Building a Ruined Highway Overpass - Terrain - Diorama

[Music] hi guys welcome hope you're well this is creative cuts a channel where i build paint and create things in today's video i'm going to build a ruined motorway overpass to use as terrain in my warhammer 40k battles i see so many tables with the standard ruined gothic boxes which don't get me wrong can look great but i wanted to re-examine what an urban environment could look like i grew up in london which has some wonderfully dark and neglected corners and to see the layers of concrete added in different styles over the years and create a constantly evolving hybrid of itself gives me a great starting point for this project now from the off i need to give myself some parameters to work with it for a start would there even be a need for highways in the 41st millennium and if there was how would they be articulated visually and why would they still be using concrete to think they would still be influenced stylistically by brutal modernist architecture of the late 20th century is a strange one to rationalize in my mind but welcome to my world these types of questions are great to ask yourself when building as they make you think about the project in ways that may not have occurred to you before one question leads to another but for the sake of simplicity i will stay within the confines of what we can all recognize a motorway or highway overpass that can be found in any city albeit bombed out by intergalactic space aliens now before i get started i wanted to thank everyone for the amazing response so far i'm new to this and learning with every video but to have had such amazing support has truly blown me away and is more reflection of how amazing the hobby community is so genuinely thank you i took some xps foam cut out some supports whilst i tried to make them all equal they're all a little different but not to worry most of these will meet the wrath of my alien death race so i doubled some of them up and they look solid enough to support a big motorway but before i fully committed to the build i wanted to do a little test piece to see if my idea would actually work so i got some cheap filler or spackle in the u.s and mix this up to a consistency thick enough to have a little body but thin enough to lose any hard edges next i took some eva foam from a set of kids floor tiles i got cheap from the local supermarket i picked dvo phone because it had some flexibility and hope that the slightly porous nature of the phone would absorb some of the filler and somehow bond with it a little so i spread out a layer on the foam and also just a thin layer on some tin foil just for an alternative option i wanted to get that cracked concrete look that one might expect from a damaged road once dried i gave the foam a good flex and was really happy with the results it somewhat bonded and the cracked effect was exactly what i was after fully committed and full of excitement i began with some xps phone offcuts i also had these little cable clips used for securing wires in your house and thought these could make nice little details i removed the nail and started to play around with how i could fit them on they worked really nicely with a bamboo skewer jammed between the foam and the clip [Music] the next step was to glue the sides onto a larger piece of eva foam which would make up the base of the road i wedged these in place with some books while everything dried so everything ended up nice and straight next i mixed up a load of that thin filler mixture and spread this out [Music] evenly [Music] [Music] i realized that you don't have to be too careful about getting everything perfectly flat as in its semi-liquid state with a little agitation the lumps and bumps soon flatten out funnily enough just like real concrete who would have thought so i did this with all three pieces and let them dry once set i added the little details to flesh out the sides and secured these in place with some glue [Music] and glued this to another length of foam to visually give the structure more mass and provide a further element to reveal in the destruction next i took some scrap board to use as a base i wasn't too concerned about the slight damage in the wood as i would probably carve away at the regular footprint of the base later [Music] i glued on the support and started to add some rubble randomly scattered around the support [Music] then i glued some bigger broken chunks of the substructure and secured these in place with some toothpicks [Music] and now for the moment of truth nice trying to tactically break the plaster in a controlled way was a bit of a hold your breath and hope moment but it all worked out great the flexible eva foam base worked a treat and i was able to control the amount of damage i was applying to the panel [Music] to further exaggerate the cracks i cut into the foam to imply deeper cracks downside was that some of the segments came loose but i found that if i glued each one down individually i could keep the lovely shape of the cracks and shore everything up at the same time even chaos and the randomness of destruction still has a form and a balance to strike i added some bent bits of wire to represent some of the steel work which concrete is poured around take care when doing this is the edges of the wire can be quite sharp i did this to all the exposed edges of the overpass i distressed some of the broken substructure with a knife making small and varied cuts to gradually break up the square edges [Music] and now to add some debris and a sense of life i wanted to create a small shack and some random bits of discarded junk now unfortunately this kind of makeshift shelter is all too common in many cities but for this purpose it provides great inspiration to draw from so i've got a piece of copper pipe to use as a barrel some balsa wood and a selection of different cardboards now every lived in urban environment creates waste and our little corner of creation is no different to make some rubbish bags i cut small rectangles out of actual black bin bags and rolled up a small piece of tissue to act as the contents of the bag then i twist this and gently warm the plastic with a lighter to melt it a little it doesn't need much just enough to seal the bag and then trim away any excess [Music] i made a whole bunch of these to scatter around the base for the barrel i cut this piece of copper piping at one end and then filed this down to take off any sharp edges cut down this is approximately the right scale for games workshop models and a cheap quick alternative if you just need some quick barrels i glued some coffee sticks together in a haphazard manner to make a makeshift shelter and began adding random bits of wood to begin to give some trace of life to the scene i added different bits of card of varying thickness and shape and i stripped back some of the outer layer on some corrugated card