“Pooling my Resources”

Week two of the “Summer Scenery Challenge”, and the first thing to do this week was to start gathering together all the other elements I’d need to finish my pond (see last weekend’s post to see what the heck I’m talking about). Now I wanted some scattered debris around the pond so the bit’s box was raided and I came up with a few little model car bits, along with some random cogs (always a post-apocalyptic staple), but most importantly (in fact vital!) to this build I found a trio of “Games Workshop” oil drums, these were glued together and then held over the gas cooker (don’t tell my wife!) with a pair of pliers, till they had softened, and then dents were added by pushing the side of an old screwdriver into them. I got a little over zealous with one actually making a hole in the side, but this will work well later on. I also found an old “tidily wink” that was the exact size of the top of the oil drums, so this was added as an open lid using a little greenstuff. All the debris was then glued in place and a little more greenstuff was used to seat one of the oil drums in the pond were it will be floating on an angle, leaking toxic waste out of the hole I blew in it’s side.

Next I built up the outer edges of the base with more filler that will be painted as rough earth encroaching onto the slabs. And filled the bottom of the pond with a layer of my basing sand (though I doubt you’ll be able to see this once the resin goes in). Once it was all dry I gave it all a coat of matt black and I could start painting it up.

So I began by painting the pond sides and slabs with a heavy dry brushing of dark grey, this was followed with mid grey, followed by light grey and then a very light dry-brush of white. The debris items were then re-painted black (as I’m a messy pup!), before being dry-brushed with chestnut (it appears I gave my pot of rust paint to Myles and can’t buy a new one at present, but this is pretty close!), then lightly with chainmail, then the barrels were stippled with citrus orange, then again with sand, then more chestnut was added to all the pieces again, then a few spots of orange were added to the rusty bits, then more citrus orange to the barrels, then more chestnut (are you keeping up!). I then added the sides of the model car battery I’d added in Navy highlighted with more of the same mixed with light blue and the cover on the shock absorber in dark red with pink burgundy highlights (you can’t see these in the photo) I also printed out three tiny yellow triangles with “skull and crossbones” symbols that I found on the net and glued them on the top sides of the barrels. Lastly for now I gave the base of the pool a quick “scrub” with some chocolate brown and butternut. So a bit more to do on this (including the fun bit) and then adding the “dreaded” water effect…..

Also this week I’ve painted two of the “Knights” from my “back up” figures, I won’t go into details here, it was all pretty standard stuff, I’ll “Quickshade” and finish them off when I do the pool.

Till next time, stay safe. Cheers Roger.