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2011/03/18 16:08:57
Subject: Terrain Projects Blog: Building a City (Updated 6/19/2014)
Here are some of my finished and WIP terrain projects I am working on.
First up, some cheap and simple Tyranid terrain. These come from the game Heroscape and I picked them up for $2.49 each on the web. I didn't like the green that was originally on the model, so I painted over it with Mechrite Red and then for the wet, fleshy look I went over that with GW Red Ink.
The model has little "egg sacks" and in the Heroscape game, these spawned new aliens, so I figured that in 40K, as an optional rule, they could also spawn D6 Termagants at the beginning of the Tyranids turn. Or maybe a chart that spawned different types of Tyranids depending on a D6 roll.
Next up is my WIP Warp Gate/Rift made mostly from pink insulation foam. I still have to add some chains and skulls and probably some more static grass on the steps, but it is almost completed.
This message was edited 10 times. Last update was at 2014/06/19 23:26:05
Thanks everyone for the comments! I will be posting more projects soon.
Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Is the arch big enough for the figures to et through?
Here is a pic with some figures for scale. I'm not worried about Monstrous Creature size models being able to fit through, as they can appear in front of the arch.
So with 95% of my armies completed, I thought I would take a break from painting and start working on a table that goes with the Undead theme of my armies. So between work, going to school, and family over the past few months, I have finally managed to squeeze in some time and slowly get my table made. I am still working on it but here are some sneak pics. I am currently calling it my "Dead Lands" table, but I may change the name once it is finished.
Well, the semester is over and it is time for me to start back on my project blogs. For this update, I am posting pics of the previously teased table that I made for my armies to fight on. I just recently took this table, with some extensions, to a convention called Nashcon for an Apocalypse battle. For Nashcon, I added a little something extra, which was a hill with a ruined tower on it that emitted fog. And that's not lava, that's a river of blood! Now that Nashcon is over, I plan on recreating the Forgeworld Realm of Battle City sections using mainly pink insulation foam. Each of the FW sections cost about $107 each, I plan on doing a whole table for way less than the cost of one tile. I will also be working on my Warhound Titan, which I will cover in my other blog.
So here begins my Cities of Death project. Going to start off by re-creating the Forgeworld Realm of Battle Cityscape tiles. For those not aware of what they look like, take a gander here.
I am using precut 2 x 2 1" insulation sheets that I picked up at Home Depot. I basically guesstimated what the "street" dimensions were on the FW tiles, as they all appeared to be the same dimensions on the different tiles, it came out to be 4" x 4" for the short street sections and 4" x 8" for the long street sections. I then plotted each tile section onto some graph paper. Using a ruler, t-square, and a magic marker, I made the lines on the tile sections. Each of the street sections on the FW tiles appear to have a groove that seperates them, so I went back over each line with my engraver tool from Hotwire Foam Factory to make the grooves.
Now to add the details such as sidewalks, rubble, and where the buildings will be placed.
I am working on the Concourse section at the moment. Just finished up carving the base for where the statue will go. I was going to place skulls inside the arches one at a time, but I said screw that! I made an arch with some skulls, and then made a mold of it. Once the mold is done, I can then cast the arches and glue them into place on the statue base, using putty to fill any gaps.
Pic of what I have done so far, with the original in the background on the pc for comparison.
It's been a while since I have updated this blog, and no better time to update it than now on W.I.P. Wednesday. Got sidetracked with other things last year like school and such, but nothing like having to prepare for Nashcon to get me started again! So I am running a series of Escalation games based on a giant board that consists of a city protected by a massive fortified wall on one end and desert terrain on the other. This is what I have to complete by the time Nashcon rolls around in May:
City Table 1 Primus Sector Tile
1 Concourse Sector Tile
1 Shattered Plaza Tile
1 Generatorum Sector Tile
1 Cathedral Tile
1 Launchpad Tile
Buildings for all the tiles
Desert Tables Texture and paint the mesas I ordered from Terranscapes
Make the desert board sections
Fortified Wall Order certain bits
Build and paint the wall
These are going on the Generatorum Sector for the most part. Now, on the actual Forgeworld tiles, there are tiny aquilas on the posts of one of the bases, as seen in the picture below.
