Sanctum Imperialis

Here's the Sanctum Imperialis I built and painted as a commission.  I added a custom third story balcony complete with battle damage.

How To Make Razorwire

Ok, now it's time to put some razorwire on those sprue barricades we made in a previous post.

First off, cut yourself a length of very fine wire. For these I used 22 gauge wire that I got for cheap at Lowe's. There are plenty of ways to get free wire, but I wanted to be spared the hassle. Keep in mind that every foot of wire is going to equal slightly more than 1" of razorwire, so 6' of wire would be a bit more than 6" of wire. Since our sections are 6" long, 6' is a perfect length.

Bend the wire in half, and tie the loose ends around something stable like a chair.



Take the other end and put it into your drill. Make sure it is in there tight.



Now, run the drill until the wire is very tightly wound. Don't let the wire go slack, it will cause wrinkles and folds in the wire line. A few of those will add some character, but too many will ruin the line. Cut off the wire at both ends.

With the long section of wire, wrap it around something round like a larger paintbrush or your hobby knife. Obviously, you can control the diameter of the wire by using different objects. Find whatever looks best to you.



After it is wound up, I like to counter-wind it a bit with my hands. To do this I simply bend the wire gently in the opposite direction of how I just wound it. This loosens it up and makes it a bit more realistic.

Finally, wrap the wire around the 6" section that you had from the previous post. Now, lay it on top of the two barricades and glue it into position. Use superglue to fix the wire to the plastic, and make sure you superglue both ends of the wire. Finally, matte seal it to get rid of the plastic glue sheen.

The reason you want to fix the wire on the support before putting it on the barricade is because the tension in the wire will cause the barricade to buckle. Look at the first picture in this post; you can see that half the feet aren't even on the ground. After trying countless times to fix it, I finally ripped the 6" section off and wound the wire on that, then set it on the barricades and it worked beautifully.

You can of course mount the wire on whatever you want, this is simply the way I do it.

Making Terrain Out of Sprues

Here's a way to make barricades and other obstacles for cheap as free! I can't bear to throw anything away, and as my pile of empty sprues grew higher and higher I figured I had to do something to take care of them all. Finally, I discovered an easy way to make caltrops style tank barricades. I later topped them off with razorwire, but that's a post for another day.

The first step is to cut several straight segments of sprue. For each barricade, cut out three 1 1/2"-2" segments. If you plan on making razorwire-type barricades cut 6 of these smaller segments and a 6" segment as well. After they are cut, sharpen one end to a point on the small sections, and both ends on a 6" section. Whittle down the plastic to make it worn looking.



Sprues are in a somewhat trapezoidal shape. When you whittle them, try to take more off the thicker corners to make them more square.

After whittling them, glue two into an X shape. Give the glue a bit of extra time to dry as you aren't gluing preformed pieces into shape. After they dry stand it up and glue the third piece to form a tripod shape. At this point I use paint bottles on each corner to support the whole thing until it dries completely.





If you are simply going for tank traps, go ahead and stop here. I simply prime them black and give a very light drybrush of Boltgun Metal. You can mount them on a 6"x2" base if you wish, or just set them up on the table as they are. If you want to make the razorwire, check for my next installment on how to make your own wire and how to set it on the barricade without bending the whole thing out of shape (not as easy as it sounds).

Planetstrike Terrain Complete!

The above picture is missing two defense guns that I'm almost done with. This project was very simple. I got it done quite quickly, and seeing the sheer square inches of surface to paint, it's surprising.

For the darker one, I primed it black and then drybrushed the green in three layers, each one lighter. This took a lot longer. For the other one, I used a Hunter Green spraypaint from Walmart, then used two layers of hastily applied drybrushed highlights. The gun emplacements were simply primed black, then drybrushed Boltgun Metal, with Chainmail highlights. For the lights, I used a Scab Red with Blood Red highlight. I plan on using 'ardcoat on some of them to make them shiny.



The aquila was pretty easy. It started off green because of the spraypaint, but I went over the whole area in black. I then used Codex Gray to pick it out, with a Skull White overcoat. Finally, I used Chainmail to highlight the rivets.

The defense line was kind of a pain. It's 72" long so I used the same technique as the lighter bastion. The highlight was very sloppy, but it's terrain so I don't hold myself to the higher expectations. The backside got a bit of detail picked out in Boltgun Metal. Finally, I painted all 36 Imperial Aquilas Dwarf Bronze.

Lastly, for the bullet holes, I painted them Boltgun Metal, and then ran a Badab Black wash into them.

On the table right now: I have some scratch built razorwire barricades that I will be posting soon. After that I'm going to start the Ravenwing.

How to Paint the Blastscape

I will admit, when I opened the bag I was pretty disappointed with what I saw. I was impressed with the size of the pieces, but not the quality of the detail. However, unlike most of the ululating masses of internet complainers, I decided to paint mine and see what I could do with it, refraining from final judgment until I saw how it looked painted. I found it to be probably the most boring, easy thing I've ever painted (except the lava, that was a lot of fun). Once finished, I was rather pleased with the results.

I'll discuss specific pieces later, but here is the basic procedure for the rocks and earth. To begin, I trimmed off the surrounding flash and primed the pieces black. I then coated the earth parts with a dark brown (approximately a burnt umber), and the rocks with a dark gray. Next, I gave everything a nice thick wash of Badab Black. After that dried, I drybrushed a lighter brown and a lighter gray, finally drybrushing highlighted areas with an even lighter brown and a light gray.

My aim with this color scheme was to make something dark so it could go with any tabletop theme, without it being too dark. Thus, I began with the dark and built it up slowly.

For the crashed space ship parts, I painted all the metals Boltgun Metal, and did the Badab Black wash on them. I then picked out areas in Chainmail (for damage and highlights) and Dwarf Bronze (details). These were very easy to do.


For the meteors, the area is decreed dangerous terrain afterward, so I figured I'd give a reason for it. I made the meteors look glowing by painting them red, then highlighting with progressively darker colors, in a backwards approach. I then used slight glowing effects on the surrounding rocks to show their radiating heat.


Finally, the Laserburn. This was a lot of fun. I slowly built up to white on the lava, painting the cracks in the lava with a very light yellow. I may possibly put some 'ardcoat on the bubbles to further their shininess. Finally, I used a red to make the sides of the slope appear to be glowing.