How to... (tips, hints and tricks)
Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 11:08 pm
I thought it would be a good idea to have a forum topic with collected posts of ideas and examples of how to make something (whether it is some sort of terrain, the painting of a miniature or a sandbag on the back of your model). There are a lot of great ideas already scattered over the forum, but I thought it would be nice to have some sort of an overview. I am quite new to this forum, so somebody might already have tried this (please refer 
).
Different people might have different ideas, but even if the result is exactely the same the various approaches are interesting.
If you like this idea: please add your suggestions, ideas, comments, tips, hints, tricks (or in short: 'how to...'). Some pictures of the finished thing and the non-finished materials would be cool and will say more than words. A step-by-step like some do with painting tutorials would be even better
So here's my go and attempt (by no means I think to be original, as most -if not all- ideas are found on this forum or elsewhere).
Terrain
The base of my terrain is green textile. That way it's easy to transport (just roll it) and I have infinite possibilities to setup a terrain using my terrain parts as described here. I used old curtains (probably well over 40 years old) which have a very nice surface on one side (not woven). Though the years had already colored them, I sprayed some more colors on it in very thin layers. The patchwork is made of the same kind of curtain and sprayed as well. The patchwork that was intended to represent fields is to divide the otherwise big surface in bits. This might not only look nice but is very welcome for my CrossFire games (in the original rules the movement of troops is not limited by measurement in centimeters, but instead they can move from one terrain feature to another).
Since most of my other terrain parts are based upon those same green curtains, I think it fits nicely together. Of course you can get black textile instead of making green textile black, but then you might have terrain parts with high contrast. Since my black colored green textile still has green underneath I think it blends in better with the base.
Fields with crops
Cut textile to shape and spray color it as desired. Then use a somewhat thick and slow drying glue to make parallel lines. Cover it with foam and leave to dry. Whipe off the excess of foam with an old brush.
Meadowland (or whatever you think it is)
I found some kind of artificial grass in a bin. I washed it and cut some pieces with not straight edges and removed the plastic dots on the backside. I unevenly sprayed it with several colors.
Row of trees
Cut colored textile to about 1 cm wide strings and make holes in it at regular intervals using for example a thin nail. Push your (rootless) trees through the holes and put a drop of glue onto the end of the trunk. Put a string of heavy weight paper which is less wide than the textile on a flat surface and carefully press your already glued string of trees onto it. Use a pair of tweezers to gently press the textile down around the trunks. Make sure the trees stand straight. If you didn't make the holes to big, the trees with not fall over. If they do: support them till dry.
Trees with roots
Use some thin wire (I used 0,7mm I think). I twisted the 4 pieces of wires to make the main trunk. Open up the bottom for the roots. The top was opened and with two pairs of two twisted a bit more and opened up again. Then paint them the way you like. I glued two layers of foam to the branches.
Woods
Cut a piece of colored textile and use the same technique as for the 'row of trees' to attach the modeltrees. When dry, I removed the paper to make the piece of terrain more flexible. I did this in two stages: first about half of the total amount of trees and then spray them a slightly darker color, then the second half. I covered about half of the textile (mainly around the trees) with glue and covered it with a variation of foam. After that, I added some pieces of reindeermoss especially on the edges of the tree groups.
Hedges
Cut some 2-3mm thick foam plastic in strings of about 1cm wide with a pair of scissors. Glue two or more of those pieces together so they won't fall over. For variation, use tweezers to snap out some tiny bits of foam of the top or sides. Spray them with your favorite green color.
Wooded bank / bocage
The core is a piece of black open cell foam (was an old seat of my recumbent, but sold as pond waterfilter too). One side of the foam should be flat (bottom part) and the others curved and shaped in a natural way. I sprayed it brown and green for branch colors, but leaving bits of the black basecolor too. Then I put glue to only a few parts of the foam. To speed things up I used like 5 plates of different green foams and a contact glue and did batches of about 5-10. Do only one type of foam at a time and whipe of the excess before you start with the next color, otherwise all foams get mixed. You will probably get mixed colors anyway (if you plates are not big enough), but you can use that for the woods.
You can add some trees if you want (just stick them in).
Bushes
This is one of the easiest things, but I want to mention it because I use it quite often to fill gaps in my terrain. You can buy expensive small packages of this reindeermoss in modelhobby shops, but during Christmas time you should be able to buy it much cheaper in big boxes. I bought a box years ago of green colored moss and still use it for easy foliage. For bushes I selected only the finest bits that actually looked like a bush as the 'branches' were going the right way.
Buildings
I made my own photographs of buildings and computeredited them to make flat sides of all the faces. Most of the time you can't photograph all the sides of the building, so copy and paste to make them complete and remove all the obscuring object like cars and trees. Then print the pictures and cut them out. I glued the walls around some foam (depron) and left the roofs detachable so I can put miniatures inside. I still need to finish them with some details like chimneys and some colors on the inside.
