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Greetings fellow Dakkaites! I was fortunate enough to pick up a decent amount of terrain from my LGS for dirt cheap. Now, I just have to put it to use. This is my first attempt at doing a full on table full of terrain, but I think I'm ready to take one on for myself. In the past, I have only done little here and there pieces that were incoherent and pretty much put together on a whim.

I know we have quite a few terrain gurus here on dakka and I have been lurking through many of the other big projects on here for a while. Hopefully you guys will chime in and let me know what you think or lend some ideas/advice.

I have a 4x6 table that I am looking to fill pretty well. I picked up an Imperial Sector, a Shrine of the Aquila, an Imperial Stronghold, a Bastion, a Skyshield landing pad, and an honored imperium. In addition to those I have a busted Leman Russ, a Valkyrie, a cardboard bulilding, a polystyrene bunker and an assembled building. I also have an Indomitable Fortress WIP that has been collecting dust since planetstrike came out Here's some pictures of the stuff to give you an idea:









The indomitable fortress:


The parapets and emplacements:


The missile silo:



My goals for this project are:

Make enough terrain to effectively fill the table (not counting the indomitable fortress)
Find unique ways to use the bought stuff
Use enough scratch made stuff to keep the bought stuff to a minimum, thus leaving me able to make more stuff than just the few buildings
Keep the buildings different enough from each other that they dont look the same, but keep a cohesive feel throughout
have as much multi level stuff as possible to keep the games interesting

Initial Ideas:

I have something in mind for a water treatment plant, i'll draw up some plans
I'm not a huge fan of the bastions the way they are "supposed to be", so i want to incorporate elements of the other buildings into a few of them to keep them interesting
I want something reminiscent of a "hall of heroes", not sure how to work that yet though
Want to use a good amount of visible piping along and underground, not a big fan of smokestacks
Want to figure out another way to use some of the barricades rather than just tossing them in random places
want a sewage dump, with some kind of cess pool

Thats all I can think of for now, please post your initial thoughts/suggestions/advice.

Looking forward to this one!

should be exciting! is that liquid nails on the fortress floor?

Fifty wrote:Looking forward to this one!

I havent quite decided if I'm looking forward to it or not yet

neil101 wrote:should be exciting! is that liquid nails on the fortress floor?

It was about 8 usd at a local crafts store. You mix it 50/50 with water, its pretty brittle though once it dries. You can see some of it cracking around the missile silo from where the board was flexing underneath. But, it's cheap and easy.

thats a great big tub! goog idea though, this hobby is expensive and savings must be made on other things than mininis, it looks great , you decided if its going to be dry or wet, mud or stone?

This sounds like an awesome idea, just thinking though; are you going to build the terrain set in its place? Like one big scenic base? Or will it all be removable, to change around?

i really like the fortress.

neil101 wrote:thats a great big tub! goog idea though, this hobby is expensive and savings must be made on other things than mininis, it looks great , you decided if its going to be dry or wet, mud or stone?

It's going to be mostly dry dirt, I think I may do a little mud between the two parapets in that deep area.

geza55 wrote:This sounds like an awesome idea, just thinking though; are you going to build the terrain set in its place? Like one big scenic base? Or will it all be removable, to change around?

They will be separate from each other so they can be rearranged. I also have some tiles for the table RoB style. I'll have a total of two sets and the table is based urban. I used Panic's urban board tutorial.

jetjetex wrote:i really like the fortress.

Thanks! I'm glad you like it. Ive still got some ideas for it but I just have to get motivated for it. I'm probably going to wait until after I finish the buildings before I start working on it again. I want to be able to fill the rest of the table first

Quick tip for some cheap 'dragon's teeth' tank traps to go in front of your fortress. Firstly, grab an ice cube tray, fill it with plaster, when it is set add battle damage then just glue them into their desired place. When you come to paint them, if you add fine sand to the mixture you'll get a nice stone texture that you can quickly dry brush up.

Hope that helps.

Now on to the models, firstly wow that really is a lot of stuff, good luck. Secondly you've said that you want all of the building to have a similar look to them, can I suggest instead that you add a certain level of variety into the mix, this will represent a truer architecture. Lastly plan out the theme of each building separately and add flourishes to suit. So maybe for a factory you add a bill board etc.

As ever I look forward to seeing an epic terrain project take shape.

Okay, so here are my thoughts on the water treatment plant (or oil refinery or whatever). I drew up two different plans, and the idea came from something similar I saw here on dakka (unfortunately I do not remember who to give them credit, sorry).

So here is the plan with a vertical tank. It has a view from the top, left and right obliques, and some ideas for the tank.



Heres the plan for a horizontal tank



Please let me know what you guys think and if you have any ideas or criticisms feel free, this is by no means solid.


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Lennysmash wrote:Quick tip for some cheap 'dragon's teeth' tank traps to go in front of your fortress. Firstly, grab an ice cube tray, fill it with plaster, when it is set add battle damage then just glue them into their desired place. When you come to paint them, if you add fine sand to the mixture you'll get a nice stone texture that you can quickly dry brush up. Hope that helps.

That does sound easy, and the plaster is definitely easy to scar up. *puts idea in pocket for later*

Im not sure I want to actually put them into the board for the fortress though. I'll probably keep them separate so they can be incorporated if desired, but still omitted if not.

