I don't like the stairs, personally. They look too big to be the sort of thing that gets dropped by a Valkyrie or whatever to be assembled on the spot.
well technicaly they arn't, this would be the second stage whereby the troops have secured the area and they want their base to be built up a little bit afaik so these parts would have been delivered by heavy lifter or trucks...
Yeah that's the theory: the first phase barricades are dropped in at the start of an invasion or defense to get a defensive line up quickly then second phase packs come in as needed when things have stabilised or some areas need more defense. I'll get a picture of one disassembled to show how big the parts are relative to other parts. I suppose it could always be a single straight set of stairs...
This stuff is fantastic. Whet sort of ccost is involved with shipping to Aus? Also i'm just wondering if there has been any developement of the custom space marine shoulder pad idea? would buy a swag load of those if they came out good
We do ship to Australia, we're eating some of the shipping cost for the fortress kit to so we can actually sell some but most things are pretty reasonable. We did look into making flat icons that can be applied to shoulder pads but the resin doesn't take paint very well, so we'll do probably offer either push moulds that people can use to make their own green stuff icons or shape ways to do 3d pads, at least that way we can be a one-stop shop for bases, doors and shoulder pads.
WarMill wrote:Yeah that's the theory: the first phase barricades are dropped in at the start of an invasion or defense to get a defensive line up quickly then second phase packs come in as needed when things have stabilised or some areas need more defense. I'll get a picture of one disassembled to show how big the parts are relative to other parts. I suppose it could always be a single straight set of stairs...
I know what you've stated with the fluff behind them - all the same, it just doesn't look right to me. I daresay that some will love that look. Is there any way you could make ladders and stairs interchangeable?
Love the stairs! However, they are crying out for some details to be etched into them (same style as on the tops of the towers)
You do realise that a bigger gate will soon be needed to fit with the fortress I tested out the size on the current gate and it is almost wide enough to fit a superheavy through, only the sponsons get in the way.
On a side note, my fortress took the spray very well, only problem is I need another can to finish it off! Darn me for buying those extra wall sections
Commander Cain wrote:Love the stairs! However, they are crying out for some details to be etched into them (same style as on the tops of the towers)
You do realise that a bigger gate will soon be needed to fit with the fortress I tested out the size on the current gate and it is almost wide enough to fit a superheavy through, only the sponsons get in the way.
On a side note, my fortress took the spray very well, only problem is I need another can to finish it off! Darn me for buying those extra wall sections
Glad to hear it takes the spray well.
I was worried about how it would go, as mdf does absorb water quite well
Get back from holiday and you've done loads! Like how it's all developing. Good to hear u've got 'her indoors' helping out with the sanding, nice to know she's doing something and not sitting around playing with the cats(don't tell her I said that). Good idea with the cobblestones. I like the big stairs, are you guys considering designing a single set of stairs for a single miniature rather then a platoon. Would be useful for necromunda size games etc. Also, another question: have you tried any industrial flooring? I imagine it would be quite time consuming on a laser cutter as it would all need to be etched.
Cheers mate it has been pretty crazy since we saw you! Very knackering but worth it! You had any thoughts about your space corridors since you were down?
I'm thinking a pack of 2 large stairs and 2 ladders might be the way to go, give the player the choice of which they want to use, we could make them fit buildings when we get round to them too. Detail will be added once we get the construction side of things sorted
@mullet_steve you can set your own price for your designs on the shapeways shop apparently.
I just finished cutting a commission order for a set of bases with the Yu Jing from Infinity logo. They look pretty damn sexy in mirror acrylic, and can be painted from behind to highlight the 180deg firing arc engraved on the base. Ed's been coming up with some new base designs, I cut a sample set tonight and they're looking pretty cool. He's also done a set that we haven't cut yet that are looking very nice, we'll try and get some pics up soon. Other plans for the month include finishing the wall upgrade pack and new base design ranges.
I've done a bit more on the wall upgrade kit, and Ed's done some initial concepts for some fleur-de-lys bases. He's also been working on some new terrain including his favourite, a cargo container Pics when there's something to show.
The corner packs works fine, now we just need to work on the stairs / ladders then add detail. The plan is to have the upgrade kit ready to go on the website by the end of the month, as well as some new base ranges.
Been a while sisnce i posted anything on this forum, being to lasy :(
Here is a simple crate, its 65mm x 65mm x 65mm so quite a big cube, certainly big enough to hide a few men behind - you know the score by now, gimmie 'ur worst and we can go from there!
You may also be pleased to note that I have ordered all the pieces I need to start actually making my army, so I shall soon be using the bases I ordered from you many moons ago
The crates look good, you might want to examine the possibilities of making some double long or tripple long for those really big things like axles and other stuff.
Do you think its worth me making more icon bases with the fluer de lys style heraldry? I only drafted up 5 different designs in case no one brought any! ha!
Mid way through making a double length crate thingy, and i scaled one down by 50% which made it still quite sizable, at 32.5mm cubed
As far as smaller ammo boxes are concerned, i'm not sure as there are already several options out there to choose from - but perhaps if here is a calling for them -Ii suppose at least they would match the aesthetic of our stuff....
a few more basic renders - I guess once we're happy with the overall size / design we can begin to worry about the paneling on the sides, whether they're simple, scifi, doors and hatches all over them , HQ or supplies etc..
Very impressive work there. how about having a container that is basicaly like a pigeon hole system or like a bunch of lockers. Maybe a couple of boxes could be removed to make it odvious. this would show that the container is full of smaller boxes I.E. ammo crates.
well lets say the ammo box container is big enough for boxes/ lockers to be placed 2 deep if they are removable then presumably they'd be back to back so that you can access it from either side in which case have maybe two or three boxes removed from either side and if your going to rapid prototype this I would suggest making the empty space slightly smaller at the back so it looks deeper and would allow the moulding process more easily. or figure out the cage as six sides that can be cast/cut and assembled with some cast pieces such as drive trains or guns to place inside.
