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i dont play wh40k , havnt for a long while , but alot of my terrain is based or built based on GW methods , just different materials . here are some items i did for other games , but figured you might be interested since they can be applied to 40K battle fields :


I have been working on a lot of projects for a lot of games and personal stuff , to the point of over load .

I have had to cut WAYYYYYYYYY back on a lot and put several others on the shelf till later , because I had so many things going on , I couldn’t get ANY of them done .


So I have seen a lot of the terrain projects people have done for ruined buildings for WH40K and the like , and the one issue I have with them is that when you build a ruin on a big solid base , its always going to be that size . And a lot of the modelers like to put a lot of rubble on the bases , its just not practical to play on . the scenery falls apart , and it can damage minis depending on what its made out of . by building the ruins my way , i can use them for ANY minis game in this scale , wheather its on a grid , or open table top .

originaly i started this project a long while back for AT-43 , but i am finally finishing them so i can use them for DUST-TACTICS , and 28mm ZOMBIE PLAGUE .

Looking at pictures of bombed out cities from WW2, there is a lot of rubble filling the space the buildings used to occupy , and small rubble wall sections and building corners .



Doing the WH40k method may look nice , but is impractical for playing on . Instead I wanted something more modular and practical . as a result I decided to make corners and wall sections , without the big rectangular bases , so I can make the buildings as big or small as I wanted to just by moving the corners closer or farther apart .



One of the big drawbacks to a lot of terrain is its made out of cheap crap , so it falls apart if you just look at it wrong , and most gamers are not gentle enough , so it just doesn’t last .

So instead of the cheap materials like foam board , Styrofoam , card board , etc ...... . I use higher grade materials . YES it does cost more , but in most cases its not much more , and it lasts A LOT longer , so its worth the added cost .

So here is the first project , still ongoing , but far enough along to post .




Here are my building corners . i got the idea to do the smaller ones based on the scenario in the original rules book from first ed . they used cork board to rep the farm rubble foundations , but i like this better .

I have several that aren’t shown , including several of the church like building ruins they sold in one of the starters way back , I will add some more pics later when it is all done , and I finally use them in a game on a bigger board .



The material is PVC FOAM BOARD , yes that’s PVC , just like the stuff they make PVC pipes out of , but whipped into a foam , and formed into sheets of varying size , thickness , and color . Prices vary , but a sheet about the same size and thickness as a regular piece of foam board goes for about $20 plus shipping .

It can be cut and carved using wood tools , or exacto knives . To speed things up I used a band saw to cut the sizes I needed , and then used exacto knives to carve the edges to get the broken effect . No 2 are alike , and most of the larger ones took about an hour and a half each to make from start to finished painting .

Because its PVC , I used PVC cement to glue them together .

This stuff is STRONG , I have a corner section not shown in the pics that I used to show people , I would throw it on the ground a few times , pound it on a table , and then put a 5 pound sledge hammer head on the upper floor , to show how sturdy and stable it is . It wont buckle under the weight of heavier figs like dreadnoughts and such .

Since its PVC , this also means you can spray paint it directly , and it wont eat it up .



Here they are laid out on a section of my cutting mat .






Now with some ballast rubble super glued on that I got from the hobby store , ready for priming .





Here are a few I did with wider base sections , and bigger corners




And a few that I have painted and dry brushed , ready for sealing





tank traps


rather than JUST the standard tank traps , i wanted something more . i actually made these for AT-43 , but never got the chance to use them . they are made with the same method i used to make the above wall sections , but rather than wall sections , i cut platistruct I beams at 45 degree angles and glued the cut edge to the same carved style bases .

this allowed me to make linear tank traps that would be placed along boarders and corners .

for special rules , tanks and walkers cannot cross them .

you will notice the corner sections , if placed on a corner they effect that corner , keeping vehicles from doing diagonal movement through the effected corner .

infantry can pass over them normaly , and gain soft cover if in a square that is boardered by one , regardless of what side the shot comes from .







here you will see the more common type of obsticle , made from plastistruct I beams glued together . they are smaller beams than those used above . you can buy them in a variety of sizes at any train shop .

That looks really nice. Do you have a source you can post for this pvc foam board stuff?

sadly , i only learned of PVC foam board by happening upon it at a local hobby store that went out of business noone else in town seems to be able to find the stuff to order it .

since then i was able to get some from an ebay store that was dumping their whole inventory , and have been unable to find a reliable source for small quantities of it . you can find some of the suppliers online , but they tend to want alot for it , and shipping is over priced .

this guy on ebel is selling it , but only in 3mm thickness . while thats good for most projects , its not as sturdy as 5 MM i prefer , so i would not place heavy metal models on upper levels like i can with the 5 MM . the pic of the 2 larger corners on the wider bases are done with 3 mm thick bases so it is still very useful , and alot easier to carve in many respects .

