Underhive Terrain

[Brother_Brimstone]

My terrain building skills leave much to be desired. I'm going to confess that straight away, so we don't get the awkward moment when you have to tell me this terrain is rubbish, but feel I might take offense. To follow up on this, I've turned my hand to trying to make some underhive cyber-industrial scenery, made from old bits and pieces i've been putting aside for a while now. I realise that at the moment it still looks a bit cartoony (for example the door on the small garage structure), but i'm hoping that as they say, 'paint covers a multitude of sins', and i'm hoping that once I paint it up into dark, industrial colours it will look a lot less cartoony and a lot more how I want it to. I did most of this in one sitting last night and am still waiting for the pva glue to dry on a few of the pieces. A comment you will hear me say a lot is that i need to GS some rivets on most pieces, but i'm waiting for the pva to dry before I do so.


This is a water purifier structure. The wires are meant to be tubes which are used to pump the water from the top part into the lower part, where the purifying machinery would be. Either the ova will dry clear, in which case i'm happy, or it will dry still white, in which case i'll paint up into toxic looking colours and i'll still be happy, the latter will look more in need of purification! The motor part on the front is meant to be what you turn to cause the water to flow out of the nozzle at the bottom, which I would imagine at one time had a hose connected to it, leading to some sort of imperial structure. I imagined some gangers had ripped the hose off and now just used the purifyer as a source of water for themselves.


This is to be some form of power generating structure - i still need to add a second chimney to it. The cans are emant to be the structure in which the power is generated, with the top and bottom pieces obviously just to hold the structure in place.


This is just a raised structure, meant to be stacked with the others, or used as a stand-alone structure with a runway to another.


Another generic industrial-cyber raised structure.


Another raised platform, this one is meant to look as thugh part of the platform has fallen through, and since, they have tried to patch it up. However, this too has begun to fall through, and now it is no longer safe to cross.


Another generic raised platform - i imagined the wheel piece is used to move the little projected run way closer and further away. While at the moment it looks very much like a circuit board (which it is), im hoping paitn will be able to fix that.





A couple of permutations of the riased structures; I made them so they can be stacked. I also made runways that could be used to connect them.





This piece is my least favourite and looks very cartoony at the moment. I'm hoping once it has been painted, and i've added rivets, it will look better. The piece on top is meant to be a personal energy generator - the structure is meant to be a little shack-like garage structure, with a large door, which has perhaops since been taken by squatters for use as a home.

And now, everything together;



That's everything together as one Underhive structure. It's a bit rubbish, but i'm hoping with the right application of paint it might look passable. More than anything, I just realised i have absolutely no terrain, anyway, so anything is an improvement on nothing. In fact, i'm not really sure why i've posted it in here, as i'm rather embarassed by it.... Ah well, any comments/criticism appreciated.

[Gestalt]

I think it looks good. Ramshackle and messy, but appropriate for an underhive. A layer of Primer would help. Well done.

[Brother_Brimstone]

A layer of Primer would help.

I agree; I wanted to use rough coat, but I can't find it on the GW website any more. Does anyone know of any non-GW rough coat equivalents?

Thanks for the comment and compliment.

[Kaled]

Good man! I too have decided to spend my Sunday making sure I have a bit more terrain for our game next week.  I've just about painted my STC habitat and am remembering I really dislike making terrain - it feels like such a chore!  (Part of me is considering finding a painting service to spare me the effort of painting the rest...)  If you finish a couple of these pieces and I finish the bit I'm doing, then added to the old Necromunda terrain and the few other bits and pieces I have then we should have plenty for an interesting board.

A coat of paint or two, a couple of quick washes and a few details should make that lot look really good.  On the subject of details, thanks to PrecinctOmega I have a load of Imperial warning and propaganda posters - if you send me your e-mail address then I can forward them on to you.

[Alyster Wick]

I really dislike making terrain - it feels like such a chore!

100% agree with you.  I've found the best solution is a case (or two, or three) of beer, a good movie for atmosphere and as many friends as you can wrangle.  The downside of this method is the strong possibility that no terrain actually gets built.

Back on topic, the terrain looks great (I think).  It's messy, but I mean it's supposed to be underhive structures.  Personally I think that lots of slapdash terrain is better than having one really nice board.  Look forward to seeing how these turn out!

