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Post by jhonpog on Apr 13, 2019 2:43:06 GMT
I wanted to start a thread about terrain for use in 54mm. I'm putting together some miniatures for Star Wars and am wondering what kind of terrain people use for sci fi battles.
It seems like there's a few options:
*Scratch build * Convert packaging etc * 3d print elements
but I'm curious to know if anyone has found anything off the shelf that works or any packaging they have found to be particularly useful.
I'm going to post pics as I make things cheers!
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Post by leswhite on Apr 13, 2019 16:45:51 GMT
I'm experimenting with PLAYMOBIL building parts and terrain pieces. Starting with a Police Station which comes with interesting shapes and baseplates. The walls just clip together and onto the base plates and it is practical to make up a kind of SPACE HULK space ship/station. Size wise the pieces are quite big but considering the size of similar buildings in the SW universe they don't look out of place, see attached pics. There are plenty of second hand bundles available on Ebay and they also do vehicles which could be adapted too. I will probably repaint the elements more realistically but still have the ability to reconfigure pieces to make something different for some games.
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Post by leswhite on Apr 13, 2019 17:07:07 GMT
For foliage and plants I'm using plastic items made for decoration and for fish tanks. I found these plastic hanging Topiary Balls in POUNDSTRETCHERS a UK outlet store, they are plastic spheres with individual branches plugged on around the outside, all of which are removable. If you split the sphere you get two nice large bushes, and if you stack them you get a more tree like structure. These come in various sizes and colours of green and PURPLE! Also find the PLAYMOBIL trees and plants useful.
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Post by leswhite on Apr 13, 2019 17:17:29 GMT
Here is a set up for an historical game , but it should work for SciFi too with the right figures. This shows PLAYMOBIL Building parts and Rock structures, plastic topiary balls (split), NEWRAY trees . I was just trying to work out how much I can fit on my tables, so not how I will actually keep the items as I'll probably paint them up more realistically. The laser cut wood base panels are 300mm square and will be textured. I was also experimenting with height ,as my tables are adjustable. Attachments:
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Post by jhonpog on Apr 13, 2019 21:31:01 GMT
nice work Les! Playmobil is great idea I have found myself looking at the baseboards of my kids playmobil and thinking 'hmmmm....' The cell block is nicely done and the purple shrubs are a must have I'll check out my local pet store cheers
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Post by leswhite on Apr 14, 2019 17:32:29 GMT
The PLAYMOBIL base plates are great for working out the internals of a spaceship or station, using the plain wall sections with some doorways you can have a group make there way through a complex and just add a room or other corridor as the come to that bit so you don't need to build up a complete complex. There are standard size base plates - small square, medium rectangle, large square and a corner triangle. These give the basic corridors and rooms and the unique shapes, like the police station base can be used as larger important areas. Due to the easy snap together plugs on the walls and bases you can easily build up a multi level board which makes for an interesting game ,like playing 3d chess If you check Ebay you will find lots a bundle listings with loads of spare parts that can be combined to create unique structures. Since most of the IMPERIAL complexes seem to be WHITE/BLACK/GREY colour schemes the unpainted PLAYMOBIL pieces will work fine and will work for playing a game with your son. When things get demolished you don't have to worry about paint chipping
The other good thing about the plain white wall sections is that buildings have that 'LOTHAL' or adobe look, here is a set up using the PLAYMOBIL Church with a flat roof added and a walled fortress using the plain wall sections and Western Fort gate section. Western building inside are just the outer shells as I am working out how to best adapt them. The large rock formation is from the Old PLAYMOBIL Gold Mine and the other rocks are from some other woodland sets, it shows how the pieces can be sued to create areas fro figures to gain height or have a place to hide/defend.
I have gapped two of the table to give me a gorge to cross with a wooden bridge, from a Toy Car race game. The plan is to have some rock formations on both sides inside the gorge and maybe a river at the bottom.
The figures shown are AIP Boxer Rebellion Americans and Japanese, just for scale. Attachments:
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Post by jhonpog on Apr 14, 2019 20:54:34 GMT
very nice! It could be like 3d star wars space hulk I like the fortress it instantly yells "imperial base"and like you say the colours are pretty much there already. Very interesting Les another cracker of a project from your workbench I'm going to dig out my terrain efforts and take some pics. It's all unfinished and just ideas at this stage.
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Post by leswhite on Apr 15, 2019 22:00:41 GMT
Have you tried card model buildings, there is a nice basic selection which would be suitable for SW here ; www.combatstorm.com/Check out the FREE downloads, you get a couple of buildings, storage containers, walls, sandbags and dumpsters. Just put them onto your computer and print them out at home or put them onto a USB and get you local print shop to do it. Since they are card models you can combine parts to create unique ones for your own layout or resize them bigger. Card models are actually good projects for kids, so your son might enjoy trying to pout a few together. Depending on how you print them you can paste the paper onto thick card or foam board for a more sturdy item. Using the REBELS Imperial Recruitment and Wanted Posters shown on the resource I gave you in the other thread makes these buildings fit into the SW Universe. If you like these then there are other FREE downloads available on many websites on the Internet. Plenty of SciFi stuff too in the paid for Downloads sites.
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Post by aducknamedjoe on Apr 15, 2019 22:28:58 GMT
Love that fortress as well! And the church makes me think my next cardboard building should be a little chapel with a bell tower for snipers... As for other sci-fi terrain, there's a lot of print and assemble terrain out there, most of it aimed at 28mm, but obviously you can scale it up when you print it for use with 54mm. The old GW card stock terrain, for instance, which has PDFs floating around online: yaktribe.games/community/vault/necromunda-card-terrain-scans-01-square-tower-part-1.916/
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Post by jhonpog on Apr 22, 2019 21:04:51 GMT
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Post by jhonpog on May 26, 2019 23:25:08 GMT
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Post by jhonpog on May 29, 2019 0:38:01 GMT
my first attempt at some scatter terrain: alien trees! sorry for the rubbish pics the trees scale pretty well with 54mm figures I was to make something tree like but not-earth like that can be used on my tabletop Attachments:
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Post by aducknamedjoe on May 30, 2019 21:36:20 GMT
Nice, those look like they could have come from real plants. What are they based on?
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Post by jhonpog on May 30, 2019 23:19:09 GMT
when we buy tomatoes they are still on the stalk and after looking at them for a while I thought they would work as some kind of alien tree. I just hot glued them together and gave a quick spray paint. Not sure I got the right colour scheme but it will do for now!
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Post by aducknamedjoe on May 31, 2019 21:12:09 GMT
Ah, we grow tomatoes and I thought they looked familiar!
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