comes up with the stats and roster for the Rust Devils in his sci-fi campaign.
The trouble with the base was conceptual. I needed a way to convey the world these characters lived in. I wanted you to know that it was present-day, and there were zombies, and these were the survivors.
Talking on the phone one day, inspiration hit me - and being near my computer, I pulled up Photoshop, rudely tuned out my friend, and set to work. The inspiration for this sign is a certain billboard you see traveling north out of San Francisco toward Sonoma County. I debated proper size for the sign. At first, it was going to be much smaller. But discussing the options with my friend, he pointed out that the larger sign would allude to an image from the film Patton, with the general in front of the U.S. flag.
For anyone interested, at the end of this article, there's a link to a full-size version that you can scale and print to any size you'd like.
The billboard itself is made from balsa and plasticard. I spray-mounted the image on the plasticard with 3M Spra-Ment, then glued the frame sections on top of this.
The razor wire is a technique I'm fairly proud of. I'm not sure if I'm the first to do it, but the inspiration was my own. It's made from a fine diamond mesh called Art Form, that's available at art stores. (I'm not sure how this differs from other meshes I've read about in forums, since I've never been able to track down "automotive" mesh.) To make the razor wire - using a sharp pair of scissors, simply cut a single thread of mesh vertically. Then, wrap around a pen. Done! (Compare this to the lengthy process of making decent barbed wire...) There are several issues to consider, however. It's fragile, and fabric and such easily get caught on it, so you have to be careful handling it. For many projects, though, the results are worth it.
The base was primed in watered-down acrylic gesso with black paint added. I used Delta and Folk Art craft paint. The basecoat is straight Delta Ceramcoat Territorial Beige. With liberal use of Future, I blended up from Territorial Beige to Delta Mudstone (an incredibly useful color for terrain), then up to white.
The stones were painted gray, and then highlighted with Mudstone and white. The razor wire is Charcoal Grey, highlighted with Light Grey, then washed down with Burnt Sienna and then with pure orange. Finally, a fine Light Grey drybrush. (Sorry, I don't have any pics of these stages.)
The billboard was first weathered with splotches of highly dilute ink. Most of the weathering, though, was then done with powdered pastels. Shave the pastel into powder with a knife, then blot it on the model with an old brush.
At this point KublaCon was upon me, and I had already discussed with Bill that I would enter the family in the painting contest. I still had details I wanted to add, but I took the family in the way it was. It brought home the gold! Of course I was thrilled, and imagined Bill might be as well. That's win-win, eh?
I took the family home, and didn't waste any time finishing off the final details. I added scrub made of Woodland Scenics Burnt Grass and Medium Green static grass, drybrushed up to pale yellows. Next, I added Woodland Scenics field grass, made by twisting the grass in small tufts and gluing with superglue in the center, then cutting in half. The halves were then glued into holes drilled with the Dremel.
The landscape needed stronger white highlights, so I did that, then I added pastel for the finishing touches. I mostly used red-browns, shaving the pastel into powder with a knife and applying with an old (dry) brush.
But the last detail was to come. I added a huge blood splatter. My aim was to have it appear as though something big and bloody had hit the sign full on, then several more times on its way down, where it bumped off the sill of the frame and then was carried off by a dog or what not. A high impact collision on the adjacent highway? A body part thrown by a zombie? Who made the mark?
The project is finished; here are the results...