Sandy paths
Get some green colored textile or spray it green and cut strings. Use a sepia (brown) and grey colored pencil (or any color you like). Just color it. I move the pencil in the same direction as the road. Some prefer tracks, some don't, but the movement of your pencil should be in the direction the vehicles move.
Roads
Same techniques used as for the 'sandy path', though I use ordinary pencils in stead of colored. I have one of those big graphite ones which makes it a lot quicker and more even. I do like the bit of shine of the graphite, but the trade off is that your fingers become grey as long as the roads are still 'new'.
Rivers / streams
Cut curved strings of a flat/thin piece of green textile. Color the middle bit with blue, green and/or brown, black colored pencils. Some people like bright blue colors for water. I don't since water is not blue but the sky is, so I prefer a dark color and a shiny suface (more on this in the photography part). Use a wood glue that dries clear and shiny and cover the whole top bit of the river with a thick layer (just some color shines through the white glue). Flatten the glue and make it more or less even with your finger or some other soft tool if you don't like sticky fingers. Leave it to dry. Add glue again, but now only to the sides of the river. Cover it with your favorite foam colors.
Personally I like textile since it gives a nice and tiny ripple effect on the shiny surface, which to my eyes comes close to a birdeye's view.
Barbed wire
Cut strings of green textile and stick some tiny nails through it at regular intervals. Use the same technique as for 'row of trees' to make it more rigid. Cut the nails to the desired lenght using pliers/nippers. Add tiny dots of contact glue to the nails on one side just under the top. Get some piece of plastic mesh (like for example those to keep the flies outside, the thinner the better) and use scissors to cut off just one of those mesh lines. If you you cut right through the middle of those 'squares', you will have a single line with tiny ends on both sides. Now, twist the line as often as you wish till it looks 'alright'. Keep it between your fingers and force them in a straight line by pulling both ends gently. Then stick it to your prepared poles. Paint the result if you like.
I still need to think of a way to transport them, as the barbed wire tends to stick together.
Photography
Since you can only show photos on the internet to make things visual, it might be an aspect to consider. You're terrain and miniatures might look very good in real, but crap on the internet (the other way around might be true too). Look at the images below.
There's quite some difference between both shots (no computerediting). Although the real thing comes close to the left image, I could pick the right one if I would like the brownish color. Depending on your camera settings the scene can not only become less or more sharp, light or detailed, but the actual colors can be different too. Since the introduction of digital cameras it has become much easier to try things out. Usually I just make a bunch of photos with different setting and select the best one to show. If I really want something look good I go back and forward between computer and making photos till I got the look that I want.
Another important thing besides camera settings is lighting. See below for an example.
I took the right picture first, but here was obviously something missing in my idea of how water looks like. The right one is just lighted with two lightbulbs from above. The left one is with the same two lightbulbs but a TL-light from the back. You can see that this TL light does not only change the color of the scene, but it gives shine to the surface of the water too. To exactely predict how it will look like on the photograph is almost impossible, so here again; just make a bunch of photo's from different angles and different lightsource directions and select the one you prefer.
Getting the most out of your camera can be challenging, but testing all of it's settings just for the fun of it can be a great advantage for your next photographed project or when you need it and don't have much time. Some things to look for:
-flash: most often not prefered for miniature pictures as it gives ugly shades (the light and camera lens are not in the same line).
-shutter speed: used to compensate for light. For slow speeds you definately need a bipod or anything steady. For close-ups in this miniature world a bipod and in general a steady underground is prefered anyway.
-lens aperture: high F-numbers give a big field of focus (not only your miniature in the middle looks sharp, but the whole terrain around it). If you want to use high F-numbers you need slower shutter speeds to compensate for the light.
-zoom/macro: this might be trickier then it seems. For example: not all my models are detailed enough to get a nice close-up. I always try to find the 'safe spot'. Most of the cameras nowadays have macro settings. For miniatures this can be a great setting as you can get really close to the action. Macro settings as well as much 'zooming in' need a steady camera.
-focus: on most cameras you just push the button half way. Some have it manual or can change the autosettings. Whatever you prefer, it comes to where you want to focus on and so: where the attention of the observer will be drawn to. Focus can really draw you into the picture and add drama. Though, for just showing your model you don't have to think about all this and only want a sharp picture of it.
-whitebalance: digital cameras autobalance light from different sources like sun, sky, lightbulb or TL. On some cameras you can set this manually and it can make a huge difference to the general color your picture will have.
