Another question, how do you produce those curved walls? Do you carve it out of thick stock or do you use a curved foam piece?

5 hours ago, devin.pike.1989 said:

Another question, how do you produce those curved walls? Do you carve it out of thick stock or do you use a curved foam piece?

To achieve the curved walls I use one solid piece of foam; Using a bowl of the circumference you want the building to be, draw a circle on to the foam. Then draw a slightly smaller circle inside, to the depth of your wall, for example, 1/2 inch.

You now need to cut out the outer circle. I use a saw to do this. You don't need to cut a perfect circle at this stage, just cut out the shape about 5mm near the edge of your line. Then switch to a retractable knife and start refining the shape, getting closer to the line and constantly turning the circle to achieve an even finish. Finally, switch to your sanding stick / block (see previous post on equipment used), and start sanding down to a final smooth finish. Keep turning the foam so you end up with a nice, clean round block of foam.

Finally, you need to core out the foam from the inside. Following the same principles described above work your way in towards the inner circle. I use a chisel to 'apple core' out from the centre. Once you've got a reasonable sized hole through, move to the knife and finally, sanding. Take your time on this; the foam can be quite brittle and can snap if your too vigouours with it. If it does, all may not be lost; you can glue / salvage the piece if it's a clean break.

Keep persevering and hopefully you should end up with a nice 'O' shaped piece of foam ?

Cheers

When you get around to finishing these, if you actually try any of the methods I suggested please let me know how they turned out. I really do prefer brushing on a watered down wall filler as opposed to glue and sand on structure walls. For the bases the sand and glue method may be best for flocking.

A pic of all the buildings made to date. This is on a 4x4 ft table. It may make for some fairly tight games if a few extra barricades and low level obstacles are added along the two main thoroughfares. Maybe not great hunting grounds for speeder bikes?!

The position of the two larger buildings (landing pad / cantina) on the opposite corners of the board will also likely see opposing forces taking advantage of the elevated rooftops to draw favourable lines of sight.

I can already envisage another board / buildings being added to the south of this set up, expanding the table to 6x4 ft... making for a large city fight board with lots of alleys and tactical considerations...

That looks incredible!

Tuz, I have to ask ...

All-In, how much time did that take you?

It is just awesome

6 hours ago, Dash Two said:

Tuz, I have to ask ...

All-In, how much time did that take you?

It is just awesome

Since start of Sept. It's been a bit of a slog at times! I'm fortunate to have a summer house with power where I can leave all the stuff set up and work until late if I'm on a roll.

I'd already had experience with working with insulation foam (x-wing scale buildings and other projects), and most of the smaller buildings only take a day or two once you know the design you're after.

When can I come over and play? I live in Buffalo NY

Buffalo buffalo, Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo .

10 hours ago, TUZ said:

Since start of Sept. It's been a bit of a slog at times! I'm fortunate to have a summer house with power where I can leave all the stuff set up and work until late if I'm on a roll.

I'd already had experience with working with insulation foam (x-wing scale buildings and other projects), and most of the smaller buildings only take a day or two once you know the design you're after.

Nice set-up

I live in a part of the US with oppressive heat, as it relates to things think paint; spray paint/primer; glue or working in your garage. I have space and 6-7 months of the year it is too hot to do anything related to modeling/building.

For example, I thought the weather was cool enough to prime some figures. Nope. Got those specks of dried primer on them.

Jealous you have an area that is climate friendly. My stuff gets lugged into the house and, then, back out to garage. Over. And over.

I am going to try this foam business. My first batch of Plastic Card / Evergreen just showed up. Going to pick something simple to build.

38 minutes ago, Dash Two said:

Nice set-up

I live in a part of the US with oppressive heat, as it relates to things think paint; spray paint/primer; glue or working in your garage. I have space and 6-7 months of the year it is too hot to do anything related to modeling/building.

For example, I thought the weather was cool enough to prime some figures. Nope. Got those specks of dried primer on them.

Jealous you have an area that is climate friendly. My stuff gets lugged into the house and, then, back out to garage. Over. And over.

I am going to try this foam business. My first batch of Plastic Card / Evergreen just showed up. Going to pick something simple to build.

