Tuesday 21 November 2017

Skips!

Nah not the crisps....

Hi all

Refuse Skips
A little while back I bought some TT Combat mdf kits for my Urban Project.  These included the Bus Stops, Play Park and Refuse Skips.  I finally got around to putting a couple of the bits together and I thought I'd start with a quick win - the skips.  These are a really nice kit and for £4 I think a real bargain.  I have two gripes only, firstly and this is only a minor thing - they have branded the side of the skips with company names, this is fine but it means I was unable to use the name of local companies to me which would have been more meaningful for my very local campaign.  Secondly and most importantly - the scale, these kits are big! billed as suitable for 28mm - 32mm they are definitely on the top end of that scale! clearly aimed at the Knights Models games Batman the Miniatures Game and the like.  Come on TT Combat, there are a lot of other games out there other than BMTMG! It goes to show the scale creep that is really prevalent in modern miniatures gaming at the moment. Anyway the negatives to one side, I actually really like the models and they are dead simple to put together and to paint.  They also gave me a chance to practice some new (for me) weathering techniques.  So this is how I did it, don't forget that this was the first time I did these techniques so be gentle....

First of all I primed the model with a grey car primer


I then mixed up a metallic rust brown paint, made up from Vallejo "Saddle Brown", "Orange Brown" and some GW "Runefang Silver".  Once I got the colour I liked, I added it to the areas I would be most likely to weather.



I then gave the whole model two coats of hairspray (which I had to buy, much to the amusement of the cashier at ASDA).  Once each coat was dry, I covered the model in the colour I wanted the skip to be, in this case a mix of cheap acrylic paint and GW "Tallarn Yellow".


While it was drying a used the flat edge of a wooden coffee stirrer to gently rub away the yellow to reveal the layers underneath.  Now I rubbed a bit to hard in places and went down to the grey primer but that worked for me too as it looked like it went down to the base metal of the skip, but it is a warning and I might prime other models with brown primer if I don't want the grey to show (or just be more careful).





the model on the right is a pinkish orange, yes I have seen skips this colour!
Of course with this stage completed I moved onto the next part and that was to fill the skips, I wanted both to be filled as an empty one just doesn't exist - does it!  Easily achieved by adding blue foam bricks and mdf castoffs and filling the rest with fine sand. I then poured watered down PVA glue into the skip about 5 times, allowing it to dry thoroughly in between.


Finally I painted the mdf scraps and bluefoam to represent wood beams and bricks and covered the whole lot in a black/brown wash to "dirty it up", I then dry brushed some bright rust to the very edges of the skips and voila!





and on the boards with some acrylic resin traffic cones that I also got from TT.



See what I mean by big! The nasty trio of mercenaries hunting Anna are head height to them, still they are very nice and a welcome detail to my emerging boards.

hope you enjoy
dGG

21 comments:

  1. They certainly do the job, nicely detailed too.

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    1. they do, just another detail to populate my board

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  2. They look rather good in situ, and you have painted them very well. I agree that they are over-scale but even so, they pass muster.

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  3. Very well done Andy, love the extra detail you've added, just missing a rotten mattress to be complete ! LOL

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  4. TT stuff does seem to be on the big side. The RV in their ‘definitely not for the Walking Dead’ range is massive - but is inexpensive and has a removable roof so you can use the inside.

    Cheap and good, but clearly aimed at the high cost skirmish game with display models end of the market.

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    1. Oh and...nice work. I need to fill my slips like that.

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    2. Yeah I know what you mean mate

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  5. What a load of rubbish! ;-)
    Excellent work Andy, a couple of excellent additions to your street clutter! I've heard of the "hairspray" technique before but never tried it myself - have you seen the "rock salt" method?
    Scale-wise, I reckon they work because in real life we're used to seeing skips of different sizes - also (just like the RV Kieron mentions) I think they're designed so that a mini's base will fit inside. Of course, we know a person can fit in a skip, so if a mini can fit in a model skip our brain accepts that it's "right" :-)
    I spotted the wall in the photo's, so work is obviously progressing well on the new houses!

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    1. I was going to do the salt method but it looks like you have to airbrush and I don’t have one.
      They probably will work fine but I think Just a touch big.
      The new houses are coming on, not quick enough due to real life stuff

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  6. I have a problem with TT too, ever since reading C6's review of a constrcution cabiin they make andthe door is well oversized for '28mms', but skips copme in all shapes and sizes and I've seen them easily as large as these.
    I'm surprised that you sidn't just either use filler on the signage or cover them with a 'metallic' sgn of your own devising and I'm even more surprised, that given your scratch-building skills you didn't just make your own!
    I made my own from card and had removable, interchangeable, loads., but they're not as good or as well weathered as yours.

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    1. I must admit I just didn’t think to scratch build them, buying them right at the beginning of the project it just never occurred to me that I should....

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  7. Those look great, and really look the part on your boards.

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  8. Great posting, Andy, and a very informative description as to how you achieved your great result. if the scale of these better suits "Batman" then they'd also do "Doctor Who: Exterminate!" - which operates a similar scale.

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    1. Yes they would mate, they are most definitely 32mm

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  9. Looks great dude. Skips come in all sizes at the end of the day and would work well in 28mm imo. Really like the detritus you filled them in with very effective looking.

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