SW1's - Scenery & Necromunda Blog

[SW1]

I considered resurrecting the old scenery blogs but decided instead a fresh start is in order.

 

I'm wanting something I can use for Zone Mortalis games with my SW Legion force, something I can play some retro Necromunda (possibly even the rebooted version if I get the rules) and when used less densely scatter terrain for normal games.

 

I see the Necromunda type game as being very vertical as well a horizontal play wise. Normal gaming it's nice to have LOS blocking stuff that you can also move about on. ZM it's all about same level play with snaking corridors and room clearance.

 

So I need whatever I come up with to be modular and also stackable. I'm also limited in storage space, so being able to break stuff down would be helpful.

 

I did have a vast quantity of Cities of Death scenery that was going to be painted up in the last blog but it ended being acquired by my brother. Though muggins here still ends up having to paint it eventually (just not now).

 

With this in mind the first challenge is getting stuff to build with and there's no finer building material for Necromunda scenery than the mighty Pringles tube. So I need to eat my way through a fair few tubes and I'm sure I'll get some help with that. :devil:

 

I've already managed to raid the recycling for a selection of tins (both pop and food tins), quite a bit of card stock (aka cerial boxes) and managed to grab a few bits from local random shops.

 

From a local cheap shop several sets of straws with different connectors (straight, t-section and 90deg bends) which means not having to use bendy straws!!!

 

A haberdashery supplied sow in snap fasteners that will make handles for doors and pipe valves.

 

I still need to rummage through the boxes of bits as there should be a fair few of the Necromunda bulkheads knocking around and most if not all the original cardboard scenery pieces that went with them. There's probably a load of bits from the CoD stuff I could use to add extra detail to what I make as well.

[Brother Dallo]

I'll be watching this with interest. If you haven't already, I'd suggest checking out some of the terrain plogs over at Yak Tribe Gaming. They have some pretty impressive stuff there.

 

Dallo

[SW1]

Ah ... Not been over on yaktribe.org for a while.

 

There's loads of really good scenery builds if anyone needs some inspiration to be found on there.

 

I've found over 40 of the old plastic bulkheads and a load of old GWS cardboard scenery. There's also much more of the CoD bits than I remembered having left over. Had a quick check height wise and the CoD stuff is roughly 5mm taller than the Necromunda scenery. Doesn't sound much but it will make a big difference once you get a few levels up. One idea I've come up with is that foamboard can come in 3mm and 5mm thicknes, so maybe making flooring sandwich between bulkheads rather than having plasicard or thick cardboard slot into the grooves?

 

Edit:

Lol ... I've also realised I have a fair few Pringles tubes already in the bits boxes as I used them to store different sized straws and other long thin bits and bobs.

[SW1]

My dear not so little brother decided to get the Goblin Village game for the LOTR setting. While trying to convince me that I really need to assemble and paint it for him I had a little look. I think that some very tall rocky pillars might work quite well with a muddy hive bottom and then some buildings with stonework bases.

 

It's funny how idea just pop up randomly.

[SW1]

Doh ... I forgot to actually measure the bulkheads and CoD wall pieces, rather than just comparing the difference in height.

 

Now I'm stuck in work trying to sketch stuff out and drawing a bit of a blank.

 

Think I'll just ponder scatter terrain and leave the other stuff till tomorrow.

[SW1]

So heading to work this time with random bits of plastic scenery with me. Should have a plan of action by the end of the day on what I want to do.

 

I'm thinking solid foundations to then place scenery ontop of. So almost having an open sewer type layer with big bridges spanning them. Then tall buildings with thinner gantry type bridges between them

[Brother Dallo]

I'm toying with something similar. Are you going to permanently model the sewers onto the board or have them modular?

 

Dallo

[SW1]

I'll be making foamboard boxes 80mm high and edging with a few of the CoD wall sections to add interest and maybe other bits. If I can make them sturdy and possibly a bit heavy to avoid movement then they'll be free standing, if not I'll have to fix them in place on a board.

[SW1]

Got hold of the new scenery to have a good look at today in the local GWS. Whipped out the old bulkheads and bits of CoD stuff and it's really not the same scale.

 

The walkways from the new stuff if bulked out with the little walls from the CoD will roughly match the bulkhead width.

 

I have ideas about what I can do with the bits I have. So just need to crack on with it now. ;)

[SW1]

Had a play around with some foamboard and some GWS bits last night.

