Some Things I've Done With Foamcore

So, I've been talking about all this stuff you can build with foam core. Well, it's time to show you some of the things I've done. Maybe you'll get inspired!

Desert buildings. Note the one at the far right front. That's basically the basic building we built last time with the bottom of a plastic easter egg on top.




Similar buildings with an industrial look. The little factory in front is just foamcore with a couple of short PVC pipe fittings.




Desert ruins... Note that their bases are L-shaped. That way I can fit them together to make bigger building footprints...





Of course, wall rubble makes great barricades and can represent even more demolished buildings.





Talking about Planetstrike, does that look like it could be a Skyshield landing pad to you? It's a whole lot cheaper...





And maybe those could be defensive walls around a bunker. How many foamcore defensive lines do you think you can get out of $20 worth of foamcore?




These are bridges. Some are meant as river crossing bridges. The rear ones were meant to be between buildings but several strung together make a great elevated monorail track.




Watch out for the scraps you cut out while making something. These were left over from the monorails. I slapped them on a base and now they're Imperial message boards. Some people like the Imperium and some people don't...




Now these are city walls! Constantinople had nothing on these bad boys!






But if you need something for a small fort or a compound, these'll work nicely, too.




This is one of my biggest pieces. This factory has a 15x15" footprint. It's foamcore with some plasticard on the doors and PVC pipes for tubes and smokestacks.




And lastly, you've seen these before. Who says you're restricted to blocky Imperial architecture?




So, I hope you got some ideas from this. when it comes to foamcore, you're pretty much limited by the thickness of the foamcore and your imagination (and maybe the size of your graph paper but you can buy that bigger!) so get out your pencils. Get drawing, get gluing and get cutting!

Webway Portals

So last night I was wondering what I wanted to do with the little time I had. I thought about my Predators and about making some more foamcore walls and towers since I've been thinking about Planetstrike. But I decided to get in there and finish something outstanding before going on to something new. I pulled out the portals and got to work. Drybrushed Bleached Bone and then white over them. They're OK, but I wonder if I shouldn't have flat out painted them Bone or something similar. Either way, at this point, I was ready to have them done and, as with many other pieces of terrain I have, they're good enough. I'm sure if I put them on a table, people will recognize what they are and that's the point. Cracked open the cheapo bag of plastic gemstones and glued those bad boys on and voila! And I've got enough stones left to make another one if I like. I'm thinking I may make two or three really tall portals (the original template is full page size and these were shrunk down to half size) but not this week or really anytime soon. I find that cutting curves is not only hard, but it stats to hurt my hands after a while. Maybe I'm just old. We'll stick to blocky Imperial architecture for a while.

I sprayed Whirlwind #1 and the launchers and plates last night. I also found a couple of repair jobs I should just whip out. As I mentioned before, I was thinking about towers and walls. I have several types of foamcore walls: small inch high walls like hasty fortifications, 3-inch high walls with walkways that are good for compound or fortress walls and 6-inch high, 2-inch thick walls that are more like city walls. The taller walls are good designs that are sturdy and easy to build. I might post scans of the templates for other people to use. The towers are three story tall towers with an open area on the third floor and a roof. I made them to be stand alone towers but they could go well with the really tall walls. I'm also thinking of making a stepped tall city wall. Something where three inches up there's a level that can be defended with troops and then at 6 inches there's the top. That way, defending forces can put twice as much firepower on a wall and invading forces can fight their way up the wall. I'm thinking about the Whirlwinds, too. I should have flipped the pieces and resprayed them last night or this morning but I didn't so I'll have to do that when I get home so I've got at least another day before I can work on those.

Warpgates and Astramalleus History

I spent a bit of last night putting a basecoat on the warpgates. It's somewhat time consuming because you can't spray paint foamcore. Well, you CAN spray paint it but you better make sure that you seal up any exposed foam because, as I'm sure many of you have figures out, something in the spray paint (I assume it's in the propellant) eats styrofoam. To combat this, I went out and bought some craft paints of several colors I use often (gray for stone, tan for earth/adobe, black, white, and a few others) and I just paint on the base color myself. I prefer Delta Ceramcoat because it goes on well and is cheap. It has one minor annoyance to it, namely that dry Ceramcoat sometimes tries to stick to other dry Ceramcoat, but if that's the worst problem it has, then I'm cool with it. Later today I'm going to hit Hobby Lobby with the gift card I got for Father's Day and look for gems for them. A little dry brushing with bleached bone and a little white and the gems and I think you can call this project done.

