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Greetings all and welcome to my terrain blog.

This is the first time i've ever attempted this sort of thing (a blog) and i pretty much have no clue what i'm doing. So i hope you'll bear with me as sometimes i can start to ramble on once i get going, what should be a 3 line post ends up being half a page long...

~~~~~

So whats the point of this blog?
I've started this blog in an effort to help me clear out my room of all the crap such as cardboard, styrofoam and other nonsense items that i've hoarded over the years and turn it into something useful. With the ultimate goal being to build a ruined battle board sized city involving all manner of intact, partial and destroyed building, some bunkers and towers and what ever else i can cobble together. I also have plans for recreating some of the buildings from the Dawn of War games but probably won't come till much later.

Ok so the construction of my very own city has long been a goal mine. I just haven't had the motivation up unitl now to do it. I love looking through old White dwarfs and looking at the awesome boards they built for things like the Armaggedon campaign or the odd Inquistor battle they used to have. The "How to build wargames terrain" is also a major source of inspiration for me and has spawned more then a few ideas for outlandish centre peices and objectives. I appreciate any and all feedback whether it be good bad or indifferent and I highly encourage you to post your thoughts. If you have any questions about materials i've used or how somethings done or really just anything at all then please feel free to ask as i'm more then happy to answer.

Now i probably won't end up updating this very often since i'm a brutally efficient procrastinator and when i do shift my butt into gear i'm a slow worker so updates may be few and far between. This blog may at some point turn into an all purpose blog if i find enough non terrain related stuff to post but for now its purely terrain.
Anyway thanks for having a gander and i hope you enjoy.

~~~~~

I'm in the process of uploading some pictures of a few WIP things at the moment so give it an hour or so and i should have some actual content to post rather then just words.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ok actual content incoming.

First off allow me to apologise for the bad photos. I use my tablet to take pics and while the quality is pretty good i have a bit of trouble getting lighting right. I need to learn how to use gimp properly so i can edit them and make them look spiffy.


First off.
This is a Water treatment plant i made aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages ago out of a cardboard gift box, some PVC pipe elbows and some electrical wire housing thing.
The vent is from a chaos predator. I "aquired" it from my brothers spare bitz box from when he used to collect. I added PVA glue to look like some toxic type goopy stuff seeping out of cracks and such. I never got around to painting but hopefully that will change in the coming weeks. Its quite dusty at the moment and could use a bit of a cleanup.





Here's the first 4 out of around 15ish ruined buildings i plan on making. These are all made from the tempate that was provided back in the 4th ed 40k rulebook with slight variations to each one. These are easy to make and you can knock 2 or 3 out in an hour if you are quick.






And a scale shot.




Thats all for now.

Ok first update. Yay me!

So Yesterday i pulled a box of cardboard down off a shelf and got to work on one of the more intact buildings. After preforming an Exterminatus on the nest of Black house spiders i found living in the box (shows how long its been since i cleaned my room ) I drew up some plans and got cutting. I ended up with this.



The windows were a hassle due to the fact there were so many of them. Don't really know why i chose to do so many to be honest, it just sort of took my fancy at the time. Going to have a buttress on each corner to spruce things up a bit and balcony above the main door. At the moment i just have to finish reinforcing the windows with masking tape and make some steps for the entry way. The balcony is done, but not pictured, and ready to be glued on.
I'm going to leave 1 wall unglued so that models can be placed inside. I'm thinking pinning will work for attaching that wall so that it can be removed at will.


Anyway, thats all for now.

Looks cool, fun, and cheap.

Are you going to coat the buildings in something that might help their durability and cut down on their flexibility?

Yeah once i complete them all the plan is to coat them in a PVA glue and water mixture to stop the cardboard from warping and then i was gonna slap on some textured grey paint to give it a nice surface. After that i may paint them colours or i might just leave them grey and drybrush on a lighter grey to showcase the texture.

Thats the plan anyway...


Heres an update on the 1st intact building.

