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I decided to make the leap from always using dollar store and/or scavenged materials to using some real hobby building materials. So I'm starting up my plan to make a 40k/urban sci-fi type board inspired by the Peach Trees housing complex in Dredd (2012). Primaris marine for scale:



Basswood and some styrene rod. 3" tall, each section is 2" (so that piece is 4" long). X-acto razor saw, olfa design knife, NWSL Chopper tool.

The plan is to make a bunch of panels and then attach them to chunks of foam/foam board for walls and then be able to arrange those pieces (along with some doors) to make rooms, corridors, etc.,.

I'll need to make some floors as well.

After I finish my prototype panel I'm going to make more for my first corridor/room. I'm sure I'll revise my process as I go. There were a few times when I was looking through a transparent ruler and trying to figure out some measurements for spacing the conduit. Six feet away from me was a pair of digital calipers I just didn't pick up for no good reason.

Next up is priming and seeing whether the texture will work for a non-wood surface. I'm hoping the grain won't be too pronounced. If it is, I'll have to either texture it (probably with glazing putty) or switch to styrene for the entire build.


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Cut some more pieces to make an entire room/building. I'm only putting corner pieces on the shorter ends so I measured out the places for the trim on the long ends.



It's amazing how fast a good quality wood glue sticks basswood together (I'm using Gorilla Glue's wood glue)



Top trim


Some extra trim for panels that will be painted a different colour where part of them have been replaced.


This is sort of the idea of how things might go together


Now I need to figure out more panel dressing ideas. Power cables outside of conduit is definitely going to happen. Maybe an emergency light. A public address speaker. A blank one. That sort of thing.

Fire extinguishers power outlets and stuff like that is probably necessary for a hab block.

Awesome start btw.

Great idea! Maybe some of those fire hose connection points or something as well.

Plumbing tubes as well. Maybe a nice thick one to represent a main drain? With smaller ones near by for water. Basically all the stuff that's often inside the walls in a house needs to be mounted on the outside.


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Did some more panels. Made two of them just blank with pipes at the top and tiles at the bottom. Made a drain and gas pipe on another. A couple panels were a bit rough so I ended up sanding it with some sand paper that I had used on something else, so it got stained black.



I'm liking how things are going. I think I'm going to cut a sliver from a rod or find a bead to make the plug covers for the outlets/junction boxes. Like the single outlet higher on the wall ones you find in places in Europe.

I primed them and then buffed them with a coffee filter. It reduced th wood texture quite a bit, but I'm not sure they'll pass as concrete if I just paint them grey and weather them. They'll probably get painted colours instead.

Looking good so far.

it could probably use some "gothic" style pieces here or there too.

skull boxs and the like ya know?

or i guess you can keep it generic for other games.

You're right about the gothic elements. I'm thinking those can be kept to scatter terrain and the like.

Imagine a power generator pillar type thing that's got skulls and purity seals sitting in the corner. Then for when I want to use it for Mega City 1 instead of a gothic power generator, it could be a network server rack or a cola vending machine.


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I guess I can also make some tiles that are not multipurpose. Like if I make an imperial shrine it can be full on skull riddled archway style. Same if I make a convenience store.

Got some base coating done. The colours should take weathering really well.


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Got some better picks. Definitely need touch ups before weathering. And make a bit of edge highlighting.






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Decided to add some highlighting/modulation to the tiles.