[MarcoSkoll]

I've found the best solution is a case (or two, or three) of beer, a good movie for atmosphere and as many friends as you can wrangle.  The downside of this method is the strong possibility that no terrain actually gets built.

If you try putting on "The Rock", you may find there's a high likelihood that you start playing a Kill Team game.

[RobSkib]

Part of me is considering finding a painting service to spare me the effort of painting the rest...

Ooh ooh! *points at self* *points at PO*

I've found that making scenery is always the fun part, and painting it is such an extraordinary effort that 90% of my scenery never even sees a basecoat. Of course, this always has the added advantage of being able to add impromptu battle damage with lighters, pliers and a craft knife when you're in the middle of a game!

I find to make things look less cartoony, as you say, is to add lots of supporting beams and girders to the outside of your buildings. I regularly use bits of upturned polystyrene and plastic containers as buildings and the like, all it takes is some strips of thick card (corrugated cardboard not so much, it has nasty sides that are hard to cover up) or some plasticard as buttresses and you're away.

Rivets add to the effect too, but don't go overboard with them, especially if they're quite chunky. I use WHFB spear shafts and slice them into little discs and glue those on, you can always be assured of consistent size then. You could though buy plastic rods in various widths if you wanted lots however...

[Kasthan]

I'd make some rubble piles. MDF or hard board base with polystyrene chunks, plastic rods, slate, piping made from straws or pens etc. will add loads of atmosphere. How about painting some pools of toxic chemicals (make a base, add some rubble round the edges [you could even put in a pipe for the chemicals to come out of] and paint, gloss varnish or water effects the gloop) and a deep dark crevasse won't go a miss. 

Personally I love making terrain (I've got a 6' by 6' 40K city fight board, each bit is on a tile of roughly 12" by 12") but hate painting it (so only 4' by 4' is painted). I want to make some Inq terrain but need to finish my board first. 

[Kaled]

Ooh ooh! *points at self* *points at PO*

I have asked PO for a quote, but part of me thinks I ought to just get on with it and make some terrain myself even if it is boring, but and time-consuming.  But on the other hand, if I can find someone else to do it then I can spend my time building some of my models that I really want to work on.  I suppose it'll depend on the cost and how much terrain I actually want doing...

[Brother_Brimstone]

A quick update. I've finished three pieces now (they aren't perfect, but I still have a fair bit to do; I'll go back and 'perfect' them if I get the time, but at the moment, my aim is to generate as much usuable terrain by saturday as I can.





I love the posters; they really add to the overall feel of the terrain, and make them seem a lot more like real structures rather than pieces of stuff i found in my house (i think partially because they give a sense of scale). Willie is there so yuo can see the relative size of the terrain; I think the scale is decent enough (although the doorway on the 'mini-fortress' structure is perhaps a bit small). Comments and criticism welcome.

[Kaled]

They look really good - especially given how quickly you've put them together.

Did you find some alternative to rough coat?  I could do with some myself...

[Brother_Brimstone]

No, near where I go to college there's a market stall that sells Warhammer things, including older stuff and second hand stuff - they had one can of roughcoat left, so I snapped it up. I ran out just as I finished spraying the last piece of terrain. After I saw how it worked I was annoyed that if I ever make terrain again I shan't be able to use it; it's a real time saver.

Sorry I can't help, but thanks for the comment.

[Kaled]

I've seen Plastikote sprays such as Fleckstone/Stonetouch in places like B&Q and Hobbicraft - has anyone tried it?  It gets a recommendation on a few sites as an alternative to rough cote...

[Gestalt]

Excellent! 

[Aidan]

Ooh, pretties! 

Actually, I'm really happy to see someone else taking the junkyard approach to terrain building - it's what I've been using for nearly ten years now, and while it has resulted in a huge amount crap that I'm never goin to use (but don't know that I'm never going to use), it does leave me with all sorts of interesting things to make structures and machinery out of.

Good job on getting painting done, that's the bit I always lag behind on, especially when I've been fool enough to use polystyrene. And I really like those posters. I should get myself some, or make them. I especially like the water purifier... though there's no earthly process I can imagine that will get something vaguely potable out of that muck!

-Aidan.