Inglorious Technicolor!

While I really enjoy making terrain, I've found that my natural instinct is to colour everything grey. Although most fantastical buildings probably would be made of either stone or concrete, it does make for a rather drab battlefield, especially if you can't paint the neon lights like those in Blade Runner.

So I decided to experiment with some colour. I looked at pictures of the favelas in Rio, where crude buildings are often painted very brightly, and tried to do a colour scheme like that on a model. The building I made was built out of a cheap wooden chest that I bought at an art shop (perhaps for storing jewellery) on top of a lower storey made out of textured plasticard. Additional doors, windows and tech stuff were attached to break up the outline from a variety of old models and basing kits.

I'm really not sure what to make of the result. The green colour bothers me a bit: I tried to mute it down with sponged-on highlights/dirt, but it does feel very lurid. I'm reminded of the sort of "you'd never know it was a shampoo bottle, honest" terrain from the early days of wargaming. That said, the colours do tie in quite nicely with the market stalls and some of the random machinery that I've already made. Here's a back view:

I do like the brickwork (it's a bit washed out here) and the object source lighting. I'll have a think about the green colour. If either of you readers happen to have any thoughts, please do send me a comment below.

Anyway, more terrain. For some reason, since time immemorial, it has been the custom in the UK to sell oranges in a mesh bag. Recently, these bags have had a sort of plastic fishnet panel at the front. I hacked up one of these and used it as wire for a fence. Stuck between bits of sprue, and suitably painted, it looks quite convincing.