How about a stack of boxes that's clearly half depleted, that could be cast rather easily.
Stackable crates, cunning, I would never have thought of that, looks like great fun stacking them!
Were you planning on casting them in resin? I imagine it would be the easiest way to produce them.
I have to say, the overall desigin is very clever and easy to imagine in a warzone.
You were asking if you should make anymore fleur de lys bases, personally I would stick with the ones you have, maybe a couple of larger bases and stick with that, no need to go ott on them! I am sure you will get some commissions for them, but the bases themeselves will not be as generic as the eagle ones. Just my humble opinion
Personally I think the boxes would be easy enough to make by just splitting them in half and casting them like that and then find a way of attaching the white caseing.
Another day in front of the pc then! I think tonight's plan is to update the site with some of the things we can make, such as the fleur de lys and a few other base types.
We've just had a big photo session to get some new stuff on the website, including a bunch of new designs that we've (well, mostly Ed ) been working on. Up to now most of the designs have been aimed at fans of large shoulder pads, now we're looking to broaden our horizons a little. We're doing a big update of the site at the moment, adding a few new pages and features, particularly on the commission side of things. We're trying to standardise ordering custom bases and tank hatches to make paying for and keeping track of things a bit easier, as up to now we've been using a separate invoicing programme for custom orders that's a bit clunky. There's also a new page showing some of the different types of acrylic we can use.
We'll update this page over the rest of the week as there's a lot going up, but for now here's some pics!
Ohhh I like that man, what's the spacing vs thickness of the fence? I'd guess 3mm is probably the thinnest you'd go right? how about a double layer diagonal cuts then a spacer and opposite diagonal cuts?
Thanks for the feedback, not much criticism though, I'm sure you can do better than that!!
I think we're going to bring out a zombie survival game!
We are in the process of drawing up dark fallen eldric space elf pointy ears, same goes for flying stands. We could cut a hole In the bases we currently offer, and you can use the supplied rod that comes with your models.
That, or we colder design the rod element and replace it with something much cooler indeed!!
Nice! Liking the top fence the most. Seeing the fence sections makes me want to watch The Great Escape again
Speaking of which, some lookout towers complete with searchlights could be your next move, perhaps along the lines as the fortress towers but a little slimmer?
Would it be possible to somehow create a fence style that you could slot wire through instead of the horzontal bars in the first pic? I know it would be hard to come up with the design as you are only working in 2D but judging by your previous work, you could find a way!
As for the flying stands, have you considered creating a broken piece of masonry, cities of death style that could fit into the base and also the craft above it? Granted it would not fit in with the clean style your bases have as a pose to rubble infested streets, perhaps a gothic style 'sticky uppy bit' would be more in line with the bases?
Thats great cain, thanks for taking the time to write that up.....
It wold be doable to cut holes in the 'v' sections - as the orientation of the cut is on the face of the 'v' - so holes would be no problem and a great solution!
Skinny watchtowers sound good and thanks for pointing out a movie to watch as reference! I guess it really needs context as to who / what in terms of games systems and scenarios will use the terrain for further development, and additional terrain types we can include into the terrain piece.
Just done a quick Google image search for cities of death, and it certainly has that grim dark feel we all know and love! I think the Gothic ' sticky up bit' is something we could work on
An initial thought I had was to have quite decorative stands, such as half an Aquila, a chaos star coming out the ground (do chaos even have fliers?!) Ooorrrrr......Ork gliffs / axes, a dark pointy eared elf symbol etc...maybe a picture is needed
WarMill wrote:
An initial thought I had was to have quite decorative stands, such as half an Aquila, a chaos star coming out the ground (do chaos even have fliers?!) Ooorrrrr......Ork gliffs / axes, a dark pointy eared elf symbol etc...maybe a picture is needed
Sounds good! Not sure if chaos have any fliers besides the huge FW ships, however, the flying stands would also be great for jump pack infantry!
You could put a double or tripple scribe on the back of the fence support that would cut into the surface enough to place a sting or wire (possibly fishing wire through it) What do you think?
While the first and last pic looks cool, I'm not sold on that 50/50 fence/wall section. It would probably look better with more wall and less railing. I think a 75/15 ratio should do it.
Saturday i got the bases btw. They're awesome. Now I have to deside in which color I'll paint them.
edit
For Infinity I would suggest this kind of fence instead of the one with the closed/filled out hexagons:
I have looked at them again and I think the second is my favorite and I would deffinatly second the call for guard/watch towers. Have you played around with a diamond grid pattern like a really thik chain link fence?
Automatically Appended Next Post: just like the one above but diamons not hexagons... Although the hexagons do look cool.
currently they stand at 100mm high - so yeah, pretty tall.....gotta keep those zombies out!
my concern, having not cut one out yet is that they are already to detailed and will take forever to cut - making them not as cheap as we'd all like.
hexagons might take forever and a day to cut out - I could draft one just for the sake of argument - i'll hazard a guess already and say it would look cool - just might not be effective in the making.
Decorative Stands for fliers is an interesting idea. Cool. WOuld be interested to see what that might look like. I suppose I was just imagining something more like your current bases, but then with different colored rods holding the unit up.
That or something like flames, a wind stream, smoke, dust, etc being pushed under the flying model..
Then what is more effective/affordable, a pure wall section or a pure "railing" section? I'll just assume that a wall is more effective (cuz it's kinda less detailed ).
Thanks to my uber skill in PAINT, I was able to do this:
Or just a slot at the right height for someone to shoot through without showing to much of themselves to be shot at? although I can see why multiple slots might be usefull as some units have different heights like wraithguard/ dreadnoughts excetera
We've been busy this week getting some stuff together to send out to a couple of tournaments in New York that are on next month, Da Boyz GT and Battle for Salvation. We've made sample packs that can be given to all the players that include a free jewel base and a little MDF terrain nik-nak, if anyone has any ideas for something they'd like to see in the pack, bearing in mind we want to keep it to the size of a business card, let us know and we'll look at it for future tournaments .