I found some interesting thick card sheets which originally had games components in and think I'll use them to make the tops a bit more interesting. Underneath them will be a sheet of 5mm foamboard edged with masking tape (the card will seal the top edge and the walls underneath will keep the bottom edge sealed. The walls are also formed with 5mm sheet and I've found it fairly easy to recess a bulkhead into one wall.

I then slice the back details off CoD wall pieces and add them to different walls as well.

I've still got a wall to try something else on the test piece.

[SW1]

Just realised I didn't take a pic of the card I'll be placing on top, will have to dig them back out later today.

 

So I'm looking for some feedback:

 

Does the recessed bulkhead look ok?

 

Should I mix up the different types of detail on each piece or stick to the CoD stuff for this lower level solid scenery and use the bulkheads to make more open classic Necromunda style buildings that would either mix in or sit on top of the solid stuff?

 

If I do stick to the CoD stuff for the solid lower level then I'll need to add some ladders on some walls.

[Brother Dallo]

Looks good. In regards to the bulkhead, it looks like you've just propped a bulkhead against a building. If you plan on keeping it, I'd suggest cutting out a slot and inserting it into the wall, or bulking out the detail beside the bulkhead so it looks like it fits.

 

Dallo

[SW1]

Looks good. In regards to the bulkhead, it looks like you've just propped a bulkhead against a building. If you plan on keeping it, I'd suggest cutting out a slot and inserting it into the wall, or bulking out the detail beside the bulkhead so it looks like it fits.

 

Dallo

Lol ... I think you may not know how thick those bulkheads are. :D

 

It's recessed 5mm into the board so the face is flush with the wall. I think I'd need to detail the wall more to make the bulkheads work

[Brother Dallo]

Touche.   In that case, yeah, add more detailing to the buildings. Alternatively you could make the buildings smaller and use the bulkhead as an entire wall piece?

 

Dallo

[SW1]

I ended up in B&Q today and now find my bank balance £50 lighter. I did get 2 daylight bulbs to help shed some light on my project, so they added to the issue.

 

The hoard of bits has now got to the point where the wife's noticed as well. Lol ... It's sort of hard to sneak in the house with two 2.5 meter pipes the lads had decided were suitable for whacking eachother with. I was a little worried as the pipe seemed to get a bit bent but it sprang back straight afterward.

 

I also got some funny looks at the till buying metal T's, 90* bends and joints but getting PVC pipe. A wonderfully helpful bloke decided to try and get me to change my mind. Then seemed suprised when I pointed out what I was going to use it for. He went back in the office grumbling about those gamer types and the manager popped out. Lovely chap pointed to a pile of returned Kappa insulation foam damaged but "suitable for hills". ;)

 

Shame I didn't have any way of transporting it or storing it or I would have snapped his hand off. :p

 

I've also been raiding the local discount store for more drinking straw connectors. So I'll have 15mm piping and 5mm piping with proper connections. The challenge will be using them in a way that makes the piping look plausible.

 

I'm also trying to work out how to add more detail to the walls. I either need to just slap a texture on or more details. And also decide on the basing material. I might just go for a small square lip around the edges to show a reinforced foundation?

[SW1]

The bulkhead was doing my head in as it didn't really sit right. So I've ended up ripping it out. Got some cleanup work to do but it's going to be replaced with a roller shutter type door. Closed of course as it's meant to be a bit of scenery not a diorama. ;)

 

In my head I'll slap a bit of corrugated card with the corrugations running horizontal do some form of trim around the edge of the door to cover the foam edge and have the top curve into the top of the building. :devil:

 

Need to upload some pics but I had a play around with my purchased pipe bits, some Pringles tubes and the thick card left over from a boxed game after the playing tiles were popped out. :)

 

I think I will be making some form of refinery quite soon as the pieces blutac'd together well. :tu:

[SW1]

Really encouraging to see some new blogs starting with a scenery building theme on the B&C!!!

 

My creative juices are now flowing and I've pulled out some of my old scenery test pieces. Lets see if I can avoid a few of the mistakes I made in previous attempts at building scenery!

 

The original plan was to have tall, dense scenery on a small board. But having made some rough 1:10 scale sketches for the different layers I quickly realised that though it might look cool, there needs to be a level of utility to the designs. It's no good looking cool if you can't get your hand/arm in to move models around or look to see if there's line of sight.

 

It's something I was pondering about a lot in work yesterday and I've come up with a few thought on the matter ...

 

- So if you want a rat run with lots of layers, the first option is to go for it but make the centre of the board impassible. This avoids having parts of the board which you know exist but can't reach when assembled in certain ways.

