Forbidden City 40k (city fight project)

[kendoka]

(as previously posted at DakkaDakka)

Hi all,
I'm building a Hirst Arts/Castlemould city board for 40k and need some advice.

The city is supposed to be a religious centre and not destroyed in any way by war. The board is 1.20 meters square and will feature 8-10 houses (made of syntetic plaster).



On the picture above you can see the board so far. It will have a short road leading in, a "car" park (?) and stairs up into the centre.



I'm also considering having a narrow "sunken road" through the middle of the board - with stairs to important places.

[kendoka]

Here are some photos of the city as of today:

[kendoka]

Added a place for sinners (as suggested on Dakka)...

[kendoka]

Here's a pic with minis - so you can see the scale:


Do you think an airfield/landing bay would look out of place within the religious city???



Now I need more suggestions on how to make the city more 40k Gothic and playable (City Fight, Necromunda, 40k and Kill Team).

Please help!

Regards/
Magnus

[Astador]

Hmm, it looks good so far. I dunno how to make it more religious/gothic, ect. Perhaps a statue of the Emperor?

[The Machine GoD]

May I recomend you try not to make the streets square. It makes the game more fun and balanced.

[Epicenter]

It's a neat project, I think.

I would suggest:

1) Break up the line of sight in the city - twisting streets generally are more fun than broad, straight avenues in a city fight.

2) Ruined buildings?

3) Placement of what level buildings where. It's often a lot of fun to have a few good 'sniper' positions in a city with a commanding view of the board. However, that comes with the caveat that the sniper positions shouldn't be perfect - they have blind spots that allow a crafty opponent to take them down.

4) For Gothic, I think you would certainly want to get more vertical, more statues and monuments, fountains, gargoyles on the sides of the buildings, finer stonework. Gothic architecture is all about light, airy stonework - high ceilings, thin walls and the use of slim columns and flying butresses (and lots of them). I think in particular, the fat columns aren't really that appropo for Gothic - Gothic styling used narrow columns and more of them. Using fat columns is more of a Romanesque thing. (Historically, the Imperium under siege would probably gravitate more to Romanesque style but that's an entirely different arguement.)

[MIGHTYPanhead]

Do you think an airfield/landing bay would look out of place within the religious city???

nope, it would look really cool, blending the whole gothic feel with the tech-y feel

i say go for it

[immortal99]

Those buildings look great! You have a lot of money to be able to leave two valkyre flyers lying about. Are you using the both as wreckages?

[tensions]

cool stuff
keep them coming

[kendoka]

Thanks for the input.

>statue of the Emperor
Yep. That would be nice. Although I have no clue of what to use representing him...

>twisting streets
I have tried to make the streets so that they are offset to eachother - but I admit having an even more chaotic street layout (and non rectangular houses) would of course be better...

>sniper' positions
Yes. I have elevated points in the church - but I might just add a sniper-ish tower on the other side of the board.

>two valkyre flyers lying about. Are you using the both as wreckages?
They are just unfinished - and will not be permanent parts of the terrain (although they are supposed to be able to land in the landing area).

Keep the feedback coming.

/Magnus

[kendoka]

>Ruined buildings?
Nope. This will be an city fight board *without* ruins.

>more vertical, more statues and monuments, fountains,
>gargoyles on the sides of the buildings, finer stonework.
Yes. A lot f work ahead...

Pillars:


Shrines:

[kendoka]

Statues:




Gargoyles:



Need even more ideas.

/MJ

[t-tauri]

Fantastic work. I think it needs more height, especially for Necromunda games. Maybe more division of the buildings to create internal rooms.

The Heresy Hellhounds look a little out of place as Imperial decoration. It also looks a little too pristine and mediaeval for a 40k city. If you've seen the forgeworld ruined pieces then they've got viewscreens and control consoles set into the walls. I'd add at least a few bullet holes and scorch marks here and there even if you aren't going to go full blown ruins. Things like a landing pad for the sacred complex would make it look more SF, especially if you try something like the Anaphelion base pad with the raised area to create more levels. If you took the landing pad level up to the average roof height of the other buildings it'd be easier for a flyer to land as well as creating an area underneath the pad for real "underhive" atmosphere.

Those LotR statues look good. Look forward to seeing an update.

[Frecus]

I see this huge open quarter of the table. Idea:
Massive 4-storey building in there. Maybe with next storeys smaller that the previous, to make for some 'platforms'.

Frecus
The glade wanderer
Madwarrior

[kendoka]

Based on the feedback so far I have been thinking some more regarding the overall layout...
How about something like this???

[Gyulkus Chaos Saurus]

Instead of the statue of the emperor, How about a Giant space marine statue like in dawn of war. I'm sure that would be easy to get. THis is very nice keep up the good work.

[immortal99]

Any chance of a tutorial on how you made those buildings?

[kendoka]

>Any chance of a tutorial on how you made those buildings?
Basically it's just blocks made of synthetic plaster using Hirst Arts moulds (highly recommended).

To speed things up I also made my own larger wall sections (combining blocks and making a RTV silicone rubber mould).

You can see a section (pink) in the following pics:

[immortal99]

Which moulds did you use? Do you just fill them with plaster of paris?

http://members.tripod.com/Hirst_arts/molds.html