March has begun and as I suspected, I’m still working on this piece of terrain from Black Site Studios. I have made some decent progress, even if I’ve still got a ways to go before finishing it. One of the things I did was work on dulling down the white parts on the window frames a bit more and painting up the doors. Unfortunately the photos are a little blown out so you’ll have to wait to see the the new and improved window frames. As you may recall, one of the cool things about Black Site Studios terrain is they include working doors in their designs. Its great for gameplay and it adds a realistic touch to the terrain too.
The doors have some holes in them and I decided to show some chipped/missing paint as well. I don’t know that I completely nailed the look but it looks better than just have white with some dirt on it anyway. I even experimented with a kind of wear that I see a lot of wooden doors have when I look at potential painting references. Unfortunately the bottom of the door isn’t as in focus as I’d like but you can get they idea anyway, hopefully. I don’t know if I completely nailed it but I like how it looks for my first attempt anyway.
Unfortunately, I made a mistake I’ve made before and lost patience while working on this terrain project. On the top of the front door, I was trying to add the white block that keeps the door in place and it was a tight fit. I pushed the white block into its spot hard enough that it was basically stuck and it wouldn’t move forward to fully sit in the place it should be. This impeded the door’s ability to open and close so it was not ideal. It was also too late try and get it out so instead I jammed it in and somehow managed to get it in place. The bad thing is that it damaged the MDF on the other side so that the top of the door is exposed. Here is a look so you can see what I mean.
Honestly, it doesn’t look bad because this is heavily ruined house but I should have been more careful and I could have fixed that problem be sanding down the piece a bit before painting it. The piece that is broken is ever so slightly fragile feeling too so that’s something I’ll have to watch in the future too. Staying patient with terrain is my biggest challenge. I just don’t stay as patient as I need to and I sometimes make mistakes that are mostly preventable like this one. I’m just lucky the whole piece didn’t break off as that wouldn’t have looked as nice. One of these days, I will be extra patient and careful and build one of these kits without any issues… hopefully anyway.
There’s still more to come on house including more walls, the foundation, and a few other surprises. I’m a little skeptical I can get it all done for next week but I’ll see what I can accomplish anyway. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all of that.
I did manage to beat Metro Exodus last week and I have to say that it is indeed an excellent game. If you want to play something that is narrative-based, set in the post-apocalypse, and has a bit more realism in its gameplay compared to other first-person shooters, I’d recommend it. One of the things that struck me is that Metro Exodus found ways to present somewhat familiar locales and made them fresh. For example, you visit the Caspian Sea which has a pretty Mad Max look about it but you find out that the ruler of that area became a cult leader to convince “locals” to worship and work for him which in turn gave him a lot of power. The “locals” are people who are not-Caucasian and I feel like there is some interesting commentary about Russian society in the story. It also is a nice reminder that the area is more diverse than outsiders tend to think it is. Historically speaking, there is a melting pot of culture, religion and ethnicity going back to at least the Mongols. One thing I did want to mention and forgot last time is that Metro Exodus is actually made by Ukrainians, if I’m not mistaken as well, so there’s no need to worry about seeing a lot of Kremlin propaganda in this one. You can just turn on the news if you’re US-based to get that these days! There are many other things to like about the game but I don’t want to yammer on about it. I’ve “celebrated” beating the game by immediately starting a New Game Plus on Ranger Hardcore difficulty so that I can earn some more achievements. It is the hardest difficulty setting in the game but so far I’m doing okay with it so we’ll see if I can’t beat it and keep piling up the achievements on Steam.
That’s it for me for this week. I will try and do some kind of Fallout February round up post in a few days so I look forward to sharing the results from it. Fortunately some people actually followed through on the challenge and got something done in February too!
Kuribo's Painting 
Oh cool man. The plant chopping looks great. It’s always the little details that sell a piece
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Glad to hear you like it! I’ve got even more surprises in store for next weekend. Hopefully you’ll find this building to be properly dingy and destroyed enough that it fits in with some of your terrain projects 🙂
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Excellent weathering on the door Jeff, does have a really worn look to it.
With the broken piece above the lintel (top of the door frame) I would suggest gluing the piece above down to the top of the lintel. Yes it will break away from the rest of the wall and add a crack to the side, but would look more natural, plus less likely to lose that bit by knocking it off.
Sounds like you have enjoyed your gaming, and some great looking visuals in it.
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Thanks, Dave! Glad to hear you like the latest progress. That is a good point on the piece that is halfway broken. I will give it some thought and might just take you up on your suggestion.
Truthfully, I probably played Metro Exodus so much that it cut into my painting time but I think I’ll be able to right that balance over the next couple of weeks and if nothing else, its kept my hobby inspiration high so that has to count for something.
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Good progress, Jeff, and sound advice from Dave on the door lintel! 🙂 I’ve found that a lot of MDF models and 3D resin prints seem to lack proper clearance between bits that fit together, so the fit’s tight if you’re lucky and “Uh-oh” if you’re not (tank turrets are the worst)!
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You’ve described it very well, John. I usually apply paint and varnish MDF pieces and that REALLY makes it a tight fit, unfortunately. If you can stay patient, test fit everything, and make adjustments when there are tight fits, you’ll avoid mistakes. Its actually executing that which is the hard part for me, however!
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I think the door mishap was not a problem. I like the ruined house as it came out, very nice.
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The mistake does blend in and looks fairly believable so I was very lucky in that regard! I hope you like the finished product when I get around to it too.
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I have never worked with a mdf product, so am learning a lot from reading your blog and the progress you are making. Looking forward to seeing the final result.
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I’m glad to hear it. There are some good kits out there. TTCombat’s Elven ones were something I wanted to use in LOTR and never got around to it: https://ttcombat.com/collections/fantasy-realms/province_elven-woodbine-glen.
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Elven terrain has always eluded me, all those fancy arches are intimidating.
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It would be tricky to do it from scratch. MDF kits would make that part easier though painting it could be challenging in some respects at the same time.
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yeah, sometimes the MDF kits don’t go together smoothly and can have cascading effects like that, and I don’t think one really needs working doors in a house that is a pile of ruin. in a Wild West game? sure, gotta kick in the doors and go in guns blazing.
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That’s exactly right on MDF kits. I tend to think the higher quality kits are more forgiving of this but I might be wrong. I have some ideas for how to make those doors look cool down the road so hopefully that will convince you when the time comes. I do know where you’re coming from though!
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Goodness me, that house looks so cool. I don’t think that I’d worry too much over that one door not opening properly – it’s a post-apocalyptic ruin anyway, probably the hinges are rusted shut 🙂
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I got the door in good working order since its the front door. I have some plans for how I’m going to use it in the future!
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Awesome work, looks like a ruined building from Fallout 4. The extra details make it much more immersive, even if its small, it just helps with getting that visual enviroment down.
Admittedly I’ve been pretty busy, so I’m late with Fallout February 😨. However, I’ve just posted my Lily and Raul post today, which if it’s not too late, I’d be more than happy for you to use in your round up post. 🙂
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Thank you, mate! I’m still trucking away and adding more and more details to it as we speak 😀
No worries! I’ll definitely add them to the challenge post. I’ve been busy so far this week and it looks like it will be tomorrow or this weekend before I can get that done. I look forward to sharing Lily and Raul soon! 🙂
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