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Hi folks,

Like many Arena Rex kickstarter backers (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1596689756/arena-rex-gladiator-combat-in-a-mythic-age-0), I'm starting to get very excited. We've just been told of a slight delay, but I'm pretty much OK with that. For one, I'm happy that from the quality of the updates that they've been showing, these models will be weeeelllll worth the wait, and secondly, it gives me a little bit more time to build this;




Ok, maybe not that. But something sorta like it.

This will not be an original project, I will be using the Playmobil arena. This has been done before (http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=7751.0), and possibly better and the set has been discussed for a while by AR backers. But I'm going to give it a bash nonetheless. This will be my first real attempt at terrain/board building, so I'll be looking advice and tips along the way (particularly from you guys who have played the game. You can help me with size questions and hazard placement ideas).

So, here she is;



£28 off ebay (including postage). Not the best condition, but that doesn't matter. Quite happy with the cost, if you've looked for one of these yourself, you'll know they can be hard to get for less than £40-50... (although check amazon). Also got a few figures which I'll try sell to help offset the cost a tiny bit.

First thing that I'm not too happy with is this....



An inside dia of 28" just isn't enough for my liking. The play mat that RRG are selling with the game is 30" dia, I believe. But even then, kinda want 36".

So, my first idea is this....





That's more like it. 36" (at least across one face). My plan is to make a pair of box sections to take up the gaps. I see a foamcard box surrounded by some sort of coving...



Maybe this sort of thing?



And then to break up the flat area inside the coving..... flats(http://www.zinnfigur.com/index.php?cPath=1_10_64_2603_2606&osCsid=3sa7u4rjb92i8rqcm5su895vh1&ID=2606)!





I'd seen these flats below a while ago and and can't help thinking they would be fantastic for this project. Imagine them stuck around the arena walls and painted as if they were stone carvings. Pretty cool, I think.

Other plans include;

- Making the board from at least 40mm think foam... for the pits. At the moment I'm thinking 4 pits at NSEW points. Maybe also a big one in the middle for Leo to randomly bound out of? I'll be making wooden boards as well to cover the pits so that I can not use them should I wish.

- Using these (http://www.terragnosis.co.uk/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=68). I'm thinking 2 of the awesome Iantha ones and two of the normal ones.

- No other plans as yet. Definitely totally open to suggestion here.

One thought I did have though, and I'd appreciate your opinions. I'm thinking about extending it 8" the other way too. This would make it a rounded square kinda shape rather than a Spartacus style oblong. But it would make it a decent size. What do you think? The only potential difficulty would be sawing through the main gate bit (at least sawing it straight would be difficult), I would remove the gate, extend it, reface it and reattach the gate. Think it might be worth it, just to get the extra width. 36"x36" is kinda the size I'd like to go for. I'd worry that 36"x28" would be too small. What do you folks think?

Next stage is going to be buying, cutting and fitting the foam for the board. I'll be buying the foamboard from the same place, so I'll be building my box sections too. Also gonna order some of those flats. Probably wont happen until I get paid in two weeks, but that's what'll be next. In the meantime I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice (or just some general encouragement). If anyone could advise on how to best prepare and paint/sand the foam/board (not the foamboard , I mean the actual board), it'd be really handy. I was thinking you would plaster it, smooth it, paint it, then PVA and sand? Like I say, any advice would be great. Also, should I cut this gate piece in half?

Thanks for reading folks

Alan

P.S. Thinking about keeping track of everything I spend on this and tallying it up as I go. Not sure if this is a good or a bad idea.

This is a fantastic idea, and I'll be following your progress with anticipation!

And I'll be scouring eBay as well...

Colour me interested

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
Colour me interested

Your flag...

...are you sure you get to spell it that way?!?

Brilliant, I considered doing something with this same toy once when I was making my own gladiators. Really looking forward to seeing it done. It's amazing how good that Lead Adventure one looks for so little effort. Having just got back from playing the Spartacus boardgame all night I would really recommend that you incorporate a grid (like the lead adventure one) maybe as an alternative or drop-in part. Spartacus is a really brilliant boardgame and this would be a perfect board for it.

Hey folks, not much movement on this so far, but today I got the email from Berliner zinnfiguren saying that those flats I was after are back in stock.

That was holding me up as I need to know their size before I can start building the spacer pieces where I'll be mounting them.

So, hopefully get going properly at the start of the new year. I'll post pics of the flats when they arrive.

Cheers,


Alan

If your looking to make it a full circle, could you not separate the walls from both sides of where the emperors bleachers are and then directly across from that. You could build giant statues to space them out on that side and just build extra walls on the other sides to expand it.

I saw the kickstarter when it came out and saw your buy back then, I was so tempted, but unemployed at the time, so I am living vicariously through our built .

It's weird, it's not totally symmetrical that way, so if I was to space I between the emperors bit and the bleachers, I can't come straight across and do the same thing at the other side, if you know what I mean. It would take a good bit of cutting, and much more fabrication than I was hoping for.

Like the idea of the giant statues though. I might have a quick browse of ebay to see if I can find any old Caesar or gladiator ornaments or anything about 6-8" tall that I can use.

Thanks for that. That would look pretty cool.

Ive read some people muse before about makeing a arena for arena rex as a octogon instead of a circle. This way you can use foam board and/or hirstart blocks useing their gothic and octogon tower blocks to make a arena.