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Made in au
Owns Whole Set of Skullz Techpriests






Versteckt in den Schatten deines Geistes.

"He who dies with the most toys wins." - Malcolm Forbes

Hello all,

For a long, long time and on many, many occasions I have stated that I have a certain affinity for terrain. Occasionally glimpses of my terrain-created insanity have leaked through, but I've never sat down to start something quite so... well... insane as the task that I am about to undertake.

Firstly, let's just set the mood, using the thing that inspired the title for this P&M Blog.

Ok, so, I like GW's terrain. There are very few pieces of what they have offered over the years that I have not liked, and I own scads of it. I have tables worth of CoD terrain that we'll get to one day, but for now I want to just focus on GW's industrial terrain, their Sector Mechanicus stuff. First showing up with the fire-and-forget Shadow War: Armageddon box, this terrain is ostensibly a replacement for the Necromunda terrain that I love so much.

I like this terrain so much that I... well... bought a fair amount of it.




Also, there are no repeat items between the first and second picture.

Now I've built a few pieces that we'll get to in a little while, but for now we need to start organising this nonsense. I cannot do this alone though, so to help me out I turned to an old friend, someone who has not seen the light of a 40K table in quite some time. He is my first (and most faithful) Ultramarine commander, Captain Short Sword:



Captain Short Sword will be popping in and out of pictures both to provide scale and, of course, his endless wisdom borne of years of service to the Imperium.

As you might imagine, there's quite a lot of stuff to go through. Almost too much the handle:



... but with a bit of encouragement from Captain Short Sword I managed to bring some semblance of normalcy to the endless boxes of plastic sprues.



Box 1 - That's a combination of Stacks and Domes, mostly full sprues.
Box 2 - That is nothing but Curved Walkway sprues, mostly full.
Box 3 - Nothing but strut sprues, almost 100% full, with nothing cut out.
Box 4 - Many, many Furnace sprues, about 60% full, the rest with parts cut out.

"Stacks? Domes? Furnaces? What the hell is that maniac talking about?" I hear you saying. Well, to simplify things, I will refer to the Sector Mechanicus sprues as follows:

01 Sprue - Curved Walkway
02 Sprue - Straight Walkway
03 Sprue - Circle Walkway
04 Sprue - Dome
05 Sprue - Furnace
06 Sprue - Stack
07 Sprue - Struts

So with everything in some kind of order (?), it was time to... well... I'll let Captain Short Sword say it:



I decided to just start today with the walkways. Get everything that wasn't off the sprue cut out and cleaned up. Walkways are easy to store, basically 2D, and knowing exactly how many I have of each will go a long way to getting all of this organised. It took a couple of hours, and an entire Billy Joel Greatest Hits double-pack, but we got there in the end:



In total that's:

A. 18 short straight walkways.
B. 19 long straight walkways.
C. 24 curved walkways.
D. 29 circle walkways.

... plus an extra set of double curved walkways that was already built, but constructed using the peg thingies in a way that made it impossible to use in one of the buildings I had already made, so it became a spare that I'll work something out for later.

Preparing and cleaning all those walkways left a big pile of plastic clippings, but thankfully Captain Short Sword volunteered to clean it up for me:



That's all for now.

Soon I'll show off the few buildings I have made from this, and where I intend to take it...

Thanks for reading!

BYE


This message was edited 52 times. Last update was at 2023/04/16 04:21:19


Industrial Insanity - My Terrain Blog
"GW really needs to understand 'Less is more' when it comes to AoS." - Wha-Mu-077

 
   
Made in gb
Executing Exarch





London, UK

Insanity is one word for it! Subbed, always like seeing what people can do with GW's terrain.

   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut






HATE Club, East London

You have an even bigger problem than I do... and I have at least 40 of each flavour of Aspect Warrior.

Though guards may sleep and ships may lay at anchor, our foes know full well that big guns never tire.

Posting as Fifty_Painting on Instagram.

