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Well most things in GTAV are based off of LA, so it's not surprising that they included those.

Anyway, some reinforcements have been ordered. The upward climb begins soon...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Well most things in GTAV are based off of LA, so it's not surprising that they included those.

Anyway, some reinforcements have been ordered. The upward climb begins soon...

Not the City in California. Baton Rouge would the the capital of the state of the state of Louisiana.

Really great project HBMC. Do you have a vague idea how much storage space it might take to pack away?

I'll just leave this here

https://youtu.be/rbDebihKbpo

'The Tits' are also a reference to Naked Gun, IMO.

"Everywhere I look, something reminds me of her."

 Excommunicatus wrote:
'The Tits' are also a reference to Naked Gun, IMO.

"Everywhere I look, something reminds me of her."

Just click the link...

Ah. Mea culpa.

I think we're... drifting... from the main topic at hand.

So, in light of that:



As I said before, the only way is up.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I think we're... drifting... from the main topic at hand.

So, in light of that:

Tits?

[Ignore]

It's the potential represented by the still massive pile of sprues just stage right that is the best bit

Those are all new, too. They're the three Galvanic Magnavents I got off a guy on eBay who was selling them for 55% off.

Sometimes things don't go as planned. Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew. Sometimes your eyes are bigger than your stomach. Sometimes what you hope would work doesn't quite end up working the way you intended.

The Underpipe Bridge
I have a big building planned (you'll see it in the next post), but part of that big building is a bridge that connects it to another big building, and at a significant height (3 stories up, or 15"). I didn't want to have to precariously balance a bridge on three struts placed on top of one another so I decided to make it free-standing.

I also wanted to have pipes running under it, something that the Thermic Plasma Conduit kit is quite happy to provide what with its modular "feet" that allow you to place them on the tabletop, but also under flat surfaces. The idea behind this is that the pipes on this bridge would run from one big building to the next, but the bridge itself would be a free-standing separate piece that could be moved elsewhere. I'd also be making full use of Ray Dranfield's little clip trick that he designed into the Sector Mechanicus kit.

This was the basic idea behind it. Three long sections, the pipe running under it (but not right to the edges). I then added the two side parts on because I had a wonderful idea! I was going to add a cross pipe just like the Space Shuttle piece has. What could possibly go wrong?


So with that idea firmly in my head - besides, a long straight bridge if boring, right? - I looked for the parts I needed to get it done. This would use the last of my Thermic Plasma Conduit bits (never fear, a second box is on the way!), but it'd be great... right?


I spent a great deal of time measuring out where each of the furnaces would have to go to allow the pipe to connect overhead. That in turn meant a lot of time moving the two half-circle platforms around, and even more time fething about with connectors to make sure everything matched up. I'd have to get the pipes into the tops of the furnaces flat, and at the right angle, and at the right distance, all whilst some of it was gluing.


Covet the small caps you get in most Sector Mechanicus kits. They can help you cover that tiny bit of extra distance when you need it.


With everything measured up it was time to start adding all the various components. With pipes on the bottom it's not flat, which means you have to be very careful when things are drying.


Everything is now in place (other than the clips at either end) and I've added in all the shields. The one I've circled is one I will eventually end up tearing off to make room for the sudden emergency expansion this bridge required.


One thing I didn't factor in when I had my 'great idea' to add a cross-pipe running over the bridge is just how damned heavy it would be. Adding in the two half circle platforms, the two furnaces, the big pipe and the connecting corner pipes (plus the extra shields and connectors) all adds up, and in the end whilst it worked, it didn't quite work as well as I had hoped. Worse, I was afraid of one of those clips coming loose, with miniatures on top, when it's 15" in the air... nope.

So in the end I ripped off that shield as I mentioned before (it was in the way), and added some small platform expansions with extra clips. The below shot shows the expansion and how it connects to two pieces where you can fit it (the only two I had at the time).


Now I'm in a situation where the pipe running along the underside isn't centred, and I can't get it off as the glue has long-since cured. I will have to try this one again, this time not putting on the extra bits along the edge that just add weight, and making a more plain bridge, even if that is more boring. The pipes are nice though, as the below shot shows.


Oh well. Better luck next time!

That's all for now.