I may need to take a couple of days before I go to the next thing, though. You've noticed my little paint station here? Well, this is actually on the coffee table in my living room. I have an actually designated place to paint, but it's covered with containers and bits and Drednoughts and other such. I may take a little while to try to organize and clear it before I start something new. Of course, I may still try to work on the coffee table while I do that clearing...

The Astramalleus or "Star Hammers" are an Ultramarine descended Chapter chartered during the 23rd founding in the fallout of the Age of Apostasy. Because of a change in the fundamental rites and doctrines of a Marine Chapter, a young Captain, aided by many veteran troops, managed to defect. After wandering for years, they managed to find a planet where they could live safely but gave it up to successfully defend a world in the throes of an Ork invasion. They were successful in their efforts but were found by their Chapter and tried by the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines. The verdict was that the survivors would found a Chapter of their own and then begin a crusade until the original defectors were all dead.

Once the messengers from Ultramar had delivered their message, the Deathmarch Crusade began. Walach and the remaining original renegades made preparations and the Chapter gave them aid and support. It was decided by Walach that if the original renegades must die, then they should make the best gains for the Astramalleus and the Imperium that they could muster. Walach and his Marines would lead Astramalleus troops in battle and hurl themselves into the thickest and hardest parts thereof. When the renegades fell, the new troops would take advantage of their efforts and finish the job.

The first engagement was the only unplanned attack of the Crusade. En route to the the first planetary target, Walach and his men ran across the space hulk Precept Of Martian Quality, an Adeptus Mechanicus mass hauler that had been reported lost 1500 years before. After clearing the vessel of an infestation of chaos mutated vermin, Walach and his men were awed by the contents of the ship's stores. It had been moving replacement equipment and armor to a Marine Chapter somewhere and was filled with replacement armor, weapons, Predator sponsons and parts and other equipment but the prize was the ten suits of Terminator armor in the main vaults. Such serendipity surely must have been a blessing from the Emperor! The hulk was towed back to Besradine. After determining that the Terminator suits were not tainted in any way, they were consecrated to the Chapter and devoted to the First Squad of the First Company. All ten were armed with thunder hammers (Walach's preferred weapon) and storm shields and the squad was named the Starhammers.

Over the course of six years, Walach and his original Marines traveled from planet to planet destroying demons, eradicating xenos threats and fighting Chaos Marines wherever they were to be found. Each time a few more Marines were lost until only Walach and his guard remained. At first, the worlds surrounding Besradine were targeted and cleared. After the local area had been cleansed, farther threats were chosen for assault until Walach and his Guard were far from the Chapter monastery. When the end seemed nigh, Walach called together the 14 members of the Gerusia to name a successor. What he did not know was that the Gerusia had already met in secret with Walach's guard and made a decision of their own without the Chapter Master's consent. Walach was deemed too important to be thrown away in this fashion...

Walach and his Guard, leading the Scouring of Hessin 6, came face to face with a powerful Demon of Slaanesh. Walach fought with all his might but, wounding the demon badly, was felled himself. His Guard managed to defeat and kill the wounded demon and then sprang into action. Walach was badly wounded but not yet dead. Under the confusion of battle, they spirited his still living body back to his vessel and a secret Drednought sarcophagus under the care of the chief Techmarine. His Guard announced his death at the hands of the demon while the entombing process was carried out. The new Chapter Master knew that if anyone outside of the Chapter ever learned that Walach was still alive, the Astramalleus would be eradicated from the galaxy. Therefore he swore the sitting members of the Gerusia never reveal what had been decided, not even to future members of the Gerusia. The Guard and the members of the First Gerusia would eventually die either in battle or from old age. Only the Chapter Master, Head Chaplain, Head Librarian and Head Techmarine would ever remember the truth of this special Drednought...

Final Webway Portals and Astramalleus History

While my wife was out last night, I watched our daughter. And during that time, I managed to finish my final two webway portals. I think they look quite good considering their crude nature. I'm sure once I slap some paint on them, they'll work a little better. In fact, I may do that tonight, but I'm not making any promises. I have a few Father's Day activities I have to participate in so I may not get to it. Besides, I kinda want to start on that Manufactorum I've had sitting around for a month.