My blog - almost 40 pages of Badab War, Eldar, undead and other assorted projects 
   
Made in au
Fixture of Dakka





Melbourne



Ya mad bastard! Look'it all that terrain!!

That's about 5 boards worth for crying out softly.
I think we'll also need evidence of this "tables" worth of CoD buildings too. Sounds like a lie if you ask me...


Subbed and eager for more!

My Blogs -
Hobby Blog
Terrain 
   
Made in au
Owns Whole Set of Skullz Techpriests






Versteckt in den Schatten deines Geistes.

Here's some I prepared earlier...

I have experimented a little bit with the Sector Mechanicus terrain, making 3 buildings (plus one platform that was a mistake), mostly out of the stuff I got initially and some bitz ordered stuff. So before I get into building the new stuff I thought I'd show off some of the pieces I'd already constructed.

The Nipples
In GTAV there is a set of buildings I've seen people refer to as "The Tits". They look like this:


I wanted to do something similar to this, and, never one to do things in half-measures, this was the first thing I attempted when using the Sector Mechanicus kits.







It's three separate pieces, two that are basically mirrors of one another and a central piece with a ladder on either side leading to the control panel thingy from the old Promethium Pipes kit. The mistakes I made when building it were that the two main platforms have no ladders up there, and the railing goes all the way around meaning you cannot connect it to other Sector Mechanicus structures.

Still, I think it looks cool and it almost came out exactly as I imagined it. If the Plasma Conduit pipe kit had been around at the time I reckon I could have made it so the pipes curved out from the top of the 'nipples', and connected rather than via the centre console. In any case, I like it.

The Skull Generator
I was't 100% sold on the Haemotrope Reactor when I first saw it. A little too... skully, if that makes any sense. Of course I was viewing that kit in a vacuum, and had no idea of its potential when combined with other kits. Not satisfied with just building one on the ground (I will eventually; I have 3 others still to build!), I figured I'd tie it to some other Sector Mechanicus parts. Thus, the Skull Generator was born.





When looking at this you'll see two there are two pipes running straight into the ground from underneath the platform (best seen in the second picture above). Those were not originally part of the building and were added once the rest had been completed. The reason for this is when I finished I realised that the generator was connected to the two furnaces, but nothing was holding the platform up!!!

I shoved in the two pipes both because I didn't want to use any struts and because I thought it looked thematic.

The Mistake Platform
Not everything goes to plan when you are experimenting, and at the time I knew nothing of Ray Dranfield's Twitter and the excellent information he's given on his own terrain. So with this one, I kinda got some stuff wrong.




What you see here, The Mistake Platform, is actually the first go at the Skull Generator. I wasn't sure on how far the pipes would go and put more flooring into this than I needed to. Not wanting to waste the platform I decided to turn it into something else, putting the small kiln from the dome sprue at the back, looping a pipe around and under, which then feeds back up to the top layer and out to the fan on that railing. It makes zero sense, but it's a 40K building so who cares?

Pipes a'Plenty
I went a bit nuts with this one, using many, many furnaces and linking them all the various pipes. Just a nice multi-layered piece and the tallest one I've made so far.






These pictures are older than the others you've seen, so no Captain Short Sword to show how big it is. Trust me though, he was impressed. Far taller than his sword is long.

That's all for now folks. When there are more updates, I shall provide them!

BYE


This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/09/26 12:52:17


Industrial Insanity - My Terrain Blog
"GW really needs to understand 'Less is more' when it comes to AoS." - Wha-Mu-077

 
   
Made in ca
Painlord Titan Princeps of Slaanesh





Hamilton, ON

Worthy of laudation.

As a Cardiacs fan, that is the highest-praise of which I am capable.

The Fall of Kronstaat IV
Война Народная | Voyna Narodnaya | The People's War - 2,765pts painted (updated 06/05/20)
Волшебная Сказка | Volshebnaya Skazka | A Fairy Tale (updated 29/12/19, ep10 - And All That Could Have Been)
Kabal of The Violet Heart (updated 02/02/2020)

All 'crimes' should be treasured if they bring you pleasure somehow. 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka





6 foot underwater

The tower furnace piece is very cool, like that a lot.

cyborks & flyboyz : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/300067.page
heretical ramblings : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/302773.page
imperial preachings : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/303365.page
Da Waaagh-ky Races : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/325045.page
Briancj: You have the Mek Taint, MT, and the only thing we can do is watch in horror/amazement.

