Terrain is everything - Inquisitorial Vault progress

I'm kind of on 'hobby fire' at the moment. I've a number of projects I'm fiercely passionate about and somehow, despite some of the tediousness I'm motivated to do them. I'm actually very keen to get on and do my Dark Angels, the thought of painting them appeals to me although there's still hesitancy about 'how' to paint them so I'm sidestepping that by attempting the Dark Vengeance Librarian - he's blue so that'll be different. 

But back to the post at hand is one of the other challenges my Inquisitorial Vault and as you can see the horizontal strips have been put on and you may notice they're capped with masking tape, not cable ties.

Primarily this was because I realised capping them with cable ties is a pain in the a$$ whereas butting 4 5mm strips on a piece of tape, butted up and then running a blade between them is simple, effective and super quick. It also means the cable detailing will run in one direction only which will be better visually.

Horizontals in place and I believe this is why it becomes an Inquisitorial building. Without those extra bits that 'reinforce' the structure you can pass this off as an office block but with them it makes it look far more imposing and worthy of the Inquisition.

Here's why cable ties are not such a good idea the creation of it requires you run a scalpel down the edge of the foam separating it from the card. You then make two diagonal cuts inside the foam to end up with |/\| hopefully with the interior peak lower than the card edges so that when you put the cable tie in it fits neatly. You can see I've also had to use pins to secure the strip in place while the PVA dries.

Unfortunately the verticals are taller than a single cable tie and the plastic isn't always perfectly straight. I end up using a selection of clothes pegs to keep them in place until the glue dries but it can squash the now weakened foamboard. I'll also add a spare bit of foamcard on top and weight it down to press the tie into the groove. It's worth checking progress after half an hour to ensure it's not slipped out and all messed up. It's an insane way to do it but I've persevered...

It certainly makes it more durable, which is why I also need to cap the top and backs of the verticals as they reach the balcony. This way they'll be more protected from knocks.

Here's the first set of window caps. Unfortunately I measured them to be 100% accurate which doesn't work in the real world. The cuts in the foam are not 100% and it doesn't take into account the thickness of the card. I'll tweak the templates [which is why the free Radical Collective can be a hindrance more than a help] but essentially the vertical caps are fine, but may need a little trim on the bottom row of windows. However the horizontal windows needed trimming by about 1mm each side but without removing any of the width from the shorter side of the trapezium - the bottom edge as we look at it here.

Handily these tiny wedges were useful in filling in gaps. You can see one in place in the the 2nd row down and 2nd column in the top right corner. I'd glue the foamcard, top edges then corners and then another strip of PVA part way then use a scalpel to pick up a vertical, force it into position and then add the horizontals. A relatively simple process.

The only real issue is it takes around 5 minutes to cap each window and there are 56 - 4 hours and 40 minutes. And lets not forget the 40 windows that will be in the Reformatory and the 32 that will be in the Bastille. Trust me though the repetition will hone the skills to this efficiently and it's quite therapeutic.

Terrain is everything - some awesome terrain 10 pages worth

Quick one, I saw this thread on Warseer, some truly awesome terrain and 10 pages worth [so it makes up for the short post :) ]. I particularly like the Dawn of War Sentry Turret and the Atmosphere Processors. Loads of extra details to make them more realistic and step-by-step guides to do-it-yourself

Check it out:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?250009-Bunkers-barricades-and-battlefield-bits

Terrain is everything - Inquisitorial Vault/Reformatry/Bastille

So I've had this Inquisitorial Vault in development for a while. I'd looked at creating a number of straight sided buildings with less gothic elements and more 'brutalist' architecture however during the process I've reintroduced some of the gothic bits - buttresses, detailing etc. with the main feature being numerous windows with bevelled insets.

Each horizontal edge will have a 5x5mm strip spanning the width. I will be using cable ties to face them and cover the exposed foam edges. There will also be vertical buttress strips 10mm deep that will also be faced the same and will stand 10mm or so above the rooftop wall. All the window cavities will be card faced with an additional sheet of foamboard on the bottom of the building.