As a last note: don't forget to resize your pictures in a computer editing program to get lower resolutions. Resolution of 1600x1200 or even more are in general way to big to post on websites and it makes them slow to download. I always try to keep pictures under 800x600. Another thing when you are using photo editing programs is that you can crop your images or leave the ugly stuff out. And if you're more advanced, you can cheat with your pictures as much as you want
).Different people might have different ideas, but even if the result is exactely the same the various approaches are interesting.
If you like this idea: please add your suggestions, ideas, comments, tips, hints, tricks (or in short: 'how to...'). Some pictures of the finished thing and the non-finished materials would be cool and will say more than words. A step-by-step like some do with painting tutorials would be even better
So here's my go and attempt (by no means I think to be original, as most -if not all- ideas are found on this forum or elsewhere).
Terrain
The base of my terrain is green textile. That way it's easy to transport (just roll it) and I have infinite possibilities to setup a terrain using my terrain parts as described here. I used old curtains (probably well over 40 years old) which have a very nice surface on one side (not woven). Though the years had already colored them, I sprayed some more colors on it in very thin layers. The patchwork is made of the same kind of curtain and sprayed as well. The patchwork that was intended to represent fields is to divide the otherwise big surface in bits. This might not only look nice but is very welcome for my CrossFire games (in the original rules the movement of troops is not limited by measurement in centimeters, but instead they can move from one terrain feature to another).
Since most of my other terrain parts are based upon those same green curtains, I think it fits nicely together. Of course you can get black textile instead of making green textile black, but then you might have terrain parts with high contrast. Since my black colored green textile still has green underneath I think it blends in better with the base.
Fields with crops
Cut textile to shape and spray color it as desired. Then use a somewhat thick and slow drying glue to make parallel lines. Cover it with foam and leave to dry. Whipe off the excess of foam with an old brush.
Meadowland (or whatever you think it is)
I found some kind of artificial grass in a bin. I washed it and cut some pieces with not straight edges and removed the plastic dots on the backside. I unevenly sprayed it with several colors.
Row of trees
Cut colored textile to about 1 cm wide strings and make holes in it at regular intervals using for example a thin nail. Push your (rootless) trees through the holes and put a drop of glue onto the end of the trunk. Put a string of heavy weight paper which is less wide than the textile on a flat surface and carefully press your already glued string of trees onto it. Use a pair of tweezers to gently press the textile down around the trunks. Make sure the trees stand straight. If you didn't make the holes to big, the trees with not fall over. If they do: support them till dry.
Trees with roots
Use some thin wire (I used 0,7mm I think). I twisted the 4 pieces of wires to make the main trunk. Open up the bottom for the roots. The top was opened and with two pairs of two twisted a bit more and opened up again. Then paint them the way you like. I glued two layers of foam to the branches.
Woods
Cut a piece of colored textile and use the same technique as for the 'row of trees' to attach the modeltrees. When dry, I removed the paper to make the piece of terrain more flexible. I did this in two stages: first about half of the total amount of trees and then spray them a slightly darker color, then the second half. I covered about half of the textile (mainly around the trees) with glue and covered it with a variation of foam. After that, I added some pieces of reindeermoss especially on the edges of the tree groups.
Hedges
Cut some 2-3mm thick foam plastic in strings of about 1cm wide with a pair of scissors. Glue two or more of those pieces together so they won't fall over. For variation, use tweezers to snap out some tiny bits of foam of the top or sides. Spray them with your favorite green color.
Wooded bank / bocage
The core is a piece of black open cell foam (was an old seat of my recumbent, but sold as pond waterfilter too). One side of the foam should be flat (bottom part) and the others curved and shaped in a natural way. I sprayed it brown and green for branch colors, but leaving bits of the black basecolor too. Then I put glue to only a few parts of the foam. To speed things up I used like 5 plates of different green foams and a contact glue and did batches of about 5-10. Do only one type of foam at a time and whipe of the excess before you start with the next color, otherwise all foams get mixed. You will probably get mixed colors anyway (if you plates are not big enough), but you can use that for the woods.
You can add some trees if you want (just stick them in).
Bushes
This is one of the easiest things, but I want to mention it because I use it quite often to fill gaps in my terrain. You can buy expensive small packages of this reindeermoss in modelhobby shops, but during Christmas time you should be able to buy it much cheaper in big boxes. I bought a box years ago of green colored moss and still use it for easy foliage. For bushes I selected only the finest bits that actually looked like a bush as the 'branches' were going the right way.
Buildings
I made my own photographs of buildings and computeredited them to make flat sides of all the faces. Most of the time you can't photograph all the sides of the building, so copy and paste to make them complete and remove all the obscuring object like cars and trees. Then print the pictures and cut them out. I glued the walls around some foam (depron) and left the roofs detachable so I can put miniatures inside. I still need to finish them with some details like chimneys and some colors on the inside.
