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If it were on a mount such that it could shoot upwards... It currently looks like some kind of long ranged rapid firing machinegun/cannon, a twin linked auto cannon to call it in a 40k sense. I think if you're going to be shooting at local targets on the ground, then it probably could stand to be a bit shorter.

Maybe take the long part out of the middle, and attach the wider round portion between the middle and furthest/thinnest pieces to the base. Maybe.

Hi folks,

Have my first building done and wanted to share. It will be part of the commercial / administrative sector of my colony, well behind defensive lines. This is where the citizens of colony 43 on Hell planet Rachel Ray Sigma feel most secure.



This building went through several revisions to bring it in line with my evolving goals, which included:

- make the building look like a real, functional building

- use connectors only, no glue

- use removable walls / roofing to provide easy access to the building's interior during games

- make it tall

As long as you use enough connectors to make your building rock solid, some false walls / ceilings will not make it fragile.
And the really good news is that false walls and ceilings that stay on firmly but are easy to remove are easy to do.

For the removable ceiling on top of my building, I used posts from the Landing Pad battle zone. I think the pictures illustrate how better than words:




As for the removable walls, the easiest, best solution turns out to be putting a handful of connectors on the edges. When you "attach" the wall, make sure these connectors are resting on the building's holes, but do NOT apply any force to make them "Click". The false wall's border clips will hold to your main structure well enough that they don't require any additional pieces to stand up or stay in place, and the false wall will remain easy to remove on the fly.

Here is the back of the building with the false walls (there are only 2) on and off:





This building is basically done, but it does not represent a finished Deadzone field. I intend to add another large building, interconnected with the first one via elevated walkways, whenever I end up getting more connectors.

(I'm fresh out of them, with what looks like over half of my tiles left.)

Excellent! Glad to finally see some proper height! I wanna go a few tiles higher, but that is a beautiful building. And rather complete, you've even done the floors I've seen some crooked buildings, but the use of plenty of connectors seems to have yours fairly straight overall. Nice work, keep us updated when you get more connectors and some more progress

Pics are broken Vermonter.

Thanks for the thoughts Grimdork. I tried to cobble a mount together but I doubt we'll see fliers in deadzone so thought better of it. I might go shorter and as Yonan said, I can glue it back on if it doesn't look right.

That is pure awesome Vermonter, you have identical goals to me and it's good to see you could pull it off - and so well at that. Has to be my favourite terrain piece that I've seen so far, probably because it matches what I want to make so much.

The look to be pics are hosted on the mantic forum so will only show up if you're logged in over there

So it turns out that large buildings are a real pain to build. The weight of the tiles eventually beats the strength of the clips resulting in an incredibly fragile structure. However I managed to keep this beast standing long enough to photograph it so here we go!

Dimensions are 5x1.5 on the bottom and 5x3 on the top as a result of the angled clips I used. Unfortunately I ran out of clips halfway so I couldn't make it as large as I wanted...



Time to smash this construct up now and go build it all again. Man I love this clip system!

I think that just means 'dry fit' for a check, and then glue in place...

...for me anyway!

 Alpharius wrote:
I think that just means 'dry fit' for a check, and then glue in place...

...for me anyway!

Yeah, I don't get not gluing, even if you want to have the variety, wouldn't it just be a pain to have to build everything before each game?

I think I want to use the clips to make a semi-permanent structure. Basically I'll leave the same set up for months but if I decide to change it down the road I can.

Hi guys,

Sorry, I didn't realize that you'd have to be logged in to the Mantic forums to see my pictures. Thing is, I tried hosting the pictures on flickr and dropbox before resorting to the Mantic forums, and linking to them on Dakka didn't work for me. Is there some trick to embedding images here with either of those services that I should be aware of?

As for gluing / not gluing, my building was a lot less interesting and considerably smaller in its original form, but got considerably better after several major revisions. And I'm probably going to revise it further. If I reach a point where I decide it's perfect and I'll never want anything better, perhaps I'll glue it. But for me, gluing remains an option. Those who glue first and ask questions later don't get to have second (or third, fourth, fifth, etc.) thoughts.

