Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The lava looks great! Believably nice and hot!

 Viktor von Domm wrote:
amazing... this outcome with a brush that ruined.... respect!
i like the lava, it looks very hot...but for a final judgement it definitely needs daylight pics... the flash ruins a lot of the colour temperature...
regarding fluff... i wonder how the tau could build a landing pad straight over live lava...that must be some awesome heat resistant material

Agreed with this, the only thing missing is a bit of reddish-ness on the rocks, I think, since they're so close and touching the lava but look cool from this pic. But quite nice so far

EyeamRai - thanks for the kind words

RiTides - there is some drybrushed red as the rocks touch the lava, but due to the sand texture, any more could have made it looked less glow and more gloop. Photos clearly aren't showing it off well, I'll make sure the final set highlight the detail that exists (I've put in tunnels for lava to go under and holes at the back of a mini cave etc)

Project 1 - LoER 14: Tau Landing Pad/Fortification with Sensor Tower
Finally done some more on the terrain - bit too close to deadline though!!!

Made a few leaps forward tonight - finished the collar beneath the pad that will smooth transition between it and the central column and have the significant benefit of allowing pad to be removed for transit/storage and being therefore easily reattached:

Once dry I'll give that a prime and then aim to paint tomorrow.

Next I managed to complete construction on the force bridge and sensor tower:

The tower is not as I had originally envisioned and has a lot of SM bits attached, because I have not yet made any Tau models to have been left with parts. I hope this looks the part it is supposed to play. It is detachable due to it's fragility and likelihood of being knocked in transit/storage. To mark it's position, the bridge has a longer base piece on one end which will be glued down after painting and allows the sensor tower to be in be correct place.

Would love C&C

Bits and doodads are what makes things look great. None of the stuff I make ever looks exactly like what I envisioned to begin with. Just run with whatever happens and it will look awesome. Great work so far.

thats coming along famously TP. Loving the lava btw. looks great.

Thanks guys. Was really pleased when I went to bed last night having achieved that, I've also primed the plate and force bridge now. Now the collar and sensor tower are dry I'm going to prime this morning, so I can cut down painting time tonight.

I really like how your bridge turned out.

isn´t it crazy how some parts/ bitz are so interchangeable between factions?... i´ve used bitz of tau/ork/marines/eldar/IG for vice versa quite often... if you look careful your bitz bx is always your best buddy in the hobby^^

 Viktor von Domm wrote:
isn´t it crazy how some parts/ bitz are so interchangeable between factions?... i´ve used bitz of tau/ork/marines/eldar/IG for vice versa quite often... if you look careful your bitz bx is always your best buddy in the hobby^^

Absolutely agree, I've incorporated some of the reasons for SM stuff in to the fluff actually just for fun. Thanks to the extension and Dave Grohl breaking his leg, I'll have three days to work on this now from Friday to Sunday - it's on! All I gotta do is paint the pad, first attempt didn't cut it - back to the beginning I've decided.

@EyeamRai - I love my bridge, really chuffed.

Did you know that he broke his leg here in Berlin?

It was in Sweden I read, or has he done it before????

er....i heard it on the radio... but i might have not heard the full story...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
silly me... just read the news......my favourite rock station told the story... but i only listened with half an ear^^

I'm doing that all the time. Why don't we all say that he broke his leg in our own countries so we feel like we own it poor man. He's such a nice bloke too.

lol... it is a bit as it is with William Shakespeare...there is still a mystery about his true origins... many countries claimed he is from theirs then^^

Ah the comparison is apt - Dave Grohl is the William Shakespeare of modern music

weird thing is tho that i doubt he would have become that famous too with nirvana and cobain still alive... he needed his death in my view to get out of his vast shadow...

TP--do you have any close ups of the ruler/bridge?

project looks great, btw.

I've been dragged away from modelling for a couple of days. I've gotta get this beasty finished, in the process of that I'll take some close-ups of the bridge and post here

I'd love to see some final shots, for sure!

Project 2 - LoER 15 Trap Door on a Space Hulk
Hey guys, the landing pad is not abandoned, and any followers of my modelling blog (see signature for link) will know that I am going to utilise it for a miniature challenge run by Paradigm which will force me to get that baby finished. Therefore expect updates soon.

The next LoER is themed Trap Door! So having just bought a sealed copy of Space Hulk 4th ed off eBay and having received great responses for my Tyranids eggs and goo included in my June entry to Paradigm's painting challenge, I couldn't shake the idea of producing a Space Hulk room for use in game that had a trap door in it with eggs included under the trap door.