http://stores.ebay.com/Plastic-Craft-Products

Sounds very interesting, lots of crafting potential and the fact that it can be spray painted is a huge plus. Available in a variety of colors as well. Here's the suppliers that I found using google fu:

http://www.foamboardsource.com/sintra-pvc-foam--sintra-pvc-board.html

http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/PVC_Foam_Board


It is very pricey, but the sturdiness and variety may be worth it, especially if you can find it at a more reasonable price.

it is WELL worth it . when i happened on it at a local hobby store that later closed , i was paying $6 for a sheet the size of a sheet of copier paper . i used it to put together a couple of the big GW building ruin kits that they came out with a few years back that i later sold .

i was just lucky to find the ebay store that was dumping their supply , i got it at $5 a sheet for sheets the same size as a full sheet of foam board . i still have a good supply of it to last me several projects .

the ebay store i linked to above , it comes out to about $50 a sheet with shipping , but the sheets are 2X4 feet . even with my supply , i am thinking it might be neat to buy a couple sheets of the black , because its so long , it would be good to make roads out of .

another tip , if you are doing some shapes and such for larger cuttings without a saw , you can use a wire foam cutter , going slowly up and down , just make sure to do it outside , its doesnt release alot of fumes , but it does release a little , and since its PVC , you probably shouldnt be breathing it in . when i did my first building bases , i didnt have a saw to do them with to cut to the long sizes so this is how i did it in the beginning . but since getting my table top band saw , it now only takes about 5 seconds to cut a base .


Automatically Appended Next Post:
i found this in the forums : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/329231.page

i'm not discounting his projects , just surprised its being recieved as new . i was doing sprue terrain back when gorkamorka came out to make ork forts and necromunda terrain . the biggest reason i stopped was because it didnt have the tools to do nice styrene plastic bases for them so i didnt like the look of them , and i dont use card stock or cardboard for bases so .........

the reason i bring this up here is because i have been saving sprueing for quite a while . i periodicaly go through and clip it down into straight lengths and such because when i have the time , i plan to make some more sprue terrain using carved bases like those i did above .


Automatically Appended Next Post:
i think ithis is called a defiler , a friend of mine had me build and paint it for him because of my past experience with doing WH40K , and other projects .

the base is made from 2 layers of the PVC foam board . the first layer i just cut to circular . the second layer i cut and carved as above . but since it was for a nurgle piece , i stylized it with a nurgle symbol in the center , if you look close enough , you can see it .

Is that a.... sphincter?

JaxnFury wrote:Is that a.... sphincter?

yYEEEEEeEeEeEs , would you expect anything less from nurgle ?

finally got to try them out today . we got a late start , so my opponent couldnt stay for a second game , but it was fun .

we used the above house rules , so there was alot of survivability . next time we do the big table , we will make the buildings smaller , probably 2X3 square or 2X2 square , so there will be more of them since i didnt use up all my rubble corners .

30 point game took us about an hour to play casualy , and came down to a fairly close end , luck was just as important as the tactics .

this is the set up we used





and here is the table at the end of turn 3 :

Easy and highly effective terrain. Love the realism to it also. Great work!

thnx , i should also point out that its easy to carve bullet holes and blast marks into . it carves a little firmer than balsa .

This is a very reasonable style of terrain. Well made, clearly. I'll add this material to my "must purchase" list when I get to the terrain building part.

First I will say sorry for the crappy pic quality .

So this is another of my projects . Its easy to go over board when detailing a model , over loading it with so many things that it just becomes busy and an eye sore . But details are still important , and when detailing a battle field , some times it’s the small things that add the most .

So here is my quick and easy statue project .

Many of us are acquainted with the plastic cake decorating pillars they sell at hobby lobby and Michaels crafts . They come in a few different sizes , here are 2 of them .




I cut them off at the ends so that I have 3 pieces . Sanded the cut edge of the 2 ends and put the collum in my bits box for use later .



Next I have some saintly figures . I got them from the dream blade minis game . I can recall what they were called , but you can use just about any miniature you want . If I were still in 40K I would probably use plastic space marines and some adeptus sororitas figures , maybe an inquisitor as well .



Looking at the top of the 2 ends , you can see they are slightly different sizes .



For more important figures you can make a fancier base by glueing the 2 ends back together , here are 3 possible combinations .



In order to put a fig on top , you need to cap the hole . The square tops I capped with a thick piece of plasti card cut to size . The smaller single end I capped with a slotta base . Since most of the slotabases I had had the slot , I cut thin plasti card to cover the top of that .




Here you can see them assembled and ready for painting . The cherubs were little plastic ornaments I got at the craft store .



If you wanted to , this would also be a great way to make your own chess set . Make the bases this way , and add your own figs to the top .

I reckon avid cult- fanatics such as myself could use bases like that too! Thanks for sharing everything..

*Looks at nurgle defiler*

gross.

A Black Ram wrote:I reckon avid cult- fanatics such as myself could use bases like that too! Thanks for sharing everything..

*Looks at nurgle defiler*

gross.

oh come now , givez him a cuddle ............and a lick , father Nurgle approves ........................................................