Still procrastinating

OK, so the 'facial color modulation' thing I was working on, let's leave it for a bit.  I've been talking about how what we do with miniatures is making something look real, not necessarily simulate reality.  There is, of course, a converse to this: we make things look like we think they should, not like they actually do.  This is the subject of today's (series) of posts.  First, I want to point you to a small gallery of images I took today (one is older, but whatever).  These are all just from walking down the street, no going out of my way or anything.

Let me explain what I was trying to capture in each of these (comments after image links)

http://i.imgur.com/fcbVXBW.jpg

We've all seen markings like these on the street: utility companies marking line locations, among other things.  How often do you see them on miniature bases that are supposedly concrete?  They're common, they add some interest to a scene, but we forget them.  Also note the dried dirt-blackened gum, the dust and cruft washing towards the street from the signpost, and the bits of grass and greenery coming through the cracks.  This is a well-traveled bit of sidewalk, too (Prospect and North or thereabouts), but there's still a lot of places that don't get stepped on.  Finally, look at the colors.  At least 3 distinct shades of grey for the concrete here.  We'll get back to that in a minute.

http://i.imgur.com/KD3gRfA.jpg

More gum, some interesting faded stains too, but the focus is the little bolt nubbins.  You can see what they're from to the right, but here's something that, if you want a simple concrete base, can add a bit of interest without throwing off the whole composition.  How to do it?  Drill a hole, stick a clipped-off bit of paperclip in it, et voila.  Paint and you're good to go (here's a bit from a mini that's pretty much an eternal WIP...

Just right there in the center.  It's not much, but it adds the idea that 'this has structure underneath it,' and gives you a place to put some rust (because who doesn't love rust?

http://i.imgur.com/yjbURuM.jpg

Broken things.  Few points here.
One, that base is almost definitely aluminum, seeing as how it's not rusting despite having been there for a while.  Keep this in mind.  Different metals react differently.  Titanium, Aluminum, Copper, all passivate naturally.  Ferric metals can be passivated (bluing a firearm, for example, or galvanized steel) as well.  If you want to simulate metals, learn how they behave, and you'll be able to pick out differences more easily.
Two, there's litter stuck in there, and some wrapping half-heartedly stuck around the wires.  If you remember September 11, there was paper all over the city, falling for miles and miles around.  An urban scene has no reason not to have newspaper and garbage blowing around, or at least stuck in a crevice.  (accomplish this with cigarette rolling papers cut into small rectangles, paint tiny lines for text)
Three, the lines on the concrete don't really match, now do they?  We like to think of cities as ordered and well-made, but that's not the case.  If you're making a base out of clay/putty flagstones or something and they don't exactly match up, or if you're drawing lines in milliput to simulate expansion joints, and they don't match up, don't sweat it.  It's probably more realistic that way anyhow.

http://i.imgur.com/EzlWG0s.jpg

Sometimes things just don't need reasons.  These scratches were all over these 2 panels of sidewalk.  Why?  How?  I have no clue.  It wasn't near a storefront (metal standees might scratch up the ground), or a bus stop (heavy traffic) or anything I could see.  Doesn't really matter, does it?  While most weathering and rust should be deliberate, don't be afraid to inject something into a scene just for the sake of interest.

http://i.imgur.com/oz5QgPI.jpg

Palimpsests.  This one is pretty mild, only keeping the staples, but we've all seen posts bulging with handbills, or construction barriers with poster over poster over poster...Things group.  It's never one mushroom growing in a field, it's a cluster.  It's not just one bill on a post, it's 2, 3, 10.  Ever worked retail?  It's never a steady flow of  people, they come in waves.  It's just one of those laws of nature.  Also, things like this show age and use.  If you want a place to have a sense of history (forest, city, building, doesn't matter), show its age.  For a forest, a fallen tree and new growth around it will do it.  A skull on a base, half-buried, shows that people have been dying in that place for a while: great for setting the scene for 40k.

http://i.imgur.com/rWZJNxm.jpg

Color, damage, and randomness: You can tell which concrete is new and which is old, right?  The new is bluer, smoother, and darker.  As it ages, it yellows, lightens, and gains (thru weathering) color and texture variations.  The cracks and damage here seem somewhat random, too.  Lightning-like and spidery, they just start and stop around this weird shape.  Concrete doesn't usually crack in straight lines, and it usually doesn't just crack once.  I'm not saying you need to have the same kind of squiggly lines this one has, but maybe find an example and go from there.

http://i.imgur.com/fJIB1nk.jpg

Coming off of my talk about color on the last image is this one.  It's kind of common sense to say bricks are dark red, concrete is grey, whatever, right?  We've already shown that concrete has so many variations that just saying 'grey' is kind of dumb.  You have warm greys, cool greys, dark and light ones, etc.  Pick what you want for what you're trying to accomplish.  These bricks are mostly red, but there are some dark ones that are nearly black, some almost neutral brown, some light, some dark, and so on and so forth.
What color are rocks?  Pick up a handful of gravel and count the colors, or look at the rocks in some concrete aggregate.  Yellow, black, brown, red, even some blues and greens sometime.  Cobblestone floors should show a similar degree of variation.  To keep the whole thing from looking daft, start with a base color (preferably half a shade lighter than the average color of the whole thing when finished) and then glaze each individual bit with some different colors.  Couple examples at tabletop quality (sorry for potato quality photo):



A lot more interesting than mono-colored wood and brick, right?  Plus, it helps delineate between individual planks of wood, which is useful to add definition to the base.

http://i.imgur.com/3c81aay.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lddtIn1.jpg

One last thing: rust is fast.  Granted, this is untreated metal that's supposed to rust for the purposes of aesthetics, but still, neither of these facades is more than 5 months old.  Rust can form on a surface in hours if you provide favorable conditions.  Keep that in mind when weathering.  While less is more, sometimes things act exaggeratedly in real life.


So I'm going to try and put some of these principles into action on a base, hopefully later tonite but by Wednesday at the latest.  A lot of people neglect their bases, but I think they're one of the most fun parts of a miniature, so long as you approach them with a good attitude.
'Til next time.