- The polar opposite is to make the centre completely open. This works if your not making the surrounding scenery too high.

- I then thought about just reducing the amount of scenery. If it's less dense then you can reach more places. There are ways you can trick the eye into thinking the terrain is much more dense than it is.

- Making the layers higher. GWS new scenery does this by making the layers much higher but with thinner supporting legs. The scenery I'm building will be about 3.5" (80mm) a layer while GWS scenery is 5" a layer. So 10" high scenery from GWS will be two layers and my current plans would have 3 layers in the same space. I may end up having a squat solid looking lower foundation layer at 80mm high and then the other layers much higher.

- Another idea is to change the table shape. You don't have to play on a square table. You could have a very tall thin board that has a footprint of say a 1' by 4' but loads of layers making it quite tall. Having an express elevator or a mix of ramps/stars which give access to some layers but not all will give you a lot of variable gameplay.

- The last idea is to have a separate board for the very lower layer. Have access points pipe/vents/access hatches dotted around your base board and have those access a separate board with corresponding access ways. Maybe even have it that narrow that models on 32mm bases just can't squeeze in. So scouts actually have a use. :p

 

 

Enough of a ramble for me ...

 

I've managed to upload a few pics into my scenery folder of the pipe bits I've got and rough bluetac'd mock up of them with some Pringles cans. Being on a phone I'm not able to post the pics on here. Will do that when I get home from work tonight. They can be found here ...

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/gallery/album/11097-sw1s-scenery/?st=50

[SW1]

Well it looks like this build is going to get a plasticrack upgrade. Was in my local FLGS and there was a copy of SW:A for £65. Even if I just raid it for bits to kitbash I couldn't turn that down.

 

Hoping inject some life into this project.

[SW1]

Stopped off at the mighty pound shop this morning to grab a quick drink and spotted some fluted plant pots that might make some nice chunky supports for high level buildings/walkways. I'll need to go back and have a closer look hopefully before they sell out. There might also be possible ladders in the form of tree ties, though the material might be a bit too rubbery for paint and glue application.

 

The spindly legs on the GWS terrain sets are likely to find themselves made into supports for watchtowers or something similar. And the different sized huge drums and containers are likely to be mixed in with some other scratch built ones. The pipe fixings might just mesh with 15mm piping which I have 5m of waiting to chop up plus a load of different metal connectors bends and junctions.

 

All in all the new GWS kit is amazing. Though the price of the individual kits I think makes their use prohibitive if I was to not have located a boxed game.

[SW1]

So playing around with different bits to try and get some decently scaled ladders. I'm after quite long ones so possibly granny grating and match sticks or maybe snap ties and match sticks?

Now looking more closely at the tree ties ...

The ladder is one of the new ones from the GWS kit. Only concern is gluing and painting them. So some tests need to happen next. ;)

[SW1]

Looking at the kits I'm considering combining there's 3 different heights to work with. The old Necromunda bulkheads, the Cities of Death scenery and then the new SW:A stuff. I can easily build up separate buildings from the different kits but getting it to all work together is a bigger challenge. :)

 

The plan of action is to work towards a set of terrain that represents the lower sections of a Hive City aka The Sump.

 

So scenery that can be placed down and possibly linked together with a series of walkways. The baseboard painted up to look like thick muddy sludge. If I pull it off and keep stuff modular with minimal basing, I might also be able to use the buildings on a more traditional looking board as well.

 

I was looking for something to represent support pillars that will rise up out of the sludge and have decided to go with plant pots. Exactly how to make them not just look like upturned pots I've not quite worked out yet, but I'll get there eventually. ;)

[NTaW]

What's the height discrepancy between the three sets of terrain you're using?

[SW1]

What's the height discrepancy between the three sets of terrain you're using?

The new stuff is 126mm including the walkways, the CoD stuff is 80mm and the Necromunda stuff is 70mm.

[SW1]

So the challenge of combining different scaled bits ...

 

I'm leaning towards sticking to 80mm for the wall heights and ignoring the higher new stuff. Instead the new scenery will supply a range of pipes, storage containers and additional details to add onto other stuff I build.

 

Those tall legs that come in the kit will likely be used as supports for some standalone buildings/water towers/lookouts.

 

Edit: The other option is to add blocks under the legs to prop them up to 160mm and have them 2 levels high.

[NTaW]

I was going to suggest putting a pedestal underneath any buildings that don't quite line up but you're already there! :lol: