Foundry 144 - Large-Scale Terrain Projects

[Augustus b'Raass]

Lovely thread, this. Inspiring for the DIY terrain maker. :tu:

[CommodusXIII]

Moving right along, and only one tower remains to be constructed:

 

 

 

With the end in sight, I'm already eyeing my next project.  However, I'm also considering the addition of a flare stack to the towers:

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Looking good. Will you sculpt a flame out of green stuff, or mount a flame-shaped light bulb to serve as a flare?

[CommodusXIII]

I typically use flickering tea lights for this kind of work, shrouded in upholstery filler and given a light dusting of black spraypaint. I think this will need a very large plume of smoke!

As so often happens to my projects, right as I'm on the verge of completion something arises to compete with my attention. While showing off my Warlord, someone made a crack about using it in Kill Team. Well, I decided to do exactly that - I host an annual one-day Kill Team narrative campaign for my friends that originally dragged me into 40K. This year, I'll have something very special: Assault on Gantry 144.



Once again I'll be imitating the work of Blackadder, who came up with the great idea of using scrap plastic shelving as the frame for a gantry for his Warlord. I found a suitable shelving unit on Amazon. Lux Aeterna takes up a 17" x 17" x 24" footprint - to have enough room to park him without his cannons jutting out, and to allow for a good amount of floor space on each level for skirmishes, I'm building two units back-to-back. That yields roughly 28" x 34" per level. At a total of four levels, that will be quite a bit of usable space even with the massive cavity for the Titan.



This will serve not only as a multilevel Kill Team arena, but also as a functional display for my AdMech models. I'll be decorating each level with a combination of scatter terrain and bulkheads, drawing inspiration from the Titan Dock diorama at Warhammer World.



Finally, I'll be influenced heavily by Invictus and its gantry as shown in Space Marine. I've never actually played this game - it'll give me something to do while the paint dries!

At any rate, I have three months to complete this project. The refinery complex is due next March, so that will be on the backburner for the time being.

 

EDIT:  As fate would have it, Humble Bundle is currently offering Space Marine for free if you subscribe to their newsletter.  That's... a bit creepy.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

You have ambitious plans, which will require a LOT of time and effort to make the results look as AWESOME as they should. I wish you luck on their completion.

[CommodusXIII]

Thank you!  I though that I might have bitten off more than I could chew this time, but after a little bit of pre-plunge procrastination things are moving along rapidly.

 

 

 

After a couple hours with a grinding wheel and my Dremell, the first two levels have been dryfitted.  It turns out that the second shelving unit was missing one of its posts, so that will delay construction for a while.  The levels are spaced at about 10" - feet, knees, shoulders, roof - which should provide enough room to reach in and move models while not requiring a stepladder for the upper levels.  In true 40K fashion, I want to feel slightly claustrophobic.

 

Of course, I can't just leave the shelves empty.  I have a large amount of AdMech-themed scatter terrain to fill it with.  I also suffer from the classic hobbyist's disease of buying kits and never building them - this is as good a reason as any to finally dust them off.

 

 

Six Haemotrope Reactors and a set of Promethium Relay Pipes for the upper level, a set of Servohaulers for the ground level, and a small pile of Sector Imperialis objectives to fight over.  There's a lot of painting in my future.

 

I also put my mind to how models will move from level to level.  I'm toying around with cutting sections of flooring out to create large elevators, but that would detract from the already-limited floorspace.  In the meantime, I'm making some of the posts pull double-duty as elevator shafts.  The mounting rings on the shelves makes it a bit difficult to place model-sized doors on them at ground level, so I cooked up some basic stairs:

 

 

 

This is the first weekend in a very long time that I haven't had any obligations, so I'm looking forward to quite a bit more progress over the coming days.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Will you cut holes in the upper floors for elevators/lifts/hoists? Or just put doorways on the edges for elevators/lifts outside of the diorama's borders?

 

You'll likely have to buy a lot of ladders for the maintenance crew to reach the Titan's upper works.

[CommodusXIII]

Fortunately I have a veritable bushel of ladders - I source a lot of bulk terrain scatchbuilding supplies from Horizon Creations 3D.  The plan is to run catwalks/drawbridges across the front of the Titan, and to suspend scaffolding from the roof to allow models to fight across the Titan's shoulders.

 

I'm turning some of the posts into elevator shafts - they won't have any interior, only doors on the outside.  I'll come up with some arbitrary movement penalty to represent using the high-speed lifts to change levels.  I was also thinking of larger freight elevators cut into the floors, but there aren't many vehicles/large models in Kill Team that need them.  More importantly, the more holes I cut in the floor, the less floorspace there is to play on.  I'll keep chewing on that idea until the replacement shelving unit arrives and I can finish construction.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I see you put in a lot of thought beforehand. It's comforting to know a highly anticipated work won't become vaporware due to the designer's poor planning.

[CommodusXIII]

No, just due to the designer's distraction by shiny new baubles.  

[Jackalwolf]

This is going to look so wicked!!

[zerorunner]

 This thread came up in my search for Propaganda Posters for my Kill Team terrain, and lo and behold, I get to see your newest projects! If you still have my number, or have me on messenger, get in touch!

 And for the Omnissiahs sake, post more pictures!

[CommodusXIII]

More pictures it is!

The replacement shelving unit just arrived today, and hopefully sometime this weekend I'll have time to finish the basic construction.  In the meantime, I'm busying myself with the filler.