to use as some corrugated sheet metal again trying to keep things random and building up layers of different materials to create visual interest i have bits of plastic bag and tissue paper with pva to again add further texture and could imply a discarded fabric of sorts i dot in rubbish bags in random places and slowly the traces of human presence is felt the key to this is using elements we all recognize from daily life to imagine what the place would smell like to create a visceral place in our mind and use visual triggers to complete that story to the viewer i keep building on this and adding more and more layers and then add some broken bits of foam and plaster and dirt to introduce a real feel of grime and debris like the larger scatter elements the rubble scatter is made up of lots of different sized pieces to enhance the sense of scale [Music] i apply this with some water down pva [Music] and then give everything a spray with some more water down pva to seal everything [Music] once dry i give everything a coat of primer i sprayed some black into the darker areas i i keep the coats light so that any solvents in the spray paint don't melt the foam do a test piece if you're unsure in this case the more expensive black primer is far more aggressive than the cheaper gray can experiment and see what works for you next i came in with some acrylics using grays and greens and browns watered down into a heavy wash consistency i vary the amount of paint to water ratio and create areas which are more rich in color and others where more water is added to blend colors directly together on the surface i try to avoid larger areas of one color and try to vary the tone switching between lighter and darker colors this is a simple yet powerful tool and when employed correctly it keeps your eye moving around the piece as there is always a relationship created between one color to the next your eye cannot rest and is carefully guided around the scene think of it like music a single note is cool and all but it's much more interesting with different notes around it [Music] next i paint the road surfaces with a darker gray working quite quickly and not worrying about neatness at this stage all i'm concentrating on now is to lay off any brush strokes so as to not leave any blatant brush marks visible i mix up some highly pigmented wash with some black and brown ink water down and a little acrylic medium and apply this to all the cracked areas of the tarmac keeping the mix more concentrated in deeper cracks and then washing any excess with only water to draw the colour into a smooth gradient [Music] as i move around the model i introduce more variation in tone to the concrete and this can be done loosely and freely next i deepen some of the shadow areas with a transparent black into all the recesses this begins to tie everything together and smooth the transition between material i spray some extra paint into the cracks to introduce another gradient and i will work back into this with lighter colors to disguise the obviously airbrushed [Music] marks [Music] i mix up several tones of lighter grays and lightly brush over the edges and the raised areas of the broken concrete this adds contrast and begins to define the different shapes and bring out the detail and then come in with a wet brush to draw the inner edges away into the darker areas of the concrete this mix between dry brushing and watery washes can create nice little accidents [Music] next i load some white into the airbrush hit the inside of the barrel and the surrounding area to give the illusion of a fiery glow i paint in the wood and begin to coat the metal with some silver [Music] this is glaringly bright at this point but i will knock this back with some grunge wash [Music] i load up some transparent oxide into my airbrush and filter over the white and then hit the central part of the barrel with some warm yellow and now for the fun part to further set the scene a motorway overpass like this wouldn't be complete without a healthy dose of graffiti now this doesn't mean that it needs to be good graffiti now i have a deep fondness of graffiti and street art and it was a huge contributing factor to me getting into airbrushing in the first place and yet to create a sense of realism it's important to acknowledge that not every urban decorator is a gifted artist i taped up some road markings on the road surfaces and stipple some dirty white so the paint is not evenly applied again taking care to remove any obvious brush marks i carefully peel away the tape to reveal a crisp but broken line i come in with a warmer gray to pick out some details and further push the variations in tone and [Music] texture i paint in some drips and wash back over these with some water and i don't know if it's just me but for those who have been to places like this in real life some clever soul always seems to throw some mystery household paint at the wall so i also included some of this in my scene [Music] too i added some extra highlights to specific areas and used some streaking grime from ak interactive to add more grunge and drips this is an enamel paint which for those who haven't used it i would describe it something similar to a solvent-based ink it's highly pigmented but breaks down really well when thinned with white spirit this allows you to create wonderfully smooth blends and you can layer this to your heart's content i trimmed up the rectangular footprint with a dremel and touched in the edges and finally i sprinkled a little magic dust just some dried dirt which has some lovely subtle color variations and there we are i've enjoyed building this project so much and i really could have kept adding to it i had ideas about building a shopping cart out of paper clips and building makeshift bridges between each section but for the sake of this video i'll call it here i've been absolutely overwhelmed with the incredible support so far so if you want to stay up with more videos like this you can subscribe hit the like button and share it with friends who you feel may be interested i started with an image in my mind influenced by growing up in an urban environment let my imagination run wild and learn valuable lessons along the way but importantly it was a ton of fun and i look forward to putting them to good use on the tabletop enjoy [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Creative Cuts

Views: 19,314

Keywords: Gamesworkshop, Warhammer40k, Scenery, Terrain, Hobby, Craft, Create, Painting, Tutorial

Id: vtPyI-yJU2I

Length: 23min 28sec (1408 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 13 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/ShinyMetalAnatomy]

I saw this video a while ago and it inspired me to make some overpasses! They don’t look nearly as good but I’m proud of them and they are a great way to break up the ruined cityscape tropes!

[u/JJModeller]

nice work. subed