 
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut





I knew from your posts that you have a lot of terrain...but seeing is believing. Some exceptional builds here, I think that The Nipples are my favourite with The Skull Generator a close second.

And more Captain Short Sword please.

Painting Warhammer 40,000 Conquest a P and M blog : https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/763491.page 
   
Made in us
Is 'Eavy Metal Calling?





Affton, MO. USA



I knew I had a good twin somewhere. You horde terrain like I horde figs. The only sad thing is you keep them hidden in boxes instead of pilling the sprues up hap hazard.

LOL, Theo your mind is an amazing place, never change.-camkierhi 9/19/13
I cant believe theo is right.. damn. -comradepanda 9/26/13
None of the strange ideas we had about you involved your sexual orientation..........-Monkeytroll 12/10/13

I'd put you on ignore for that comment, if I could...Alpharius 2/11/14 
   
Made in be
Liberated Grot Land Raida






Belgium

Impressive... You made some great combinations, looking forward tgo see what else you can pull out of your hat

A Squeaky Waaagh!!

Camkhieri: "And another very cool thing, my phones predictive text actually gave me chicken as an option after typing robot, how cool is that."'

Meercat: "All eyes turned to the horizon and beheld, in lonely and menacing grandeur, the silhouette of a single Grot robot chicken; a portent of evil days to come."
From 'The Plucking of Gindoo Phlem' 
   
Made in gb
Dipping With Wood Stain




Sheep Loveland

Subbed and exalted good sir!

I'm currently after ideas for my own industrial board, and along with Captain Short Sword adding humour this thread will be looked at.

Daily.

40k: Thousand Sons World Eaters
30k: Imperial Fists 405th Company 
   
Made in gb
Executing Exarch





London, UK

Quite like your tall furnace building, all excellent work!

   
Made in au
[MOD]
Making Stuff






Under the couch

Yup, this is off to a cracking good start.

 
   
Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

Defiantly watching this!

 
   
Made in us
Giggling Nurgling




cold darkness of the far north

The Skull Generator just screams "Yes Man"-esque AI console to me--

looking forward with interest

"Do you hear something in the hold?" Frigate Einstein circa M31 
   
Made in tw
Longtime Dakkanaut





As someone who is unlikelly to ever own much, or even any of those kits (no space in a Taipei apartment!) I am so, so, so happy that I can live vicariously through you, you mad man, and see someone do that which I can only dream of.

   
Made in au
Owns Whole Set of Skullz Techpriests






Versteckt in den Schatten deines Geistes.

Sorry to trigger your sub alerts for anyone who has sub'd this thread, but no updates today. My mother was visiting, so the pile of endless sprues had to vanish into another room for a while, so haven't had a chance to work on anything else.

The next two days will be all about building some of this stuff, so I'll provide updates as they arrive.

My aim is to have enough for one 4x4 of Necromunda terrain by Monday, when I have a bunch of people coming over for a game.

Industrial Insanity - My Terrain Blog
"GW really needs to understand 'Less is more' when it comes to AoS." - Wha-Mu-077

 
   
Made in us
Stealthy Space Wolves Scout






YESS !!!!!

As inspired as I am by the sheer awesomeness of this thread and H.B.M.C.'s ambition, I am equally relieved that I've found a kindred terrain spirit that makes my endeavors seem restrained by comparison !!

Thank you, H.B.M.C. for your vision, creativity AND for giving me someone to point out to my wife when I defend my outlandish purchases and say "See, I could be worse".

Can't wait to see how your project evolves. Have a great time with it !!



"You never see toilets in the 41st Millennium - that's why everyone looks so angry all the time." - Fezman 1/28/13
 
   
Made in ie
Norn Queen






Dublin, Ireland

More commentary from the UM captain please, funny stuff.