Sandy paths
Get some green colored textile or spray it green and cut strings. Use a sepia (brown) and grey colored pencil (or any color you like). Just color it. I move the pencil in the same direction as the road. Some prefer tracks, some don't, but the movement of your pencil should be in the direction the vehicles move.
Roads
Same techniques used as for the 'sandy path', though I use ordinary pencils in stead of colored. I have one of those big graphite ones which makes it a lot quicker and more even. I do like the bit of shine of the graphite, but the trade off is that your fingers become grey as long as the roads are still 'new'.
Rivers / streams
Cut curved strings of a flat/thin piece of green textile. Color the middle bit with blue, green and/or brown, black colored pencils. Some people like bright blue colors for water. I don't since water is not blue but the sky is, so I prefer a dark color and a shiny suface (more on this in the photography part). Use a wood glue that dries clear and shiny and cover the whole top bit of the river with a thick layer (just some color shines through the white glue). Flatten the glue and make it more or less even with your finger or some other soft tool if you don't like sticky fingers. Leave it to dry. Add glue again, but now only to the sides of the river. Cover it with your favorite foam colors.
Personally I like textile since it gives a nice and tiny ripple effect on the shiny surface, which to my eyes comes close to a birdeye's view.
Barbed wire
Cut strings of green textile and stick some tiny nails through it at regular intervals. Use the same technique as for 'row of trees' to make it more rigid. Cut the nails to the desired lenght using pliers/nippers. Add tiny dots of contact glue to the nails on one side just under the top. Get some piece of plastic mesh (like for example those to keep the flies outside, the thinner the better) and use scissors to cut off just one of those mesh lines. If you you cut right through the middle of those 'squares', you will have a single line with tiny ends on both sides. Now, twist the line as often as you wish till it looks 'alright'. Keep it between your fingers and force them in a straight line by pulling both ends gently. Then stick it to your prepared poles. Paint the result if you like.
I still need to think of a way to transport them, as the barbed wire tends to stick together.
Photography
Since you can only show photos on the internet to make things visual, it might be an aspect to consider. You're terrain and miniatures might look very good in real, but crap on the internet (the other way around might be true too). Look at the images below.
There's quite some difference between both shots (no computerediting). Although the real thing comes close to the left image, I could pick the right one if I would like the brownish color. Depending on your camera settings the scene can not only become less or more sharp, light or detailed, but the actual colors can be different too. Since the introduction of digital cameras it has become much easier to try things out. Usually I just make a bunch of photos with different setting and select the best one to show. If I really want something look good I go back and forward between computer and making photos till I got the look that I want.
Another important thing besides camera settings is lighting. See below for an example.
I took the right picture first, but here was obviously something missing in my idea of how water looks like. The right one is just lighted with two lightbulbs from above. The left one is with the same two lightbulbs but a TL-light from the back. You can see that this TL light does not only change the color of the scene, but it gives shine to the surface of the water too. To exactely predict how it will look like on the photograph is almost impossible, so here again; just make a bunch of photo's from different angles and different lightsource directions and select the one you prefer.
Getting the most out of your camera can be challenging, but testing all of it's settings just for the fun of it can be a great advantage for your next photographed project or when you need it and don't have much time. Some things to look for:
-flash: most often not prefered for miniature pictures as it gives ugly shades (the light and camera lens are not in the same line).
-shutter speed: used to compensate for light. For slow speeds you definately need a bipod or anything steady. For close-ups in this miniature world a bipod and in general a steady underground is prefered anyway.
-lens aperture: high F-numbers give a big field of focus (not only your miniature in the middle looks sharp, but the whole terrain around it). If you want to use high F-numbers you need slower shutter speeds to compensate for the light.
-zoom/macro: this might be trickier then it seems. For example: not all my models are detailed enough to get a nice close-up. I always try to find the 'safe spot'. Most of the cameras nowadays have macro settings. For miniatures this can be a great setting as you can get really close to the action. Macro settings as well as much 'zooming in' need a steady camera.
-focus: on most cameras you just push the button half way. Some have it manual or can change the autosettings. Whatever you prefer, it comes to where you want to focus on and so: where the attention of the observer will be drawn to. Focus can really draw you into the picture and add drama. Though, for just showing your model you don't have to think about all this and only want a sharp picture of it.
-whitebalance: digital cameras autobalance light from different sources like sun, sky, lightbulb or TL. On some cameras you can set this manually and it can make a huge difference to the general color your picture will have.
As a last note: don't forget to resize your pictures in a computer editing program to get lower resolutions. Resolution of 1600x1200 or even more are in general way to big to post on websites and it makes them slow to download. I always try to keep pictures under 800x600. Another thing when you are using photo editing programs is that you can crop your images or leave the ugly stuff out. And if you're more advanced, you can cheat with your pictures as much as you want