The first of the two big buildings is coming up soon.

BYE

great work, looks fantastic. Looking forward to seeing it all complete

Apologies for my absence. Things have been quite busy of late and I've not been in the building mood. On top of that, the last two constructions, one of them being that bridge, and the next being the tower that I will post once it is complete, have left me a little drained as they did not come out quite the way as intended, and also drained because they drained my reserves of floors and pipes.

So I decided to fix that last particular issue.

Reinforcements!!!
With many plans and an unending ambition to build bigger and more impressive things (and a growing library of people's own Sector Mechanicus pics on my HD) I have been inspired to build some more things. Of course, I am quite low on flooring, and have more walkways (including a couple of tall walkways) to complete, so after parts ordering a bunch of curved walkways (and some very yellow Ork Bikes and 2 sets of the nice new Orky barricades) and a few more struts, and even picking up an Alchomite Stack on eBay for less than half the regular price, I saved up and put together a small order (small compared to the others) to restock on various parts.

What's in the box???


Nothing other than Blackstone Fortress (and some other things):


Now it's worth pointing out that not everything in that pic was in the box. The pipes weren't, and the two Promethium Forges weren't.

But why did I buy two Promethium Forge boxes? Well the truth is... I didn't mean to. They were an accident.

See, I was sick of waiting for GW to get the Sector Mechanicus Killzone back into stock, so I thought, bugger it, let's just get a pair of Promethium Refineries, some more pipes, the extra Thermic Plasma Conduit box I've been meaning to get, and be done with it. So I went to my guy, gave him the order, and that was that. Except I didn't tell him Promethium Refineries. Instead I got them mixed up and told him Promethium Forges. And he went and ordered exactly what I told him. 100% not his fault. I'm the one who got it wrong.

Then GW went and released that Derelict Factorum and, well, I knew I had to get those. So I did the order for another set of pipes, the two Promethium REFINERIES (I must've checked that 5 times), and two Factorums. In the end I didn't get the second set of pipes as my guy sent me another set of Regulators. Oh well, we'll figure that out tomorrow.

Oh, and Blackstone Fortress.

So there we have probably the last great expansion for this project. I might order more floors/struts/connectors from hereon in, but I don't see myself ordering too much in the way of more Sector Mechanicus terrain. A pair of Void Shield Generators (to go with the polystone one GW originally put out) would be swell though...


One last thing!

A driving force behind this blog wasn't just to catalogue the creation of this terrain. A big part of it was finally putting my money where my mouth was and showing off the things I'd only talked about in the past. I mean, I could tell you that I have 30+ unbuilt loyalist Terminators, or an entire pre-Heresy World Eater army still on the sprues, or an entire AdMech army with multiples of every unit type still in their original boxes (all of those are true BTW), and really what does it mean if I cannot show it? I mean, why even believe me?

I have always been someone who adores tiles and maps, be they GF9 vinyl D&D maps, Space Hulk tiles, Christopher West's fantastic creations, BattleTech Hex Maps, or even the Star Ship Trooper RPG maps (which I really do own), right down to my fav tiles of all time, the 1st Ed DOOM boardgame tiles, of which I have two sets, because they're frickin' amazing tiles.

But... I could be lying about all this, right? How would you know?

So pictured below is something I received recently. It was from a Miniature Market sale that happened in May I believe, but they only just arrived as part of the order were the Mophidus (or however they're spelt) Infinity RPG tiles which, as I have since found out, aren't available in retail yet (or to retailers) which meant that my order was just sitting there waiting for something to come out that might not be available for a long time. So I asked them to kill those two tile sets and just send the rest.



If you're interested, in that pile we have:

I think Paizo flipmats are great, and I have a good chunk of their catalogue. I'm not so hot on the Starfinder ones, weirdly enough, despite being a sci-fi fan rather than a fantasy fan. The Starfinder Asteroid map, which you might be able to just make out in that photo, is the only one I've liked so far. The rest are just fantastic and generic enough to be used almost anywhere. Anything that's a little more overtly fantasy-esque makes good fodder for Chaos cults and more primitive worlds.

Anyway, that's all for today. I'm going to try giving the Lift Tower the final touches over the weekend. I'll post it once it's done.