For my board, I am designing it to match my armies, which have an undead theme to them. So instead of aquilas, I am using the tiny mounting skulls to go on the posts instead. As I am waiting for more bits orders to arrive, I am jumping from sector to sector working on things here and there. Started working on my Cathedral section over the weekend. This is what I have so far.
Here is the entrance to my "Shrine of the Skull" building. It is going to be a mashup of the Shrine of the Aquila building and parts of the Fortress of Redemption kit.
That's all for now. More next time on W.I.P. Wednesday.
madmartykmf wrote:Great start to your terrain thread ! The chapel looks so familiar.
Keep up the great work buddy
Thanks! I have taken inspiration from a number of terrain blogs over the past couple of years, yours being among them.
Chaos Legionnaire wrote:Truly inspiring work.
Well done.
Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Wow. That temple of skulls looks really impressive! Subbed.
Thanks guys!
So another quick update. Worked some more on my "Shrine of the AquilaSkull Reaper" entrance today by adding the Fortress of Redemption bit and adding a doorway to it.
I'm definitely reminded of jokes about the skull based economy of the warhammer universes. Great models though.
"But me no buts! Our comrades get hurt. Our friends die. Falkenburg is a knight who swore an oath to serve the church and to defend the weak. He'd be the first to tell you to stop puling and start planning. Because what we are doing-at risk to ourselves-is what we have sworn to do. The West relies on us. It is a risk we take with pride. It is an oath we honour. Even when some soft southern burgher mutters about us, we know the reason he sleeps soft and comfortable, why his wife is able to complain about the price of cabbages as her most serious problem and why his children dare to throw dung and yell "Knot" when we pass. It's because we are what we are. For all our faults we stand for law and light.
Von Gherens This Rough Magic Lackey, Flint & Freer
Mekagorkalicious -Monkeytroll
2017 Model Count-71
2014/03/07 20:57:08
Subject: Terrain Projects Blog (Updated 3/5/2014): Now with more buildings.
So here are new pics for W.I.P. Wednesday. The majority of the foam work is done. I need to add some cracks here and there to some parts of the different sectors. By the end of the weekend, I hope to have all the base sections finished and to have started working on the buildings.
My version of the blasted Rapier on the Concourse Sector.
Unlike the Forgeworld Primus Sector, I wanted players to be able to actually place models inside the wrecked Rhino, perhaps for infiltrators or whatever. So I removed the wrecked Rhino from the Battlescape set that I had lying around and used it on my Primus Sector.
Looks awesome!
I'm sure you already know this but make sure that you use a foam coat to harden the board for durability and also so your hours of detailing are not lost to the horrors of spray paint and foam board.
YouTube : Terranscapes
Huge inspiration for me and really great guy
madmartykmf wrote: Looks awesome!
I'm sure you already know this but make sure that you use a foam coat to harden the board for durability and also so your hours of detailing are not lost to the horrors of spray paint and foam board.
YouTube : Terranscapes
Huge inspiration for me and really great guy
I ordered some styroplast from Hot Wire Foam Factory. I am going to see how it does on a test piece of rubble. If it doesn't obscure the detail, then I will go over all the sections with it. Right now the rubble sections are sealed pretty well with several layers of watered down white glue sprayed on top of them. As these sections will be used and stored at my home after Nashcon, I don't expect much damage. Plus, since it is a battle damage, war-torn city, any "damage" that occurs only gives it more character. lol.
So finally got all my bits in that I have ordered so far, and with those I was finally able to finish off the board sections. Some of the sections have power supplies and ammo crates, and instead of purchasing several Battlefield Accessories in order to get the required amount, I used some Alumilite Mold Putty to make some quick molds of them, as well as some craters (the small one from Armorcast).
The mold putty dries a lot faster than the RTV silicone that I normally use, and I am able to have a rubber mold ready to go in about 15 minutes rather than several hours. The only drawback is that you only have about a minute and a half of working time, and that includes the time it takes to knead the two parts of the putty together. After that time, it starts solidifying, so if you haven't gotten the putty in place on the source object, you pretty much have to start over. As these pieces were going to be placed in a warzone, I didn't need perfection on these casts, as rubble would cover up any "bad" spots and battle damage could explain the rest.
I also ordered a rotary hand sewing punch to make rivets from Ebay for about $14. This tool is nice, as it has one punch and several different size holes on a rotary dial that can make different size rivets. Basically, I marked off the placement of the rivets on one side of plasticard and used the rotary punch to make indentions through the plasticard, so that the indentions look like rivets. These I used on the pipes in the Primus Sector.