To make sure the windows were as neat as possible I actually printed a second template and mounted it on the back. This way I could cut through the rear inner window rebate and then turn it over and cut through the outer window at an angle. This turned out to be the neatest finish compared to a test piece which was to cut through all the way down and then all the way up and hope the cuts lined up on the reverse [which it didn't]. Oh, it's pretty much A4 in size, the Space Marine in the doorway used for scale.

Anyway, once the plans are down and you get to have a go you'll soon get the hang of it - new blades an absolute must, because here's what comes next the Inquisitorial Reformatry and Bastille. The Vault is the middle bit it'll be split diagonally so you can gain access inside. The outer Reformatry will also be split diagonally so you can enclose the Vault. The Bastille will sit in the Modular Plug socket on the roof of the Vault. There's also plenty of option for change at this stage. Access to the interior of the Bastille will be difficult so I may consider making the windows double height [and/or width], with option to mix it up a bit [although you'd have to create your own window capping for the insets]. Equally you could choose not to add the buttresses and horizontal details, filling in windows as and when you see fit. I had planned to use some plastic folder wallets for windows too!

Anyway, so that's a little leak of what's going down in Avro Vulcan's workshop, unusually open considering the nature of the plans, perhaps he's trying to prevent being scooped by the Free Radical Collective? The positive note is that the Vault is coming along so the STC will definitely be this year ;) Coincidentally I was watching RED recently and noticed it had a similar aesthetic as the Original Headquarters Building of the CIA.

The funny thing about this build and the accelerated progress is it's all a smoke screen, a 'flim-flam', it's really just procrastination for painting the Dark Angels and the worst [or best] thing about it is this is not the only build I've started. Given my recent success with my Tyranid Aegis Defence Line I'm looking to add something else to my Nids that won't cost me a penny but for my time and creativity...

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah a new STC is found!

Techno-archaeologist Avro Vulcan continues his research in the Ferron Proxima badlands. It has been months since he revealed a newly discovered Standard Template Construct (STC) to Tech Adepts at the Adeptus Mechnicus Oversight Cohort on Ferron Proxima. This does not mean he has been unsuccessful in his discoveries, in fact the opposite is true, his very success has been his undoing by malicious data attacks by the group known only as the Free Radical Collective!

The Free Radical Collective have been targetting Avro Vulcan's data banks and releasing his discoveries prior to aproval by AdMech Overseers. Th people of Ferron Proxima have seen benefits from this, technologically speaking but wanton disregard for testing procedures and the free distribution of advanced technology has caused the Adeptus Mechanicus to bring in a specialised unit of Tech Inquisitors to discover the true identities of the FRC.

Meanwhile Avro Vulcan brings us another innocuous, but perhaps revolutionary STC, the Standard Manifold Coupling, aka the Modular Plug Socket. The details of this coupling has been kept secret by Vulcan due to the interest from data-hackers who have sort to gain control of this valuable information to share outside Adeptus Mechanicus control. Once private enterprise can access this information they will utilise it to gain control of all Mercury Plateaus suitable for Plasma Generators, thus reducing their need to pay tithes to the Ad-Mech administration. The Modular Plug Socket is more than just a connector for Plasma Generators, it also functions as an underground storage portal, watch tower base, heavy weapons turret mount and lift shaft. In time these STCs will also be shared with the world.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbUm1VQ3hKNF8xNDQ/view?resourcekey=0-ZT2qov4nLJ-2ojJ3gGkybw

This STC will be uploaded to the full Ferron Proxima STC library shortly. You can access the database here:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.com/2011/02/terrain-is-everything-standard-template.html

Terrain is everything - Tyranid defence line

Firstly, apologies for the lack of 6th coverage. I've got a shedload on my plate at the moment and fitting in the blog when it can tick away happily without my intervention for a fortnight makes it bottom of the pile, that's not to say I don't love you all, I do, you're just high maintenance ;) The sad fact is though that by the time I get to address some of the more pertinent issues with 6th many of them will have been addressed or discussed by those bloggers and forumites worthier than I and I may have missed the boat. Still I'll struggle on.