So planning underway, I used the claymation show from the 1980s as a slight theme partly as an homage as it was included in the original LoER 15 post but also because it helped me to achieve part of the effect I needed to allow it's use in game. So here is the dungeon from said show:


Here are my sketches:

Long story short - there are three components. First is essential for contest (the room), 2nd is for gameplay (intersection and ladder combination) and 3rd (bridge) connects the two.
Room is twice the height I have allocated for Space Hulk corridor height (8cm) to allow for tallest Genestealer, the big room is a store room with large hatch at the left wall (in the same way there is a door in the Trap Door Dungeon) to allow loading cranes etc to get in. Might check on dreadnought size for a degree of scale appropriateness, but this won't open. In the facing wall there is a high door on the second floor level off-centre to the right, with a high platform and ladder coming down on the left (again as in Trap Door Dungeon). The trap door is Off-centre to the left and is left ajar with eggs down the hatch, there will be mesh floor tiles with eggs visible through these too. The floor with trap door and mesh will be 2cm above real base to allow the eggs to sit there without looking forced in to a tight space.

I thought the trap door and high door being central would look a little odd and cramped, hence spreading them out and forcing myself to veer a little away from the Trap Door dungeon, happy to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

I plan to concentrate fully on the room. The intersection and bridge pieces would be magnetised etc, bit fiddly and are not priority for the contest, but I would want them completed so the room could be used in a game at some point. I'm going to plan a timetable and get started with completion of the landing pad being the first thing to do in the next few weeks.

Hope that makes some sense.

This definitely sounds interesting, though I think I'll have to see things underway for me to *get it*, more of my problem than one with your drawn plans

You're being kind. My drawings are poor.

Imagine a box (space ship store room) with a fake bottom, alien eggs in the gap between real and fake bottoms and a little trap door going down to the eggs. People enter the store room from a high door and climb down a ladder.

My brain and typing rambles a lot, the rest is not overly necessary, but that's the main crux. I tried copying the Trap Door claymation dungeon because I loved that show as a child.

do i get this right, basically it will be a box shaped cellsystem to be built as a space hulk table?...hell... you have cool ideas mate! totally wanna see this as i want to build something along that lines for quite some time now too... but always i got stopped due to certain limitations... measurings done dumb^^ or the materials not enough...

Very interesting. As for the magnetization, that would be considered an advanced modelling technique - i.e., credit where credit's due

Viktor von Domm wrote:do i get this right, basically it will be a box shaped cellsystem to be built as a space hulk table?...hell... you have cool ideas mate! totally wanna see this as i want to build something along that lines for quite some time now too... but always i got stopped due to certain limitations... measurings done dumb^^ or the materials not enough...

My brother had 1st ed Space Hulk when I was a kid and I was not allowed to play, I was the baby. So I clearly fell in love with it. Now I have a bright shiny new 4th ed set I love it! Of course I clearly want to see the ship itself, so would love to build each segment required for the maps. However if I aim to do the whole thing I'll never succeed, so I'll build one little room that I can use with the cardboard bits that come with it and then maybe over time make more, or not. Either way it'll make a good diorama base to show off future minis.

inmygravenimage wrote:Very interesting. As for the magnetization, that would be considered an advanced modelling technique - i.e., credit where credit's due

Graven, you are a supportive, complimentary evil genius! I was trying to make sure I finished this time - you know, "only aim to build one room", "the rest is a bonus" and all that. How do you know how to manipulate me so easily when I barely know you?????

On a less sarcastic (and rubbish attempt at humorous) note, thanks for that tip Graven. At least I'll know I'd get that credit if I pull it off

the project looks promising on paper...good luck with it.

did you ever finish the lava board for the last comp?

this sounds awesome TP - cant wait to see it. cracking idea
(wish my copy of SH would hurry up and arrive :( )

GawdamSumbish - I'm on the case. Another paint coat went on a few nights ago. That's my priority at the mo, I need it for a figure contest.

Thanks Jan - I'm quite excited about this idea

On that topic, I've been buying materials:

I think this is a good steel grate proxy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Good news! The landing pad has lights:

Was really cool to see them on when in place
Can't get the red paint I'm using to smooth out. Will try one more coat and see, but the distressed red is growing on me

So I got fed up of getting nowhere near started with my Space Hulk room. Therefore I started cutting stuff up:

Need to timetable the project so I know my progress