Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

As someone who's tentatively trying to build a cathedral of sorts, I salute you. That's most impressive, and that reaper dude is a new quest objective for me!

Now I like that Skalk

Plenty of space to move around on, and big enough to add something in the middle sometimes, for where some new structure has been built up in the ruins of the old.....

For the shrine thingummy on the porch are you thinking of having a back or the open archway around the ancient martyr?

brilliant step by step work on that cathedral!

the skeleton mini on top of the entrance is truly the icing of the cake!

and yep... those bulkheads should be remade! you´ve got my vote^^

@ Camkierhi- Thank you! More of the same to come eventually.

@ Dr H- I'm going to use the small flying buttresses that came w/ the set to break things up a bit. Lame, but I don't want to delved into scratch build on the Imperial Sector buildings. The difference stands out way too much.

@ graven- always glad to know I can provide inspiration, especially when I enjoy your work so much.

@ monkey- Even 1/3 done it has seen the tabletop 4 times now (I've been getting in a lot more games) and every time it lands in (or close to) the middle. it's an awesome LoS blocker, it's terrifying when Scouts infiltrate it, it's a massive area of difficult terrain... it really does affect the game and strategic decisions.

@ Vik- I doubt GW would ever release them again as it would encourage scratch build instead of buying their much more expensive kits.



And once again shifting gears without a clutch I have a finished piece that I'm adding to my Necromunda terrain. It's largely a recycle project, everything on this came out of my bitz bin and I didn't spend even 1 new cent on it. Notice I said 'new'. Ha.

Before I share the finished piece I want to show where is came from. The base of the piece came from a test block I was trying when I was doing the Fuel Depot:



And the platform came from a piece I did a long time back when I first started this thread. I never liked the piece anyway and this was the perfect opportunity to smash it up and use it for something I would enjoy playing on:



Here's what I did with those pieces:













It only took me a couple days to finish this once I got started. It's not a 100% effort project but it's way better than the stuff I used to crank out in the same amount of time (I am taking into account that the platform was mostly done) and I'm very happy with it. It is going to look great on my Necromunda table and will be fine to put on my 40K table as well. I prefer scratch build for Necromunda more than 40K because I have so much prefab on my 40K table and Necromunda is a complete mess. The Underhive is centuries of decay, randomness, and (for me) lends itself to more ingenuity for using random junk like switches, ethernet ports, broken electrical stuff, etc.

That's it for this one. I'll be back!

Cool!




















Good job. The weathering is excellent.
The tarmac could probably do with a little more contrast. Like a light grey drybrush around the pot-hole for example, just to bring out the texture a little more.
That's all I've got.

Vik- I doubt GW would ever release them again as it would encourage scratch build instead of buying their much more expensive kits.

you and your reasoning!!!

thank the lords of choas you are a scratchbuilder of the finest...

that terrain piece looks really nice... i really should invest time in smaller terrain pieces myself than get sucked in in way too large projects...argh^^

@ Dr H- I might go over it a bit, it's still on my bench instead of my terrain shelf.

@ Vik- Lots of little projects = large terrain collection. Lots of large projects = little terrain collection.

That's a great little piece Skalk! Although I thought it was fine before mean old Mr. Hammer got it

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:@ Dr H- I might go over it a bit, it's still on my bench instead of my terrain shelf.

@ Vik- Lots of little projects = large terrain collection. Lots of large projects = little terrain collection.

yes master

Hey Skalk... what exactly is the wire mesh you're using and where do you find it?

@ Dave- Thanks! No chance this return to Necromunda here would inspire you to... naw, nevermind. Anyway, I have two more things below you'll recognize and hopefully be happy w/ the new direction. Nothing major. Well, one is. But it wasn't on purpose. And I promise 'mean old Mr. Hammer' had nothing to do w/ it.

@ Vik- Get to it, Mister! Mach schnell!

@ Gitz- It's copper screen. I picked it up at Michael's I think. Not sure if it exactly this stuff- http://www.craftyarts.co.uk/acatalog/paragona_wiremesh_copper_LG.jpg - but it's the same idea. One roll will last you a lifetime.