Back to the post, you've all seen Fortifications are 'in' and everyone and his dog can make space for 50pts of Aegis Defence Line so they can bring their cover with them. GW's point of view is that now folk will be buying this set in bucketloads and not just for the quad guns to make Mortis dreadnoughts! My initial reaction for Tyranids was excitement because I'm not going to buy the Aegis set because my nids obviously don't use Imperial Architecture and if you've seen the nid FAQ:

Q: Are Tyranid units inside buildings (ie the Bastion) subject to instinctive behaviour tests? Further, are they able to manual fire emplaced weapons? (p33)
A: No to both questions

But apparently the FAQ implies that only Imperial folk can use the weapons emplaced within - BOO! I was looking forward to using spare deathspitters and Tyrannofex weapons to represent the weapons attached within. But if the nids can't use them that sucks. My knee jerk reaction was eventually not 100% justified as the weapons can be auto fired, so a semi-sentient nid presence will still get 'quad' guns
Ultimately though my hope was that the 'in game' purchasing of Aegis Defence Lines, Bastions and fortifications etc. would herald a new renaissance in folk creating their own xenos equivalents to get the benefits but by doing it old school hobby style on the cheap and with some exciting creativity. Obviously a Tyranid Bastion equivalent in my case might be a nice challenge.

Of course there are already 'alien' 3rd party equivalents out there, the most well known is Darkartstores First Contact Terrain. It's not necessarily the cheapest option but you do seem to get quite a lot for your buck - a 5" section for £4.50 seams equivalent to any sort of Forgeworld prices/purchases.

Alternatively there's Do It Yourself and you know that's what I'm all about, especially if it's cheap-cheap and doubly so if it looks cool. So forgive me if I just bow to someone who's already been there, done that and created the solution to our problem: Mr_Pink and his alien barricades

From this:

To this:

And lets be honest we can all manage that I think! And whilst we're at it I may as well share some more of Mr_pink's awesome work:

• Mycetic Spores
• The Infestation of Casavant Prime terrain table
• The making of the Infestation of Casavant Prime terrain table posts on Warpshadow 
• Mr_Pink's terrain posts on Warpshadow

That should be enough for now, but it's got me thinking about Bastion and Skyshield equivalents and it's only a little step further on to look at Tau, Eldar, Necron and the oh, so amusing Ork versions!

Terrain is everything - Dawn of War Plasma Generator part 10

I've glued it together. I bit the bullet and just did it as I've so much on my plate at the moment I just want to feel like something is done and dusted but I don't know if you can see but something has changed since last we saw the Plasma Generator...

... do you notice just how big the air bubbles are at the top, compare them to the previous post and you willl see somehow the gel is evaporating and the hot melt glue seal isn't sufficient to prevent oxygen getting in.

 

I'm not sure what to do about it, I'm as surprised as you that it actually happened. The only silver lining is if I leave it upside down for long enough when we play I can leave it upright and the terrain actually moves throughout the game! Yeah, not much of a silver lining

GW - "thanks, but no thanks!"

Did you ever wonder in the early 90's what happens when you contact GW and ask for help with your GCSE Craft, Design and Technology project? Of course you did, we all did and here's what happens:

In tidying out the loft the other day I finally decided to chuck some of my old school work. Really why am I still hanging onto GCSE coursework that's 21 years old? Anyway, we had pretty much free reign to do what we wanted and I wanted to combine my project with my love of gaming so planned to do a gaming club, complete with individually themed games rooms.

There was a Dark Future room complete with a front end of a car smashed through the walls, a Space Hulk room with alien infestation on the walls made with hot melt glue and ping-pong balls in the scale model. Most portentous of all was the Fantasy Battle room, actually called Warhammer World and the walls were lined with polystyrene carved to look like a castle's battlements. Now I'm not saying they eventually stole my idea, I asked for their help in the early stages so nothing had actually been done but I'm thinking now the postcard may have been their way of ensuring I can't claim it was all my idea, but this is Warhammer World:

http://hexus.net/gaming/previews/pc/6251-exclusive-warhammer-mark-of-chaos-how-rts-game-shaping-up/

and we all know the truth now don't we ;)

Terrain is Everything - Tournament Terrain

One of the last suggestions I had for other people's Old Stuff on Old Stuff Day was synaps3 guide to Terrain at synaps3 I had though about doing a post about terrain and 'tournament terrain' but after reading his post I thought he'd pretty much said it all. However, I then entered into my first tournament and also read SandWyrms's review of the Indy Open and thought there may be a little bit to discuss.

