[Kill Team] Kill Zones of Odothese Primus (Modular Trench Board)

[firestorm40k]

Greetings Frater  I've been working on a number of terrain projects, with the aim of using them in a Kill Team Campaign. Now I've completed the main bulk of these projects, I thought I would share some pictures of various pieces from it, as well as the biggest part of it - the modular trench board.

 

 

The theme for this terrain is the siege of a planetary capital Hive City, but rather than battles taking place against massive city battlements and defences, the focus is on skirmishes taking place in no-man's land: abandoned trench lines, battlefields covered in wrecks, bombed and ruined buildings. 

 

 

The biggest project was the modular trench board; an idea I had back during the first lockdown, and started in June 2020 picked up intermittently from time to time over almost 3 years. Part of the reason it took so long was I don't really know what I'm doing  so I was making it up as I went along, and I kept putting it aside to work on other projects. But the biggest reason it took so long is that I didn't really pick the best materials. I used thick card stock (known as chip board in the US) for the basing, polystyrene insulation sheets for the main part of the boards, and 'granny grating' for detailing. Really, I should've used proper wooden boards and high density foam board as the basis - but I wanted to do it cheaply. So lesson learnt - you can either do things cheap, or more quickly/easily..! 

 

 

My plan was to make tiles that when 8 are put together, they match the size of the official GW Kill Team boards (22" by 30"). Each section is 8.5" by 11". I planned out each trench section, and cut the polystyrene accordingly (I made some templates to aid this). I made some flooring for the trenches using the card and mesh sheets; I know that most trenches tend to have wooden boards as the floor, I wanted a more industrial feel for these. Over time I added more details - walls for the trenches (in universe rationale - flakboard that's laid in sections; real world reason - it protects the polystyrene from damage ) and girders from sprue to hold them up. After adding some rubble (made from dried filler that I broke up) and covering the rest of the boards with sand, I added finishing touches like sand bags (made by Renedra I think), Skulls (it's 40k, of course!) and the odd Cadian helmet and abandoned lasguns. 

 

Painting these was made easier with rattle cans - first black, then a lighter coat of grey.  I put maskong tape either side of the trenches and sprayed the walkways with Leadbelcher. I made a black/brown wash from inks, acrylic medium, water, pva and a drop of washing up liquid - this was painted over the whole thing. Then some drybrushing, paint the flakboard, the details, some weather and pigments - oh, and some little Imperial propaganda posters were the finishing touch! 

 

These aren't the most realistic or detailed of trench boards you'll see, but I'm pleased with how they can be laid out and they should make for some memorable games. 

 

 

Along with these I made and/or painted other terrain pieces to fit with the theme of this board - the most significant other project were three bunkers that were built from foamboard. 

 

 

I bought things like craters and some 3d printed wrecks from eBay, and made other pieces like some Chaos barricades from pieces I had like Necromunda bulkheads and barricades. 

 

 

If anyone wants individual pictures of a specific piece, let me know and I'll post them here. I'm pleased with this collection of terrain, which will hopefully make for fun and memorable games during the campaign! 

 

Thanks for looking 

[Bryan Blaire]

That is some fantastic work, firestorm40k - you can tell how much thought was put into it all through in planning and design, the extra buildings and detail touches, etc.  Smashing job, sir - that is a kill zone that anyone should be proud to play on!

[Lysimachus]

I wonder if it would be possible to play a game where you only put two tiles down at the start as deployment zones, and then reveal more as the Kill Teams move outwards? Would make the game properly tense, though you might need a 3rd party 'GM' to work out the set-up...

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice work @firestorm40k - all too often, terrain is overlooked in this hobby, yet a well-constructed board adds so much to the final experience and immersion

 

On 4/12/2023 at 8:01 AM, Lysimachus said:

I wonder if it would be possible to play a game where you only put two tiles down at the start as deployment zones, and then reveal more as the Kill Teams move outwards? Would make the game properly tense, though you might need a 3rd party 'GM' to work out the set-up...

That idea sounds positively made for the Zone Mortalis or "boarding patrol" environments 

[Sherrypie]

Great work, always lovely to see negative height on tables so that trenches aren't protruding upwards from the ground :D

[MithrilForge]

Top Notch terrain  I agree with every positive comment said above me and most likely below me too ... 

Terrain is at least half the Visual experience of a game, you have a perfect half here already!! 

 

Cheers, M.