While doing some shopping online, I came across some Epic scale Sci Fi building details that I thought would be worth a try (Unfortunately, I cannot remember the company). The sets were for various roof top details and included antennas and venting systems. All are made from pre-painted mdf.
I removed all the pieces from the sheets and organized them on my work board for each assembly. I then went through and removed all excess trim from each piece using an Xacto knife. Once all the components were cleaned up, I glued each piece together using white glue (which I find the best for mdf).
It was clear that most of the pieces would be rather light weight from the beginning. So, I have a choice if I wanted to glue them to existing building models or use bases. Since I tend to prefer scatter terrain to give myself flexibility and these models would need some care in storage not to break, it was clear basing would be my best option.
Once I made the basing decision, it was a question of what type of base! Since these would most likely be on top of building models of some sort, I figured they would be best if on some type of concrete piling. As I wanted to add a little weight and wanted to store them securely, I decided to go with metal washers. These would give weight, give the appearance as part of the model and would work for magnetic storage.
The kits actually came as pre-painted mdf. However, they suffered from the usual problem of having brown edges along all the cutting surfaces. So, a lot of brown…. I thought about touching up the brown, but then decided that it would be too much work trying to match the colors and the painted sections were nothing special anyway. So, I just decided to paint all the models. As these were all various antenna or venting arrays, silver seemed to be the right choice. With that decided, out came out the krylon spray can.
I hit all the models with two coats (mdf often absorbs paint inconstantly and needs two coats). I added some bronze and brass hear and there and painted all the washers grey to simulate a concrete pad. I hit all the models with a black wash, did some highlights and then sprayed the models with semi gloss lacquer. Now I have some scatter terrain to add a little something extra to the tabletop!
- Manteuffel