For the Cathedral section, I didn't use the base of the main gate of the Garden of Morr, and after gluing all the fence sections in place, I decided that I needed a stone walkway from the entrance gate to the cathedral entrance. So, looking at the base for the GoM gate, I decided that with some filing down of the tomb stones and using some green stuff, I could make use of it after all and use it as the stone walkway.
I also discovered that having the Garden of Morr statue of death beside the cathedral entrance wouldn't prevent me from placing the Space Marine statue from the Honored Imperium set there as well. The base of the SM statue is hollow and fits over the base of the Garden of Morr statue, so I can swap them out depending on the scenario. I am going to place some magnets in both the statue base and the death statue so that they won't fall over during a game.
I have also managed to get the first building built (other than the cathedral). This will be going on the Generatorum Sector. I am going to make a staircase that leads from the first floor up to the second floor, and that is what the large opening in the middle of the second floor is there for. I plan on using this building as a battle damaged building in most games, with the top counting as battlements.
And now, here are the pics of the completed board sections. I really need to get some paint on these, as I am using gray cat litter as rubble and also some brown cork "boulders" mixed in here and there. At first glance, with the brown cork mixed in with the gray litter, it looks as if one of my cats has mistaken my city table for their litter box. lol.
Primus Sector
Shattered Plaza
Generatorum Sector
Concourse Sector
Cathedral Sector
This last section is going to be incorporating the Skyshield Landing Pad and possibly a crane. Haven't settled on a final design for it yet, but I am thinking of having a walkway leading from the landing pad to a building.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/03/27 22:53:10
This looks great. I would recommend layering/overlapping and making the edges of your bulk rubble less abrupt with a fine sand. I use craft sand which is "normally" used to make sand art and can be found in 5 lb bags for cheap in most craft stores. Otherwise this project is just outstanding.
Warboss_Waaazag wrote: This looks great. I would recommend layering/overlapping and making the edges of your bulk rubble less abrupt with a fine sand. I use craft sand which is "normally" used to make sand art and can be found in 5 lb bags for cheap in most craft stores. Otherwise this project is just outstanding.
Thanks! What exactly do you mean by layering/overlapping?
Okay, so now I can't decide which of the following configurations for my chemical plant I like best. So cast your vote for which configuration (A or B) is more aesthetically pleasing.
Time for another update. I've been knocking out the buildings over the past couple of weeks. Started with the piping structures for the Generatorum Sector first. I already had one building done (the Manufactorum) and so I cracked open the Pegasus Hobbies Chemical Plant and Large Platformer kits to finish off that board section. I did not realize that there would be so...many...pieces...
It took two days of coming home after work of clipping and cleaning all the pieces off the sprue and gluing them together and bagging them up so pieces wouldn't get lost before I could finally get started on the actual assembly of the structure. I was originally going to go with build A (posted previously) but then realized it was too big for the base on the board section, so I came up with my own design for the Chemical Plant/Platformer mashup that did fit. Having a ton of left over bits from the Pegasus Hobby kits, I used an old Legions of Power tank that I had lying around and and the leftover bits to make a second structure for the board section.
With that section done, I started on the buildings for the Primus Sector and the Concourse Sector. I got all the buildings completed except for one for the Concourse Sector, as I ran out of parts for it. So, I made a bits order for the building parts that I need, and while I wait for those to arrive I will begin construction on the Shrine of the Reaper building.
I am also going to start painting the desert terrain that I got from Terranscapes. Hopefully I will have those and the Shrine of the Reaper done by next weekend.
I vote for layout B. By layering I mean gluing down large rubble, sealing it with watered down pva glue (I use elmers glue) and then literally gluing a finer rubble mix on top of it. I usually put down about 3 to 4 layers of overlapping debris from large, bulky aquarium gravel, to coarse sand, to fine sand, and then individually placed bricks. I also embed carefully battered bits of the actual buildings in various layers, making sure some semblance of the architectural details are exposed above the debris, but also going out of my way to make those same pieces look half buried and not just stuck on. Conventional warfare does an amazing amount of damage to everything.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I'd use a fine sand to blend the edges of your bulky rubble with the untextured foam.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/04/13 03:47:50