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The War in the Webway


CommodusXIII

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With the impending release of the Custodes, I'm launching a side project for 30K focused on the War in the Webway.  I'm eagerly looking forward to Master of Mankind and I think that it will answer most of my questions.  In the meantime, I thought I'd pick your brains.

I'm planning on modeling the Custodes as fighting within the Webway itself, so I'm trying to sort out what it might look like underfoot. I turned to Visions of Heresy for inspiration and found a few different takes.  Some artists depict it as having geometric patterns, almost like circuitry.  Others as having a seashell-like texture.  Still others show it as having a similar aesthetic to Eldar wraithbone.  The only in-game representation that I remember was from a weekly mission in the Eye of Terror worldwide campaign, which recommended draping the entire table in black cloth.

 

Few of these concepts are mutually-exclusive but, as with any artist's representation, some may be more "accurate" than others.  How do you envision the Webway?

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It's been one of the most difficult things for me to imagine, given that it contains commaragh, the black library, is big enough that a fleet of ships can fit through, but you can still walk it's paths.

That and it's a creation of the old ones, and the closest link to old ones anything were the slann/lizardmen in fantasy.

I'd go aztec if anything

Shattered dominion bases.

I had considered that, but while the concept may work the actual details don't really fit. Hammers, suns, comets, clockwork, the ever-present GW skulls - these are all distinctly human. The general tack of using fantasy-themed bases rather than sci-fi, however, does have merit.

For a big game set in the webway back when i worked for gw we used a mix of desert terrrain/rocks with black cloth to form voids/passages and chokepoints. Looked pretty good if i do say so myself tongue.png

That fits the old Eye of Terror mission. Later artwork shows it as being bathed in golden light, rather than darkness. However, I'm thinking of a crossover campaign with 40K against Thousand Sons and the Eldar - black would be a great way to represent decaying or abandoned areas of the Webway. This would also fit Dark Eldar territory as well, as Commorragh is said to be in eternal night rather than brilliant light.

 

Unfortunately I can't quite model mist in solid form for a base...  How about the "walls", then?

 

DO THE MIST, COWARD. SOMEHOW. FIND A WAY.

 

Cotten wool? Or something along those lines on a elder-ish base decoration, just like little 'whisps' of cotten wool (or something like that) coming off it? Maybe superglue it to make it solid?

I have a bulk box of upholstery filler that I use for my AdMech's smokestacks.  I'll play around with it to see if I can keep it subtle enough that you can still see the models' legs.  Now that those particular gears are turning in my head, I have another idea that's far more insane.  Hrmmm...

I have a bulk box of upholstery filler that I use for my AdMech's smokestacks.  I'll play around with it to see if I can keep it subtle enough that you can still see the models' legs.  Now that those particular gears are turning in my head, I have another idea that's far more insane.  Hrmmm...

 

Oh, dear [Deity of Choice], I'm sorry, dude. I regret everything I said. 

 

Interestingly(?) one of the touchstones of the Webway's aesthetic was "faded eldar glory", though obviously that only applies to certain parts of it. The Mechanicum bits are more... Mechanicum-ish. And the misty bits could be anything. And I realise as I type this that I'm not helping, and I'll shut up now.

You're helping quite a bit - I thought about PMing you earlier, as I think your upcoming book will be a major source of inspiration.  So I'm glad to have your input!

 

That being said, I think the mist idea has much more merit than I originally gave it.  Price checks for the necessary components are complete - I think I can actually pull a proof-of-concept together in a week or so.

 

Back to the underlying foundation, what's the general consensus?  Shining gold like the Visions of Heresy artwork, or blue/black like Ian Watson's descriptions?  The latter would probably compliment the Custodes to a greater extent - gold figures on gold bases is... a lot of gold.  I could even try a dark blue/black sparkling effect, similar to Athrawes' artwork.

If it helps, from Codex Dark Eldar, The Dark City:

 

"The webway, sometimes called the labyrinth dimension, is a construct of shimmering arterial pathways that spans both realspace and the Immaterium. It is defined by the fact that it sits between the material realm and the roiling tides of the Warp - an interstice comparable to the surface of a mirror, or the fabric of a veil cast over something foul. The ancient Eldar discovered that it was possible to exist within that silvered surface, to move within the threads of that veil."

 

Okay to make it worse, Codex Eldar: Harlequins, The Webway:

 

"Known by some as the labyrinth dimension, the webway has been envisioned by mortal minds in myriad ways. Some describe it as a galactic tapestry of Shimmering strands, others a maze of glowing tunnels, or the veins of some vast living entity. All such accounts fall short of the truth, for the webway defies neat categorization. It is an elegantly crafted realm located between realspace and the Warp, analogous to the surface of a still, dark pool, or a fine silk veil drawn across something fouls."

 

You can use cotton balls teased apart to do smoke/fog but it makes for a rather dense effect. I have found this works better for trying to do something like thick plumes of steam from vents or oily smoke from wrecks.

 

To do wispy smoke effects in the past, for stuff like smoke markers, I have used stuffing material like you would use to stuff a teddy bear. The stuff Ive used is made up of thin wispy fibers and looks sort of like what a cotton ball would look like if you teased it very heavily apart.

 

It is pretty dispersed and you can tease it apart further if you want. This will give you a wispy edge of the smoke/fog cloud look that will let you see at least some of what lies behind and beneath it. Also, you can usually get a huge bag of the stuff from a craft or fabric store for about $5 that will last you forever. I made something like a 100 smoke markers for players at my local store years ago and used less than ¼ of the bag.

 

You can also easily paint it with spray paint for various effects, or use a nice solid hairspray to seal it in place.

Unfortunately I can't quite model mist in solid form for a base...  How about the "walls", then?

try frosted plastic?

http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00JeutwOzMQAqi/PVC-Rigid-Frosted-Film.jpg

like this but with a white  or cream basecoat underneath?

A D-B - thanks, the Inquisition Wars books laid the foundation for my perception of the webway but it was so long ago I'd forgotten the source. I remember us enthusiastically discussing those books at an event years back when it had just been announced you were going to write Master of Mankind.

 

Mikhal LeNoir - I love that artwork, the sense of a shattered place between worlds.

 

As others have noted the webway is embedded within the warp so I think the perceived appearance will be shaped by a combination of its inhabitants, e.g. Commorragh, and the observer so in a sense all of the artists/writers depictions are accurate.

 

For modelling you could use cushion filler for wisps of if you wanted to get the effect of swirling mists by using some expanding filler/insulation foam. Squirt a bit on the base, before it sets use a cocktail stick to tease out swirls and wisps and then insert your model ankle deep before it sets.

 

Then paint with swirls and lines of blue and white a bit like marble.

Try misty water effects? Pre paint your model, and base, seperatly of course. Then water effect the base with some whit paint mixed into the water effect (the amount used depends on how thick you want it to be). Not sure if it would work or not, but having used water effects a lot on my wife's model train set, I think it might just work, you'd just need to make some form of mold (thin strips of plasticard maybe?) to stop leakage from the base! Anyways. Just my two cents!

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