CRANKIN' OUT THE RUBBLE

hen we started working on our massive city table, one problem raised its ugly head. Where were we going to get enough rubble? Sure, we could run out and buy bags of stones, but they probably would have made our city look more like the bottom of an aquarium than a 40K battlefield. After all, rubble in a city should have straight edges and have the feel of being slightly artificial.

After cutting out and cleaning all of the new Cities of Death plastic buildings from their sprue frames, we had a ton of empty sprues sitting around. We realised they would make for great rubble, but it would take forever to cut up each frame by hand with clippers.

After some experimentation, I figured out how to 'crank out' a lot of rubble in a hurry, and purchased an old-style meat grinder from a nearby discount store. Though everyone (including me) was skeptical as to whether or not it would work, I bolted it to a table in the workshop and starting feeding it empty sprues. It took me a little while to get the pacing of the crank right, but once I did, the rubble practically poured out of the grinder spout. I made huge amounts of rubble in a matter of minutes. (Now, before you go and steal your Mother's meat grinder, know that using it for making rubble will make it unusable for food products!).

With piles of sprue rubble in hand, we carved out small hills from insulation foam to build up the areas where we wanted to make rubble piles. This kept us from using all our rubble and modelling putty. Next, we covered the foam with modelling putty (textured paint would have also worked). Before it dried, we pushed the rubble into the putty, shook off any excess, and filled in any empty spots that appeared. For some of the piles, we also added in miscellaneous bits to give them more of a 40K look (Warhammer Skeleton Regiment sprues came in handy, as will your bits box). To keep the rubble in place, we painted a coat of white PVA glue over it once the putty dried.

I ended up giving all of these pieces the same paint scheme so they will fit in with our upcoming city table. We'll explain that paint scheme in the article that covers that project. However, to give you a preview: black undercoat, basecoat of Scorched Brown, drybrush Dark Flesh followed by a 1:1 mix of Shadow Grey and Codex Grey. Next, drybrush a highlight of Fortress Grey. Finish with Vermin Brown for the rust.

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