Ed's going to work on some flying stands this weekend, I'm determined to get back on to the wall upgrade pack as it's sooo close to being ready, it's just a matter of tidying up the corner sections and finalising the stairs / ladders, then doing all the associated graphics / instructions etc.
I've also been drafting up a concept futuristic building to go with Ed's fence / checkpoint, the idea is people would customise their houses to what they needed / could afford by choosing combinations of lobby units and housing units and could add new pods as their needs changed. For Infinity, if Microart's building was the city centre tower block this one would be more of a pleasant suburb style of living Still some way off being ready to show anything physical but it gives an idea of where it's going at this stage.
I like the look of the Infinity buildings. I am starting to introduce the game at my local shop and I'll definitely be getting some of your terrain to make the board look better. I'd also like to see some space ship interior pieces as we will be building a table to play Space Hulk/ boarding action games.
We don't have bionics but we do have assorted cogs and mechanicus-y data drawn up from a commission that never went through ages ago, we could get some bases drafted up very quickly, and cut out some cogs and stuff to stick on tanks or whatever if you wanted. Prices for bases can be found here, shipping worldwide is pretty cheap, you'd be looking at a few quid GBP. We shipped 45 bases to germany and it was £2.50 postage.
I seem to remember seeing some street lights etc earlier - are they still going ahead? I think you should be able to make some pretty cool gas lantern style steam-punky street lights using cross section style assembly...
And have you thought about barbed/razor wire stands? Both the tradition "X" shape, and others as well? (pole, multiple height "XX - etc" shapes? - whist these are reasonably easy to make, some simple shapes with scribed/etched detailing might be attractive to many.
Got my selection yesterday, postman decided that because he couldn't deliver one parcel from GW, he'd not deliver any of the packets that COULD fit in the letterbox...
Anyway, I really dig these, but I can't help but feel they seem a bit naked straight out, I felt like they could do with having a rim/edge of some sort;
Would you be able to do bases at a size able to fit in the edged display bases, like those that are used in Malifaux? I believe they are about 23mm internal circumference. Going to experiment a bit with painting the underside or rims to see how they come out. I've net yet considered how I'd base my seraphim =X
We can engrave a border around the edge but yeah, we'll get along to our local gaming club and measure up a base to have a look at.
To anyone who went to games day this weekend, we cut the base plate for the silver-winning warhammer regiment, the 5 boar boys . Admittedly a rectangle with 5 rectangles cut out isn't particularly exciting but still, warmill at games day!
Hey warmill I had a thought if you want I would be interested in designing some more vehicles that you could put up as kits? If the idea interests you, you can drop me a PM?
I'm curious if you could possibly make engraved flying stands, possibly for battlefleet gothic ships. I would love a fleet of IN/Chaos ships with their names engraved on bases.
Either way, some great work here and I'll likely be buying some stuff from you in the future.
Time for an update! We cut and printed a prototype for Ed's security fence and checkpoint, we're going to be cleaning up the bases for the fence panels this week and look at making some moulds ready for casting. Once we've got some samples made we can work out prices, options etc. We'll get some pics up once we've got some casts made to show how the fences could be used alone or with the barricade system. He's also been drafting up some bases that would be nice for Dark Eldar armies though it's early days on those.
I've been carrying on with the wall upgrade pack, just refining the design and adding some engraved detail. The only thing left to make are the parts for the heavy weapon tower and it's good to go. Then it's just painting some up, taking photos, making instructions, making graphics, etc etc We'll be doing another pre-order bonus for the launch of the fences and wall upgrade as well so stay tuned for that!
Here's the Golden Daemon entry that my friend did and won silver for that I mentioned the other day. He brought them in to work the day after and one of the girls promptly snapped the empire guy held by the ork on the right off luckily it had been pinned on so no lasting damage done, but the look on her face was priceless Our contribution was the base plate in the picture frame that the bases sit in. He also had a Custodes army in the armies on parade contest that we cut a bunch of plates with holes in for him to put in the baseboard.
We've been testing a way to standardise ordering custom bases and tank hatches on the website, it's worked pretty well so we'll look at rolling it out into other types of custom job as we get an idea of what we're repeatedly asked for. It just saves the hassle of using a separate invoicing programme and generally makes things neater.
@Blacksails If you're looking for BFG stuff it'll be pretty straightforward to do engraved bases with a hole cut out for the standard GW flight stand peg to fit in. Flying stands are something that have come up a few times and we should really pull our fingers out and get them sorted, but in the meantime you can email us at admin@warmill.co.uk or contact us through our webstore contact page and we can talk about what you're looking for.
@mullet_steve we noticed that there was someone interested in your bomma kit (you may not see us in your thread but we're always there... ) Ed's been struck down with the man flu this weekend but we'll send you an email in the next couple of days once we've had a chance to get together.
Here's some snapshots of the upgrade kit until we can get some of the fences.
Cheers all
Harry
Ah - hah - hah - haaaah way ahead of you! If you look closely at the barricade, it wouldn't take much to make it suitable for embedding in a gaming table would it? Maybe just a couple of pieces to add to the back? And perhaps that V-plate makes a good murder ditch that could be filled with all sorts of mines and barbed wire and stuff?
WarMill wrote:Ah - hah - hah - haaaah way ahead of you! If you look closely at the barricade, it wouldn't take much to make it suitable for embedding in a gaming table would it? Maybe just a couple of pieces to add to the back? And perhaps that V-plate makes a good murder ditch that could be filled with all sorts of mines and barbed wire and stuff?
'looks around room to see if he can fit in more Warmill fortress' Well, I guess the bed will have to go, they say sleeping on the floor is good for you anyway...
I would not mind picking up some inner corners and maybe some more bits when I have finished painting the stuff I have atm, just looking at the first computer generated image (the one with all fortress extensions and the steps) makes me want to do the same with my own!
