WIP: Terrain Project: Cities of Death

Greetings.

In an attempt to freshen my terrain collection and do some justice to the great game mats I picked up recently from gamemat.eu, I have dusted off my old box of Cities of Death buildings.  The set was from GW and is now long out of print.  Here are some work in progress buildings:

These are various angles of three buildings: an Administratum, Manufactorum, and Ministorum ruin. Below is a set of progress pictures of a second Administratum building which can be placed standalone or connected ot the back of the larger ruin to form one big building.  This piece was a test model to prove out some techniques I have not use before.

The ruin is based on a 1/4" sheet of plywood for stability and to prevent any warping or damage over years of play and rough storage. This approach has served me well with the existing foam-board city terrain I have used for many years. A two part epoxy was used to cement the completed plastic terrain to the plywood, along with an old GW moonscape crater.  Next I used super glue to attach various off-cuts from the plastic Cities of Death terrain followed by a mixed size of rocks sourced from Woodland Scenics talus. Finally I used Vallejo Black Lava to tie the elements together and add a general layer of grit to the piece indicative of the remains in a war zone. This final step really helps blend an wear the polished look of the plastic model.  I should also note that I liberally hacked away at portions of the plastic ruins with my flush cutters to add extra damage and variety to the otherwise limited pieces available in the plastic kit.

Here is the ruin with a coat of black primer.  I use a spray paint from Army Painter, but any good black primer should do.  may folks use automotive primer for its durability...

Now I jump ahead to the finished piece.  I used an airbrush to lay down various browns and greys to the ruin.  Then set about with a dry brush to highlight and detail the piece.  Finally i broke out the GW technical paints to add some corrosion and rust effects.  This was my first time using these and I am very happy with the results.

Inquisitor Russ stalks the ruins in search of heretics to expose to the Light of the Emperor...

I hope to bring you more updates of the remaining pieces completed now that the test model is done.  I love the look.  These will sit nicely on my new mats and add a great new setting for future battles once they are complete...  Waiting in the wings is a power generator (pieces sourced from Secret Weapon Miniatures) and various promethium pipeline sections!

Cheers and Happy gaming!