Doesn't it just tempt you to do something with it? Note to anyone who wants to do any sort of standing column/pipe/smokestack type of thing: there are baby bottles that are long and thin and mostly used for storage (as far as I can tell) and they're awesome for pipes and tubes. You don't want to buy them brand new because they're expensive as all things related to weddings, babies and funerals are but if you pick some up either used (they were boiled before they'd sell them) or from friends who have extras, you can get them for nothing or next to. Sometimes they're graduated and have numbers and markings on them. If they're raised in the plastic itself, you'll have to strip them off with an exacto knife or something similar but it's not hard. If you can find some that are just printed, more power to you.


So, continuing from before:

The Astramalleus or "Star Hammers" are an Ultramarine descended Chapter chartered during the 23rd founding in the fallout of the Age of Apostasy. Because of a change in the fundamental rites and doctrines of a Marine Chapter, a young Captain, aided by many veteran troops, managed to steal a Battle Barge and defect. After wandering for years scrounging supplies wherever possible, they managed to find a planet with a tribal level of civilization which they chose to make their home. They lived in safety until outside events changed their course forever.

Captain Ullce Walach was alerted to a large spike in Imperial transmissions in the general area. An Ork Waagh had been encountered and was heading for the Imperial hive world of Hajic Secundus. With over 9 billion inhabitants and several large foundry complexes, this was a world the Orks could not be allowed to have. The Waagh was estimated to reach the planet in six days. No significant Imperial reinforcements would be able to arrive for at least a month. Walach and his navigators took calculations and estimated they could be there in ten days. Taking this before the entire assembled Marine force, Walach described the situation and asked for volunteers to travel to Hajic and hold off the Waagh. Every Marine stepped forward. They had rebelled against the changes in their Chapter, not against the Emperor or the Imperium. They painted their gray armor black and began preparations.

Twelve days later, six days after the arrival of the Orks, Angels of Death descended from the skies of Hajic. The beleaguered and overwhelmed Planetary Defense Forces considered it a miracle from the Emperor himself. Marines began devastating assaults on Ork strategic positions and hit-and-run attacks to take pressure off the Defense forces. For 22 days, the Renegades fought with valor and skill against an enemy that hopelessly out numbered them. They fought holding actions to allow time for citizens to be moved or Guard forces to regroup. They attacked captured foundries to keep their building facilities out of Ork hands. On the 21st day, all the remaining Marines on planet gathered to defend the Camarko Pass, the only remaining way into the Valley and Hive City of Camarko, largest city on the planet and home of the Imperial Planetary Governors. Ork blood flowed ankle deep and when the bodies grew too numerous, they fought on top of the bodies. Every Marine lost was a great blow to the defenders, but they were enough. On the twenty-second day, elements of two Marine Chapters arrived and began to fight. Within two more weeks, seven other Marine Chapters, including a contingent of Ultramarines, had responded and and elements of the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Guard and signalled their estimated arrival times.

The renegade forces had paid a heavy cost. of 278 Marines who had made planetfall, only Walach and 63 others had survived. Once it was clear that the arriving forces were enough to the task, Walach made preparations to leave the planet. The other Marine Chapters, seeing the work the renegades had accomplished and knowing the penchant of Marines to keep their own counsels, did not inquire too deeply into their identities or their reasons for leaving before the job was done.

As fate would have it, they were recognized before they could leave. One of the last responding Chapters was the Grey Storms...

Foamcore Webway Portals

Last night, the wife was out and I had our daughter and despite the fact that I was solely responsible for making sure she was fed, clean and generally still alive when my wife got home, I managed to do something!

I've done a lot with foamcore. About three years ago, I played a game against a friend of mine's Necrons at his house. Up to this point, I'd pretty much played in local game stores. I'd played a few friends who had terrain at home, but that wasn't many games. Neither my friend or I had terrain and that day I decided I should start acquiring/making some. A lot of foamcore and graph paper later, I have more than enough terrain to choke a small horse. Ruins and basic buildings are easy (which is why I have a ton of them) but things not involving straight lines are a little harder. But I've been wanting to make something like these for quite some time and since I had painted the resin ones just a little before, I figured this was as good a time as any. You've probably seen similar ones on the Intar-Webs before. I used a template that I downloaded somewhere (I think GW was hosting it for a while). These aren't as big, though. The template as created would result in huge gates and, if I actually decide to make a little Eldar terrain one day, I might make some for an Eldar world table or something. For my purposes, though these will do fine for artifacts left over on other worlds or something similar. Hopefully, I'll be able to whip up a few more in the next few days but we'll play it by ear and see what happens.