Checkpoint looks mighty fine, looking forward to seeing the rest of the complex!
mullet_steve wrote:
WarMill wrote:Ah - hah - hah - haaaah way ahead of you! If you look closely at the barricade, it wouldn't take much to make it suitable for embedding in a gaming table would it? Maybe just a couple of pieces to add to the back? And perhaps that V-plate makes a good murder ditch that could be filled with all sorts of mines and barbed wire and stuff?
excelent graphics there man.
Yes, that is indeed a very artfully drawn stickman
WarMill wrote:Ah - hah - hah - haaaah way ahead of you! If you look closely at the barricade, it wouldn't take much to make it suitable for embedding in a gaming table would it? Maybe just a couple of pieces to add to the back? And perhaps that V-plate makes a good murder ditch that could be filled with all sorts of mines and barbed wire and stuff?
Oh dear
(though the basic idea isn't too bad I was thinking about actual trench pieces )
An addon pack to the barricade to make it suitable for burying will probably be more likely in the near future than trenches designed from scratch, there's just too many projects we want to do and not enough time to do them!
We've done quite a few commissions over the past few months but haven't really shown that much of them off, but I just cut some samples for a job and really wanted to show them off to show people the kind of thing we do. This is a set of Rhino doors for a fellow dakkaite and follower of the blood god, Ed's got a berzerker army from the old days so maybe we could update them a little in the future.
Yeah trying to get pictures that show off the detail is not easy with a phone camera I quite fancy doing a word bearers squad in a rhino covered in text as a little personal project.
Daymmmm, custom-cut bitz, how come I didn't discover this thread sooner. ^^
I don't seem to find it on the site directly, but I'm curious. How much would doors with that level of detail come or does the LOD not matter? Do you work with templates or 3D files?
You can get an idea of prices here. The level of detail doesn't make any difference as such, what matters is how many levels of engraving are needed. We can either use a greyscale image, which is what we used for the doors up there, or set several layers of engraving to build up a more 3D image which is what we used for the Wild Bunch doors a bit higher up. The greyscale method is quick and easy, uses one engraving pass and can work really nicely if the source image is good but doesn't give as much control over depths of engraving, so it varies. The cog hatch here used 5 (I think) levels of engraving so was a 'platinum' (ie give us more monies!) design, but has text, hinges, cogs, rivets and door frames all at different depths and is really 3D, so was more expensive.
The categories on the website aren't specifically for Rhinos and Land Raiders (there's gotta be more tanks out there than those right? ) but as a rough guide a small hatch is a side door, a large hatch is a top hatch on a Rhino, a rear hatch is a rear hatch on a Rhino, and a glyph plate would be a standalone icon that would roughly fill the front plate of a Rhino.
Hope that helps! The page is still a bit of a WIP but we'll refine it over time.
Just tried it and yes the engraved parts shine very nicely! I primed the painted ones with black and grey and the glow still shows through the gaps. We'll get a pic upon here shortly.
Thanks they did come out rather nice Commission cost is based on how much work is needed to create the artwork to be cut. For £25 we'll take an idea and create the 2D artwork from scratch which can be engraved on doors, bases, or whatever we can work out, but if you can provide us with a suitable image or data it'll just be the cost of the items to be engraved. Best thing to do is email us at admin@warmill.co.uk with details of what you're after and we can work out what the cost would be from there.
The wall upgrade pack'll be along very soon, we're just sorting the upgrade parts for the heavy weapon towers and we'll set them up on the website with a pre-order bonus.
Been working on a few more commissions, including an epic set of pre-heresy bases that I hope to get some pictures of soon once they're in the customer's hands, a sample for a set of custom mirror bases and a sample custom flying stand for Eldar grav tanks.
If you mean the avatar that's an ooooold piece of artwork from GW. Thank google for that one. The data for the technosphere base came from the client, the only one we had any hand in is the Death Guard one at the top.
We've been working away this evening, I've been working on a building to go in the middle of the fort and Ed's been busy drafting up a missile silo that'd be perfect for a mission objective. Here's a pic of the building concept, pics of the missile silo to follow
Some great looking stuff as usual! The bases look very cool, especially the mirrored ones!
You know what I am thinking would look good inside that building? A meeting area, you know, chairs, techy style table and maybe a large holo display of some sorts, though you would need to design a roof to go along with it.
Yeahthat's the general idea, computers around the walls with a big desk in the middle. There will be a roof with a smaller control tower I just hid it them for the picture as they're still in basic block form
Well the heavy weapon tower upgrade pack's done, which means we're ready to start sorting out laser files, get parts cut and painted, take photos etc ready to get the set up on the website. We'll be doing a pre-order bonus as when we launched the first parts, we just haven't worked out what it'll be yet
Here's some pics of the raw parts put on the painted fortress to show what makes up the upgrade parts. The upgrade kit makes the wall approximately twice the height, with a walkway around the entire wall and a set of firing slits / crenellations for the top soldiers to fire from. There is a frame for a set of stairs and a set of ladder parts that can be detached from the straight sections and put on whichever one you want. The upgrade parts are constructed separately from the barricade and simply slide over the original barricade parts, so it's pretty easy to take them apart in-game if you wanted to use rules for destroying buildings. Everything fits together so that walls can be arranged however the player wants, with the ability to make really twisting city walls with lots of towers, or simple compounds full of crates. Better pics will follow soon, along with price details, etc.
What cunning uses of those parts you have Warmill!
Really like what you have done with the tower extensions, my only problem with them is that guys could not cross from one side of the tower to the other as the wall gets in the way, however, I can see me making some rope ladders to go from the walkway to the ground so that they can be pulled up if the wall is breached which would solve the problem for myself.
I think you have got yourself a really good set with this newest addition, I hope it sells well so that you can move onto more awesome projects!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, forgot to mention, what do the extended walls look like when put up against the gatehouse? iirc, they are the same height as the towers so they should match well with this set am I right?
