-
kris gorham
United States
albuquerque
New Mexico
I wasn't born ! I sprang from the forhead of God , as he contemplated a particularly vile joke !
I wasn't born , I was hatched in the deepest darkest part of the ocean , and raised by sharks !
-
GAAAAAHHHHHHH !!!!!!!
I wrote this article 3 or 4 months ago , as part of what I was holding for FFG failed community program , but some where , some how , my computer ate the article as I was trying to get it exported to post on BGG . Had I not already gone through the pain in the butt effort to resize and crop the pics , I would have left this alone and eventually gotten around to it in another few months . So here goes on the rewrite .
Ok , so as some may recall , I have been following and enthused about Dust Tactics since well before its initial release at Gencon of last year , and we were already girding off sheets , well before we ever got our hands on it here in late October last year .
I point this out as part of the preface for the projects I have been working on for DT , because it really was a new direction , a whole new bag for me .
I am thru and thru a die hard minis gamer . Even when I play board games , I don’t like to play board games that just use card board chits or standees . I like 3d .
Now while I know there are plenty of WW2 based games out , none of them really took off here locally , not even the sci-fi themed ones .Since I am not a "historicals" player , I never really had an interest in historical gaming , and thus I didn’t really have any good terrain or miniatures that would really fit the bill for this game .
I don’t see my self as some great community leader , just a firm believer in "lead , follow , or get the hell out of my way" . So as much as I would love to just sit back and play games , like most people do , I find that the only way to get to play the games I want to play (since I don’t play WH40K any more ) is for me to step up and take charge . After all , FFG isn’t stepping up to the plate to give me or any other players a hand in getting this game going , so we all have to do their jobs for them if we want to see DT played , and get to play it .
I like to have things fit , so in order to get terrain and such that works for this game , and looks right , I have literally spent months of free time scouring the internet for info and images to come up with historically "fitting" ideas , based on real world examples , and pulpy fiction of the time .
The more I look , the more I find , and one of the most interesting discoveries that sticks with me is just how little uniformity there is to a lot of what was out there .
EXAMPLE : Looking at POW/internment/concentration camps , I discovered that there was really no standard plan . They were all built pretty much by dumping some supplies/materials out at X location , and either using prison laborers , local builders , or military personnel , and told them to build a camp . In some instances , they used abandoned prisons or similar facilities . As such , pretty much every camp was unique in how they were built , and what they were built like . While pictures often show long rows or barracks style housing , when you take a closer look , what those building are made out of varies in material , and how it was put together .
The same hold true of fortifications like bunkers , pill boxes , etc ….. while there were some designs that were copied , none could really be considered a "standard" .
Now no matter what I am looking UP , I am looking AT a lot of stuff , and bits and pieces stick in my mind to be recalled later when I have an applicable project to use them on . One such item was a design of "pillbox" that was essentially just a tank style turret on an armored metal box or cement foundation . I can only imaging that they were fairly hot and horrible to be in on a hot summer day , in the days before the wonders of modern air-conditioning . While this design was by no means a "standard" , it was interesting and common enough that you can actually buy them from some model companies for a small fortune , for what is a somewhat plain looking model .
Now in the files section here on BGG , has my file for fortification , and in it I address house rules for pill boxes . Since those rules were put out , after further play testing , we added in the "damage resilient" ability as standard , and adding in the "superior reactive fire " for some of the lighter armed pillboxes .
So to begin with , lets do a material list . I will be using PVC foam board as the basis of this project , but for those without access to PVC foam board , or the tools and to cut it , you can still follow along and reproduce everything I am doing , using card board , foam board , or any other material of you choice , as detained in this past post on the wonders of cardboard and liquid nail : http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/3431/cardboard-terrain...
MATERIALS :
PVC foam board 6mm thick
1 ½ inch PVC pipe cap WITH A FLAT TOP bought at the hardware store for a couple bucks
2 inch PVC pipe cap WITH A FLAT TOP bought at the hardware store for a couple bucks
Plastistruct Styrene strips
Plastistruct styrene sheeting
Plastistruct liquid solvent cement
PVC cement bought at the hardware store for a few bucks
Various vehicle bits and such , panels , cannon barrels and such to decorate .