Some of you will probably want to comment that they're far too angular and blocky for Eldar technology. Well, that's fine with me because I don't see a need for them to be museum quality or anything. Some people like to feel like they're playing in a historical diorama and want buildings as photo realistic as possible. Not me. I find that simple buildings are easier to infuse with imagination. By representing them more simply, I create the feeling of a building or a village than the reality of a building or a village. That and, ultimately, a hut is a hut is a hut no matter where you go in "civilized" or industrialized places, whether it's adobe, concrete, plasteel or whatever they make them out of in forty thousand plus years. My point here is that these are shaped like webway gates and they're good enough to represent even if they don't look like wraithbone or super organic. Once I paint them, they'll look better. I am thinking of hitting a craft store for some jewel like baubles to decorate them a little more but we'll see how that works out.

What's next, you might ask? Well, after whipping up a few more Webway portals, I think I'm going to start painting a Manufactorum that I've had based for quite a while but haven't gotten around to painting yet. Surprised that I have actually bought buildings instead of making them? I actually like the GW buildings and they're not that terrible expensive. I've amassed quite a few of them and, when combined with the old 3rd Ed. Ruins that came in the box set (I've got a dozen or so of them), the look pretty awesome out there on the board. Of course, the biggest project is to get a bigger table so I can start hosting games at my house, but that's for later. Between the Manufactorum and the stuff I have sitting around unpainted (Tac squads, both regular and Black Reach, Rhinos, Whirlwinds, Speeders, a Predator I recently got cheap), I have more than enough stuff to paint and talk about for quite a while.

Broken Webway Portal and Extras...

Last night, I finished up on a little terrain project I started Monday. A couple months ago, I picked up some broken webway portal terrain pieces on EBay from this Australian company. I based them a few weeks ago along with a bunch of old 3rd Ed. ruins and craters I had picked up. I've just gotten around to painting them and here they are. I thought about adding a little grass to make them look much older and overgrown but I decided not to. I like the bare simplicity of technology (organic or not) on the ground as the proverbial "lone and level sands stretch far away". I layered several browns on the portal sections before a good drybrushing with bleached bone and a little white over. for the broken jewels, I drybrushed them heavily with white, less heavily with Space Wolf grey and then a little more white to give them a dead cloudy look. I like the outcome but the pictures aren't all that great. Maybe I should work on photographing minis. If you're going to show them, they might as well look good in print.

This is actually a bit of a departure from my previous project. A while ago I was going through some of that old stuff I hadn't painted and found that I had amassed five Dreadnoughts that I hadn't assembled or painted. Well, something had to be done about that! A couple of weeks ago, my wife and our daughter went to her home town to visit her parents for the weekend. We had been the previous weekend and I didn't want to travel two weekends in a row so I stayed home and declared a "Dreadnought Saturday". I assembled and base coated these bad boys and over the course of the following week, I finished them off, bring me up to eight total. The one in the middle, however is special. About 6 years ago, I got a Dred with the intention of making it into a special, hammer wielding model. Back then there were no special rules for that (except the VDR) so it would have just looked cool. Now, with Ironclads, it's actually got an in game function. or it could be a Venerable. And yes, that is a Chaos Dred hammer with the points cut and filed off. I ended up cutting off the multimelta from a Black Reach Dred arm and green stuffing everything else in place. A little epoxy just to be sure and that arm is going nowhere. The funny thing is that I need one more Dred. I've got two each with assault cannons and lascannon/missile launcher and three multimelta. When I got the one I converted to the hammer arm, the previous owner had constructed a twin-linked auto cannon arm for it. Now I need to have a Dred body for that!

Lastly, a few days ago, I was looking at an Australian 40K site and it pointed to a clube webpage where they were hosting a Marine point generator based off an Excel spreadsheet. Basically, you put the number of points you're building on the first page, then you go through the Org Chart pages describing how many of each unit you're fielding and how many of each weapon they're armed with and it calculates everything. Cute, but I prefer to total it up by hand because I'm a curmudgeon that way. What I realized this is really good for is counting up the total cost of my entire painted army. I started doing that last night. I figured I have around 10,000 points. I must have quite a bit more than that because I'm up to 9,500 and I haven't counted all my Fasts, HQs or any of my vehicles. I may be closer to 12K or 13K. It's making me think that I may want to start working on my unfinished Termies. Once they're done, I bet I could do 15K easy... Anyway, I forgot where the site is hosting the calculator/spreadsheet, but I'll see if I can find it again and post a link.

UPDATE: found the link! Check this out! http://www.alice40k.tripod.com/