-
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 !
-
Well , what’s a battle field without some walls ? And what’s a battle field in a SciFi game without really heavy fortified walls ? Perfect for pretty much any SciFi game , from Dust Tactics , to WarHammer 40K , and even smaller scale games such as BattleTech , heavy fortified walls are an important part of pretty much any SciFi setting .
This is the first in a series of project articles that relate specifically to walls . it’s a simple how to , but for those without the craftyness or tools to make their own , I have made a limited number of spare walls to sell , just PM me if you are interested , and for international buyers , this project is light enough that international shipping isn’t as ridiculous as it is for most of my other projects .
So I thought it was time to make some low walls so that I could have raging gun battles , but still have a degree of protection , and to give some more visual appeal to my games .
Every battle field has a theme ; woods , farmland , jungle , urban , etc…….. . one thing many have in common are walls . Be they an integral part of the theme such as in an urban setting , or a small visual detail such as a ruined temple in the deepest darkest jungle . They can really add some detail to an otherwise bland battle field ; accenting and complementing other terrain pieces , while not taking away from the miniatures more important larger terrain elements .
My first issue in beginning this project was just deciding on a theme . Because I have limited space to work in , I can only do one project at a time , so for this project I decided that I wanted to work on some fortified walls that would fit both urban settings , and work as well for battles around military targets like bases , check points , and such .
In Dust Tactics terms , it provides a legitimate option for a terrain piece that give hard cover , and could be found inside a base building where tank traps don’t belong ; either in a similar manner to ammo crates , or as fortified positions such as machine gun emplacements .
In micro scale games like battle tech , while they wont stop a mech , they would do a great job of hindering them , and slap a missile launcher battery or similar weapon on top , and now you have a hardened major headache for the players to try and get past .
Now for those that have followed my blogs , you may recall that I don’t sit down and write my ideas out as plans on paper . I may write down dimensions just to keep track of it latter on , but I don’t do detailed planning , its all in my head in a constantly evolving process . I may make several prototypes of an idea just to see how they actually look compared to the minis in the game .
As I contemplated the idea of the low fortified walls , my first idea was to make thin walls , similar to cement traffic barricades . The problem was that those are usually thicker at the base , and thin toward the top . It would present 2 problems ; first would be the pain of producing them in large quantities by hand ( I don’t like plaster terrain , and resin to substantially more expensive and a pain in its own way ) , second is that in gaming scale it just doesn’t look as visually appealing as it does in movies .
So I tried a variety of ideas , which led me to the realization that a “fortified” wall needs to be about ½ inch thick , other wise it looks to flimsy in gaming scale . Its ok for fortified buildings to be made of thinner material because visually the bulk of the building makes up for it . But for this wall project , anything thinner than about ½ inch is just to thin to look right .
I even spent time making a few to test out how the supports should look . I had tried a few ideas , and decided on the one I liked best to give more visual appeal to the walls , but not over power the final piece .
Next was an issue of size . I made these with the idea of using them in Dust tactics , which uses a gridded battle field . With that in mind I needed something shorter than a standard square edge because I wanted something that would fit inside the square . This arose because some of my larger terrain projects let the bases go over the lines , and in urban settings it can clutter the play are if too much terrain fits outside a square . Making these shorter would allow me to add them to battle fields as needed , without cramping the space needed for other terrain pieces .
Remember , these are accents to the battle fields , NOT the focus of the setting .
I tried out a few sizes , and settled on 3 inch increments . At that size I could fit these in with other pieces to compliment them in the over all battle field set up , AND they are more easily integrated into OTHER minis games .
All in all I made probably 12 or 13 prototypes to arrive at the final design I thought looked best .
So here is what I did …………….
Each 3inch wall is made of 5 parts .
First I took a sheet of ½ inch thick MDF , and cut it down into 1 inch wide strips , then cut those strips into 3 inch lengths .
Next I cut a sheet of ¼ inch thick MDF into ½ inch wide strips , then cut the strips into ¾ inch length .
Next step is to sand the edges of 3 ( 2 long and one short ) sides on each end of the ½ inch thick strip to create a beveled edge . This doesn’t have to be exactly perfect . While the walls add a really nice effect , and the bevels really add to that , they are small accent pieces , and wont be as scrutinized as the larger pieces they compliment , so in this case close is good enough .
Here you can see a stack of 10 of the 3 inch lengths with the beveled edges .
Now all you have to do is assemble them . Decide how far apart you want the supports to be , and try to make sure that they all match . To make this easier , you can make a spacing jig to make sure they all match .
Once that is done , I applied a layer of watered down wood glue to help solidify the edges of the MDF , and to make them easier to paint .
After that dried I applied a layer of gray interior house paint . Let that dry for a few days .
Then I did a dark wash , and let it dry overnight .
Next a highlighting layer of the same house paint used for the original base coat , let it dry a couple days , then highlighted with a light gray craft paint and let it dry .
And finally sealing with a good coat of clear sealant ( I prefer krylon brand ) and a coat of dull coat lacquer to help dull the clear coating .
I’m pretty darned happy with how they came out .
As I said above , I have a limited number of extras made . Anyone wanting any , just PM me for a price list .
|
|
