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I'm always shocked by how many page views this blog gets, even when I haven't posted for weeks. I'm humbled by it, really.

Anyway, mushy human feelings aside, I've finally found some motivation to do stuff but find I'm lacking in inspiration. My lizard brain tells me to finish the half million other projects I started, but my ADHD tells me the world is full of distracting shiny pennies. To wit, I'm asking the community for help. I want to build something, but have no idea what to build. I could try finishing the city I started ages ago and I can just as easily start a brand new project.

Anybody have any ideas or suggestions for a terrain project theme? I want to make an entire table's worth of terrain, I want to challenge myself with new ideas, and I love working on stuff that no one else is. So, please, I encourage you to write in your suggestions here. What type of terrain would you live to see? What kind of terrain do you wish was out there, but nobody seems to be building? What sorts of things would you love to be fighting over, if ever you had the chance? I'd really love to know.

There's some prettyy nice stuff in here, makes sense that people drop by . As for terrain wishlisting: I've always been a fan of crashed spaceships. Not the most original, but it immediately adds purpose. Failing that: titan wreckage?

 CommissarKhaine wrote:
There's some prettyy nice stuff in here, makes sense that people drop by . As for terrain wishlisting: I've always been a fan of crashed spaceships. Not the most original, but it immediately adds purpose. Failing that: titan wreckage?

Thanks, Commissar!

When you say "crashed spaceships" do you mean like Aquilla Landers or do you mean like Space Marine Strike Cruisers and the like?

+1 for the star/ space ship wreckage...

*cough

*cough

If you've got some tubes to hand you could always join in the current LoER terrain contest, there's still plenty of time left.

I can't really give any terrain ideas beyond that. I don't play the game so don't "miss" anything specific, and for my own terrain building I tend to pick random pieces of junk and throw them together following the inspiration of their shapes.

I have always fancied a dockyard scene, with jetty's and deep water being impassable, all around a "true"scale ship wreck partially sunk in the harbour. Sections exposed to allow game play. Would be great for kill team or the new Necromunda thingy, or even necromunda itself. Along with many other games. Bottle necking zombies on a pier would be fun, heroic last stand stuff. Only reason I have not done it yet is I have nowhere to keep it, and getting rid of it would be a pain. By true scale I mean a current tanker cargo ship is hundreds of feet long so a 3 foot boat for a start.

And we come here again and again for the amazing inspiration you give us. This blog is like a reference library for terrain.

The table is the crashed spaceship. Seriously, make the thing table sized.

 Ruglud wrote:
+1 for the star/ space ship wreckage...

*cough

Spoiler:

*cough

Yeah, I've seen that ship before and I think it's way out of scale. Like 1/100th the size it's supposed to be.


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Also, thanks for the feedback, Ruglud, Dr H, Cam, and Red!

I'm one for combining ideas, so on the drive home this evening I thought about doing a partially submerged crashed space ship. I thought about the size of the thing (I agree it ought to be the whole table), what sort of ship it might be, how it came to rest on this ocean world, and what part of the ship would most likely draw combatants to it.

So, all told, my idea is a listing, semi-flooded space marine strike cruiser. The idea that it drifted into the gravity well of this planet after suffering catastrophic engine damage and that its decaying orbit eventually lead to its gliding impact into the planet's shallow seas. I'm probably going to make the wreckage a 4'x4' board; the first time I will be making a deliberately static table with no modularity at all. The principle aspect if the wreckage will be the damaged bridge/conning tower and central basilica.

If anyone has any input or suggestions for backstory, chapter, details, or anything else they want to see in this build, please don't hesitate to post it in this blog. Doesn't matter if you're a long time follower or a first timer, I want to hear your thoughts.

As always, I am flattered and humbled by your praises. All I ever wanted was to share my love for and knowledge of the hobby with the community. It's the most precious gift to know I have accomplished that. Here's to more and more crazy projects and endless worlds of terrain.

Who were the chapter who became legion of the damned - Fire Hawks? Something like that. Wreckage of that. Or maybe Star Scorpions, who were obliterated and their number and colours went to the Mentor Legion. And if it's flooded, you need a Dianoga in there

I'll start doing test pieces because I'm crazy and want an incredible level of detail for this project. I've been staring at pictures of crashed planes, bombed refineries, ship breaking yards, shipwrecks, derelicts, cutaways of naval vessels, and battlefleet gothic artwork to try to get an idea of what this thing should look like. I've been watching videos of plane crashes, ship collisions, wreck diving, and meteor impact recreations.

I'm envisioning a massive boat-like structure twisted and sheered, with "islands" of tangled conduits and ruptured tunnels. I imagine that half of this thing's details will be obscured by seawater and I will need to find the perfect angle that suggests "toppled" but yet still allows models to stand without difficulty.