Automatically Appended Next Post: And yet another thing. If you do not know what to do for the pre order bonus, I really enjoyed the free bases that came with my order, either that or you could throw together couple of small barricade/tank trap whatnots along the same lines as your sample packs!
Good point! It's only an issue if you have a corner between two towers, so we'll draw up a small corner segment sized ladder piece and squeeze it on the ladder frame
Glad you liked the bases, some sort of limited edition extra bits could be pretty cool, we'll have to have a think about it
Not a fan of the ladder, though. The overhang at the top would make it really hard to actually climb up there. If you need the overhand for stability, I would recommend adding a hatchway at the top of each ladder, so the climbers would be climbing up the inside between the two ladders, rather than on the outside of the platform.
If that didn't make any sense, I'll whip up a mock-up of what I mean when I get home...
Yeah I know what you're saying with the overhang, in this case it was for strength, looking at it we can put a cut out into the middle of the overhang, I think this would workbetter than a hatch as you'd have troops trying to climb up back to back then squeeze through at the same time. It'd also save having to widen the platform to give them room to stand once they'd climbed through. You could also just use stair parts if you prefer, giving the player the choice is something we're very keen on.
Any other suggestions are appreciated, it all leads to a better product in the end!
Have you considered making any "Hpace Sulk" style corridors and rooms? There are a number of games out there that use internal corridor style changeable layouts, or they could double up as walkways/bits of buildings/etc.
A simple floor pattern, some notches cut in the edges and then some walls with corresponding pegs and a nice pattern...
hah never mind We have talked about doing some resin or mixed media stuff, it just requires clearing some time to do it. The security compound stuff will be a combination resin / MDF kit, maybe space corridors could be the project for the new year. Ed's keen to make a robot, and I'd like to make some kind of future humvee, so maybe we can fit them in around those.
My friend at work had a go at painting up a bit of barricade and made a pretty spanking awesome job of it, unlucky for him because now we've roped him in to doing the upgrade kit for the box art ahahahahahahah *evil cackle* sorry Darren!
It really shows what you can do with a few simple techniques and doodads, we had to paint the current fortress in a weekend and really didn't have time to go beyond spraying and a bit of rust pigment. It's pretty clean, but nowhere near this nice.
@mullet_steve why it's enormous of course email's coming your way btw.
@HAZZER we've talked about it, we've got a building / command post to go in the castle first then I reckon it could be the next upgrade part. We've also thought about tank platforms to fit into the wall, we'll just have to see how things go. Lots of ideas, not enough time!
@Kid_kyoto yeah I've seen their stuff in the past, it looks pretty hot. One thing we try to do is come up with new stuff, or at least a new way of doing old stuff, so if we were going to do space corridors it would have to be in a unique way. I've been doodling sci-fi roads all day when I should have been doing my day job, so they could be an off shoot of that.
Some pics, I know you have seen the fences before - but I finally got some free time to put back into Warmill stuff, so here are the watch towers that have been missing for some time
It took a while to come to a design decision - as there are several watch tower type models out in the community already, and the typical design was too heavy for this fencing / parameter style terrain. So we went with a single man, crows nest style affair, I hope that the pictures translate that OK!: )
C&C welcome as always Might actually get some made soon
I really like the look of that jail! Watch towers are cool. Fence looks good. I would like to see some more details/textures on the surfaces, but the basic shape is very nice so far!
Terra Nova is a great show so far. He is right looks the compound. Only diffrence is that the Terra Nova Compound uses bars of wood all the way down to keep the biggins out.
Warmill you have inspired me to take up CAD and BIM design. Thank you!
Pre-production samples are in! some minor changes have already been made but overall the model is complete, i'll try and get some resin 'feet' made this week so we can start selling the buggers!
just a question but does that ladder come to a hatch or something on the inside of the platform because from those views it looks like it just climbs up to the floor/roof and stops with the occupant having no way of completing his upward journey?
that point aside it's very cool. email recieved and being mulled over.
I saw J park more so than starship troopers for the fence style compound. I love that illustration also!
As for the ladders, there is a but away in the floor so to get yourself up and over - but we have moved the whole thing back 10mm in order to add more stability during games so hopefully we have pre empted that somewhat.
Super-duper cool! I really want a set of these, I can see it in my head, the wreckage of an Eldar titan, enclosed by these walls with admech guys crawling all over it, yeah, sounds good...
Would you be able to lasercut these symbols onto acetate/OHP sheet? Would be cool if the edges could go right up to the symbol, instead of having a big of plastic on the outside.
Love the new additions guys , this infinity angle really suits your clean style . what is the base of the new fences made from ? looks like the stuff fake flowers are posed in
I did download the images but I had to nip out so never opened them! I think its something we can do - but would have to create our own artwork which isn't impossible but may take a while :p
If you can create some suitable artwork i'll have a bash at it
If we get some more requests for the pic i'll upload it
Yeah it is! It can be a bit of a faff, you have to print the objects and use the same print file on the laser. Its a process that you have to set up the file knowing that you want to print the sheet on acetate and then go on to laser cut the profile. A bit of a round about answer but yeah it can be done
anybody else get a Jurrasic Park: Mechanicus vibe...
"BUT MU RHO 7 - HOW WILL IT SCRATCH IT'S BELLY"
WWJD probably this....
OT - That Fenced enclosure is pretty good, if a little Jurassic Park, I would love to see some Landing Zones, like groups of landing pads together and a control tower. Also some heavy stand alone Bunkers.
Harry here! Ive been absent for a while as I'vebeen roped in to doing some freelance work with the GF, which along with the day job has left zero time to play with toys :( there is a bunker concept a few pages back, we'll get round to some more general building type things once the security compound and barricade upgrade kit are out there. My problem is a desire to make everything as modular as possible, the bunker's gotten a little bit silly and mayneed some simplifying
Spiku wrote:Have you chaps looked into the 30mm lipped bases at all? I've got all this money lying around and no one to thrust it upon!
