Graham Hamner

#WorldsUnknown: That One Muddy Planet-

Hey all! I'm Graham, new to the team and I'm absolutely excited to get to share some of the fun I’ve had with the Command tent set. I'll try to do a few posts for you to share the broad strokes of some of the Planets on this tour.

Materials used:

  • Superglue
  • Sandpaper, fine grit
  • Spray paint (color of your choice)
  • Highlight and detail paints
  • Large foamed PVC board
  • Brown acrylic paint (generic brands best)
  • Coarse Pumice Gel
  • Extra Coarse Pumice Gel
  • Old yogurt container or bad Tupperware to mix in
  • Vallejo Thick Mud Texture
  • Vallejo Sepia Wash
  • Woodland Scenics Realistic Water and Water Tint
  • Grassy tufts (Gamerz Grass, SeriousPlayScenics - all great products)

Print Model Prep:

Before gluing pieces together, go over the print looking for unwanted ridges and lines. Sand lightly to minimize their appearance. Gorilla Glue just gives some wiggle room on the dry time to line up seams. After the glue has cured, give another once over to find any overhangs and touch up with another sanding pass. If gaps appear, filling them with some air dry clay or other putty helps significantly. With the print all glued up, you now have the full idea of the minimum footprint needed for your terrain. 

 

Terrain Base:

For basing my terrain I’ve used MDF, plywood, foam-core, and cardboard. These all presented challenges with warping and sealing. Palight, a white foamed PVC board found at most hardware stores, however, is brilliant for terrain basing and building. It is super easy to work with and cuts with a sharp Exacto blade. I buy a sheet or two in the large size (2x3 ft) and just cut new pieces from it. Layout the model and determine what layout you want and trim the Palight to the desired size. 


         

Basing and Texturing:

(Gloves recommended!) Mix equal parts Coarse Pumice Gel, Extra Coarse Pumice Gel, and the Generic Acrylic paint (Burnt Umber). This yields a great texture with the flexibility to be easily tweaked for different earth styles. Before texturing the base, I laid out where the metal plates would go and used the texturing process to stick them in. This allows them to be inset in the mud texture, and appear messy from troopers tracking mud across them. Once placed, I just used my hands to finger paint the texture down. After letting it dry just a bit, I then went around with my crappy paintbrush to make footprints around the entrances of the tent. Once the texture dried, I applied an undiluted coat of Vallejo Sepia Wash over the base. 

          


Painting the Print:

While waiting for that to dry, I sprayed the model with X2 Fill Rustoleum Army Green, which is versatile enough to work anywhere in the ‘verse (except ice planets, of course). Apply a light first coat, and then another round of sanding at any troublesome points. Then, a final coat of spray paint. Next up is the process of dry brushing on my lighter highlight color (Necrotic Flesh by Army Painter) to the tent. I also added details of stripes and a freehand Aurebesh A onto the tent for some color and pop. Once you're satisfied with the dry brushing and detail, it's ready for assembly. 


(If you are including greebles or the walkway, I primed and base-coated them with a metallic paint I had laying around. I added some detail to them but most of that came through the process of weathering with washes and adding some mud texture to them.)


Glue the Command tent down to the base:

Once attached, make sure the footprint of the models is covered and flush with the ground. To create a flush appearance along the base of the model, I applied Vallejo Mud texture as a filler. 

         

 

Additional Weathering on the Print:

To add some weathering to the top of the print, dilute some of the Vallejo Wash used earlier - 1 part wash to 2 parts water (this stuff is potent). I also went through adding some more mud to some of the other open spaces on the footprint of the terrain to build up wells for some muddy pools. 

Plantlife and Muddy pools: 

This has no real method other than mix your water effect with tint (all you need is a few drops for color). I used a junk brush that still could hold a lot of Water effects and paint into some of those wells. If they are bigger, feel free to attempt a pour. It's surprising how flat the water effects will shrink down to. Puddle away. While the puddles were still wet, I went about adding in the plants. I kept this one simple to emphasize that "muddy planet." 

          

Best of luck with your own #WorldsUnknown. Don't follow everything I did, go to the craft store and look at all the isles. I discovered some great finds for terrain that way.