This piece was done as part of a terrain making contest on Terragenesis. The theme was to build something with a CD as the base. My entry was a border crossing -- a road, guard shack, and gate. Something that I hope to feature in a FMA scenario someday.
One thing I don't like about using CD's is how they still look like CD's even after detailing the base, so I attempted to disguise the shape with card (Fig 1). But since the purpose of the contest was to produce something with a CD base, I was deterred from going to far with this train of thought.I ended up finishing this in a rush over a long weekend, so not all the details I had in my head actually made it into the model, but I'm still happy with how it looks. It will be a playable piece on the table.
After my initial planning I went back to keeping the CD shape, and used cardboard for the road passing across the CD and the sides of the road as well. A rough guard shack was made out of various sheets of currogated cardboard and I tried to make it look like a cheap metal building. Finally I used a stick from a prepackaged corn-dog to build the gate (Fig 2).
The next step was to texture the base with a mixture of PVA glue, spackle, and sand. I also glued down the gate post and attached the crossbar with a nail so it would have some movement. The guard shack got a base coat of black spray paint and I put in some clear plastic for the windows. A single "concrete" tank trap completed this stage (Fig 3).
Then the base was ready for it's coats of brown and black and then it would be time for details (Fig 4).
After that it was time for a lot of drybrushing. I used greys and aluminum on the guard shack and a rust wash. The ground got browns, greens and some red and yellow splashes for color (Fig 5, 6).