BYE

Hah I have LOADS of those flipmats too, and loads of the tiles. I love them too.

Insanity!

It's also worth mentioning that this isn't the first time I've bought something by accident.

I once bought a Land Raider by accident.

"How the hell do you buy a Land Raider, of all things, by accident?" I hear you say.

Well many moons ago, when what we now know as Mierce Miniatures was actually a UK retailer known as Maelstrom Games (they shipped free to Oz, and had a discount - everything was less than half price for us back then... before the fething embargo... that ended badly for everyone... what a mess...?). Where was I? Oh yes...

Their discount structure was based upon how much you bought, so the more you bought, the more the discount. They also had sales every now and again, and I wanted to see if the flat discount code superseded the gradual discount. The store said I needed to add £X worth to my order to get to the next discount bracket, so I added a Land Raider to my cart (it was the necessary price), saw that the discount didn't increase, and then went about finishing off the order.

Forgot to remove the Land Raider though.

So I ended up with a spare Land Raider. Go me!

There is no such thing as a 'spare' Land Raider- they are all essential!

Oooh. Good supply drop.

When you say an entire pre-heresy world eaters army, just how many bodies are we talking here?

I supposed that does require some clarification.

Let's see... what did I put aside. I think there's around 50-55 Marines, 5 Cataphractii, 5 Tartarus, 5 of the FW ones with the double chainaxes. A couple of Contemptors, a few various HQs. Got FW upgrades and shoulder pads for any mini that would take it. So it's mostly infantry. Couldn't be bothered with a whole other set of vehicles. I have enough tanks.

The unbuilt AdMech army... that's a little more serious.

That's:

Cawl (because of course).
2x of these these.
2x of these.
2x of these.
Spare one of these.
2x of these.
Spare one of these.
Extra pair of Skitarii boxes.
This guy!.
A set of these guys.
One set of these guys.
Two sets of these guys.
3 sets of these guys (wow... I have 9 of them?).
1 set of these guys.
Probably 12-15 of these guys.
2 of these and 1 of these (it was meant to be the other way around, but ok! Whatever!).
About 12 of these guys.
3 of these guys (2 of them are built actually, now that I think about it).
One of these.
One of these.
One of these.
Two of these.
One of him.
One of him.
Pair of these.
Pair of these.
One of these.
Two of these.

No big robots yet, but I do want one of each of them.

It's been a long time since I've had the time to sit down and build anything... and that still hasn't happened... but I did find some time today to restock and clean my supply of flooring:



And I also took the time to go through and de-sprue/clean all the struts I own:



That's 58 of the things, or 14.5 of this sprue. I hate that sprue, but the hard part is out of the way. They're all cleaned and ready to be used.

Yes, the madness continues

When you said reinforcements I was hoping you would have gotten recruits to help prep the piles. But I suffer the same problems that you do about buying the stuff then buying more to take my mind off the last pile .

This is a remarkable undertaking! I'm a little intimidated on your behalf at what painting it will require, but it will be a thing of magnificence when done.

Man my hand hurts...



Figured it didn't make much sense to leave 20+ sprues with half the stuff still on them, so I spent a couple of hours clipping the rest off. No cleaning this time - I'll clean them as I need them - but at least they're sorted and in boxes (and it means they take up far less room!).

And those piles got a bit bigger in the end, as when picking up an empty box to put them in I found 5 more sprues in similar states of half clip-ed-ness. HA!

Now you need a cheap blender for the sprue to make base rubble. You’d have enough for a whole table .

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Man my hand hurts...



Figured it didn't make much sense to leave 20+ sprues with half the stuff still on them, so I spent a couple of hours clipping the rest off. No cleaning this time - I'll clean them as I need them - but at least they're sorted and in boxes (and it means they take up far less room!).

And those piles got a bit bigger in the end, as when picking up an empty box to put them in I found 5 more sprues in similar states of half clip-ed-ness. HA!

The vast pile of pulleys in the bottom right corner look useful. You have enough to use as bogey wheels and mount some of your terrain pieces as mobile gantreys.

I have so many of those giant servo-skull crane things that I'm going to mount some of them on bases kit-bashed with spare Sentinel weapons and make a new unit.

I take it they're not your favourite component for use on these kits, HBMC?