In the end, I could see going with partially gluing together modular sections, mostly to keep the cost of buying additional connectors down. (2.50 pounds isn't cheap when you want to buy 12+ more sets of them.) But I'd rather do that when I have more practical experience with the building system, so I know I'm doing it in the best way.

I'm sorry Commander Cain found his large building ended up fragile. I didn't have that experience, myself. (Don't know if it made a difference for Cain, but I also didn't file any of the connector holes, so all my connectors were attached at maximum tightness / strength. And yes, that meant that for the open X tiles, getting those connectors to click in the first place usually involved needle nose pliers.) It's clear that the connectors pull on the tiles they're connected to, and there's a kind of logic to counterbalancing the pull of each connector with others to get straight and firm results. However, I found the system somewhat forgiving if you don't skimp on connectors (which means you run out of them real fast.) The middle floor of my building is missing two corners because open air windows wrap around them (the kind of windows you make from two small barrier sections), which is a no-no for traditional stone and brick architecture. With steel architecture, though, you can cheat by allocating that corner support elsewhere inside the building, and I found Deadzone plastic equally malleable in that regard. (The middle floor of my building with the two open corners is held up by the two corners that are present, and by a wall centered beneath the middle of its floor. Those three points of support are solid enough to bear that floor and the two floors above it as well.)

I'm not saying "the only limit is your imagination," because that's always a sales pitch lie. It's not a perfect system, and some things that should be simple - like, say, making double rows of stairs align with the rest of your building - are barely possible. (I pulled it off acceptably, but try it and you'll see what I mean.) Structurally legos are much, much better, but then legos are better than just about any toy building system and have been tested and refined for decades. Too bad legos look like the toys they are, or I'd use them. But for the look I want, I can definitely work with the Deadzone terrain.

Glad to hear Yonan and Grimdork have similar, perhaps grander plans in synch with the "realistic" look people like myself and Commander Cain are going for. I look forward to seeing and learning from your work! I like my building so far, but it was always intended to be a test subject and a "bit player" on a larger board, and I'd like to make bigger structures with more floorspace in the future. Ideally I'd like to make a board where figures are more or less constantly running into and out of complete buildings with the same facility that they run into and out of fragmentary cover, using removable walls so that there is minimal fussiness or slowdown playing in the building's interiors during actual games. I could see half a deadzone playmat becoming multilevel "interior" space.

You could, and should!, upload your pictures right here to the Dakka Dakka gallery!

 Vermonter wrote:
Structurally legos are much, much better, but then legos are better than just about any toy building system and have been tested and refined for decades.

At least part of the problem seems to be that Mantic or their subcontractors did a mediocre job with the tolerances of the parts. Every peg should be identical and every hole should be identical, to whatever level of accuracy is necessary to get a good fit.

Hurm might be good for smaller buildings.

 AlexHolker wrote:

 Vermonter wrote:
Structurally legos are much, much better, but then legos are better than just about any toy building system and have been tested and refined for decades.

At least part of the problem seems to be that Mantic or their subcontractors did a mediocre job with the tolerances of the parts. Every peg should be identical and every hole should be identical, to whatever level of accuracy is necessary to get a good fit.

This. This is the key going forward.

Some parts work great, some are a pain.

Uniformity would help IMMENSLY and I think we'd have some pretty wild setups if that was the case.

As it is, I've had a lot of success once I've learned what certain pieces tolerances are. I haven't broken any connectors since the first week I got the game (knock on wood).

Maybe the next standalone Deadzone game with Corporation troopers, Veer- myn, and the bugs will have the kinks ironed out (I'd say wave 2 is a bit too hopeful).

Since they* haven't figured out a way to eliminate flash from plastic or resin miniatures, complete uniformity is probably unrealistic for this sort of plastic terrain. I don't think these have been billed as precision machined parts.

I've only sat down to clip out and trim about a dozen tiles, and after putting together the first two cubes and starting on the third, I noticed that those decorative cross struts (the big triangular bits on the accessory sprue and elsewhere) seem to be pretty useful in both stabilizing things and making the connectors go further.

*Disclaimer: Rhetorical they.

 solkan wrote:
Since they* haven't figured out a way to eliminate flash from plastic or resin miniatures, complete uniformity is probably unrealistic for this sort of plastic terrain. I don't think these have been billed as precision machined parts.