Balcony is glued on and i made up some stairs leading to the entry way. The balcony can fit three 25mm bases (4 with a bit of fancy footwork) so its perfect for a unit of snipers or MoO who benefits from a nice line of sight.



And another shot that shows of the balcony supports.

*sigh*

Brings back memories of the cardboard city I once spent a week building. Made enough to fill a 6x8 table. There were big buildings, sections of small hab-ruins and streets, a few big grand ones with giant holes knocked in them.

We used 'em once, and I never saw it again...

Wha... what happened to it? Did someone get drunk and fall onto it crushing the city in a most cinematic and Godzilla-esque fashion?

Got any pictures of said cardboard city?

Sadly no, I have no pictures that I can find. As for the terrain? It went into a garage of a friend and was slowly infested with spiders... and was disposed of.

Oh man, some of your stuff reminds me of the scenery you got in the 2nd Ed box. Good times

The buildings that you are making look great, almost good enough to get me motivated to clear all the crap in my attic. Almost.

Looking forward to the next update though!

SUBBED!

Man this is going to be great. I love scratch build terrain and used to make my own cardboard buildings in the early-mid 90's during 2nd Ed. Your skill already shows, looking forward to seeing more of your work.

And don't forget rivets!

H.B.M.C. wrote:Sadly no, I have no pictures that I can find. As for the terrain? It went into a garage of a friend and was slowly infested with spiders... and was disposed of.

Aw man that sucks. A spider web covered board would make for a great haunted or deserted city. You could use the spiders as random mid battle encounters.

sarpedons-right-hand wrote:Oh man, some of your stuff reminds me of the scenery you got in the 2nd Ed box. Good times

The buildings that you are making look great, almost good enough to get me motivated to clear all the crap in my attic. Almost.

Looking forward to the next update though!

Almost good enough eh? Well then i'm gonna have to get a little bit better then. Clearing crap out for me is both good and bad. Its good because i'm actually making an effort to get rid of stuff. Its bad because i go to throw something away and think "Ooh that could be useful" and then it gets put aside for later use. This happens for 80% of the crap i intend on throwing away. So really i end up throwing very little away and my room stays full of crap. Its the visious circle of horder.

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:SUBBED!

Man this is going to be great. I love scratch build terrain and used to make my own cardboard buildings in the early-mid 90's during 2nd Ed. Your skill already shows, looking forward to seeing more of your work.

And don't forget rivets!

Thanks man. I had a quick flick through your terrain blog and i absolutely love your Necromunda terrain. I'm upto page 12 at the moment and the exquisite terrain shows no sign of abating.

Also that "CAUTION: This sign has sharp edges" sign made me chuckle. I may yoink that and hide it somewhere in my finished city.

~~~~~

Got the buttresses cut out. They are just large enough so that you can hide a model behind them. Gonna have 1 on each corner and 1 in the middle of each wall. They're fairly plain but should serve their purpose well enough.

I like the way snnrub builds.

Sweet. I want to see how this goes.

Thanks for the compliment Keep going, you might like my newer stuff as well. Be forewarned, I delve into Fantasy for a while.

You can find that sign anywhere online, just search for 'sign has sharp edges' and you'll get a lot of results.

Subbed.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes. I have a stack of Smuttynose 12-pack cases piling up next to my work table for just this very purpose...

Back in '93 some of us got together and made a foam-core city, with buildings shaped like the old Epic buildings, some whole, some ruins. We only ever got as far as basing them in med gray but it was a blast playing on them. I left them at the FLGS when I moved and have been wanting to replicate them ever since I got back into the hobby this summer.

Las wrote:I like the way snnrub builds.

You know i've been here well over a year now and your only the 2nd person to make that joke. I'm kind of disappointed more people haven't but at the some time i'm so glad more people don't.

Jefffar wrote:Sweet. I want to see how this goes.

Yeah you and me both. It will hopefully go...
1. Make a city.
2. Find people to play against using aforementioned city. (I have no 40k inclined friends. )

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:Thanks for the compliment Keep going, you might like my newer stuff as well. Be forewarned, I delve into Fantasy for a while.

You can find that sign anywhere online, just search for 'sign has sharp edges' and you'll get a lot of results.

Your welcome. Fantasy terrain is good. I've been meaning to start a Lizardman army for a while. So i'll need to get started on a Aztec themed jungle board at some point.

hdbbstephen wrote:Subbed.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes. I have a stack of Smuttynose 12-pack cases piling up next to my work table for just this very purpose...

Back in '93 some of us got together and made a foam-core city, with buildings shaped like the old Epic buildings, some whole, some ruins. We only ever got as far as basing them in med gray but it was a blast playing on them. I left them at the FLGS when I moved and have been wanting to replicate them ever since I got back into the hobby this summer.

What's a smuttynose and why does it come in packs of 12?
I'd really love to start working with foamcore but i can't find anywhere local that sells it. It seems like a really good material to work with.


Anyway thanks for the comments mates.