Two genuine updates in as many days. If you are wondering where all this hobby time is coming from, I'm home with some sort of wretched disease. I haven't been this sick in a few years. It hit me like a train 3 days ago and each day it has become exceptionally worse. Right now I'm awake because I feel like my lungs are full of water, the pressure in my sinuses is going to rip my face in half, and someone punched a plated gauntlet down my throat.

Lovely.

Luckily I have a dr appt tomorrow morning so I (probably?) won't wind up dying from this. And if by some chance I do, I want you all to know that I always thought you were a bunch of right bastards and I'm glad to be done with the lot of you.

On to the modeling. Tonight I reworked a piece I liked enough to keep, but not enough to use. I've meaning to fix it up a bit for a long, long time. I built it in Nov 2011, and it finally got the attention it should have received back then. I like it a lot and I'm looking forward to putting it on the table. Maybe even an Arbites / Watchmen scenario. There is one I ran back in the day called "Jailbreak" where a random player lost a random member of their gang (arrested while in town for whatever reason), and the options were to let them rot in jail (w/ all of their weapons & equipment confiscated), pay the ganger's total rating X2 for bail and bribe to have all the gangers weapons / equipment returned, or simply storm the precinct and rescue the ganger (w/ me playing the Watchmen / Arbites).

We'll see how it goes. back to the model, here's what it used to look like:



...and here is the upgrade:









And for reference, I built it so the height exactly matched a bulkhead (for ease of measurement)



The next piece was not my fault. Well, maybe a bit, but overall it wasn't. Here is what it used to look like.



When I built this for the 1st LoER Terrain comp I built it with an asymmetrical base. Once I started playing 6th Ed it had to change as the house rules for terrain changed on my table (asymmetrical base = difficult / dangerous terrain) and I didn't want such an awesome piece to get mothballed. I very carefully removed it from it's base and then (due to other projects) I set it aside for a while. During that while a series of unfortunate events occurred and skipping over details this piece was shattered. I threw the assorted bits into my "I'll get to it later' bin and life went on. Recently I was digging through that bin looking for bitz I could use on a different project and decided that this would have an excellent new home as part of my Necromunda terrain.

I've recycled a few pieces for this project as well. The round base is from a scrapped idea to build a Daemonic Summoning Circle (a 'counts as' Skyshied Landing Pad) and the plasticard is from dsteingass as part of my prize package from the LoER contest. Here's where it all is right now:







Notice I added plates from the Pegasus Hobbies range to make the platform taller and look more like a bunker. The stairs and the ramp survived, but only the stairs are being used on the new incarnation. The ramp will find a higher purpose on another piece at some point. I expect to have this done in the near future, though I am thinking about another change that would be really cool if I could find the one bit of materiel I need to make it happen. I don't know if I'll follow through with it, but I'll keep the idea on the back burner.

I expect there will be more terrain like this in the near future. The main platforms won't be seeing much love from me for quite a while because I barely have the attention span to stay focused on the smaller (re: less overwhelming) pieces.

That's it for now. I'm off to drink a 1/2 bottle Nyquil and hope that I don't drown in my sleep. Ugh.

he destroys badass looking terrain.... you better make it even better...mister... "oder ich versohle dir den hintern!"

Luckily I have a dr appt tomorrow morning so I (probably?) won't wind up dying from this. And if by some chance I do, I want you all to know that I always thought you were a bunch of right bastards and I'm glad to be done with the lot of you.

LOL... yeah... leaving this plane of existince with a clean slate is always up my alley

Cool! That crumbly vinyl stuff is soo old and brittle, but it works great for peices like this. Glad to see you working Skalk!
I hope you feel better soon!

@ Vik- Have faith. You've seen me tear down and rebuild before. It won't be in the immediate future, but I assure you that it will come back better than it was. I've learned a lot since I originally built that.

