Mining Colony - 4' X 8' WH40K board

[Orcdom]

Myself and a friend of mine "Nightbringer115" this weekend since the weather has started to warm up, getting to do the Garage Project.
we finally get to work on our Game table.

Its based sorta like a badlands rocky type of world, it has a 4 bridges, stone quarry mining pit, a small mine shaft, a crystal field, mining yard, mining town, and water and wastewater treatment facilities.

stuff will be shipped out via roads or waterway located at the lake edge in the corner of the board

we are going to probly add a couple bunkers as well.

we have been taking pics from start to current and plan to till finish and i think we are between 25 -33% done in 1 weekend alone.

here are some pics:

Pink foam is a mix of 1" and 3/4" mostly 1"
Blue Foam is all 2"

that sheet of wood is something i brought home that had an asesome rock looking finish on it but, didnt have a way of getting masonite to his house this weekend so we used that. oh and those are 2"X3" battons, they were a dime cheaper each and straighter than 2"x2" lumber


there is a rough sketch that you probly cant see with a paint marker of our river"s".

more posting to follow
Steve

[Orcdom]

Here are some pics of rough assembly:





ask andy questions if interested.
Steve

[Orcdom]

the bridge posted is called a high water bridge, they can be found out in the country, alot of times leading to well locations here in WV. when the water is up it just flows over the bridge, but since all the bridge is made of is culvurt (sp?) pipe, stone, junk chunks of concrete and concrete rough finished over it cant damage the bridge and it seemed a fitting addition, a area to drive through the river was originally intended.

the stone quarry, the sides have been drilled and blasted, the craters will be partially filled with gravel then water effects put in here.
the wall is a flood wall (not finished yet) and is higher than the other bank to keep the quarry dry.
i think we forgot about a pump station that is supposed to go in there top drain the quarry, but it may not make the final cut for lack of room

here is where the 2 rivers combine, the water flows from the lake to the high water bridge. the rivers will be wide enough for rhino sized vehicles to fit, and maybe a russ, the main part of the river will fit a LR but not the 2 smaller setions and this is on purpose, also i doubt a DE Raider will fit in the smaller setions either due to the top fins.

more pics yet
Steve

[Orcdom]

Lake edge, there will be a dock, and so far we have 2-3 ways we are going to load and unload barges here. pending on what we can find this week to use.


Bridges added, but not finished yet. these are removeable so you can blow them up.

walk bridge in the back, on the empty end there wil be a gate house.

a few more pics left.
Steve

[Puffin Magician]

Well you sure are using a lot of sheetfoam [why not build up terrain with cardboard or wood, then use foam on the edges?] and working late into the night.

I like the low water bridge; it adds some low-tech realism and saves considerable time that would otherwise be spent designing and building a normal deck/truss bridge.

Your water pump can be located more in the river than on the land to save space, simple hoses strewn about the quarry convey the idea and get some little details onto the board. The stone quarry makes me want to play Marble Madness and the board itself reminds me of cotton candy.

The barge loading section sounds like a great idea, and the removeable bridges are certainly clever.

Looking forward to updates!

[Orcdom]

another view




thats the last of the pictures for this weekend.
any comments and questions would be appreciated.

Steve

[Orcdom]

Well you sure are using a lot of sheetfoam [why not build up terrain with cardboard or wood, then use foam on the edges?] and working late into the night.

we worked late sat night and about 6 hrs on it today. about 9 - 10hrs total probly
and the foam was pretty cheap, the blue was free, i am a plumber and i can usually get the 2" stuff off the masons or the roofers. and the 1", we recently had some high winds so i went to a place wherer they stored thier foam outside and asked hom much for screwed up sheets, i bought 5 sheets for 50% off, 6.00 each.
so i have about $30.00 in about 9" of 4x8 foam

and the foam keeps it light, the work so far the board is at least close to if not over 60 lbs, that board i didnt want to use is extremely heavy.

I like the low water bridge; it adds some low-tech realism and saves considerable time that would otherwise be spent designing and building a normal deck/truss bridge.

we have 3 other steel and concrete bridges going in as well.

Your water pump can be located more in the river than on the land to save space, simple hoses strewn about the quarry convey the idea and get some little details onto the board.

i think i am going to carve a square pit out to get a pump line in and some pipe put in, thats if we dont forget.

and this will probly all be a brownish color for the land so it wont be cotten candy after 2 more weekends, i wont get to work on it as much next weekend, plus we have to pour some plaster block, rock, and wall molds before we do much of the buildings.

Steve

[orangesm]

Very cool so far. I hope to see the progress.

[starlight]

Sweeeeeetneess.

<saves pics for future reference>

[HPD_Andy]

You guys are churning that thing out. Looks good so far, like the idea of the culvert bridge I might have to borrow that. Wish I could hang out and help, I love building tables and scenery.

[precinctomega]

We are seeing some really excellent custom gaming boards here at the moment. Keep up the good work!

R.

[EmperorsChamp01]

Really nice idea. Besure to drink alot of Coffee for the Caffinne and for the cans.

[icebergman]

Awesome job man!! Between you and Anvil I'm getting some wicked ideas for when I finally get around to making a board. As for cans BLAH! He is a plumber he can get pvc for pipes and such, one idea I can think of Steve, is some of the pvc quick connects for fixing broken lines. Ive seen a couple of different designs of those and both would look cool for towers on your pump station.

[Orcdom]

the reason the foam shaped out so fast, and you "CANNOT" do it indoors is i took a 4" grinder and a wire wheel too it. i had almost 1" of foam fuzz all over my arms not to mention other places. then my buddy took a sander and smoothed it out.
i have a electric foam cutter, but you can only use it in so many places, i was supposed to borrow a better type www.hotwirefoamfactory.com my local store has one but it was out on loan, so we did without. edit: we did get to use it some.

i have some cans and yes there is going to be plenty of pipe on it, thats the reason i wanted the water and waste water treatment facilities, and more terrain is always better.

the compression "quick connect" fittings are too big of scale for any size pipe to be used in terrain.
better to use CPVC pipe and copper fittings, copper fittings are thin walled but cost more than CPVC and CPVC is the same outside diameter than copper and cheaper than the pipe.

Steve

[icebergman]

Do you have any problems with melting with a grinder? I have a grinder also but have never even thought of using it to shape foam with. Also what type of wheel? Flat or the cone one?

[Orcdom]

nope, not at all, i used a Dewalt 4 1/2" grinder with a Stainless Flat wire wheel (twisted wire), have used an elcheapo china made grinder i had lying around the house before and also a Metabo grinder i have, all same results.

it works great.

the cone style should work as well, but would be used different.

also if you could mount te grinder in a vise, it should be a great way to shape hills and so on. just remember it makes an extreme mess.

Steve

[icebergman]

Yeah I imagine. I've run foamboard through my tablesaw, even with a dust collector there's still a lot of floaties all over.

[last_chancer]

Sweeeeeetneess.

<saves pics for future reference>

Same for me. Thanks for alternating blue/pink foam, makes it
easier to comprehend the terrian shape. EXCELLENT JOB!!!

Keep us posted,

[Orcdom]

that was an afterthought. about when the 2nd or 3rd layer was on and sorta kept up with it in most places, i figured it would sho elevations better and give more of a real idea on how it big it is.

Steve

[Getz]

This looks really cool - I'll be watching the thread with great interest...