Depends what you had in mind, did you want a base topper, a whole base or a round lipped bit and a separate insert? We could do the topper by just cutting a different size circle, we could cnc and cast whole bases, or cnc and cast a round lipped part and cut a separate jewel bit to go in it. If you wanted an entire round lipped clear base, we could cnc it then cast it up in clear resin.
The plan is to put them up for pre order this weekend, we just need to get some painted for pictures and finalise prices and product options. There'll be a pre order bonus as with the last release. We had planned to have it all done a while back but real life stuck its nose in.
Ona related note, I've been doing some fibreglass mouldmaking and it's fired up the urge to do some large scale modelmaking At some point I think we have to make a monster or some armour or a weapon or something!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Not really lol i suppose since the first design for the barricade came from thinking "what would a real barricade need" it's inevitable there's gonna be similarities if 2 people approach it the same way.
Well, not to pour oil in the fire, but it does look obviously close.
Still, your design is far more sophisticated.
I have spent more than 2 decades of my gaming life waiting for something like it...
Just got time before bed to show off some renders of the limited edition pre-order bonus for the security compound set we'll be releasing very shortly: it's a security booth / scanner / identifier to go with the gate, is a mixture of MDF and acrylic and will be very detailed with absolutely no regard for economy bwah hah hah! This is just the construction, detailing will be added once we're sure the construction works.
Nice! That scanner is my favourite thing you have produced(will produce) since your original fort. The acryliic/mdf mix will be really nice.
Do you guys have a vacuum chamber yet for moulding? I have some bases I would potentially like to have a mould of. At the moment they are just digital designs.
@zwan1one we're getting one very soon but in the meantime we just use the uni's. Are you looking to get them cnced?
@nkelsch what kind of thing would you want to see? The thing with orks is you can pretty much slap anything together out of styrene and foamboard and it looks orky, so we'd need to make something really special to be worth someone buying it.
WarMill wrote:Just got time before bed to show off some renders of the limited edition pre-order bonus for the security compound set we'll be releasing very shortly: it's a security booth / scanner / identifier to go with the gate, is a mixture of MDF and acrylic and will be very detailed with absolutely no regard for economy bwah hah hah! This is just the construction, detailing will be added once we're sure the construction works.
God I can nit wait to do my CAD/BIM classes in January. . . I need to think up some good ideas for my blood falcons doors and hatches for rhino's, stormravens, and land raiders. . .
Here we go, painted tower pic! Great fun to paint (Side views and whatnot in my blog)
You guys need to upload more pics to the dakka gallery as the thumbnail for your blog on the main page is still the ork boss base, it will attract more people to this blog which can only mean good things for you!
We had planned to have the security compound and the castle upgrade kit up for pre order last weekend, unfortunately the fibreglass mouldmaking I mentioned earlier turned into an absolute nightmare and as a result me and the girlfriend were getting by on 3 hours or less sleep a night since the start of the weekend trying to get the job done in amongst our day jobs, and it didn't leave any time for playing with toys! We've started painting now ready for a photoshoot,, so we should be good to go this weekend.
Here's a couple of pics of the nightmare job, (we weren't responsible for the sculpt ), it's a silicon jacket fibreglass mould with the cast done in polyester resin full of bronze powder which does look pretty gorgeous when it's scrubbed up with wire wool, and is apparently going in a pub in Stoke. If anyone fancies commissioning us to make a life size thingy, we can totally do it if your pockets are deep enough*. Daemon head to go above the fireplace anyone?
Well one if the ideas we had was a scenario of a prison enclosure inside a fort, perfect fora game of rescue the POW. I reckon if you painted it in a more drab colour scheme it would look pretty happy alongside the fortress. We also have barbed wire holder expansion parts to go along the top of the fences that would give it a nice grimdark feel as well.
Super work. Theres a real space in the market for your stuff and i think that you'll be a market leader for quite some time to come. Thimbs up for the blog and work so far dude. Come the new year i think im try to make a few purchases!!
I know it's probably been asked already but will you be expanding your range to include alternate bits n bobs for figures, like shoulder pads n weapons etc?? If you do have something in the pipleine for that, that would be awesome!
Harry is off to Warfare 2011 at Reading today to do a bit of networking and most likely spend all his money on cool toys!
Hopefully he will come back with some cool images and a battle report of his day!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Lol you were right about spending all my money on toys, not so much about the cool images
Long story short, trade hall full of cool stuff I wanted, particularly the 15mm sci fi from critical mass and ground zero games, raffle I didn't win anything on, big hall full of people playing games that was too big to look at in the time I had there, some good interest in our compound we lent to our local club to use for their infinity demo game.
2 hours was only enough time to scratch the surface really, especially when it was the last 2 hours of the weekend. D'oh!
In other news, the guy who's painting up the fortress upgrade kit has pretty much finished it, so we can take some lovely pics for new and improved box art
We've discussed here and there how we'd like to do a zombie board game next year, or at least prototype one, and last night I actually got the colouring pens out and had a bit of a doodle of some characters, just looking at a possible style. Let us know what you think!
In other news, the guy painting our castle has been busting himself this weekend finishing it off, sexy pictures will follow in the very near future.
No way! Lazercutting..
Makes me want a 3D printer. All I want in life is to model my Necrons and print the parts. Better yet, I could make the parts they haven't released yet.
I'm waiting on a commission payment but I should be ordering a Quarantine kit if all goes well - will be sure to post photos of it all Imperial-Guarded up surrounded by jungle terrain and Catachan on dinosaurs!
There's one product you could easily make which I think would sell really well. I've suffered through making fancy terrain pieces only to have their flimsy bases warp and crack over time. If you sold pre-cut thin MDF board in a variety of organic rounded kidney and pear shapes in different sizes, it would allow people to make their own terrain pieces. I would be overjoyed to pay a few dollars for rounded flat MDF shapes and avoid the hassle of having to cut my own.