Sounds like a lot of Space Hulk potential on this 'terrain' piece

 Ruglud wrote:
Sounds like a lit of Space Hulk potential on this 'terrain' piece ;-)

That thought did occur to me. One of my latent projects is to run a sort of Deathwatch RPG/Space Hulk hybrid game that was essentially a scifi tabletop "dungeon crawl" using sections of decks to represent the unknown quality of the hulk. Players get missions assigned to them and then they decide to either punch a hole in the hulk with a boarding torpedo or risk a teleportation to an area they may have already scanned or mapped. Every time they come to a new section it gets placed on the board, furthering the players' understanding of the wreck. I was thinking of using sheets of paper with vague representations of the tunnels ahead when they have prior knowledge if a section either through an accurate scan or a pilfered deck map (that they've managed to download from a functional terminal or if they've somehow managed to identify the ship that they're exploring, they might have a copy of the rudimentary deck plans in their own files. If you can't tell, I've put a LOT of thought into this scenario. I even made up a backstory regarding how the party has come to find themselves at this hulk.

Poke me in the slightest on this idea and I'll likely post an entire campaign synopsis in the 40k General Discussions section.

Poke

Your idea sounds great, and I definitley meant something bigger than a lander, so your whole table can be covered by the wreckage. I'd consider a Mechanicus explorator ship though, you can add a lot more weirdness to it, and you'll be less constricted by how a battlecruiser actually looks. Also, you could use the shadow war terrain skull-lifer thingy on there. Catching that thing would be a nightmare scenario by itself .

Good luck on the research!

There are so many excellent painters here on this forum, but people who can make and design their own terrain blows my mind. Most of my home brewed stuff is just some foam board slapped together covered in paint and a bit of lichen or grass. Very impressed with your work as a builder and painter.

Yorkright wrote:
There are so many excellent painters here on this forum, but people who can make and design their own terrain blows my mind. Most of my home brewed stuff is just some foam board slapped together covered in paint and a bit of lichen or grass. Very impressed with your work as a builder and painter.

Thanks, Yorkright! I really appreciate that!

Smashing Idea, 'boss. I shall be watching this build with glee.

 Ruglud wrote:
Poke

Now you've done it, Ruglud! Stand by.

I also get a lot of inspiration for new projects coming here- and I love doing terrain pieces. I especially like the different techniques you use to allow rearrangement of smaller pieces into larger boards: makes them much more flexible, but also more manageable in terms of space and transportation.

 Meer_Cat wrote:
I also get a lot of inspiration for new projects coming here- and I love doing terrain pieces. I especially like the different techniques you use to allow rearrangement of smaller pieces into larger boards: makes them much more flexible, but also more manageable in terms of space and transportation.

Thanks, Meer_Cat! I'm glad I could inspire you.

Worry not, Ruglud, I am working on a full write up. I haven't forgotten about you.

For the rest of you, I'll post progress pics in a few.

To prove I'm making progress on this campaign write up, here is the elevator pitch.

"Brothers, we all understood the risks when we swore our oaths to the Deathwatch. Routine or not, our missions are sacred undertakings and the promises we make must be kept at all costs. No matter that we find ourselves lost in this forgotten system, torn from the Immaterium by the abomination our new Admech allies call the [-Redacted-]. No matter that we have no choice but to plunge into the nightmare depths of this derelict hulk to thwart our otherwise inevitable descent into hell with it. And no matter that some of us may die fighting the innumerable horrors we will find within it. We have sworn oaths to destroy the enemies of Mankind wherever they may be found. Let us fulfill our promises of destruction and return the Emperor's light to this forsaken place that we may carry our hatred anew, to dark places yet undiscovered. For we are the Angels of Death and the Deliverers of the Emperor's Grace. Let none stand in our path and live. Let nothing stay our wrath."

I'm currently working on a base structure for this massive new project. I want to build a sort of clean, intact version of all the major parts so I get an idea of the themes and look of the ship and also, if I know what it's supposed to look like intact, I can make a better and more consistent wreck. I would post pictures of what I have so far, but my digital camera's battery is shot and I need to find a replacement (I lost the charger). Sorry.

Look forward to seeing it once you have a working camera.

Totally off topic, but I had a craft night with friends and had an opportunity to paint an old project. Here's where I left off on this project.


And this is what I did to it today. First, over the blue, I put a layer of brown, then tan.


And then a lighter coat of yellow.


And a whole bunch of extra layers of ever increasingly light yellow/off-white


And the trash bin in the back


And the sidewalk


Dirt


The roof


Any suggestions on how to improve the trashbin in the back? Or is it painted well enough?


Now I need to build the fence, windows, front door, roof ladder, trash in the bin, boxes in the corner, and add the static grass to the durt. Comments welcome. Thanks for looking and have an awesome day.

ooh nice! Trashbin could do with some chipping and filth that ran off IMO, unless it's supposed to be plastic. Will the building be getting graffiti?

Great work, nice finish to the walls, that sidewalk though is excellent.

 CommissarKhaine wrote:
ooh nice! Trashbin could do with some chipping and filth that ran off IMO, unless it's supposed to be plastic.

I had plastic in mind when I placed it, but it could be whatever material I guess.

Will the building be getting graffiti?

Hadn't actually thought of that until you mentioned it. That's not a bad idea.


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 Camkierhi wrote:
Great work, nice finish to the walls, that sidewalk though is excellent.

Thanks, Cam!

Looks good. And thanks for all the pics for each step. It's great following along. Roof looks a bit empty though. Then again it is a roof.

Great stuff Warboss, good to see someone enjoying an adult beverage . For the roof perhaps an errant squig?

Nice work.

Like the pavement colour.