Dman137 wrote:
goobs is all you guys will ever be

By 1-irt: Still as long as Hissy keeps showing up this is one of the most entertaining threads ever.

"Feelin' goods, good enough". 
   
Made in gb
Stealthy Grot Snipa






UK

Can never have enough terrain related lunacy. So very subbed.

Skinflint Games- war gaming in the age of austerity

https://skinflintgames.wordpress.com/

 
   
Made in us
[MOD]
Solahma






RVA

Wellllll color me subbed.

I have a similar addiction to affinity for terrain. You first few builds are excellent. Now get some paint on ‘em!

   
Made in au
Owns Whole Set of Skullz Techpriests






Versteckt in den Schatten deines Geistes.

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy!" - Helmuth van Moltke Captain Short Sword

Today I built one building. Yes, I know, only one. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you see the finished product you'll see why it took so long. Along the way I found some mistakes, changed the layout design completely for the outer platform, and discovered that making it modular allows me to do more "inside" bits that fit within the outer ring (that'll be tomorrow's task!). I also found a way to not use 10 of my 19 remaining long straight pieces, only using 4 in the end. Good for saving limited resources.

I call this new piece...

The (Modular!) Generator Platform

When you see Sector Mechanicus terrain you normally see between 1-3 levels (any higher is a bit silly, except for massive pieces). For the most part though, the solution to any given situation with the Mechanicus terrain is "make it taller". Very few times has anyone said "make it longer". I've seen a few people take the Stack, turn it sideways, and add it to the Haemotrope Reactor. It looks pretty good and I intend to do that myself once I can figure out the "blank space" issue that occurs when you separate the two halves of the reactor and put something between it. But I wanted to do something a bit more ambitious than that, a long-flat pieces that was above ground.

I actually found something similar to what I was thinking at the NOVA open (a couple of friends of mine went):

That's an amazing table, but if you look towards the bottom left you'll see examples of what I mean; both the Haemotrope Reactor extension and above that a Stack/Dome combo out flat on the table.

So, again, me being me, I don't do anything in half-measures, so I decided to make something much bigger...


This is the basic layout of what I'm going for, or at least it was, as that changed as time went on. The idea is that that centre bit can be taken out, leaving the walkway around it. The bits off the long sides were added at the last minute to give it a bit more than just a ring and to make supporting it a bit easier.

The dome had to have no platform between its two halves as the part that goes on top cannot be extended. So it means that the bottom half of the combined stacks (under the central platform) will actually be a bit lower than the domes on either end. This turned out to be a minor issue, as the floors are still quite thin. Captain Short Sword also wanted to hide inside for a bit. I don't know why.


So I had part of it made from a loose stack and dome I already had, but I needed more! Off to the pile'o'sprues I went...


In order to make everything fit, and more importantly, fit flat on the underside, I had to position those clips in places that they normally do not go. This required some creative cutting, as you can see from the example below:


I refined the internal platform to save me using two of the long straights - you're not going to see it, so why use so much material? - but I need the stacks to go over the clips, hence the cutting above. However, when you do that, there are fewer points of contact, so things begin to sway...


I resolved that with temp clips, but I still had to do some more creative cutting to make everything work:


Going up? It's starting to look like an elevator when you put it like that. You can see where I'm heading with this now:


With the inner platform finished and centred, you can see how it fits inside when both the domes are in place. Captain Short Sword thought we should save it for posterity:


Some more glue, a lot of time holding it in place, and a quartet of struts and we're nearly done with the centre piece:


Then I decided to alter the layout, finding a more interesting idea that used fewer strait pieces (which are rare) and more curved pieces (which I have TONS of). It also let me use the piece I had already build as part of the Pipes'O'Plenty piece but couldn't use. Of course it required more creative cutting:


We'll come back to that piece later on, but as a quick aside (or three) I do have to say that if there is one thing I don't like about the Sector Mechanicus terrain it's that there are so many damned contact points for the pieces and the sprue:

It really makes cleaning these sorts of pieces a chore. The shield bits around the edges are the same, as are the ladders. Pain in the neck!