Not having good basing material is the one thing preventing me from making a full jungle battefield of my own. Hopefully you consider making this product, or would at least be willing to make a few specifically-shaped ones on commission.
That's a good idea - a pet hate of mine is seeing some great terrain pieces in the gallery here - only for their cereal box base all warped and bent at the edges!
WarMill wrote:That's a good idea - a pet hate of mine is seeing some great terrain pieces in the gallery here - only for their cereal box base all warped and bent at the edges!
One thing that's been bugging us is how to take pictures of the fortress upgrade kit for the box graphics that makes it clear what you're getting, well i think we sussed it kind of hard to see the transparent effect with my phone camera pics in the kitchen, but it gives the idea.
I'm thinking of buying some colored bases to use as objective markers along with the big Quarantine Security Compound, but I'm not sure what some of the colors look like. Would it be possible to have photos of the material used in the fluorescent and clear colors? My apologies if I've missed them - I just want to make sure they match the armies I'd be buying them for, and seeing the colors would help a lot.
Really excited for the Security Compound purchase!
Things are looking up! Just completed all the box artwork and instructions - if any of you are graphic designers and receive our work - please dont be to critical!
Got a busy week of casting and cutting to complete the orders for the compound and forts that have been flooding in!
We have a few things in the planning stages so next year looks busty (I MEAN BUSY!) already!
A Kvlt Ghost wrote:Out of curiosity (sorry if I missed it somewhere) do you guys do tokens and counters et al as well?
they do custome work so if you can provide clean crisp (preferably vector line) artwork then almost anything is possible however they have to fit everything in and only have one machine so expect a reasonable waiting time... or just do a drawing and fax/email it to them?
Hey steve where you been? How's that bomma coming along?
@Hazzer rules are something for people to come up with themselves depending on what game they play. Hacking the process unit to break into a research lab or just using a demo charge to blow the fence open would be pretty cool for starters.
Our castle painting mate has been busy again, doing up a barricade with the chaos star detail plate option and a special firing slit plate. How cool would a battlefield look with guardsmen swarming all over a gory Blood Pact outpost? Also, a Tzeentchian fort with blue and orange acrylic parts = such a cool idea I think my head exploded
More pics to be posted when I get home and resize them
I've been very busy at work and I've started a foundation degree in nursing so the progress has been stalled, plus I cannot get an inbuilt power unit for it that works so my keen has been erroded a little... good to see you guys are still bombing along making the world a better place one release at a time
Me too! I sent the link to the wife earlier with a heavy handed hint about wanting it for the X-mas. She replied wanting to know which wall style I wanted so I know what's going to be under my Yule Tree this year!
Thanks for the kind words guys! Ed's been a machine on the casting and I've been running the laser ragged. My Christmas gift to myself is going to be some sleep, at this rate I think I'm gonna just put a bed in the workshop . We're all set to get the pre-orders posted out tonight after work, so UK and possibly eurozone customers should have their orders this weekend. Next up, instructions and box art for the fortress upgrade kit to go up for sale after christmas.
I though Tony Stark just built a new workshop in the half the bedroom he wasn't using??? No one's bed is going to be that large even a man hore like tony
The comic-verse (as opposed to the movie ones) Stark for a long time prefered to just invent, in a hidden room that was kinda dingy, little more than bare breezeblock walls, a single lightbulb, a workstation and a crummy mattress.
Well were getting off topic here but...
I think that depends on who's writing the comic at the time plus he's gone through a lot of changes over the years I guess it depends on many things but in the comics I have read Tony has never been that adverse to luxury, or man whoring?
WarMill wrote:The lettering we airbrushed on with spray masks.
Glad to hear it, I also ordered Quarantine and prefer it without. Moloch, I hope to see some Tyranid containment compounds from you! Mine will be a great narrative piece between my Catachan and jungle Tyranids, and will probably spur me to make a counts-as "Ordos Xenos Inquisitor and Retinue" command squad for my IG.
Can't wait to get going on the model as soon as it arrives, it's my big holiday gift for myself.
Well we've been absent from here for a couple weeks now getting orders out, tying up loose ends and mostly getting buried by the day jobs but now we might actually be able to get back on with making cool stuff! Ed was a hero with the moulding and casting for the Compound pre-orders as I got tied up with some freelance work, right before his day job started claiming all his time (boo!).
Currently on the job list, finish updating the boxart for the Battlesnap stuff ready for the upgrade kit to be launched in the new year once I pull my finger out and get the instructions finished (the renders are done, they just need putting in a readable format). Ed's been drafting some concepts for some very interesting bridges and walkways for Street Wars, very different from other stuff on the market right now. We want to really push the style of architecture out there for this range. I've been working on a modular utility building to go in the Fortress, the idea being it's a futuristic military version of those shipping crate offices you get on building sites that can be air-dropped and stacked in a spaceship hold. We've also been discussing some Ancient Techron scenery, we've got a couple of ideas floating around that will get tied down in the new year.
Also, having seen Pekel's blog and the rather sexy job he's done of painting up his Security Compound, I knocked these up tonight for a laugh . Since we seem to attract dinosaur fans (and why not? They are sexy awesome) hopefully they will be appreciated
The Jurassic Park tokens are awesome! Going to have to order a few in color to use as objective markers when I get some more funds. Thanks for the surprise!
For those who haven't seen it, I've started working on my Quarantine compound. It's not done yet - I'll get better photos when it's finished - but you can see some of it here. I set up a diorama of my Catachan versus Tyranids for my brother, who wanted to see the new terrain in action.
And for those who haven't seen the picture inspiring the bases Harry's made, here it is:
I'm very happy with the product so far. Will definitely make my battlefields a lot more interesting.
WarMill wrote:Thats a sweet board Pekel, makes the compound set look like so much stuff when laid out like that!
