Saturday, July 17, 2010

Update, Sector 7G

In an effort to build some much needed hobby momentum, I've spent time over the last couple of days working on a few pieces of terrain for 40k. It's been almost a year since I did anything with my "Sector 7G" cities of death project so this seemed like a reasonable place to start up again. When I last left off with it, I had assembled seven buildings with another two almost complete. Eventually I will expand this urban industrial collection by an additional four or five buildings along with assorted space fillers, but for now I just want to finish a few of the ones that I put together last summer. It will be good to finally check-off even a small portion of this from my to-do list, plus I'll still be able to use the terrain blocks individually as they are done.

Here's a group shot of what I accomplished before setting them aside to work on something else... I believe it was Dark Angels. Nonetheless, I've begun detailing two of the buildings, the results of which can be seen in the above picture, but more clearly in the shot below, as evidenced by the scattering of sand and some Imperial Guard bits. I enjoy making little scenic additions to these types of pieces, which is the main reason why I chose to base all of them on the modular movement trays. Hence there are a couple of little vignettes that I'll point out once they're painted. Future construction efforts will involve making the aforementioned building sections, but with more emphasis on irregular footprints to help break up the monotony.

Those two structures seen above are the ones I've chosen to address first. The one on the left is the building that I first put together when I started this project. It's also the one that was first referred to as Sector 7G, prior to me deciding to put together a bunch more of them and call the whole group by that name, so this is kind of special piece for me. The one on the right, imaginatively named Pump Station, is the one that really got me motivated to start up again on this set of urban terrain. After painting, I'm going to fill the reservoir area with resin water effects (tinted, maybe?) and use the experience as practice for when I likewise fill the skull pits on my Realm of Battle Gameboard. It has only been about three months since I worked on the gameboard so it can still wait a bit.

The days have been predictably humid here and so I was not able to get these sprayed this afternoon liked I had hoped. Therefore I've planned a session of late night priming this evening. I'm still trying to get my painting situation sorted out, but until then I think messing around with Sector 7G will be a nice way of easing back into the swing of things. I haven't entirely settled on a color scheme for this set of terrain so I'd love to hear any suggestions.

13 comments:

  1. Superb job! I'm wondering - what are the buildings based on top of - they appear to be tiled squares?

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  2. I based all of them on the big flat pieces that come in the Warhammer Modular Movement Tray set. Most of these buildings sit on a single movement tray, but for the bigger ones I glued multiple sections together. When I get around to assembling more I plan on cutting into the movement trays to allow for a wider variety of building footprints.

    Thanks for taking a look, I appreciate it.

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  3. Excellent terrain. I really like the idea of using the Modular Movement Tray set to make the bases of your buildings. This is a fantastic idea. Consider this idea officially stolen. :-)

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  4. Very nice job indeed!!

    Using the sand that way looks great. That little touches make the pieces look very nice. Also, using the modular trays as bases for the structures is quite ingenious ;D

    Take a look at http://ordoarchitectum.blogspot.com/
    It's from a guy from here. He focuses more on scratchbuilding and doesn't update very often, but it could help you for motivation or to steal some ideas =P

    Keep up the good work!

    PS: I'll look forward to see your realm of battle gameboard!

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  5. I didn't even recognize them as the modular movement trays! What a great use for them! As Mags said - I'm definitely going to have to steal that one :)

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  6. These look great, you've inspired me to go back and think about rebasing some of my older building pieces.

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  7. Thanks, guys! I've been really happy with how the movement trays have worked out, especially as I am not a power-tools type of person and so cutting up MDF or hardboard to use as bases isn't an option for me. The 40k building kits are easy to attach to the movement tray since everything is plastic and you get a nice paving slab look without any extra effort.

    @Nesbet - That's some amazing terrain, thank you very much for the link. It really is inspiring and makes me think I need to be working more with plasticard and the other DIY type of materials. I'm constantly impressed by the quality of modeling we see in this hobby. Thanks again for pointing this out to me, I think that site will be a great resource for new ideas.

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  8. That kind of city terrain presents a whole different experience when playing 40K. I only had a chance to play on a board like that once and it was one of the better experiences I've had.

    Awesome!

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  9. Awesome job there.

    I am planning to get a number of terrain pieces from GW too and have seen some ppl on Youtube adding plasticard to make those buildings go a longer way.

    Also, the builder felt the GW to be too 'busy' hence the spacing of details.

    Still good work! Show more!

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  10. Excellent! While my current city board is modular, I want to make it even more so some day...

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  11. Thank you, everyone. It's been really encouraging to get such feedback on this project. The late-night priming I had planned ended up not happening once I realized just how late it had become, but meanwhile I've finished detailing one more piece and have started in on another. Thanks!

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  12. Hmmm, like that idea of the modular tray bases too! I have a few buildings that have been sitting just primed for over a year now, may swop their bases out for that.

    My first thought on seeing that 2nd photo was NECROMUNDA!

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