For a long time, I’ve been meaning to start a library of textures images for modelers to reference for their models and dioramas. I intend this to be a living thread, so please feel free to add to it and help grow it, but please don’t fill it with comments. I’d like to keep it lean, mean, and very scrollable with keywords good for searching. Also, don’t link to other pages or share other people’s work. Let’s keep this organic.
If there seems to be enough interest and varied subjects, I’ll break out the images into categories—architecture, vehicles, ground scapes, etc.
And yes, I go into alleys—a lot. It’s there that you find some of the coolest ideas for stories and compositions. It’s also where you can see how things weather because its not kept up like the street fronts often are.
Here’s a picture of an image I made for Marston Matting (pierced steel planking) I did for basing of fighters. (Not sure if it qualifies, Tim. Let me know and I’ll take it down.)
I will not post any of the te3xtures in my collection except the single one I shot myself. However, I think this comment is important. Mostly I get my textures from Google Images. Go to Google, select Images. Then enter the term “Textures”. Then the type of material. The result is an image of the texture, nothing else. Ready to use- no extracting,
Alley; weathered wood; wood stairs; metal fire escape; brick facade; windows; painted door; rust; rusty metal handrail; electrical conduit. Editorial: I really like that the fire escape leads to the downspout and there isn’t a ladder that drops—story element in a scene if modeled.
Textures is used more in the environmental design sense here, Don. How do these things play with each other in reality? The effects of weather on different materials. It’s not about extraction, but observation. Inspiration. For instance, I was looking at car bumpers today and started snapping photos for a future post. If a bunch of photos of bumpers can help a modeler get that certain look or free them from thinking their attempt doesn’t look “real” or inspires them to try something new, then we’ve succeeded.
