The Empire Wasn't Built in a Day...

...and neither will this thing.

New project piece started. I've decided to try my hand at creating a fantasy based building. This is all influenced by how much fun I'm having digging into Mordheim. This piece is going to be a complete building, much unlike what most people come to associate with Mordheim. It's all in an effort to try out some things in the construction of the building and see how well I can emulate some of the concept work I've come to admire from Warhammer Online on the tabletop.

To start me off, I've used a piece of precut and beveled MDF I had laying about. It was originally going to be used for a tree/shack template. But I didn't feel like cutting and sanding down another piece, so it was hijacked.

I measured out some pink insulation foam (1" thick) to the dimensions I wanted and got to cutting them out. After dry-fitting them, I sanded the edges a bit to make them fit a slight better.



I then glued the pieces together using small pieces of wood pushed into the joining edges of the foam to help lock them more firmly in place. At this time I also glued everything to the base.

At them moment I'm just waiting for the glue to dry before I continue the construction.

I'm planning on the first section being 5" tall, followed by a smaller, yet wider, section on top of that in standard half timber design.

All the pink foam will be stone work. I'm still undecided on just HOW I'll go about working the stone. I could very well just press directely into the foam. Or I could go about it in much the same way that I had done my rock faces on my Autumn foothills table.

I'll also need to hit up the hobby shop in search of some plastic tubing and possibly get my hands on some plasticard sheets as well.

The following are my inspiration for this project:

Click me to see where the basic shape of this project came from.
Click me to see some detailing that will be incorporated.
Click me to be inspired to do something ridiculously large.
Click me to see roof detailing that will be incorporated.

I'm really excited to be doing something like this. While the playability may suffer for the piece being a complete structure, I'm really not interested in ruining detail for the sake of playability for this one. It's all about the detail and composition.

I'd love to hear peoples thoughts.

note: this is xposted from various other forums, I know you all have seen the concept pics! But I kept them in to show what look I'll be going for!

Good start. I'll be watching this...

grey_death wrote:

Click me to see where the basic shape of this project came from.

Hahah! When I saw your WIP, that is the exact building I thought of hahaha. Good work

Re: Rocks: If I was doing it, I'd carve the rocks into the surface.

ie: the bricks at the bottom of this pic:


Definitely eager to see how you do it =]

I think the only thing I'm worried about if I go with that method would be not having depth to the rocks and bricks. It's a lot harder to carve out the foam than it is to sculpt it out when it comes to variation in depth, size and spacing.

I have been thinking of using that method for a game board base though >.>

I hear ya.

I wouldn't say it's harder to carve than to sculpt, but you do have to make a much larger base, and then cut back to where you want it (depending how much depth you want.)

It all depends on what you're looking for.

Nice little project, keep us posted.

Don't worry about the xposting. I think we can all appreciate the awesomness of this concept art once again

looks good so far, I'll look forward to seeing it develop.
That's also a very nice table/terrain set you've got there. All built by you?

The Scavenger wrote:

looks good so far, I'll look forward to seeing it develop.
That's also a very nice table/terrain set you've got there. All built by you?

Indeed it is. Check out this Dakka thread for more on that ^_^. If you skip to the last few pages you can see the finished product.

That's a very nice piece of work on the table; i.e., realistic & playable. The Autumn coloration is quite striking. AND it would work quite well with the Empire in Flames or Border Town Burning. Judging by the high standard of the board, your Mordheim table should be spectacular. How big is it BTW, the Dakka table that is [I wasn't trying to get personal]?

You may be working your way up to the TOM & CIANTY AWARD OF EXCELLENCE, well done, & stuff like that!

The board is only 2'x4'. So any games played on it would be fast and brutal. Though, that wouldn't be much of a change from games I've played on a 3x4 surface so far!

looks good man really want to see it finished!

Well, this project was kind of put in a jam...I tried doing the spackle sculpting for rocks, but for some reason I was getting extremely frustrated with it as I started to have at it. Well I ended up stripping the spackle off and in the process really tearing up the foam in some spots. I'm sort of at a loss right now...I know I can fix it with some shaving and sculpting into the foam, but the will to do so is lacking right now. I think I might go pick up a new foam carver I saw at the hobby lobby the other day. It's a long 'wand' like cutter that I think would work out awesome for sculpting and shaping something like this...it's 20 bucks, but if I can get serious use out of it, it'll make it's money back in saved time. I think I'll go snag that thing today.

