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I was overjoyed when I went to Lowe's and bought 32 sq. ft. of 2-inch thick foam for terrain. I love building things out of foam. It's so much fun. But I ran into a problem when I was building it. How big to make it?

For context, the idea I had when I started making the terrain was this vague notion of a ruined forgeworld. And that made me start wondering, how big do individual buildings on forgeworlds get? And what other structures are common on forgeworlds other than large, squarish buildings?

how big do individual buildings on forgeworlds get?

Gargantuan. The entire table could be the interior of one Forge.

And what other structures are common on forgeworlds other than large, squarish buildings?

Liquid and gas refineries (so tubes and tanks all over the place), recycling yards (so massive piles of rubble or scrap or whatever all over the place, plus massive conveyor belts and huge, scoop-jaw cranes), space-ports, land-ports, monumental warehouses, the teeming slums that house the menial workers, the barracks-assemblies that house the Skitarri legions, motor pools, massive parking decks for ground vehicles of all descriptions....

Basically, just think "overindustrialized hellhole" and you have a Forge World.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Some images I found via the Google servitor:

The entire table could be smaller than entire rooms in a Forge. Particularly if that Forge makes any large vehicles.

You're going to have lots of factories, pipelines, rail lines, cranes, loading docks, warehouses, etc...

The most interesting tables would be those on the outskirts. Or maybe with half the table inside a partially collapsed manufactorum.

 Psienesis wrote:

how big do individual buildings on forgeworlds get?

Gargantuan. The entire table could be the interior of one Forge.

And what other structures are common on forgeworlds other than large, squarish buildings?

Liquid and gas refineries (so tubes and tanks all over the place), recycling yards (so massive piles of rubble or scrap or whatever all over the place, plus massive conveyor belts and huge, scoop-jaw cranes), space-ports, land-ports, monumental warehouses, the teeming slums that house the menial workers, the barracks-assemblies that house the Skitarri legions, motor pools, massive parking decks for ground vehicles of all descriptions....

Basically, just think "overindustrialized hellhole" and you have a Forge World.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Some images I found via the Google servitor:

Spoiler:

Actually, the entire table could just be a single hall in the forge.

Oh, that's fantastic. Now, a follow-up question: does anyone have links to tutorials for quick (ish) and easy pipes and tubing for the gas refineries? What are good household items that convert relatively easily into large industial tanks?

Pipes and tubing are the easiest things to get, because any hardware store should have lengths of cable-piping (which is plastic, bendable, and has that ripple look), copper and brass tubing, plastic tubing, various cans and bottles for other projects... all of these things in various gauges and widths to do all kinds of things with.

All of these things can be cut to fit and spray-painted with either rust-red or just primer, and then detailed with greys, whites and blacks, all depending on how detailed you want to get.

40k's combat scale is pretty small. If you're doing 4' x 6', a table is aproximately 288' x 432' of terrain. Which is like half of a New York City block. (northsouths are 264', east wests are 1056', and the blocks aren't really all that standardized anyway).

However. . . .even today there are buildings that take up that much of a footprint or more. So its really up to you. But if you want something to model it on, you could put one street down the middle of the table, and half buildings on either side going down it. Pick a couple blocks in NYC from google, and away you go. Just make some buildings into rubble or ruins, and you can keep it really interesting.

Also, if you've got a saber saw (and a face mask) the thin MDF that Lowes or Home Depot sells makes good walls or floors for buildings. I always though ttheir foam was just too thick for walls, personally. Or if you've got a Michaels, they've got very thin plywood that also works wonderfully, but both options will be a bit heavier. You can also get plasticard off amazon now (polystyrene sheets), or go with the old standby of foamboard from Office Depot (or Michaels). Foamboard warp a bit if you paint unevenly though.

Washing up liquid bottles are good silos.

Empty CO2 bike pump canisters make really good Forge World canister gizmos too.