~~~~~

Right so i took a wee break from cardboard buildings and thought i'd have a crack at a bunker. Results so far are um, underwhelming but not without potential.

I came across an old cd spindle that at one point held 20odd burnable cds. It's actually just the right size for a bunker. Can hold ten 25mm bases easily and i can fit in a heavy weapon as well. I measured up some firing slits and taped them off for uber straight lines. Cutting them out though was a complete . The plastic on the case is surprisingly thick. Started out using a box cutter, ended up using scissors of all things. Here's the results.

The green tape formed as straighter lines as i could wish for. The black areas are the firing slits.


After about 2 hours of cutting and cursing i wound up with this....


I have to do something about a door. Might make one out of plasticard. That'll give me an excuse to use the two sheets i found the other day.

I also have this. Its the plastic tray from a packet of biscuits. I'm thinking it'd make a good power generator.
I apologise for it being really hard to see what it is. I took about 8 photos of it with various backgrounds and what not and that was the best one oddly enough.


Now turning it into a generator isn't the problem. My problem is that its really flimly plastic. It crumples with but the lightest touch as you may be able to tell from the dents in it running along the top. I need some way of stiffening it so it can withstand some abuse. My thoughts so far have been to fill it with A) Sand/dirt, B)PVA glue or Gap filler or C) coating it in PVA in the hope that it strengthens it. Downside to A) Is that sand or dirt will be too loose so will most likely have the same problem. Downside to B) is its gonna be way to heavy to use properly. Downside to C) is that its unlikely to help much.
Anyone have any ideas?

And last but in no way lest is something i know i'm gonna have fun building and using. Found it buried at the bottom of a box of junk.
This thing.


Orbital laser defence cannon anyone? Anyone care to hazard a guess at what it might be?

On the biscuit-holder shield generator: would it be an option to slather it with PVA glue in a thick layer on the inside, rather than fill it? That might add just enough strength to keep it from buckling.

Looks like a bit of garden hose?

Cataphractii wrote:On the biscuit-holder shield generator: would it be an option to slather it with PVA glue in a thick layer on the inside, rather than fill it? That might add just enough strength to keep it from buckling.

Yeah that could work... Its worth a shot at least. Best part is if i mess it up i can go and by more biscuits! Yay.

BlackSanguinor wrote:Looks like a bit of garden hose?

You are correct. It's the nozzle of a garden hose. To be honest i was hoping that was gonna be a little trickier to guess. Oh well.

Good morning, I didn't bother to look at your flag when I mentioned the Smuttynose, so I can't fault you for not knowing... it's a regional craft beer (superdelicious, BTW), learn more here http://smuttynose.com/

Some very nice cheap, or should I say 'unique', terrain here Mr Snrub, I look forward to seeing more of it!

Just re: the biscuit packet for the shield generator - buy more biscuits, and use the second container to strengthen the first, with a layer of PVA between the two.

ha...always good to see an enthusiastic fellow scratchbuilder at work!

the garden hose nozzle will make an excellent laser!

