u/Skazdal

Hello everyone! I'm in the process of preparing some Fallout 4 models for printing (personal use, can't share) but I thought some people might be interested by the process.

Picture 1 is the final result, picture 2 is the low poly model subdivided, and picture 3 is the raw mesh.

I got the original mesh from the game sources, but it's really low-poly. So I got on a hunt for a method to restore it to a decent enough standard to send it to the printer. My method so far:

• import model in blender
• subdivide modifier, set to 5
• put the normal map through a program to transform it into a displacement map
• use a displacement modifier with the displacement map

There is some tweaking here and there, but so far it's pretty straightforward. The next step is a test print, to see how good it'll look and how well it takes paint, and figure out how to import the rig and animation th get cool poses out of him.

Hope you find it useful!

After all those tree stuff, a little palette cleanser and a quick universally usefully piece of terrain. I'm making 4 of those, this is a test piece.

It's a big piece of cardboard, coffee stirrers to simulate pillars, and that's pretty much it.

The fun part is painting concrete. I love painting concrete, so much sponge tricks and dry brushing. This is a WIP, it will be weathered heavily.

My very first tree is finally completed, base and all. Arm wrestling world champion mutant for scale.

I'm really happy with the end result, I used my homemade flock and managed to seal it after several dousing with mod podge heavily diluted with water and varnish.

I've 4 others waiting to be finished, the canopy is not as good but they'll do! What do you think?

A quick project over 2 days, painted for fun and to be used for all skirmish zombies games. Hope you like it!

Nothing fancy, just a little fun project of a zombie horde for various skirmish post apo games. Painted in 2 days, with Xpress paints and drybrushing.

Miniatures are from 3nspurces and kitbashed: skirmish rangers zombies, probably the softer on the detail side, project Z zombies from Warlord games, defunct range, and Hayland Terrain plastic zombies. The Hayland are available and sort cheap. They all mix very well and produce a varied horde.

What do you think?

I kepts iterating around the idea and decided to try to make the tree more realistic by fakings branches instead of adding a large blob of fiber on top of the structure. It's a bit light on the foliage side, but I find it visually more appealing.

The difference is that I used the same technique that I used when makings pines, I added fibers inside the branches themselves by putting strands between 2 pieces of wire and twisting them.

the whole tree is made of those strands with fibers inside. Then it's all the same thing with the hot glue and crepe paper. I stabilized the wire strands with a mix of PVA, water and brown ink, through a spray bottle.

Then it's spray glue and cellulose flock all over it. And several coats of diluted PVA to make it more rigid.

What do you think?

For anyone curious, here is what my homemade cellulose flock looks like once glued on an armature. Everything is scratch built, wire trees with hot glue on top, crepe paper for bark, then spray glue and poly fiber (scratch built too, it's white polyester fibers built in bulk, tinted with paint) and flock.

My conclusion is less is more. I work in layers, very thin nets of fibers with flock on top, than another layer, all with spray glue.

Having trees to make on the workbench, I made a huge bag of flock by mixing a pair of cellulose sponge. Initial dye with acrylic paint and a bit of water, and then some inks as I went to create variety inside the batch.

Took little time and costed barrelly anything.

So I iterated a little on the whole concept to find a way to texture the trunk. I tried a mix of static grass and mod podge: it's crap. I tried balsa sawdust, there are remnants of it on the branches: not great.

Then I saw in this subreddit someone (u/lilSalty , thank you verry much) suggesting CREPE PAPER. I stole some from my kid and slapped it on the trunk. * Cheff kiss *

Look at that lovely texture. Once all wrinkled up it's even better! I consider the problem of making armatures solved from now on and will move to the leaves soon.

I also listen to your advices and painted it with more mutted and desaturated colors.

A little experiment tonight, I want to make a forest soon so making trees armatures will be a big subject. I experimented with metal wire, folding 8 strands together and then making roots and branches. To hide all of that metal, I put my little hot glue gun to the test, and I mustn't say it was quick and effective! I coated it all with mod podge mixed with bicarb soda for texture, but I don't think the texture read as bark, so I'll probably ditch it next time.

One added benefit of the method: everything remains flexible! You can bend branches in places even after painting.

I'm waiting on an order of lichen to give it more volume and add the leaves.

What do you think? Ever tried that method?

My first batch of containers is done, I'll be honest I'm bored of doing them so I'll move to more simple things 😅 I like them, but I have EIGHT MORE nearly done or just started. I went a little overboard.

This time I put a stencil on top to give it some ground in reality. Maersk seems common enough to end up in the Zone.

The Maersk containers is now finished, I did the rust stuff and I call it a day. I tried adding some more markings for realism, and small triangles and squares might work reasonably well, but the text is not good, I won't try to write stuff on the next ones.

I made a pair of stencils to create some Maersk containers as they are pretty common. Nothing revolutionary, I printed the logo twice on some thick paper, made a first version with the overall shape, and a second to add the star and the inside of the R and the A back.

I tried to stipple with a makeup sponge, straight up doesn't work. I then stippled lightly with army painter master drybrushes, and there is surprisingly very little to clean up. I'll weather it all afterwards so the text will get some damages to blend in.

What do you think?

New and Improved!

Its' made of finer cardboards for the doors, a different kind of hinges and metal wire instead of plastic rods. The bottom is also different this time.

Now to build a lot of them!

So I finished the second iteration of my little container project, you can see the first version HERE and the WIP of this version THERE with some insight on the process.

Mains difference are the doors, made of much finer cardboard, and floral wire instead of thick plastic rods. The metal plates all around the edges are a bit finer too, aiming for more realism. I also made a more accurate looking bottom, in case it's flipped on it's head.

The doors are put on very simple hinges made of folded paper around and a small strip of metal wire, bent and stuck in the cardboard. They open well, it's pretty satisfying ^^

It's still heavily weathered as it's destined for post apocalyptic games. I might add a few bits of texts or numbers here and there, but it'll wait.

I made a second version of my shipping container, this time using finer materials to get a more in-scale result. I used finer cardboard for the doors, replaced the plastic rods with metal wire, and made hinges that are located on the outside, allowing for 180° rotation. I also made a proper bottom for the container. Overall it's much better IMHO.

The hinges are just a long strip of metal wire attached to the door by a piece of paper folded around, really simple.

I think I found the sweet spot so I'll keep the recipe for the next ones as is.

I just finished my prototype of shipping container, built entirely out of cardboard and a few plastic rods. Heavy weathering. Simple, big and efficient, I'll probably build a lot more of those!

They were given to the dev team as a little gift to celebrate the release. I can't share the file unfortunately.

As you may know, we released our game (Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes) last week, so as a little gift for the team I printed Mk2 Vipers from the game and painted them. They are roughly X-Wing scale if you play that miniature game.

I got bored of red after 3 so I got creative with the scheme 😅