@ Dave- Dude it is a pain to work with. it won't stay glued down, it breaks into tiny crumbly bits if you as much as THINK about it, and overall I am regretting my decision to use it BUT I absolutely am going to and it will be awesome. I'm making a point of using as much of the stuff you sent me as possible to show my appreciation and to show that it went to a good home where it got used (in hopes that maybe someday you'll send me another haul of the stuff you won't ever use )



It appears that Papa Nurgle spared me once again. I lost 3 days of PTO (paid time off) that I could have used for stuff like riding my bike this summer... but I did sneak in some modeling between episodes of coughing convulsions.

All of this is from Pegasus Hobbies. And let me tell you, it's AWESOME!!! Let me say that again- it's AWESOME!!! It's like having a Lego set you can build incredible wargame terrain from. That said, it's MADDENING to work with because the possibilities are boundless and if you use just a bit too much pressure while pressing a panel into a connector can result in an explosive cascade of plastic panels where your almost completed structure had been only moments before. This happened to me many times. I finally figured out how to do it w/o error but the learning curve sucked.

I have a couple more things that I didn't take pic of. I have no idea why. but this piece is the jewel of my efforts and I am so very much looking forward to putting this on the table.

No narrative. I'd write more but I'm beat tired but wanted to post this tonight. I can follow up w/ an explanation or fluff later if anyone wants one. Because the fluff is pretty cool. Really.















That is some great stuff, and it will fit into my 40K as well. I am so happy I finally decided to try it out.

More coming later.

Nice use of the platformer stuff. One of my mates made a pit fighting ring out of the hex stuff. It's really, really cool terrain.

Hope you get better soon mate, forced time off work sucks. The boxy towers look wonderful though, and are going to be awesome for necro! Are you going to whack a ladder on the side of the taller one? Look like they could be shipping containers, right? It's great to see you producing stuff again!

This stuff looks great, It's always nice to see big ambitious terrain projects, I look forward to seeing more.

The Pegasus stuff looks great, how many sets did you use to make that piece? I've looked at them, but just haven't pulled the trigger so to speak.

It reminds me of the playgrounds at McDonalds. it just needs a Ball pit...but add a twist to it ... 'Ball Pit of Death' and a 'Slide of Doom'

Very cool Skalk!

@ graven- I really like the all the stuff from Pegasus.

@ Scarp- Ladders and other bitz of detail will be added on once the main paint job is complete.

@ hk1x1- Thanks for checking this out. Terrain is my main modeling focus and I expect that will continue for a long time.

@ Theophony- I do not know how many sets it was because I bought a lot of bitz months ago to use as floors for my Imperial Sector buildings and I used most of that. I imagine it was at least 2 sets worth. I can give you a total count of the squares and the connectors if you'd like.

@ Styro- Hmm. I may have to think about that. A ball pit would be really easy to make and ridiculous enough to work, kind of like an easter egg on a bitter grimdark table. Ha.

@ dsteingass- Thanks, glad you are enjoying the Necro terrain.



Played two games of Necromunda last Wednesday. I didn't take pics of the 2nd game (which had more terrain) but here's a shot of the first setup. Pics came out too fuzzy to share, this was the best of the lot:



Recently my box of smaller terrain pieces was knock off a shelf and many things broke apart. I noticed the majority of the things that broke were plaster casts made from Hirst molds, etc. I am done with anything made of plaster. From here on out if it isn't plastic or resin I'm not wasting my time on it. Some things were not rebuilt since they were mostly made from barrels or crates of plaster. Some things will be reused (such as container boxes and the dental stone crates) but the majority of the broken plaster was thrown away.

Here's a pic of one of the things I put back together. It's just a pile of junk and bitz but I really like it and I will probably make a few more like this. Also, just to be clear, I will be keeping the undamaged plaster pieces I still have and will replace them in the future with plastic / resin as needed. This is rebuilt but not repainted yet.



I also took a re-worked piece and gave it more detail (an example of re-using the container boxes and crates, plus 1 plaster barrel that wasn't terribly damaged). I feel that it is a truly finished piece now.