My local friendly neighbourhood gaming club had the following tables set up [although I think one is missing] and for the most part I think the terrain is suitably diverse and sufficient. The first three tables are the actual tables I played on and as such I was quite happy. This one had plenty of terrain, not sufficient to hide a Monstrous Creature but I got plenty of saves off it so that wasn't too bad.

Equally I had some nice things to hide behind here and finally playing on one of the 'red planet' boards was a treat.

This Cityscape was deceptive in that the amount of cover anything in the middle a sitting duck but the variety by this stage was quite welcome and although I struggled to find a way around the board, especially with deep striking Trygons and Spores it was great fun to have so many buildings on display.

Not so sure how I would have got around this table, most of the terrain is hugging the edges but I suppose if you're fighting for objectives the board may end up playing very differently.

As a bog-standard tournament board I think this is probably a better set up. The terrain isn't all hugging the edges and the central bastion blocks enough line of sight to allow those with an assault foot list to actually cross the battlefield without being totally shredded, at least that's the impression I get from it.

As you can see without that central piece there's a killing zone in the centre of this board but the other terrain is sufficient enough to allow you to flank in cover. From my perspective that cover in the bottom right is wasted but I imagine a Devastator squad may find it useful to hang around there. Without any hills to worry about high ground isn't too necessary and although the building on the left would make a good vantage point you'd probably still have to move them first turn to get up to the roof edge. 

Oh dear!? The very though of this fills me with dread and I have to admit I'm glad I didn't play on it

However the club did take a picture of this table during a battle and perhaps the fact it is very short on terrain allows a certain type of army to benefit, where boards like the Cityscape reduce that effectiveness:

So what's my beef? None really, the tournament we held had a variety of terrain, some that was uniformly spaced, some that had adequate cover, some more or less so but ultimately there was diverse battlefields much like reality. How many historical battles have been won and lost thanks to mastery of the terrain and invariably that didn't amount to a large piece of LOS blocking in the middle and four or six pieces surrounding it. Of course if we go back to the Indy Open pictures you will see a lot tables with far less variety and imagination in the setup but there were 64 entrants so that terrain has to go a long way.

My big question is - why the importance of uniform terrain layout to create a 'balanced' playing field is a primary consideration? I think I'd much rather have variety and a challenge from using the available cover than rock up to the same pieces in the same positions table after table.

Old stuff day 2012

It's old stuff day 2012. Last year warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs. To choose one of your own blogposts that your most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you were to share blogposts from other bloggers which you thought deserved the same spotlight of attention before they were returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

So I showed a little love for one of my old posts but then again I link to loads of my old stuff anyway so maybe I'm guilty of doing this all the time. Anyway it's time to choose this years blogpost and like the Highlander there can be only one and this time lets show a little love (♥) to my most popular of old posts:

Standard Template Construct (STC) systems were advanced computers created during the Dark Age of Technology, which are said to have contained the sum total of human technological knowledge. An STC system was possessed by every group of human colonists before the Age of Strife, allowing them to build all of the equipment necessary for survival on an untamed colony planet. It enabled the colonists to build efficient shelters, generators and transports without any technical knowledge and using almost any locally available materials. The user simply asked how to build a house or a tractor and the computer supplied all the necessary plans.

My STC page has been accessed over 4,000 times and I've seen versions of my models recreated and remixed. This hobby we do costs money but with a bit of effort, some skill and a few bits and bobs we can all have some terrain that we can be proud of, it's all I wanted to do and I hope there is value to the community and that even if folk find no use for it themselves they pass the link on to their friends and share their results with me. I've still got STC's to come so this thread will hopefully never die, just be reanimated on a regular basis ;)

OK so what's floated my boat from other bloggers. I made this easy on myself and went back through all my 'starred' stories in Google Reader and this is what I found.