Also, just for you Manchu, here's a painted mini:



Whilst I was putting these asides together, Captain Short Sword got a bit bored and started looking for things to play with. He found one of those release day Shadow War Armageddon wrist band thingies, which he immediately took into his possession:


So with the changed outer ring layout, it was time to get it all together. The Pipes terrain taught me that you do all the floors you intend to use at once, and never add to them later, otherwise they can end up drying at a slightly off angle that never sits right with the original. Plus those connectors, once glued in place, do not come out, so you get it right first time, or not at all. Here's the final side about to get stuck together:


Once it was done, these guys showed up!!!


With those ruffians dealt with, I moved onto adding support struts and furnaces so it would stand up:


Next were some shields, the ladders Captain Short Sword reminded me about, and some other hanging wires/that skull spider thing, and this pieces was done!0


Now, back to the centre piece. The Thermic Plasma Regulator sprues contain smaller versions of the regular side shields. They've got 2 posts rather than 3, and fit perfectly to give some defined edges to the inside part:


So, with everything now completed, it was time to see how it all fits together!!!





I am exceptionally pleased how this turned out in the end, especially with the change in layout compared to that first test layout. Everything fits snugly inside, with lots of supports and other various things there. It's got ladders a'plenty, and areas where other walkways will join up once they're made. All in all a worthwhile day's work!

And some final words from my faithful companion, Captain Short Sword:


See you later for the other buildings!

BYE

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/09/29 12:17:24


Industrial Insanity - My Terrain Blog
"GW really needs to understand 'Less is more' when it comes to AoS." - Wha-Mu-077

 
   
Made in au
Owns Whole Set of Skullz Techpriests






Versteckt in den Schatten deines Geistes.

Ignore!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/09/29 12:15:29


Industrial Insanity - My Terrain Blog
"GW really needs to understand 'Less is more' when it comes to AoS." - Wha-Mu-077

 
   
Made in au
[MOD]
Making Stuff






Under the couch

That's... large. Very cool, though.

 
   
Made in be
Liberated Grot Land Raida






Belgium

Now THAT's some terrain... I agree with captain shortsword, add rockets to it

A Squeaky Waaagh!!

Camkhieri: "And another very cool thing, my phones predictive text actually gave me chicken as an option after typing robot, how cool is that."'

Meercat: "All eyes turned to the horizon and beheld, in lonely and menacing grandeur, the silhouette of a single Grot robot chicken; a portent of evil days to come."
From 'The Plucking of Gindoo Phlem' 
   
Made in us
Stoic Grail Knight





Central Cimmeria

Very cool! I look forward to seeing more.
   
Made in gb
Leader of the Sept







Very cool.build. now to.work out where you can store it

Please excuse any spelling errors. I use a tablet frequently and software keyboards are a pain!

Terranwing - w3;d1;l1
51st Dunedinw2;d0;l0
Cadre Coronal Afterglow w1;d0;l0 
   
Made in us
[MOD]
Solahma






RVA

The generator platform is awesome! I love how much surface area you have elevated up there - I am imagining a ton of scatter terrain from the adeptis munitorum sprues dressing up the platform. The fact that the generator “interior” piece can be removed is great. This is the coolest build I have yet seen with the new terrain.

   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut






HATE Club, East London

That is a very awesome piece of terrain.

Though guards may sleep and ships may lay at anchor, our foes know full well that big guns never tire.

Posting as Fifty_Painting on Instagram.

My blog - almost 40 pages of Badab War, Eldar, undead and other assorted projects 
   
Made in ca
Wondering Why the Emperor Left





Edmonton, AB

Wow, I love following big terrain projects, and you're doing some great stuff with these kits! keep it up!

Armies:
Killteams:

My Heresy Era Blog: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/656851.page

Hobby Painting Instagram: marcus_miniatures 
   
 
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