Now on to the models, firstly wow that really is a lot of stuff, good luck. Secondly you've said that you want all of the building to have a similar look to them, can I suggest instead that you add a certain level of variety into the mix, this will represent a truer architecture. Lastly plan out the theme of each building separately and add flourishes to suit. So maybe for a factory you add a bill board etc. As ever I look forward to seeing an epic terrain project take shape.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll keep the billboard idea in mind. By similar I mean look like they all belong in the same city, not necessarily that they look the "same"; more like something to tie them together.

Ah fair enough.

The tank's layout looks fine, I definitely prefer the vertical tank myself. Are you thinking about adding a second gantry to the very top of the tank?

This project looks like it will be quite interesting

Lennysmash wrote:Ah fair enough. The tank's layout looks fine, I definitely prefer the vertical tank myself. Are you thinking about adding a second gantry to the very top of the tank?

If I do the vertical tank I'll probably do the ladder that comes down the side to the catwalk, rather than building a gantry all the way to the top.

SilverMK2 wrote:This project looks like it will be quite interesting

Thanks! I hope you enjoy it.

After thinking some more I am leaning toward the vertical tank, I'll probably do some crates and random crap on the ground under the catwalk and put a monitor panel on the side of the tank at the end of the catwalk.

I think the horizontal tank might be more suited to a stand alone storage tank.

I think if you did the horizontally lying tanks, it would look better to have (instead of a ladder on the side and then run across) a catwalk just above them running perpindicular. That's more how that style gets set up to begin with, since it's easier to run across one catwalk and access the panels and valves for multiple tanks that way. A vertical tank would look better by itself, good sniper point or something of that nature, but horizontal ones should definitely have probably 2 or 3 tanks together IMO.

NecronKitty wrote:A vertical tank would look better by itself, good sniper point or something of that nature, but horizontal ones should definitely have probably 2 or 3 tanks together IMO.

I agree with this on both counts. So unless anyone else has suggestions for the horizontal Im going to go ahead and say the vertical tank plan is the way Im going to go. Now to just figure out the sizes.

I'm thinking I want the tank to be about twice as tall as the catwalk, and one level on a GW building is about 3 inches (~7.5cm). So I need a cylinder that is roughly 6 inches (~15cm) tall. I'll have to mock some stuff up before I decide what diameter I need. I like the look of a tank that is wider than it is tall, but I dont think that will be feasable without making the footprint of the building larger than I'd like.

Now I just have to find some cool stuff for the pump house and it will look all pump house-y.

Thought about putting the tank on stilts so it does not block LOS so much at ground level and reduces the footprint a bit?

Also, have you seen the biotoxin plant? Might supply you with a few bits and pieces you will find useful. Got mine on ebay new for about £14ish. Sure there will be American sellers for it as well.

Should be interesting to see how it turns out. Have you seen the FW water tank?

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Warhammer_40,000_Terrain/IMPERIAL-WATER-FUEL-TANK.html

SilverMK2 wrote:Thought about putting the tank on stilts so it does not block LOS so much at ground level and reduces the footprint a bit? Also, have you seen the biotoxin plant? Might supply you with a few bits and pieces you will find useful. Got mine on ebay new for about £14ish. Sure there will be American sellers for it as well.

Im not so much worried about blocking LOS, but the stilts could be cool. I'll keep it in mind for when I'm trying to decide on tanks, that way I dont have to limit myself to stuff that is 6 inches tall on it's own. I have seen that biotoxin plant, in fact the building I got my inspiration from used some of the bits from that set. Its cool, but I feel like it is a little busy for my taste. I am not to keen on the bulbous pipes and such, but the pumps and tanks in that kit look amazing! If you have some pump looking stuff left over I'd be happy to liberate them from you (with compensation of course).

Commander Cain wrote:Should be interesting to see how it turns out. Have you seen the FW water tank? http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Warhammer_40,000_Terrain/IMPERIAL-WATER-FUEL-TANK.html

My liking the forgeworld tank is what had me considering doing the horizontal tank.


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Also this one looks pretty good, it's the fifth picture from the top.

http://redemptorsofgolinar.blogspot.com/2009/01/scenery-rampage.html

Just so happens that I have an empty 100ct CD spindle laying around too, that is definately a canidate.

Sorry for the lack of updates, been busy with the fam in town. I'll probably start a mock up tomorrow or Tuesday. I've got a picture to post but I'll have to move over to my computer to do it. I'll put it up shortly.

Terrain looks very awsome! good luck.

slaaneshiicommissar wrote:Terrain looks very awsome! good luck.

Thanks!

So here are two potentials I have come up with for the tank. As stated previously, a 100 count CD spindle and an empty can of board wipes. What do you guys think and do you have any other suggestions?



I havent found anything wide enough that is short so I could use the stilts idea with, but im still looking around the house and pondering what I could use.

Sweet dude !!

Take a look at tupperware boxes. You can get squat round ones from most places.

I would go with the CD spindle. It has a bulkier shape, perfect for a water tower.

I also have a big novelty cup from a movie theater. It's pretty big, about 48 fl oz or so. It has smooth sides and tapers toward the bottom. I was thinking turn it upside down, but I don't think it would look good as a water tank. Maybe as a cooling tower for a factory or something though. I will definitely keep it in mind though. I'll post a picture of it in a little while.

This is looking awesome! Wish I had a table like that to fill...

I can't wait to see more!

I agree, I don't think a tapered tank would look quite right. Also I'll second the vote on the cd stack cover. The wipes container I personally think would better suit a horizontal gas or propane type tank.

Im loving the concept and the start of it.

Good work

I'm stoked about this projected. See you soon.

Freakin BTG!! finally found you on here and now you're building some crazy stuff! GL man, its lookin pretty promising!