That's for this one. Thanks for looking.

Notice some of your bridges were model train tresses, I picked up seven used ones from a model train shop within walking distance of my house. I don't like calling any place a dump (being a gamer I've seen plenty of stores and players houses that could qualify), but the shop is tiny and stuff is all piled on top of each other with hand made signs saying "don't touch" every two feet. The four old men in the shop kept giving me dirty looks (I'm late thirties) like I was a young punk. I dug through th piles and got th trestles for a couple bucks each, saw a new in box was like $16.00, so seven old ones for th price of one new one was worth it to me. I'll be raiding his shop for some goodies.

No need to count up the platformer stuff. Thanks for the offer though. When the funds become available I'll be ordering a few sets to see what they can do.

Sorry to hear of the damages. Would the stuff have survived better if it was made from harder material than plaster? I've thought about getting a few moulds and trying them out.

Thanks for the responses

@ Theophony- Funny you should mention train trestles. My next update is all about them. Did some work last night building 3 new walkways as the last couple games showed me I do not have enough.

As far as the damage to my plaster items, I want to make sure I'm being clear about my decision to not use plaster again. I've been unhappy w/ my plaster pieces for a long time. A major issue is that even w/ normal use and storage they chip and show white plaster underneath the paint. I have used different kids of sealers and sprayed them multiple times w/ no noticeable difference in durability. Also, the pieces that broke were not just plaster, some were hydrocal. The only non-resin / plastics pieces that survived the crash were made of dental stone, even though a lot of them popped off the bases as the bottom part (super glued) separated from itself but nothing actually broke like the other items (broke meaning in half or into many smaller bits).

That said, if you are casting your own stuff my recommendation is dental stone if you are not using resin. There are a lot of other guys on Dakka that cast and opinions vary, but IMO if you have to opportunity to cast resin that's the way to go. It does eat your molds a bit more quickly but you'll still get a lot of casts out of it and you'll be much happier with the items you've cast over the years. I've cast resin only a few times but I've been happy w/ the results.



Last night after I posted my update I started working on some walkways I need for my Necromunda terrain. A long time back you may remember that I picked up quite a haul of them on eBay. So far I’ve only used 2 of them in different projects. I decided to use some more for this project. Originally I thought I’d work w/ 1 and go from there, but as you’ll see I made some quick progress between stages of gluing.

Here I’m starting with the stock bottom piece of a train trestle:



Cleaned out all the studs for a clean channel:



Here I’ve cut a strip of plasticard that I’ll be using for my walkway:



…and here it is put together:



It was a bit flimsy so I reinforced it w/ some plastic rod dsteingass sent me. And other example of putting someone else’s obsolete material to good use. I didn’t have enough to do both channels so I used the end bits as close to the end as possible as that is where the ‘action’ will be happening.



While I was waiting for the glue to dry I started another walkway, this time going w/ the stock bride ‘as is’ except for a support beak in the middle. You’ll notice the plasticard bits at each end of the bridge- those are used to connect into the Necromunda bulkheads. I’ll have pics of the connection later.



Back to the first walkway. The plasticard is plain and boring so I decided to use some self-adhesive drywall tape. I’ve used this on some other projects before and I’ve always been happy w/ the results. First I applied the tape, being careful to keep it as symmetrical and square as possible, and then I used a hobby knife to cut to contour. Also adding a closeup so you can get a good idea what this looks like:







I took a third trestle, flipped it upside down, added some side supports, and suddenly I have another walkway.



Here’s a pic of the lot of them.



Not a bad start for 1 hour of work. More coming as soon as I have something to share.

Good job on the various bits and pieces.
With the walkways, could you put the plasticard sheet under the crossbeams of the trestle for a different look (or are you even going to leave them with holes?) or even fill the holes with card or putty/resin/something to keep the criss-cross pattern (although it's a lot more work)?
Or (there appears to be alot of "or"s in this) would models not like the crossbeams?

