49. Fire in the Hole! 40k Urban Terrain - Gun Emplacement part 1.

Whilst designing  terrain I've been thinking of generic terrain types (buildings and craters and such), and themed terrain.
The generic one takes care of itself(ish).
The themed on the other hand, requires a bit more forethought.

The one question I've been focusing on is; 'What armies are going to fight here?'
It is an Imperial World. Couple that with the armies I collect/intend to collect, and you have a starting point.

So far we have the Space Marines Land Speeder. I also have some Sisters themed terrain in the works.
In terms of 'generic theme,' these both don't necessarily fit.
These are both situational; Space marines may, or may not be present.

So what will?

Imperial focres of some variety no doubt. More than likely the planetary defence force.
For all intents and purposes the Imperial Guard.
So I tried to make something bassed around the material they would employ, without being to flash.

I decided to start with a fortified gun emplacement.
First step was to Create the base.
This was just some cork tile stapled to some hardboard and cut to shape using a jewellers saw.



Then it was time to play around with some fortifications.

I didn't want to buy another Aegis defence line, also I didn't want anything drastically detailed like the modifications I'd made to mine.
I wanted something that looked like it could be mass produced quickly, and put up in a hurry.
Something prefabricated and modular (that word again!).



Some wall pieces from the cities of death sprue and some high density foam/ Styrofoam/ insulation foam.
That'll do!


Next I wanted something to add a bit of variety and bite.
I thought I'd take something that time forgot out of my bitz box.



I wasn't too happy with these as they were.
They obviously are not made to stand alone, and together they look...well...



Odd?
A bit too uniform, but at the same time, not symmetrical enough (they sort of 'bend' in the middle).
Good old third edition terrain ¬_¬.

A quick google search gave me this...



So, I set to work modifying mine to better reflect reality.











As the pictures show, I just cut off the offending bits, drilled a hole in the middle, stuck a kebab skewer through and cut it to size.
I think it looks much better.
I could have attached a girder instead, but this was simpler,cheaper and just as effective.


Here's a mock up of the wall sections and the tank traps, with the gun I'm using.



The next step was to attach the fortifications to the board and add some basic details to the base.



+ bonus action shot.



I just used a knife and a screw driver to dig out some small blast craters.
A fortification in a war zone is bound to attract fire.
The green rings around the ridge are just green stuff to represent the displaced earth.
When I base it later these will be left open so I can augment them with filler and other materials to make them more pronounced.
Can't have a completely flat board now can we? :P

That is all I managed on that day.

I picked up the project again a day later and set about pepping the base with some more details so it was ready for texturing later on.



And a close up.




This is the same as the Land Speeder in terms of materials used;
Filler, bits of small and large slate.

I had to put filler on the walls to stop them from melting when I undercoat it (if I use spray...I'm undecided).
It needs sanding down to even it out, and then I can put the first layer of sand on the base.I also want to flesh out the entrenched gun. I don't think it looks Imperial enough.
Needs some tech gubbins and iconography.

Anyways.

As usual, all feedback welcome.
Hit me up here, on the B&C of @DarKHaZZl3 on twitter.

Thank you for continuing to read!

Peace!

-DH-

47. Get Out, Get Out Now! 40k Urban Terrain - Crashed Land Speeder part 1.

Never have I seen such a wretched hive of scum and villainy...

Oh wait, it's the UnderHive. Of course I have!

Welcome back!
Guess what? I finally managed to get my phone working again.
You know what that means?! ACTUAL UPDATES!

Praise the Omnissiah I guess?

Speaking of Omnissiah...



Got my hands of this bad boy.
I've got to say, overall I'm impressed.
I'm not a fan of big models in games, but I love these guys.
They seem a bit under costed, but time will tell I guess.

My one gripe with the book is that it cost £25. The rules only take up 7 sides of A4 of the 60 something in the book.
Yes it is pretty. but it simply isn't worth the price tag. DO yourself a favour, and buy the eBook version. It is £5 cheaper.


Anyway, moving on.
I promised some actual models and such, so I shall deliver.

As I said before, I'm currently working on several projects (while I wait for my appetite for painting to return).
At the forefront of these are my terrain projects.
There is no point making a board if you have nothing to put on it right?

Considering I have a few projects, with pictures at several stages, I will be posting them individually, over the course of a few days.

So I present to you the (several) stages of one of my terrain wip's; The downed land speeder.
A few (well, more like eight I guess) months back I was given a fair amount of models by a friend whom no longer wished to play.
Some of this stuff was salvageable, although not a great deal; they were from a long time ago, a time when patience was the anti-christ.

One such object was a Land Speeder Typhoon.



So I took it apart. I put the missile bits to one side (Most of these were missing), and had at it!









The general idea is that the Marines took a major hit to one of the rear engines (I have yet to sort the engine block out), and were forced to disembark before crash landing. Will they have survived? Who knows?!





Positioning. Done.

I kind of wanted a little bit of a 'crashed and skidded along the floor' look about the piece.

So after some tearing chunks out and green stuffing I had this;





The main skid track belongs to the Land Speeder, the second its left wing.
They'll be suitably damaged accordingly. I need to get some gun parts from the depths of my Bitz box and/or ebay.

In the meantime (otherwise known as Today), I wanted to press on with what I could do; Adding debris.
While I liked the current pose, that green stuff mound just irked me.

So I soon saw to that!



The debris is made up of a mix of materials.
The White stuff on the floor is my old friend polyfiller. It gives a bit more variety to the ground and makes it less perfectly flat.
The big white chunks are a plaster cast of cities of death floor, tiles smashed up and placed around the crash site; I'll be posting more about plaster casting in another post... so stay tuned for that one.
The rock/stone/slate pieces are a mix of large gardening slate and the smaller slate bits from the GW urban basing kit.

There is plenty more left to be done;
More rocks, bitz, buildings and other generic debris,
I need to sculpt the seats back in,
I need to suitably damage the engine block and custom build the inside,
and once all that is done it needs to be based in line with my board.

So there you have it. A real update, and the first of many.
Hopefully I can finish 5 terrain pieces by this weekend (unpainted, obviously).


Any feedback welcome!
Also, suggestions on other urban terrain ideas.

Thanks for reading.

-DH-

37. Random Update part 7. DIORAMAAAAA (which will now have its own post sequence).

I know I said it would get its own title... but there is a lot of work to do on this, so I probably should...

While I was in Grey mode I did some more paintwork on my diorama.





Thats all the base work done really. Need to detail it and acquire/build/paint the models.
Quite fond of it already, especially knowing whats going to be happening on it!.

Anyone out there who reads this got some objective markers/dioramas they'd like to share?
I'd love to see them!

Post them in the comments, or hit me up on Twitter (See the 'various areas of DH on the left sidebar).

Peace.
-DH-

35. This seems almost identical to my last post. Random Update part 6. Diorama (No it will not get its own series).

Yup, you guessed it. Black. Grey. Copy. Paste. Done.






Can you tell I had a lot of the same paint lying about

-DH-

33. Random Update part 5. Dirodrama.

I started work on a diorama that I've had planned for a long time.
It will incorporate an objective marker I've also had planned for some time.



That is literally all I'm saying about it.

Peace
-DH-