Nedius' 3D Space Hulk / Anphelion Base

[nedius]

Hi there,

A friend at my local GW asked me to start a project log here, so I figured I'd oblige. I'll start by saying this:

More pictures of this and other projects can be seen at my website: http://nedius.webs.com/spacehulk.htm.

Ok, so my board!

The aim of my project is to create a multi-system, modular terrain board that is firstly a Space Hulk board, but is also suitable for games of 40k. The board must be representative of the individual Space Hulk board tiles, but also be stand alone terrain pieces. The tiles should be varied, and if possible interactive (both physically and game-wise). It should also be easy to store (I don't have a huge amount of storage space at home!). Finally, it should be robust yet light, thus, ideally, entirely plastic.

I've been working on this for some time now. At the moment, my priority is to create the basic layout of Suicide Mission done. Once done, I'll decorate the scratch built walls and interiors, and then paint the board. Once this is done, I'll make roof sections for each section, allowing the board to become a sealed terrain set for games of 40k. The roof building will be mixed with building additional sections that will allow me to play other Space Hulk missions, and add greater variety to my 40k game layouts.

Anyway, I'll add detailed info later as I'm pressed for time, but here's a taste!

[Avian]

Please resize pictures so they are no more than 640 pixels wide and no longer mess up the layout of the forum. This would also make it easier to get an impression of the project.

[nedius]

I don't know how, and the warseer FAQ on posting has no info on how to do it...

[MIGHTYPanhead]

Hi there,

A friend at my local GW asked me to start a project log here, so I figured I'd oblige.

Very glad you did!

The aim of my project is to create a multi-system, modular terrain board that is firstly a Space Hulk board, but is also suitable for games of 40k....

Anyway, I'll add detailed info later as I'm pressed for time, but here's a taste!

I've been wondering of the feasability of this for a long time, so it's nice to see that it looks great!

Exactly what/how many sets have you used/expect to use to make this? I can see the ever-useful cities of death buildings, an inspired use of the bastions (craziness, looks amazing), and some of the platformer(?) chemical plant bits.. I just don't know how many!

Fantastic start though, keep it up!

[Wolf Scout Ewan]

Wow very impressed!

[Haarken]

Wow! More fantastic looking Space Hulk terrain, this looks like it is going to end up incredibly well detailed, keep up the great work.

Haarken

[Avian]

I don't know how, and the warseer FAQ on posting has no info on how to do it...

Well, you can do something as easy as opening them in Paint and under Image you choose the Resize / Skew (or whatever it's called in english) option. Then you simply choose the same percentage for the vertical and horizontal rezise (40% should be a good start).

[Explodingboy]

It looks really impressive so far. Will be following with interest.

[mark_logue]

Looks fantastic!

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

I love the laboratory with the Tyra bits !!

[nedius]

4th Sept 09

Thanks for the comments so far!

Resource list

MIGHTYpanhead asked what had gone into this set. Well, here's the list so far (or so far as I remember...):

• 3 x Imperial Sectors
• 1x Bastion
• 2 x shrine of the aquilla
• 1 x bio-toxin plant
• 1 x Maunfactorum box
• 1 x Sanctum Imperialis box
• several sheets of 3-4mm plasticard, and other sheets of varying thickness
• several textured plasticard sheets
• various styrene rods, tubes, and other shapes
• several warhammer regiment modular bases
• lots of stuff raided from my own bitz box, and some donations by friends!

I estimate that at the moment I've spent well over £300 on this set. However, I've been at this for a few months, so usually I've paid about £20-£50 a month on getting bits and putting it together (my armies have seen VERY little love over this time!). Still, at this cost it's cheaper and more versitile than the forgeworld base!

My original attempt was done using card and foamcore. Far cheaper, but much more labour intensive, less durable and looked, well, cardboard-ish. I couldn't compete with Modhail's project, so decided to take a different route. I'd seen resin casts, Hirstarts stuff etc, but nothing quite like this.


