Building a ruined temple - Part 2

As I mentioned in part 1, the columns were conveniently shaped pieces of plastic that I found at a great shop in Brisbane called Reverse Garbage. They are hollow so the first thing I needed to do was plug the end. I cut a plug of the foam the same diameter as the top of the column, then picked bits off it with my fingernails to make it look like broken stone. Repeat for the rest of the columns, then they were stuck in place with PVA. I only bought four columns, not being sure what I was going to do with them. I figured I needed six for a decent temple, so I made the remains of two other columns by cutting out two circles the same diameter as the base of the columns from some cork sheets (also from Reverse Garbage). Bits of column were cut from the foam, distressed as before and glued in place with PVA. Giving you something that looks like this.

Columns and rubble are in place

To texture the model, I covered everything in a this wash of Spakfilla (polyfilla) mixed with water.

Unfortunately from a blogging perspective, this is where I stopped taking photographs. I'll use photos of the finished product to show illustrate the next few steps.

Larger pieces of rubble were cut from the foam. The smaller rubble is coarse sand. I got some from a bag of sand I bought ages ago for a garden project and put it through a sieve to get rid of the fine stuff. To make the effect of a pile of rubble, I used small pieces of foam glued into a pile, with the sand glued on top.

Rubble - up close and personal.

Next was painting. It was sprayed with white undercoat. Then painted a mid-grey using acrylic from a tube I got at a cheap shop for $3. It's that artists' stuff that comes in a tube. Mix it with water til it's the right consistency and away you go. Then I did a very heavy drybrush of a light grey. Didn't really work the way I had in mind, and in hindsight I think I should have skipped the mid-grey, or used a lighter grey first up and stuck with that. I was hoping that the darker grey would show through more and add some shading but it didn't really. I drybrushed with white to try to bring out the texture, and shaded with gaps between the blocks with GW Nuln Oil wash.

The small rubble was painted GW Gorthor Brown, and drybrushed with VGC Plague Brown then with Plague Brown plus white (I think).

The weathering was fun, with the technique courtesy of an article on building a ruined temple from an old White Dwarf. The green was a mix of VMC Goblin Green and Escorpena Green, and the brown was Gorthor Brown plus VMC sepia ink. Both were thinned to a thin wash. I painted clean water on to the area to be weathered, and then painted green or brown over that. The water spreads and softens the edges of the colour. Easy and effective!

The tufts of grass are old toothbrush bristles glues into place and painted, and the bushes are bits of loofah dipped into a very watery wash of green with a touch of brown (the $3 paints again). The base is covered in PVA with fine sand glued on to it, then painted with a mid-green, then drybrushed with brown just to tone it down a bit, then a couple of lighter shades of green + white, with I think GW Ushabti Bone at the end.

I'm pretty pleased with the overall result though I probably should put a wash of Nuln Oil over it just to darken it down a bit as it's a little too clean.

Thanks for stopping by, and hope you found this useful.

O