Thank you - and that's not even all of it! There's still a small fence section and the four watchtowers not used on that table.
My brother and I are excited to play a game in the next few days using the new terrain - an IG army holding the compound against an Ork horde. I don't want to flood the topic with my pictures, but if you'd like I can post up some shots of the terrain in a new configuration covered in painted minis. The modular nature of it makes it a real pleasure to play around with, and it lends itself extremely well to a ton of scenarios.
I would love to see how other people use their new stuff!
we'd love to see some more pics of your stuff! We're so busy we don't get much time to actually hobby for ourselves, and it's really cool seeing what other people do with our stuff
Cut a couple of build testers for the little storage unit / outpost building to test the construction, they went together very nicely, only taking a few minutes to build. They need steps, and they guy who painted our big fortress suggested having a walkway going all the way round for the second level which I reckon is a pretty hot idea, then detail adding. They're a nice size and we should be able to get them out at a good price. Other suggestions are welcome as always
Oh yeah I should also mention the bits on top are only needed for stacking the buildings. I should have taken a picture without them really
Uh oh someone forgot to remove the stacking legs before they sprayed...
they look excelent and the idea of a walkway is very cool, can you make the walkway so that they fit together because these look like excelent emergency fab housing, cut a few windows and add some perspex glazing to the inside and boom you have a nice field officers quarters or med lab.
is there any issue with doing a double wide or double depth unit?
@mullet_steve hah yeah spraying them was a bit of a spur of the moment thing joining multiple stacks together with walkways sounds like an awesome idea, we'll see what we can do . Double width ones have been considered
@galorn now that could be prettu cool for a POW setup, have mesh tops with walkways for armed guards to look down on the prisoners. That would go pretty well with the Security Compound too...
Love the Con-ex style buildings, I will likely buy 6-8 of them when you get them to production.
And is there a ETA on the fortress upgrade package, will likely want to invest in those as well, at least once I receive my initial fortress order and paint it up.
Your order should be with you this week, at least that's what the post office promised. The upgrade pack will be out at the start of the year, we're working on better box graphics for the battlesnap stuff before we release it.
Hmm...
Like the idea of the block things. I honestly prefer them without legs.I want one of those fortresses! Oh btw I would suggest not using GW names because you may be sewed so I'd get rid of any Imperium eagles.
endtransmission wrote:Those containers would look great as part of a landing craft, like Thunderbird 2
Funnily enough we'd just been talking about that...
Ooh ninjad by Cain! We haven't really looked at them since, we did use them as a tester to look in to plastic moulding. We'll need to look at how we'd make them as they're a lot bigger than you might think!
Detail will be added to the units, these ones are just to test the construction works.
Well I recieved my 3 boxes of awesomeness, and must say I am very impressed with the items.
And in a flurry of building assembled all of them in a day and roughly a half .
I plan on painting and customizing them over the christmas holiday, and will post pics on mt Tau P& M blog here on dakka.
My only real comments are maybe for the future have a numbering system for the boards , specially for the larger kits, I figured them out due to the excellent instructions, but some perhaps younger ones may have had a bit more problems with them.
And I noticed the Security compound was made out of heavier boards than the fortress ones, and made some of the part removal a bit difficult, resulting in some broken parts ( nothing I could not fix with some superglue and insta-set ), it was mainly the backing paper that caused the problems, the laser cut did seem to have gone as far through on these as it had on the Fortress parts.
again a incredible set of terrain, and you can be sure I will be ordering more from you gentlemen, specially now that I have to have some buildings for the interior of the fortress compound.
Keep up the great work.
P.S. the terrain even smells nice, kinda like a campfire.
Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
And I noticed the Security compound was made out of heavier boards than the fortress ones, and made some of the part removal a bit difficult, resulting in some broken parts ( nothing I could not fix with some superglue and insta-set ), it was mainly the backing paper that caused the problems, the laser cut did seem to have gone as far through on these as it had on the Fortress parts.
Glad you like the terrain , if you send us some pics of the broken parts we'll send you out some replacement ones ASAP.
Synthetik wrote:What are the primers you have been using on these, I want to give then a textured wall like surface with a small fine grain sand ?
Do you bond the MDF with a pva glue ?
Any chance of a Youtube vid of a contstruction so we can decide on buying.
The big castle my mate painted was done with Plasti-Kote Mountain Mist spray, but you can get a pretty nice subtle effect by spraying with a black primer then doing a 'dry spray' with a grey primer, using just a little pressure on the can and holding it a bit further away than you normally would and giving it a light dusting of paint. Very subtle, but just enough to pick up with a bit of drybrushing.
PVA is perfect.
We have talked about doing construction vids, though hearing our voices / seeing Ed's epic beard may ruin the mystique we've been building up I think it'll definitely be worth doing, after building so many parts it'd be good to show just how quickly you can assemble a fortress. It'd be particularly good to show how to take parts out of the frames like a boss.
We're off to see our respective families over the hols now, so any orders placed won't be made until the new year. We've got a bunch of new stuff to get out there, and the plan is to start hitting up some shows with a stand to show off our wares, so any UK people may be able to see us in the wild to buy us beer / hurl abuse next year
WarMill wrote:Couldn't resist doing a bit more on the building
Those look awesome, if you make the deck sections some kind of grill almost like your fence sections you made for the security compound it will have a nice prefab feel to them.
And I could easily see adding a second, third level to the stackable container buildings, and have walk around those, maybe even with a bridge/walkover to link neighboring building stacks, just put a spot for a ladder or stairway egress.
The design kinda reminds me of the Aliens movie colony, and in a very good way.
Can''t wait for some more warmill stuff. Great eyecandy.
I tested out the size on the current gate and it is almost wide enough to fit a superheavy through, only the sponsons get in the way.
How much cool stuff in the last few posts!
) Ed's been struck down with the man flu this weekend but we'll send you an email in the next couple of days once we've had a chance to get together.