If Milton Bradley could make snap-together parts 23 years ago for Space Crusade, why can't Mantic do it today?

 AlexHolker wrote:

 solkan wrote:
Since they* haven't figured out a way to eliminate flash from plastic or resin miniatures, complete uniformity is probably unrealistic for this sort of plastic terrain. I don't think these have been billed as precision machined parts.

If Milton Bradley could make snap-together parts 23 years ago for Space Crusade, why can't Mantic do it today?

Space Crusade pieces had problems with variable sizes of pegs and holes, and for permanent assembly to any basic presentation standard required filing, fitting and putty work around the wrists of the models.

The hexagon kits had a much better connector that allowed for a proper "clip" since it was a circular clip where the ends of it closed in place after you forced in the piece. Tough to put together and impossible to take apart, mind.

With the current connectors I'm really confused as to why they didn't make the area of the clips much larger inside of just about 3mm across, that would have made the tolerances less of an issue.

A 0.5mm error is a huge problem on a 3mm clip, but on an 8mm one its not so bad (and it's much easier for human fingers to work with).

As it is they're designed for people with tiny hands and an incredibly strong hand muscles. Not a combination that exists all that often... I have tiny hands but I find it hard to force the connectors into place.. someone with larger tougher hands might find it easy to snap the connectors in, but find the connectors fiddly and hard to work with.

I think this is why we're getting variation and some people saying that they're fine... they just have the hands for it.

The connectors, as it stands seem to be designed to clip together with a very long and thin pair of needle pliers, not average human fingers.

They might have thought through the engineering, but definitely not the ergonomics.

Just get a large LEGO block or something similar and use that to push the clips in, gives you something large to get your fingers around. I find that something like 80% of all connections go together fine this way, sometimes there's some trimming required.

I've found that, having filed all the hole just a little, most parts are fine, it's only the floor parts I've had trouble with for some reason. On the whole it's remained modular and easily changeable, but I've found it handy to keep a file or other metal object around to poke out connectors if they get stuck, and, as above, some kind of larger plastic piece to push them in and out. It's also an idea when doing that to make sure you'e on a hard surface to offer resistance.

To get the clips to push in easier I just use the flat side of my clippers allowing me to use my whole wrist to push it in as a pose to one fingernail. Also when removing them again the clippers are perfect for pushing them back out, saves all that endless wiggling of the clip and sore fingers.

They ought to take a page out of Playmobil's book and have a "tool" included to push in/ remove all the plugs.

Those suckers have worked wonders trying to rebuild my daughter's castle after it's been destroyed by rampaging dinosaurs and kaiju for the umpteenth time.

Okay guys, I have it sorted. I'm reposting three of my building pictures here using the Dakka gallery, so hopefully everyone should be able to see them. Mods, feel free to delete my first post of these images - since only people logged into the Mantic forums can see the images there it's more trouble than it's worth.

So here are my photos, starting with one of the entire building. Although the building itself is pretty much finished, the board is not. The plan has always been to make another tall, interconnected building to balance out the board and get rid of the "one side has cover, the other side has none" effect. The second building will also resolve the elevated walkway's current "bridge to nowhere" problem.



The second two photos demonstrate how to make a handy removable roof using pillars from the Landing Pad set:



This is the removable roof, placed upside down to reveal the interior posts. Those posts have been glued to the connectors that are holding them to the ceiling, so the posts won't fall out when the roof is flipped over. The connectors themselves have not been glued to the ceiling and don't need to be in order to have a strong grip.



The posts socket into the pillar connectors attached to the floor. (Don't glue the pillars to these!)

If you look closely at the removable roof images, you can see I've inserted two, small neodymium magnets into the two buttresses that face each other. The buttress pieces have a small hollow in the back that can be further expanded to insert a magnet. So far, they are the only pieces that seem easy to magnetize.

The magnet method worked, although since the buttresses aren't flush with each other I had to extend the top magnet so it is actually protruding out from it's housing in the buttress. I haven't talked about the magnet experiment before because while it worked, I discovered it was entirely unnecessary. The removable wall that I thought the magnet was holding in place stayed securely in place when I took the roof off. It turned out that the two half-tile sized panels I had on either side of the removable wall to make the magnetic fit more exact held it in place just fine with pressure.

