Matakishi's Tea House
A simple little site...
I like to make some terrain features for as many of my forces as I can, I think it gives them more of a presence on the tabletop and allows everyone to valiantly defend their 'home turf' if needs be. The Xenomorphs in my Future War project need a Hive to bring on reinforcements during a game so deciding what their terrain feature should be was a fairly simple task. Deciding how to make it was a little more complicated.
Luckily for me, the good folk at TerraGenesis had already solved the problem for me with some innovative ideas on using plastic bottles and drinking straws to achieve some pretty spectacular organic looking scenery.
So, armed with the basic ideas I set about making my Xenomorph Hive entrance.
I cut up some plastic water bottles, three tops and a bottom, using scissors and a razor saw. I heated them over the gas hob holding the bits with pliers and periodically doused them under a running cold tap. This was a quick process and very soon I had some gloopy looking Hive openings. I cut a suitable sized base from hardboard and stuck the melted bottle pieces down with some No Nails. I wanted a quick grab adhesive and didn't want to use hot glue for fear of melting the plastic further.
As a finishing touch I ran a bead of No Nails around the openings to cover the jaggedness of the cuts and to add further 'gloopiness' to the proceedings. The bottom bottle section had a melted drinking straw stuck to it to form a breathing vent. I like the way it makes it look like a pepper.
Next I set about filling in the holes between the plastic and the base with Polyfilla and various sized stones and grit. I also stuck down some melted drinking straw sections to form more breathing vents or perhaps proto openings. I used some very thick drinking straws that retained their shape better than thin ones. Originally I'd melted thin ones but they didn't give the effect I wanted.
Finally I covered the Pollyfilla with a generous amount of wood glue to add strength and rigidity as well as to fill the cracks left where it shrunk as it dried.
Once the glue dried it was time for the first lot of Basetex. I used Green Basetex because it fills better than the Dried Earth Basetex and I have a huge tub that I don't use for bases much these days. Since it was going to be painted it didn't matter what the colour was. The Basetex is an excellent glue for scatter as well and I added the final layer of big stones and some more grit at this stage.
I also added some veins to the central part to increase the organic look. These were made by sticking on some of Antenociti Workshop's dungeon creepers that I use for my jungle bases.
Once this was all dry I sprayed the whole piece with some green paint to seal it and act as my base colour. I'd decided on green and blue as the hive colours to match the Xenomorphs and their eggs that I'd already painted. The paint happened to be gloss because I had some lying around but, like the green Basetex, it didn't matter as the last stage was going to be a matt varnish.
After the paint had dried it was time for the final terraining of the ground. I painted the non Hive parts with a dried earth colour household emulsion to match the final application of Basetex that was to come. I had this paint mixed at my local paint shop so my terrain and eventually my base boards (when I get around to repainting them) can match my figure bases.
Then I added the Dried Earth Basetex to the edges of the base and to any areas that still needed filling before a final application of grit scatter.
The last stage was the painting with a mix of Foundry, Games Workshop and household emulsion paints and a covering of matt varnish to unify the textures.
The Xenomorph Queen and some of her children pose outside their new home.
Luckily for me, the good folk at TerraGenesis had already solved the problem for me with some innovative ideas on using plastic bottles and drinking straws to achieve some pretty spectacular organic looking scenery.
So, armed with the basic ideas I set about making my Xenomorph Hive entrance.
I cut up some plastic water bottles, three tops and a bottom, using scissors and a razor saw. I heated them over the gas hob holding the bits with pliers and periodically doused them under a running cold tap. This was a quick process and very soon I had some gloopy looking Hive openings. I cut a suitable sized base from hardboard and stuck the melted bottle pieces down with some No Nails. I wanted a quick grab adhesive and didn't want to use hot glue for fear of melting the plastic further.
As a finishing touch I ran a bead of No Nails around the openings to cover the jaggedness of the cuts and to add further 'gloopiness' to the proceedings. The bottom bottle section had a melted drinking straw stuck to it to form a breathing vent. I like the way it makes it look like a pepper.
Next I set about filling in the holes between the plastic and the base with Polyfilla and various sized stones and grit. I also stuck down some melted drinking straw sections to form more breathing vents or perhaps proto openings. I used some very thick drinking straws that retained their shape better than thin ones. Originally I'd melted thin ones but they didn't give the effect I wanted.
Finally I covered the Pollyfilla with a generous amount of wood glue to add strength and rigidity as well as to fill the cracks left where it shrunk as it dried.
Once the glue dried it was time for the first lot of Basetex. I used Green Basetex because it fills better than the Dried Earth Basetex and I have a huge tub that I don't use for bases much these days. Since it was going to be painted it didn't matter what the colour was. The Basetex is an excellent glue for scatter as well and I added the final layer of big stones and some more grit at this stage.
I also added some veins to the central part to increase the organic look. These were made by sticking on some of Antenociti Workshop's dungeon creepers that I use for my jungle bases.
Once this was all dry I sprayed the whole piece with some green paint to seal it and act as my base colour. I'd decided on green and blue as the hive colours to match the Xenomorphs and their eggs that I'd already painted. The paint happened to be gloss because I had some lying around but, like the green Basetex, it didn't matter as the last stage was going to be a matt varnish.
After the paint had dried it was time for the final terraining of the ground. I painted the non Hive parts with a dried earth colour household emulsion to match the final application of Basetex that was to come. I had this paint mixed at my local paint shop so my terrain and eventually my base boards (when I get around to repainting them) can match my figure bases.
Then I added the Dried Earth Basetex to the edges of the base and to any areas that still needed filling before a final application of grit scatter.
The last stage was the painting with a mix of Foundry, Games Workshop and household emulsion paints and a covering of matt varnish to unify the textures.
The Xenomorph Queen and some of her children pose outside their new home.
