deadzone terrain - part 1

Originally my plan concerning deadzone was to get some models painted first. I have tons of suitable necromunda terrain that I could use to play on, so getting this terrain painted seemed a bit overkill. However there have been a lot of really great blog posts up about the terrain (find a sample at the end of this post) and I ended up devising a plan to get it painted using mostly spray paints which means prep, spray & then WAIT. So while I am currently painting up a counts as Ripper for my Insane Goblin Posse to prep for a tournament in February, I thought why not get this going as well. Also my waffling on paint scheme for the plague faction has meant I have not even started assembling/prepping those figs (and a good thing too, since now for the Stage 2 beastie that is vaulting a barrier, I can paint the barrier up in similar style to my terrain!) I may even end up starting to paint the marauder faction first, since it would be a more normal method (no multi-stage multi-colour stains) which means I could paint a couple figs at a time instead of batch painting (also I can proxy the plague with all my genestealer cult stuff)

Tile effect 1 (fluorescent lights)
For the square pieces that look like one side of a rubiks cube, I decided that since they were clearly meant to be a ceiling piece, I would paint one side like fluorescent lights. I realize once assembled you probably won't see it very much, but it will be a nice bit of detail for photos from the right angles and was not very difficult.

1. prime white
2. paint a coat of water effects
3. mask the "lights" in one direction and spray grey to cover the dividers
4. do the same in the opposite direction

fluorescent lighting tile

Here is the final effect, some of the grey seeped through the masking tape, but not enough to be ruined and it will actually look pretty derelict in my opinion.  Job done.  It looks a bit glossier than it does in this photo, but not a crazy amount.

Tile effect 2 (indoor walls)
Similar with the above, I wanted the insides to have a different colour.  It won't be easily noticable either, but will add an additional level of realism.

1. spray black (zenithal aimed upwards)
2. spray necrotic flesh (zenithal aimed downwards)

indoor tile

This gives some depth without a lot of effort - I made a simple spraying container with some bits of cardboard to hold the tiles at an angle to make spraying easier.  These also ended up looking much dirtier after I finished the other sides as some spray paint clearly seeped through the painters tape I used on the back.  Again I feel it just looks grimy & dirty and will suit very well. Job done.

Tile effect 3 (outdoor walls)
Now to make the outdoor walls special, I decided to do a few extra steps so these were generally more involved. I am extremely pleased with how they came out though and won't change anything for the second batch. I used a salt masking technique using cheap hairspray to stick salt to the tiles after the black/metal undercoat so I can easily show some battle damage/weathering.

1. spray black (zenithal aimed upwards)
2. spray plate metal (zenithal aimed downwards)
3. soak the tiles with hairspray
4. apply salt (I used both coarser sea salt and fine table salt) most folks suggest just the coarser but I felt a combination would look equally as realistic - I am quite happy with the effect
5. spray space wolves grey
6. very light spray of white (zenithal aimed downwards)
7. very light spray of space wolves grey (zenithal aimed upwards) - doing the grey a second time makes sure the white is mostly on the top edges
8. rub off the salt

outdoor tile

In my opinion these tiles look absolutely fantastic. The chipped areas from the salt masking show a metallic base to the tile which looks like very realistic battle damage - whether from bullets or shrapnel.

Tile additional effect (outdoor walls)
Finally I wanted to do some extra detailing on a few wall sections.  Less is more in this instance you want to pick very few tiles to do this to, since that makes it stand out more.  So I picked about half the tiles, thinking it's easier to skip this step for the next batch if it seems like too much to "dilute" the amount of variant tiles.

1. use painters tape to mark off the section of wall to be a different colour
2. soak the tiles with hairspray
3. apply salt (I used both coarser sea salt and fine table salt)
4. spray demonic yellow (bright yellow works pretty well with the bluish/grey of the rest of the tiles)
5. very light spray of white (zenithal aimed downwards)
6. gryphonne sepia wash
7. rub off the salt

outdoor tile with detailing

This is the part I am the least happy with. I'm not sure if it was the can of spray paint or if I didn't wait long enough for the hairspray to dry but the yellow was very wet and masked some of the detail.  That's why in the end I did the white zenithal highlight plus the gryphonne sepia wash to try and get that detail back.  In the end it does still look pretty decent and I am satisfied.

Also after rubbing off the salt, I would recommend that for tiles where you plan to do a second round of salt + spray paint (ie. the yellow) that you avoid the fine salt on the first colour (ie. the space wolf grey) since it ends up with several coats of paint over it, it is quite hard to get it back off and it doesn't do enough through the two colours.

For the corner connectors I decided to not even bother painting them at all.  You will barely see them so I didn't see much point.  For the outer connectors I painted them the same way as the outer tiles.  I was debating using the yellow until I was disappointed by it's coverage.

Here are a ton of links to people assembling and painting the deadzone terrain.  There is lots out there to inspire you, especially with what configuration to assemble the buildings/bits.  Next steps for me are to assemble this batch (at least one or two buildings - depending on the yellow bits I may need to paint the other tiles too so I can spread it out) and then applying some weathering powders and other details to the outside - at that point I will try to cover up little mistakes like the spray of yellow on the edge of the tile above.

White's Wolves ** absolutely fantastic tutorials here **
Anarchy of Anton!
Hammer Dialectic
Between the Bolter and Me
GMorts Chaotica