I have been quiet here in the blog for a while, but not so at the work bench. I have been busy clipping, cleaning and gluing elements of the new Sector Mechanicus terrain for Shadow War and finally reached a point where I was ready to start putting new tiles together for my gaming table. In order to base and theme my table top terrain, I prefer to put everything on a tile, 12"x12" squares of 1/4" birch plywood in this case. I have revealed portions of my Sector Imperialis terrain already, and the new Mechanicus stuff is being assembled to match so everything fits interchangeably on the table top for games.
I love the Shadow War Sector Mehcanicus terrain! My only complaint is that I could use TONS more of it. :) I had a modeler's form of writer's block where I became paralyzed by the need to sort out the PERFECT arrangement of terrain for the Mechanicum bits. Finally, I reached a point this week where I threw down the gauntlet and just got stuck in making cool stuff.
I decided to put together four new tiles, to start. Three with buildings and one using the crates and crane bits as a heavily themed industrial piece. For the buildings, I wanted to have some height, lots of cover and interest for Shadow War games. In the end I compromised on height with only two of the tiles having three levels, and the other just two levels. The shot above is one possible arrangement. I assembled two independent walkway pieces that can be used to join the three builds as various pre-arranged mid-tile points. I have held off attaching all the walls and hanging down bits of cables and cranes. I want to be sure I'm settled on the buildings before finalizing their decoration.
The tile above is an experiment, so nothing is glued down yet. This is random cover with some elevation options provided by climbing the crates onto the containers. Good objective possibilities on this tile as well, I thought! Not sure how it will come out in the end as I'm still bouncing around ideas. I have three remaining crates to consider and lots more promethium pipes and barrels...
I'm not one to play much with terrain models as part of my army selection, despite the available rules. I prefer these pieces as themed terrain in my collection. To that end, I began fleshing out a piece using the Void Shield generator. This is another tile that could be used for objectives, or just plain fun as a themed piece in the cityscape. As seen above, I'm exploring a possible use for the Secret Weapons Miniatures power generator pieces I've had forever. They have been waiting for that "perfect" project. Hah!
Here are some shots of everything I have in my latest terrain set for the table top in one possible configuration. I have been very much looking forward to a table with a mix of Manufatorum/Mechanicus elements at the edge of, or even mixed in with more standard administratum buildings or ecclesiastic buildings.
A bit of a hodge-podge at this point, but starting to come together! With everything based and primed black, things will look for uniform. The bare areas will be treated to an appropriate amount of ruble and debris, while still leaving them open for model placement. I am hoping for some fun Shadow War games using a portion of the terrain set up more densely in a 4'x4' area on the table.
Then, of course, there will be some epic painting to get this looking more suitable for games. The standard I wish to reach for all the tiles can be seen in the photo above with the small piece in the upper right. I will be relying heavily on the airbrush and various layers of dry brushing!
I hope you have enjoyed this WIP preview of my progress. This table of terrain has been a vision that has taken me years to realize. I am so thankful that GW has produced the kits they have, which so coincidentally matched what I wanted to do! The advent of the new 40K rules has been the perfect opportunity to step back from other 40K projects and continue to ready a stunning table for any games I manage to get in with the new rules.
Stay tuned for more progress as I finalize the tiles and get everything primed up for some paint! I like what I'm seeing form the early releases of upcoming rules, and the Shadow War rules look very fun as well.
Cheers and Happy Gaming!
Way cool, one of my long term projects is building up a table using TableScapes and the new sets will be awesome on there. With your 1x1 tiles, do you think that you could build up tall complexes and have the walk ways attachable at different points? Or would it need more room?
ReplyDeleteThe tiles are currently designed to connect only at level 2 (the first story above ground level). In general terms, though, there is nothing to prevent taller multi-level designs with more walkways connected at higher levels. I'm compromising here with dual use between 40k and Shadow War. My existing 40K buildings have three levels with one or two going as high as four. So I wasn't planning for a lot of movement at higher levels. This could change if I find myself with more Sector Mechanicus terrain to work with. :) I decided that with the parts I had on hand I wanted more tiles rather than higher ones.
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