Making a tile section - part 1

I though some of you might me interested in the process I go through to make the tile sections. It's far from well thought out, and really quite simple. What I like about it is that it creates a tile that has an inside and outside, making it perfect for games of 40k as well as space hulk.

Step 1



I was making this tile section last night. I started by cutting a 7x7 square from a warhammer regimental base, getting four floor tiles, 3 wall tiles and several sprue bits with the raised cylinders still on. Each cylinder ws about an inch apart.

Step 2



I glued the sprue bits to the underside of the floor tile. This raises it up enough so that things can fit underneath it, to give the apperance of complex machinery hidden beneath the floor.

Step 3



I mark the centre lines on the base, so that lining up the tiles is easy. It helps make sure that the tiles will line up with each other. I messed this up on a couple of tiles, and it looks a bit odd. I may need to repair them at some time, ripping up the floor and re-gluing it.

Step 4



Now, as I'm rushing to get the basic layout done for tomorrow (I'm planning on taking the board to my local GW for release day), I've not added any decoration to the base here. This will be added later. Ideally, it would be added now as it's easiest to acces the floor when the walls are detached. However, for the sake of speed, I've gotten straight on with the walls. They are just three tiles glued together. However, before being stuck down, each end needs plaining down slightly, as the walls are slightly wider than the floors. This can be a real pain, both as to do it can often damage detail, but not doing so leaves gaps between the bases!



Step 5





Glue the walls in place, using the butresses for support. This creates both the inner and outer wall for the section, making it look as impressive from the outside as the inside, an important part of this project.


The nest bit is more complicated, as walls now need to be custom built. For the sake of speed, again I'll put the walls together first, then decorate. I'm compromising on build quality at the moment so that the board is at least lay-out-able. After this weekend, I can slow down and do things properly.

Anyway, I must go and finish my last 5 sections ready for tomorrow. I'll take pics of the building process, and of the board's first run-out at the release day!

[Wolf Scout Ewan]

Very interesting! Keep it coming!

[nedius]

5th Sept 09

Well, my board saw it's first full playtest today!






It was very well recieved at my local GW, and had a fair sized group of people gaming around it all day. Lots of people played through suicide mission, both as genestealers and marines. We found it a very good set. The new space hulk miniatures fit onto it very well. The only difficult tiles are those with the little trap door on them. The raised skull makes models standing on it lean over a bit. However, the tile is big enough to stand most of the miniatures off to the side of it.

Anyway, here's a couple of the day's highlights.












More pics can be seen in my Space Hulk Gallery.

[Boreas_NL]

Yes! This is why I hang around on this forum... It looks really great! The raised walkway, pipelines, everything! It has the right feel to it.

Great job, now let's see some paint

[nedius]

paint??? NOOOOO!!!!

Lol, of course, I'll get to painting it soon enough.

I'll complete a tile section, and then paint it. Might make a few more tiles whilst I'm at it, of course...

Unfortunatly, I'm not bad at modelling, but I am bad at painting! So don't expect anything to astonishing in that department!

[AlltoEasy]

that really is a thing of beauty sir, the scary thing is I have 3 imperial sectors all de sprued and waiting to be put together. This thread has given me some conflicted ideas my modular COD board might have to wait....

can't wait to see it all painted up.

Dan

[Belial's Apprentice]

This looks bloody awesome!! And what a great idea bout using the tiled sections out of the Cities of Death box sets!! It actually means that you can fit the models on the squares!! It looks awesome!! Wish I could afford to do something similar!! Had the same idea bout the wallet is a bit light to do that!! haha. and there is noooooo way Id make it look as good as that!! Wonderful work!!

[precinctomega]

Amazing (if expensive) stuff.

R.

[Daniel36]

Dude, this is just sick!!

Very expensive indeed.... But it does look insanely awesome!!!

[torn]

wow that is super fantastic! wish i could have a go on that board. how well do the sections fit together to make boards for use in other missions?