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Hey guys im wanting your imput on what to use in order to make a good arena for my wychs to use.

All i need is advice , what to add and weather or not to put corpses everywhere and skulls haging and blood splattered walls

in the future i will post pictures of progress and plans

how about starting with this -
http://www.amera.co.uk/product.php?range=d

Nah im building it out of foam and what ever else i can lay my hands on

you'll want foam core, extruded styrene, MDF, hot wire cutter, knives, about 50 pen-knife blades, one tin of coffee, a couple different sizes of rules and flexible-but-stiff guides, a supermassive sketch pad, pencil, pen, eraser and compass. And maybe magnets. If you are like me, then kraft foam as well.

You may think I'm joking. If you're going to do this arena right, you will need to draw out a rough sketch, then a detailed sketch, then explode the different portions of it and do a technical sketch, with all of the dimensions accounted for. MDF will form the base, extruded foam will probably be the cor of your material, and foam core will be quick ways of making balconies, supports, etc. If you want to be able to pull stuff apart, but still have it hold together, that's where the magnets come in. The reason I reccomend Kraft foam, is because it has a much better texture and more readily accepts paint than does foam-core, and the surface texture also adds just that little bit of friction that foam-core lacks (also, it bends around corners and doesn't curl like cardstock when wet....)

i urge you to look up terrainaholic on youtube. there is a LOT of stuff that he's done with extruded styrene, so there's really no one specific thing I can tell you to look at for inspiration.

Oh gosh this would look really cool if done right. It has to be REALLY big though! With lots of SPHIIIIEKS!! Awesome idea

thanks guys this might take a while to get together ill put some rouch sketches up

ps im not a very good drawer but ill do my best

rhino-40-000 wrote:
thanks guys this might take a while to get together ill put some rouch sketches up

ps im not a very good drawer but ill do my best

not having any talent makes it easier (there is no perceived talent to work against and try to undo, like I had to) If you have to start by drawing random cubes and cylinders... do so. Start from construction cubes. Try to look at some image for a total maximum of 10 seconds, then reproduce it (start with sets of simple shapes, pyramids, cylinders.... .etc) Doing "technical" drawing is actually quite easy. you get some rough sketches just to get an idea of what you want to do, and then progressively define what you are aiming for. Once you know what you want, you start translating it into the actual curves and scaled dimensions of what you want. That way, once you start building the terrain, you have a checklist and a reference. Throwing random things together can look good, but you've set yourself a mammoth project. I myself started planing work on a tower that turned out to be a much bigger undertaking. I was greatful I did all the planning work, else I would have had a lot of hodgepodge stuff to crush down and get rid of, because the only way my tower would look good is if it was 2 feet by 2 feet and 4-5 feet high. practically a table in its own right. There's other large-scale buildings that I constructed using this method, that helped me find all of the weak-points in advance and figure out how to strengthen it so that monster metal models wouldn't crumple it.

You want to get better with your sketching so that once it comes time to apply the pen to the foam, your curves come easy and you're not stuck cussing at inanimate objects.

depending on what you are doing, you may need a brush-up on your trig... When I was doing my buildings I definitely needed trig. (sloped walls meeting at an angle.... yaayyyyy).

thanks ive got the idea in my head i just need to get it on paper
ill get back to you at the end of the day with hopfully an alright drawing

For inspiration, read Path of the Renegade by Andy Chambers. One of the Dark Eldar protagonists owns an arena, so you get some details.

 Kroothawk wrote:
For inspiration, read Path of the Renegade by Andy Chambers. One of the Dark Eldar protagonists owns an arena, so you get some details.

or path of the incubus? there's a couple good ideas there too. One wasn't so much an arena as it was a temple, but.... it was a temple of Arhra, so, really.....

hey a slight delay for the picture i just started and finished the pic to day will have it up by tomorow

here i got it sorted its a bit rough but it shows

building log : day one

today i went out to get everything eg retractable knife,oasis(couldnt find foam) and card. so far the main base has been built with the hills and the arena has taken shape but isnt what you call great seen as though its made of card board bt it will look good once interior is done and detail added.
my birthday soon so i will be getting dead cadians to put inside and a new aarmy which will be isplayed on a separate thread thanks for reading

I suspect the Oasis won't be very durable long term. I can see that it will allow you to shape the layout as you want though.

Recommend you pick up some plaster cloth from an art/craft supply or railway modelling shop, will allow you to put a hard shell over the Oasis, is nice and easy to work with too ( if a little messy!)

Oh, and bear in mind that in the fluff, DE Arena fights are generally a spectator sport, can't really see much in the way of viewing areas in your sketch.

thats whats good about it the only problem im having is sticking it together

Yeah, that's going to suck, as PVA may will get absorbed and make it soft.

Try using wire (just straightened out paper clips will do) to push fit the bits together, then you can use the plaster cloth I suggested to actually bind it together.

 azreal13 wrote:
I suspect the Oasis won't be very durable long term. I can see that it will allow you to shape the layout as you want though.

Recommend you pick up some plaster cloth from an art/craft supply or railway modelling shop, will allow you to put a hard shell over the Oasis, is nice and easy to work with too ( if a little messy!)

Oh, and bear in mind that in the fluff, DE Arena fights are generally a spectator sport, can't really see much in the way of viewing areas in your sketch.

this arena is for the archon to choose his own champions to go into battle and also for his own prsonal entertainment

hey guys i know i havnt posted in a while just busy building my new dark eldar their will be more pictures soon
and of my new things