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Modular Urban Board Project Log 5: Sector Mechanicus railings & cables


The final step of the Sector Mechanicus elements of the urban project was getting around to the cables and hand rails that attach to the sides and undersides of the walkways. Glamorous? No. Visually effective? I think so, yes.

I'll confess I'm not wild about the handrail design, what with them having strong picket fence energy. I had no idea what the thought was behind them until I came to recognise that the overall approach to the Sector Mechanicus terrain is that of a nightmarish sci-fi Victorian train station. That doesn't knock me into actively loving the railings, but I can at least see the dark comedy charm, and they have grown on me since painting them because they really, really add some volume to the walkways. Here's a comparison shot:

Lazy up top, bizniz on the bottom half.

Adding the cables and railings really breaks up the plain silhouette of the walkways, and makes it all feel a lot more lived in. And also immediately turns the walkways into something you might want to put a mini on without worrying they'll just get shot by everyone. I'm just amazed I'd left this detail off for so long; I'd initially rushed to get the minimum viable product on the table, then was too lazy to return to it thereafter.


Painting was very simple; I followed my lazy rusty metal recipe:
  1. Spray Chaos Black
  2. Roughly drybrush/stipple a mid-brown (I used a keg of the old Calthan Brown you'd get in the scenery paint set, but any rusty brown will do). Deliberately vary the amount of coverage from patch to patch; you don't want it too uniform. This is mostly to knock the mini off being fully neutral.
  3. Drybrush Leadbelcher (technically I used Army Painter Gunmetal, but any dark silver is fine).
  4. Drybrush Necron Compound or some other light silver on the highest/most exposed edges.
  5. Use a drybrush to heavy stipple/drybrush Corvus Black over any cabling. This is quicker than using a normal brush and on scenery you don't have to worry about being heavy-handed with the coverage. This just means you get it done faster.
There's not much else to say; I'm pleased to have finished this stuff off, and even though I've done a very basic job on this stuff I think the sheer amount of texture means that it catches the light and is sufficiently visually interesting without needing a riot of colour. Don't get me wrong, if I had the time to do the beautiful paint jobs I've seen around the net I would, but sometimes you just need to get something done. And then line your dudes up on them so they can Wilhelm Scream off the side.


Comments

  1. Agreed on the picket fence energy. A bit of a headscratcher in an otherwise great kit.

    Terrain looks great laid out like that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, the picket fence feels like an instance of going to hard into the design theme XD

      Glad you like the look of the terrain as a whole :)

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