That drywall tape, does it have holes in it, between the fibres or is that filled with sticky-tape? Just curious.

@ Dr H- The upside down trestle will have a strip of plasticard under the cross brace so they show on top but the walkway doesn't look like a plummet to certain death. The other walkway will have wire mesh under it to break up the look of things. To show the possibilities of variety, this is a trestle base from the same set:



As far as the drywall mesh, it is made of individual strands so the squares are holes. Here's a finished model using mesh tape to show how it looks when it is done:





it's really neat stuff and has a lot of application possibilities. Plus one roll of it will most likely last a lifetime of hobby projects.

Cool. Sounds and looks really useful. I shall have to keep an eye out for it when I'm in a suitable shop.
I remember seeing those other ones now you show them again. Good o, carry on.

Never thought about using the mesh, I've been using the cross stitch plastic. Will have to dig out my home improvement toolbox. Also on that same tresel you might not have noticed but if you stand them on end they are the EXACT same height as three bulkheads. I've taken two of them and connected with plastic card to create tall piers. Also working on making them gantry elevators. Will keep my eye out for more of them.

@ Dr H- It's really great stuff but I'm not sure if they have it on your side of the pond. I did some research for another Dakka bud a long time back and couldn't find it on any UK site.

@ Theophony- "Also working on making them gantry elevators". Man that is the coolest idea anyone has offered since Gits thought of the service panel on my fuel depot. I am *so* doing that really soon. I'll make a solid connection bracket for the lift so it is solid, I know how to make the 'safety rail', and I've already figured out how to make it so I can use it on any 3-bulkhead platform (as I also did not know it's exactly 3 bulkheads tall). Talk about inspiration. Now I want to ditch work and go build this!

Plaster of Paris is crap, never ever use it. A 50lb. box of Dental or even better Orthodontic plaster is worth the investment

Skalk's Train bridge walkways are still the best I've seen!

@ dsteingass- I think Scarper just upped that ante.



Took a bit of time to model this weekend. First I checked out what Theophony said about the trestle being the same height as 3 bulkheads. My trestles are a bit taller but I have an idea how to make that work for me so it's perfect.



I had an idea how to make the elevator compatable with any 3-level building, but the method I used was completely stupid and the ned result was three ruined bulkheads and one ruined trestle w/ a small bit of wasted plasticard. The idea is still good, but the application has to be WAY different next time. I won't go into detail, I'll just mention that Tenax 7R and gravity can provide undesired results. I'll revisit this and do it right next time.



Also repaired some crates that broke off bases during The Great Terrain Crash of '13. They are dental stone so not so worthless, and I tried a technique here where everything is glued together in one bulk mass. No gap went unglued, and the base is solid .060 plasticard. This bit should last a long time so long as it is stored with consideration and doesn't suffer another '6 high header.





Next bit is from my original Necromunda scenery collection when I lived in VA. I have more of them, and they all need a bit of a paint facelift to join the collection I use nowadays. I didn't think to take 'before' pics, but whatever. The build is original, the paint is reworked. Here's one of them w/ the new look:







I also reworked this a bit, gave it a more dulled look and added light rust w/ a yellowish highlight around the hatch. Looks weird up close, looks great on the table:



Here's another 'after the fact' project, and the original project I was working on that prompted THIS piece didn't get any pics at all. I'll take some later and share becasue it's pretty cool. Anyway, I took a top piece off a tower and was going to toss it because I had no immediate use for it and I'm trying to keep my junk collection limited to a single bin. I still have hobby PTSD from the way my game / hobby room used to look. Gah. Anyway, just before I tossed it I had this small voice in the back of my head issued a challenge- take this useless random thing and make something from it... RIGHT NOW! I looked at it again and the inspiration hit me. I started building it and then decided to take some pics:









I'm going to keep the hatch unglued so it can be moved. Why? No idea. Just seems neat. More work coming on it before it sees paint. I'll likely renew my LoER membership w/ this one, I haven't given anything rivets in quite a while.

Thanks for looking, more coming as I have something and time to post it.