Ah man, that's a blessing and a curse, especially when it comes to hobby work as you say. I feel your frustration

I live in the UK and have fallen foul of hot summer spray can syndrome, with a number of minis succumbing to the paint drying before it hits the model... Unsurprisingly, for an island that also likes a bit of rain, I've also fallen foul of primed minis 'ghosting' when there's too much moisture in the air (although olive oil is a good tip for fixing this). Someone should create a 'check spraying conditions' app....

I'd recommend an airbrush, as this can allow for indoor priming / painting. You'll need a spray booth and admittedly, the costs can vary from entry level prices through to quite a few hundred, but it's a great investment in the long run and don't be put off by what may initially be a confusing aspect of the hobby to get into (lots of good vids on YT for getting started).

Definitely give the foam build a go ? The arrival of the plasticard sounds great; it's a really useful modelling medium, especially for embellishing / detailing models with things like frame and pipe work etc.

Looking forward to seeing your build, cheers!

Slight detour from the Tatooine buildings...

To help break the routine of carving foam I decided i needed something a little different to model and paint. Enter the might of the Imperial fighter squadron and the crimson terror that is the Royal Guard Tie Interceptor...

Staying with Tie Interceptors, here's another one. I think he deserves the addition of red stripes, synonymous with the feared 181st...

Here it is next to a Bandai Snow Speeder for scale..

Next up are the Tie Fighters...

I wanted to create flying stands for the ships, something that would lift them up high on the table. In this way they could bring some cinematic spectacle to the battle raging below. Once FFG release the game (and hopefully separately available flight stands), I can always re-base them to use them in-game...

I made the bases out of 6mm mdf and inserted two lengths of dowl. In the end of these are attached the ball end of a magnetic joint, the socket end of which was modelled into the underside of each ship...

It's pretty high up here!

Fantastic!

What are the TIE models from?

Your terrain is brilliantly done. Looking forward to seeing it painted.

19 minutes ago, Col. Dash said:

What are the TIE models from?

Your terrain is brilliantly done. Looking forward to seeing it painted.

Cheers. TIES are the old AMT model kits

On 10/24/2017 at 6:36 PM, TUZ said:

A pic of all the buildings made to date. This is on a 4x4 ft table. It may make for some fairly tight games if a few extra barricades and low level obstacles are added along the two main thoroughfares. Maybe not great hunting grounds for speeder bikes?!

The position of the two larger buildings (landing pad / cantina) on the opposite corners of the board will also likely see opposing forces taking advantage of the elevated rooftops to draw favourable lines of sight.

I can already envisage another board / buildings being added to the south of this set up, expanding the table to 6x4 ft... making for a large city fight board with lots of alleys and tactical considerations...

What you've got there could make for a pretty balanced 6x3 table already, imo - with a bit extra additional terrain keeping the super tight dense feel it has now.

And don't forget that speeders can ignore terrain of height 1 (and T-47s of height 2), so they'll be weaving between the taller buildings but zooming right over the smaller stuff.

It would take away from the Tatooine feel, so ultimately a personal aesthetic choice, but dropping some of the domes on the single story buildings could make for more gameplay options - speeders could land up there, AT-RTs/Troopers could climb up (esp w/ grappling hooks) and run across or shoot down, etc.

18 hours ago, svelok said:

What you've got there could make for a pretty balanced 6x3 table already, imo - with a bit extra additional terrain keeping the super tight dense feel it has now.

And don't forget that speeders can ignore terrain of height 1 (and T-47s of height 2), so they'll be weaving between the taller buildings but zooming right over the smaller stuff.

It would take away from the Tatooine feel, so ultimately a personal aesthetic choice, but dropping some of the domes on the single story buildings could make for more gameplay options - speeders could land up there, AT-RTs/Troopers could climb up (esp w/ grappling hooks) and run across or shoot down, etc.

Thanks, yes I think your right about dropping some of the domes / having flat roof options. I like the multi floor cantina building for this reason; enabling for better tactical options etc. I'd also like to consider walkways / linking buildings for the same reasons

What's your next board idea after Mos Eisley? I can't wait to see minis on it. You should write us a battle report!