 

 

Three cogitator shrines (possible objectives), and some throw terrain that will look nice on the catwalks.  The fire extinguisher is a nice touch but easily misplaced - I may end up mounting it to another terrain item.

 

 

Every gantry needs chain hoists.  I'll be constructing runners out of H-beams underneath the catwalks and tucked under the floor sections.

 

 

I cooked up some terminal stations to arrange around the non-elevator posts.  Not the highest quality, but they will make the gantry look a bit busier without taking up too much space.

 

 

The rough plan at the moment is for the second level to be filled with the reactors and piping necessary to refuel the Titan.  I've had a set of promethium relay pipes on my pile for quite some time.  I was a bit daunted by their level of detail - I don't typically like spending this much time painting terrain - but after diving in they're not so bad.  I sketched out a rough map and ordered a few more pipes off eBay.  Once these are all done, it's on to the Haemotrope Reactors.

 

 

 

The major success for this week was the first section of scaffolding.  I found a template for Sector Mechanicus-style walkways, printed in two halves to capture the underlying pipe detail.  I printed only the top half to yield open grating, resized to fit the shoulders of Lux Aeterna.  I envision the top level being a 'king of the hill' style mission fought on the Titan itself.  I'm very glad I took the time to resplice the void shield generators to be magnetized, opening up a walkway between the shoulder humps.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

You're making good progress.

[CommodusXIII]

A few cutting wheels, a sanding block, a little bit of blood and plenty of obscenities later, the basic construction is complete:

 

 

I have trouble picturing conceptual plans in my mind - I typically have to see the physical object to really get my bearings on a project.  Now that the structure is complete, a few things have immediately become apparent:

• We're definitely not playing on the roof.  I'd considered populating it with air handlers and a landing pad, but I'm one of the tallest in the group and there's no way I could maneuver comfortably up there.  I'll just consider it extra table space for rosters and tape measures during the games.
• I have a lot more room on the third level than I'd originally thought, which is a really good surprise.
• With the unfortunate lighting in my basement, I'm going to have to consider adding lights underneath each level.  I can wait until mid-October when Christmas decorations start showing up on the shelves.  

In the meantime, work is continuing on the catwalks and I'm still procrastinating on tackling the reactors.

 

EDIT:  I've been informed that Christmas decorations are already on the shelves.  Good grief.

[CommodusXIII]

I was forced to abandon tonight's plans and wage a desperate battle against a stubborn alternator.  Still, I have a little progress to show:

 

 

Two nameplates for the front of the complex.

 

 

 

I'm particularly pleased with the prototype catwalk.  It's cobbled together from several difference source files:

• The walkway consists of several lengths of Sector Mechanicus-style grating, from the same set of templates as the shoulder scaffolding.
• Two parallel H-beams run the length of the catwalk. This binds the walkway sections together, keeps the surrounding structure from bowing inwards, and will serve as runners for the chain hoists.
• Additional structural support is provided by two lengths of rivet strips, which keep the H-beams from flexing at the seams.
• The gears at the corners were originally shelf brackets, rescaled and cut down to fit.  I don't particularly like how gaudy GW's terrain sets have become, but a little flair goes a long way.

The second walkway is in the midst of construction at the moment.  I'm hoping to get some paint on them and finish up the chain hoists by the end of the week.  I've also started pecking at the reactors.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Is the walkway removable, so you can display the Titan on a battlefield diorama?

[CommodusXIII]

Yup, the walkways extend 0.5-1" past the opening on either side, so the entire catwalk just rests in place.

 

 

[golfdeltafoxtrot]

This is amazing stuff! I love how much thought you've put into it. Terrain is such an afterthought for a lot of gamers, but this level of dedication and craftsmanship warms both my hearts.

 

I've tried making my own terrain in the past and it never came out as I'd envisaged. I'd kill for this sort of skill.

[CommodusXIII]

First test of the LED lighting:

 

 

I debated between a candle-like warm white and a more modern cool white.  In the end, I went with the latter for two reasons:

1. The cool white LEDs are brighter than warm light, and the main goal is illumination.
2. All of the lights, lamps, and indicators on my models are painted with a blue glow.  The actual lights now match.

For the test, I suspended one strand with painter's tape.  The results are impressive, but I didn't get as much coverage as I'd hoped.  I'll run two strands per level for the final assembly, suspended with black gaffer tape.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Great job on the lighting!

[Mechanist]

This is going to be epic and I'm loving the use of shelving. I'm definitely going to have to do that for my give world set up at some point.

[CommodusXIII]

I took some more low-quality pictures before heading out to the office this morning.  The hoists are mounted to a basic I-frame carrier.  No frills like wheels or cabling is needed, since no one will really see it anyway.

 

 

The carrier rides between the H-beams supporting the catwalks.  They can translate back and forth, and can be removed for storage when I break down the gantry.

 

 

Here are the finished catwalks.  I'm particularly happy with the volcano cannon anchors.

 

 

 

I'm repainting the shoulder scaffolding at the moment, and will be moving on to some other minor odds and ends.  Eventually I'll have to tackle the shelves themselves - hopefully this weekend I'll have time to start painting them.  After that, it's all downhill.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Good god, this is turning out to be such an impressive and jealousy-enducing project. I'd LOVE to play that board!

[Brother Pheidias]

This is MADNESS!

The very best kind though!