Matt's Workbench: 2011

So, I've decided to enter armies on parade and this is the start of my entry. I don't want to just dump my army on a 2'x2' because that won't get me very far so i've started to build a more elaborate board with terrain, etc. with loads going on. I intend it to look busy and as if the waaagh! is remobilising to go and kill some 'umies. So the terrain i'm aiming for is imperial base taken over by the ork invasion. i'll have some looted imperial buildings alongside some ramshackle ork builings. I naturally want to use as much of what i've got finished already as i can so i can get the whole thing to a reasonable standard by the competition which isn't actually that far away. By trying to squeeze so many ideas into such a small space I'm running the risk of making it look to complicated and messy, so to try and combat this i intend to have 2 or 3 centre peices to act as focal points which i'll make sure are finished to the best of my abilities. I want the modelling done and the painting started by the end of June and then everything painted by the middle of august so that i can work on the weakest parts and on extra details in the last wee while before the competition which is about 2 weeks before games day. Thats the plan anyway, it just seems so far from completion just now.

Here is my initial idea, marked out a 2'x2' square with masking tape on the kitchen counter.

...and here's where i am after about 2 or 3 weeks...

I used polystyrene insulation sheets to make the basic shape of the base and attached it to hardwood using my hot glue gun.

First piece of terrain, a gun emplacement for the front left of the board. Scratch built from plasticard and bits with the battlewagon turrent on top.

Next up another building made from the manufactorum boxset. It's almost done, i've got a few rivets still to add and soem greenstuff sandbags. This'll be the balcony for my warboss to shout from and is the highest point on the board with the exception of the thunderork gunship.

Here's a shot of the landing pad.

and my new double turret for my grot fort

the grot fort

This big Orkus Mechanikus symbol is going to be to put over the imperial eagle symbol on the landing pad. It's a straight copy of buzzgobs bosspole.

This is the tunnel which runs under the landing pad. My nob bikers (converted form deffkoptas) will be tearing through here. The cave to the right i'm going to make up as a small meks workshop with a truck chassis in there being fixed up. These two bits are pretty dark so i've ordered some small LEDs to sort that out. While i was ordering them i saw a welding LED set which i couldn't resist, it's just one solid blue LED and 2 flashing white LEDs. I'm going to try them out and if they are to overpowering then i just won't turn them on for the competition, they'll be on a different circuit from the yellow lights.

Next up is a gateway tucked in behind/under the thunderork. The feet of the thunderork just miss the top of it but i'm considering getting new rod and making it 2" higher so it stands out more and also so you can see the gate better.

The plan is to have most of the terrain blend into the piece as a whole but i've also been thinking about how to use the stuff after the competition. The board is of no use to me as it is after the competition so i'm planning on rebasing each terrain piece and i'll have a nice set of ork terrain with nothing wasted.