Ok, well I picked up the new foam cutter. Unfortunately it's just too thick to do the level of detail that I'm trying for with this project. It's not useless, just not useful for what I'm doing right now. I can still use it for variations in depth of the stone work though.

I am just using the method I've used before with my stone walls, cutting into the foam with a hobby knife at angles to get a stacked stones look. Only this is way more detailed than that ^_-.

Anyways, here's where we're at right now:

I like it a lot. I really like how you have the holes where rocks fell out. What kind of foam cutter did you use?

Ashton wrote:

I like it a lot. I really like how you have the holes where rocks fell out. What kind of foam cutter did you use?

For the stone work I just used a hobby knife

Looks good to me. But I guess it's hard to tell from a picture whether the holes are too big. Again, it does look good. And as Ashton said, the huge hole with the missing bricks looks especially great!

I agree with cianty [great minds and all that], it looks very good. If you have really deep gaps you can't live with, get some Foam Putty [Woodland Scenics] & do a fill-in. Running some watered down white glue & sprinkling in some sand is another method of lessening gaps. A little exaggeration on the detailing DOES look good in the Mordheim style architecture however.
Keep plugging along; every piece you do will be better than the piece before it. WELL DONE!

The gaps between really aren't too huge a concern. When I go to basecoat I'm going to be using a latex house paint quite liberally so those gaps should close up some.

Another side is finished, I just didn't get photos last night. I'll probably wait until I've got it completely carved out before I take another pic ^_^. It takes a little while with all of the detail I'm going into. I'm actually really anxious to paint it. But that's a little while away still x.x..

More work done on the building!



I know I know, it's coming along VERY slowly. But I've got quite possibly the worst modeling ADD out there right now. At least it's seeing some work!

I think I'll finish this building face and move onto the sides and back one by one. Then it's the roof.

I need to face the addition still and add a small addition to it as well. Also need to shingle the additions.

More to come as I finish some stuff ^_^.

AWESOME!

I love it. It's okay to take your time as long as you don't take forever... cause then you'll never get it done... cause forever never ends... right guys? something like that.

I will comment on how rickety it looks Just perfect. It looks like the boards are about to fall off. Definitely says Mordheim all over it

It does look splendid for sure! And what a nice base the house has, doesn't it, Ash?

Don't worry about it being slow. Take your time We're happy to see any form of progress not matter how slow.

And your building looks really excellent. Kudos and keep up the good work Grey!

cianty wrote:

It does look splendid for sure! And what a nice base the house has, doesn't it, Ash?

ohh ur evil

Duce wrote:

cianty wrote:

It does look splendid for sure! And what a nice base the house has, doesn't it, Ash?

ohh ur evil

LOL! Poor Ash

Admin Tom wrote:

Duce wrote:

cianty wrote:

It does look splendid for sure! And what a nice base the house has, doesn't it, Ash?

ohh ur evil

LOL! Poor Ash

Being a "NAZI" has it's disadvantages!

Back on subject: Where was I? OH YEAH!
LOOKIN' GOOD!
I LOVE the way this is coming along: the woodwork looks great, very Mordheimy, the stonework, & the stairs & the base [sorry, Ash] are VERY COOL! It's really enjoyable watching this project's progress. WELL DONE!

cianty wrote:

It does look splendid for sure! And what a nice base the house has, doesn't it, Ash?

Hahahaha It's been a long time since I've actually "Laughed Out Loud" at something haha.

DeafNala wrote:

Being a "NAZI" has it's disadvantages!:

Hahaha


But seriously, now that you mention it. I didn't even notice:

<basing nazi rant>
That board you have is beautiful, but it's not very Mordheimish... so if you base your building for that board, it will be an eye soar if you ever make a Mordheim board with a different color (as most Mordheim boards are much darker).
And what is the purpose of the wooden base on that? The pink foam would act as a great base by itself without it... and then you could use it on any board, and it would fit in perfectly.
The only argument for the base I can see would be if you want random piles of rubble next to your building... which is still very possible: just takes some extra tlc
</basing nazi rant>

<3