Craft paints , spray paint , and sealants
To begin with , I came up with a general plan after looking at pics on the internet . I wanted something with a turret , but I’m not gonna spend $30-60 just for the rather plain looking kits that I would then have to put together and paint . I also wanted a cement look to it , and I wanted something kinda beefy .
Now while units in DT are considered to occupy the entire square that they are in , the models don’t actually take up all that space , so I decided I would make the pill boxes stick over the lines just a tiny bit , so they look a little more beefy and like a solid fortification , as opposed to some flimsy box that would blow over in a stiff wind . This is Dust Tactics after all , and its all epic , so go great or just go home and play WH40K .
Since PVC foam board is kinda pricey , especially for the larger sheets I have , I found a way to conserve materials , while still taking up space .
I cut strips of the PVC foam board 3 ½ inches long by ¾ inches wide . Each pill box takes 12 strips . By using strips , I save the PVC foam board that would be wasted in the center .
First glue 4 of them as shown in the pic . I used a marker to add contrast because the white kinda lost detail as I was trying to take the picture . Now glue another set of 4 onto that , but staggered like bricks , so the edges over lap . Once those are dry , glue another 4 on top of that , again over lapping like brick work .
Now you have an open ended box.
Once those are dry , I did some light sanding . I DID NOT sand the sides smooth or perfectly even , because I wanted a bit more of a rough look to it when it is done .
To add a little more variety , I added some bullet holes and blast marks and such to some of them .
Now I cut a square of the PVC foam Board that is 3 ¾ inches square . Each pill box requires 1 of these . Glue it onto the top of the "box" .
Now take the 1 ½ inch PVC pipe cap and glue it OPEN SIDE UP onto the top of the square as shown . The reason it is glued open died up is because the closed end being on the bottom gives a better gluing surface .
NOTE : you may need to sand the top of the cap before gluing if there is molded writing or something like that , to make a nice flat surface .
NOTE : if you are not using PVC FOAM board , and are using wood , cardboard , etc ... you can skip the 1 ½ inch cap and use something else like more cardboard or wood pegs , etc.
Now take the 2 inch pipe cap , and sand the out side surfaces as neededd to remove any molded writing or injection marks . Once that is done , glue on styrene strips to make viewing slits , and seam markings .
The tops looked to bland , even when I was setting hatches and such on top , so cut circles from styrene sheeting and glued those on top before decorating .
Now there is a slight raised bump on the side of the caps I used , so I decided those would be the "front" . they gave me a good spot to drill holes for the gun openings and to pin cannon barrels in place .
I added in some hatches to the top , and got some round spruing bits from some zoids kits I have . Most of them have a nice round hoop on at least one of the sprues .
For the pillboxes I want armed with cannons I added a cannon from a MechWarrior Darkage hovercraft figure from the old Wizkids game .
For those that will just have a machine gun or some similar weapon , I just drilled a hole for the shots to come out . I had tried a small barrel sticking out , but it looked too small on the face of the turret .
Rather than using raised bolts , I decided to make them look recessed , I used a pin vise to drill the holes around the vision slits and such .
Now you can put it all together , the larger cap will loosely fit onto the smaller cap , and leaves you with a turret that turns , and that you can change out as desired .
So the obvious last steps are painting and sealing .
To begin with I primed them all with black spray paint from Wal-Mart for $.98 cents a can .
Because these are Germans , I then sprayed the 2 inch caps with Testors "Gunship Grey " which is amazingly close to the color the Germans come in in the box .
I painted the base sections using a cheap craft paints , and let them dry .
Next I weathered them . I went heavy on the chipped paint and rust because I wanted a more "dynamic" battle field environment than having my troops sitting at a café in France , drinking coffee and speaking in cheesy French accents , not seeing any action . After all , my troops are in battle AT LEAST once a week , and some times 3-10 times a week , so the paint is gonna suffer .
I did some heavy washing on the tops of the base sections where water would pool , and the rust would stain it over time .
Once its all dry , I give all of it a good coating of KRYLON brand gloss sealant , then after that has fully dried I apply a coat of Testors DULL COAT LACQUER .
its amazing what all gamers can come up with when game publishers drop the ball .
from this basic desgin , you can make turrets for a variety of game applications . they could be decorated to look more steam punkish , or even more midevil , so they could be used for fantasy and wildwest/steam punk games .
with a little imaginations , they would work well for oriental adventures to with the right decorations .
|
|
)