Unfortunately, on this computer I don't have access to my pictures of the removable walls, but I will post those again later this week.

Thank you everyone for bearing with me as I learned how to embed pictures here - it's been a long, long time since I uploaded photos to any forum, but I've benefited a lot from seeing your pictures and reading your advice, so I figured it was about time I contributed something. My apologies for the inconvenience.

As far as the critiques of the connectors go, I can only agree. I have large, reasonably strong hands, but not being a masochist I gave up on just pressing the clips into place on the more stubborn tiles and resorted to using needlenose pliers. After that I was much happier. Making the connections fit universally well with all the tiles should be a major focus for Mantic going forward.

My perspective is that I invested in a new product, and particularly with a modular building set, it isn't surprising that there are still issues to be worked out. The reason I'm not angry about that is that I've found that with patience (and sometimes a sailor-mouthed lack thereof) I can still make the Deadzone tiles work for me and get the results I want. Is it harder than it should be to do that? Yes. But it can be done, and I'm very happy with the results. Taste is subjective, but for me there's not a better looking, more open-ended plastic sci-fi set on the market. (For paper sci-fi interiors, battle systems is coming, and I have little doubt that it will prove to be a much more user-friendly system.)

What bothers me most is the extreme lack of connectors. If I clipped out the rest of my tiles and stacked them up next to my building to illustrate how many additional connectors I'd need to buy, the image would be pretty damning. As it stands, connectors are an additional "hidden cost" that people will need to factor in when weighing how many battlezones to invest in. As I said, 2.5 pounds isn't cheap when you want to buy 12+ of them just to use battlezone tiles you've already bought.

If I were Mantic, I'd start throwing additional connector sprues into their general release battlezone sets. And if they're not going to give extra connector sprues away free to kickstarter backers, they should make additional connector sprues available to us for a rock-bottom price. Considering how many are required if you want to construct a large building, bulk discounts would be a very good idea. While it's very true that you don't need many tiles to set up a board that plays very well for a Deadzone game - in fact, building larger structures without compromising gameplay is much harder - in this hobby, a lot of people will also want to make large buildings and cityscapes. Mantic should want to get more connectors into their terrain-purchasing hands.

Now that's a great building

thanks for taking the trouble to get the images sorted out

the pillars seem an inspired use of the pieces

That is a very impressive building. Is it all Core Worlds aside from the pillars? How many sets were used to make that one building?

Hi Barzam,

It's mostly core worlds, but I also bought two landing pad battlezones and got very good mileage out of them for this build. The roof tiles, triangles, interior and exterior stairwells, and the defense line barriers that I used for the elevated walkway's guardrails all came from those two landing pad sets. As for how many battlezones the building represents, that's a little hard to say without doing a lot of math. I can count up all the tiles, but as you can see, this building mostly uses window tiles of a single double-window type. I had 10 Core Worlds battlezone sets to draw those identical double window tiles from (and I still have some left over). If you wanted to recreate the building with the same amount of double-window tiles, you'd need to buy more battlezones than if you wanted to make an equivalently sized building with more blank walls and fewer windows.

I'll post an exact tile count later this week, which I hope will be helpful. I don't mean to be evasive, but when you just a get a bunch of loose sprues in a big box it becomes hard to keep track of how many battlezones you're using.

How do you get something so incredibly wrong...

I'm going throguh my Deadzone stuff now, and I've received almost none of the Enforcers. Good start.

[EDIT]: And that's a Rebs stater and two Rebs Boosters. Didn't order either of those.

^ If you've only received 2 bags of Enforcers, that's normal. One bag with warpath enforcers, the other the deadzone minis. The rest is coming in hard plastic in April.

Not sure what's going on with the Rebs, but be sure to use this guide:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/567758.page

I've spent the past... I don't know how long going over everything, comparing what I have to various updates and whatnot. I've figured out what's missing (aside from what's in Wave 2, obviously).

4 of the 10 d8's.
The entire Plague Booster Bundle.

And I got a Reb Booster Bundle instead. So I'll use Mantic's fancy order query thing to get this sorted.