Recipe for Bronze by Brian @ A Gentleman's Ones

Brian does an awesome job here and if you root around he goes verdi-gris crazy

Sandwyrm's guide to painting black @ The Back 40k

It's not so much the guide as the awesome 'emo-guard' end result

Sandwyrm's Adepticon Siege of Terra Diorama @ The Back 40k

I've no idea why I starred this, I don't even remember doing so but the diorama is awesome and it's just a feat for the eyes which I suppose is a good enough reason.

Loler's guide to painting yellow and grey marines @ The Brush Brothers

This isn't just a guide to painting yellow and grey marines, there's all sorts of tips from battler damage to weathering powders, a tour de-force of painting techniques.

synaps3 guide to Terrain at synaps3

I was going to do a post about terrain and 'tournament terrain' but after reading this I think synaps3 pretty much said it all.

To all those I may have missed mayhap I will reference you throughout the year anyway, enjoy the old stuff, wake the dead!

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah a new STC is found!

Techno-archaeologist Avro Vulcan continues to catalogue the many man-made hills that dot the Ferron Proxima badlands. It has been months since he unearthed the Standard Template Construct (STC) systems for what has been classified as the Vulcan Plateau. In this time he has discovered numerous other man-made hills buried under the distinctive steep sided flat topped hills that can be found all over Ferron Proxima. Excavating these sites has revealed one man-made hill in particular that has shown many sub-categories of construction. Vulcan has designated this hill the 'Mercury Plateau'.

The purpose of some of these structures are still a mystery but it has been noted that some of them have a slightly different composition of rockcrete than standard Ferron Proxima fare. Whether the richer iron content is due to the value or protection of the many storage facilities built into these mounds is unknown, Vulcan has theories but so far has kept them closely guarded. What is known is that these iron-rich mounds are particularly well suited to accept the STC for Plasma Generators., was this their primary function? Indeed even the current generator model  has adapted well to the Mercury Plateau and it is believed very little retro-fitting was required to the connection manifold.

However, the details of this coupling was another secret kept by Vulcan that has attracted a great deal of interest from data-hackers who have sort to gain control of this valuable information to share outside Adeptus Mechanicus control. Once private enterprise can access this information they will utilise it to gain control of all Mercury Plateaus suitable for Plasma Generators, thus reducing their need to pay tithes to the Ad-Mech administration.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbd2NTd3JpUGpSbm1ldTRhUzFwd2NOdw/edit?resourcekey=0-Uo2SSY82guWZ3FrOehSQ7g

This STC will be uploaded to the full Ferron Proxima STC library shortly. You can access the database here:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.com/2011/02/terrain-is-everything-standard-template.html

Happy Birthday to me, this is my gift to you!

Terrain is everything - Dawn of War Plasma Generator part 9.

Right, so here's where I'm currently at! The black chevrons are in place and a bit of orange rust effect has been applied in certain areas.

I've also stenciled on some big numbers, because big numbers always look cool - FACT!

Some more shots of the rusty bits and weathering.

And the numbers, I think the silver bits are too bright so i need to weather them a bit more, maybe some more 'soot' using the Early Learning centre poster paint and perhaps more rust.

Here's the view of th top joint, I know it's not pretty, perhaps when it's joined together I can add another layer of rust/weathering to try and unify the various parts.

The big decision was whether to paint over the balck chevons with Mechrite Red and try to recapture that earlier stage I feel the white bits made worse, and then I thought I'd put it into better context on Ferron Proxima and I thinkthe black and white is OK. So what do you all think?

At this stage I want to know if I should just glue it together and apply any final effects so it's complete, then I can move on to other outstanding items on my 'to do list'.

So I'm open to suggestions, let me know what you think, is it time to finish this baby and move on, or keep working at it and risk screwing it up? You tell me...