Greetings all.

First off i apologise for not updating this more often. Things sort of got away from me.


Anyway, straight to it.
I've been working on an Imperial monument garden type thing. Only the walls are done so far but i want to have either 3 columns in a triangle formation each with a statue or i might have a nice fancy fountain with an Imperial guardsmen statue. Haven't quite decided yet.

Each wall is just 2 strips of packing card 8 inches long glued together. Not really much to show yet. I'll come back to this piece once i find some little columns that i like.

And a shot of the busted up wall.



Next on this list is a bunker. I'm very pleased with how this turned out. It was made using the template in the 4th ed rulebook. They use 5mm foamcore in the rulebook, i used cardboard.
Walls and firing slits

Completed cardboard bunker.

shot 2.

The roof is removeable so you can stick guys in there. I might give it a base i might not. It's fairly sturdy though so it probably doesn't need a base which kind of defeats the purpose of making the roof removeable.

I have a 2nd bunker lined up and ready to go. Just need to go out and get more PVA glue.

TheTemplar wrote:Some very nice cheap, or should I say 'unique', terrain here Mr Snrub, I look forward to seeing more of it!

Thank you sir. Glad you're enjoying it.

Micky wrote:Just re: the biscuit packet for the shield generator - buy more biscuits, and use the second container to strengthen the first, with a layer of PVA between the two.

Not an issue anymore i'm afraid. My cat was in my room about a few nights ago, jumped up onto my desk and knocked a few things down onto the floor, including the erstwhile generator. When i got up the next morning i stepped on it and completely crushed it. And now I don't even remember what brand of bisuits they were. So no more generator for the moment at least.

Viktor von Domm wrote:ha...always good to see an enthusiastic fellow scratchbuilder at work!

the garden hose nozzle will make an excellent laser!

Cheers Vik. I seem to have struck a chord with you LoER guys.

Ah, the satisfaction of free terrain

I did a card city about a year back, well a small section of one at any rate.
Your building with the steps and balcony is already showing much more promise than any of mine though!

The cardboard is plenty strong enough if you put it on a sturdy base. It keeps rigidity nicely and so far none of my pieces have had mishaps (based on 1/2 inch mdf).

These are a few pics of the basic build, only undercoated though.



A couple of things to keep in mind when you're going that I really wish I'd done.

1. Take time on detailing! You can't go back once its been textured and the plain functionality of mine has always bothered me.

2. Don't just mix sand in paint to texture your buildings, patchy texture is the only result. I reckon some spray on stuff would be a better choice, not that I've tried though...

3. Leave options for incorporating aerial connections between buildings. The 3-D mazes I've seen on some of the inquisimunda blogs here on dakka make me green with envy. Shooting from a window or balcony can only be fun so long.

4. Don't paint with a brush! Unless you have a desire to want to kill yourself of course.

That's all my semi-wisdom dispensed; looking forward to seeing a completely different approach with the same medium, so I'll be following this closely!

Thanks Purple Squig.

You are correct, free terrain is good.
I really like some of your buildings. The landing pad is grouse looking and i love the wire fences.

Also thank you for the tips. I'll be sure to keep them in mind once i start painting. I should also thank you for inadvertently reminding me that i have one of those crashed aquila landers from the Battle for Macragge. I just need to find it now.

Are you using masking tape there?

I can't seem to use that for anything without it coming unstuck a day or so later.

Yeah i pretty much use masking tape for everything.

If you are having trouble with masking tape sticking i find a little dab of PVA glue often helps keep it stuck down. Just smear it where you need it and the tape is unlikely to lift again. Also the brand of tape can make a huge difference. The cheapo stuff you get from a 2 dollar store is just gonna peel right off again but if you go to a hardware store they will have the better quility tape that wont peel off again. Stuff like 3M is good, although it's a little pricey. Any mid tier tape should be fine though.

lool so smart.

Those look really good so far man.

I've started making a City of cardboard,Can I upload some pics on here if that's ok?