it up with really very little care I think it looks decent enough. With more time spent putting one together I think the part angled casts will be perfect for this sort of thing.

It is now going to go into a box as I've got no use for it, I only built it as I wanted to see how the casts would turn out. I don't use the big flyer oval bases for my aircraft and I don't have any use for a rubble base so this is a bit unneeded to say the least.

Warhammer Quest - Part One...

...descending into the Dungeon (like Max Mosley, but without the uniforms).

As mentioned in my monthly roundup post I will be knocking out some Warhammer figures to use in Warhammer Quest.

A quick search provided the first models i'll be doing.



Five Ogres, had to order some replacement arms.



Seven Ghouls, again had to order some replacement arms.

The first ones i'll be painting though will be these skeletons. Have to say the old GW skellies are horrible. Naff poses, naff weapons and stupidly large skulls.

I have also improved the weapons a bit, by improved I mean roughed up. They looked far too neat and brand new for warriors who had dragged themselves from under the ground. I can't see the undead spending much time taking care of their hand weapons.



Part of our plan for the Quest stuff is to have bases matching throughout.

For this Maelstrom (from The Rising Sign) sculpted some 20 & 25mm bases, I did a mould for these and tonight I cast the first few sets.

The masters.

One of the skellies in place. He's got a headache he just can't shake.

And here are some of the casts.

I sanded the base of a few and gave them a coat of primer

I gave one of the bases a very (very) quick paint job to get an idea of how they will look finished.

I'm quite happy how it turned out. I added a few small pieces of greenery for moss growing between the stones.

When I actually do the bases for the models I will try and match the colours of the bases to the Quest tiles. So each 'unit' will have tiles linked to one of the Quest tiles. Of course that will probably mean that unit will never end up turning up in that tile.

Will try and get the skeletons done next week, working on them round the Karrier and Drone.