{"id":4478,"date":"2016-05-29T00:11:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T04:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/?p=4478"},"modified":"2016-05-29T00:30:04","modified_gmt":"2016-05-29T04:30:04","slug":"medea-refinery-wip-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2016\/05\/medea-refinery-wip-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Medea Refinery, WIP Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two more\u00a0pieces completed for the Medea Refinery board: A water tower and a resting place.\u00a0I have\u00a0two more in progress to complete tonight, and then tomorrow a group from PAGE<\/a> is coming over to paint, paint, paint! With these last pieces the set will come out to almost exactly a 2’x3′ area and thus definitely cover almost precisely 25% of a standard 4’x6′ 40k\u00a0board.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The water tower.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A resting place.<\/p><\/div>\n

Resting Place<\/h2>\n

The resting place is straightforward, just gluing things together and onto the board.<\/p>\n

Originally I had sketched out this piece to be based around a shipping container providing some heavy cover. But in the age of MDF terrain\u00a0it has become clear that the worlds of the future will in no way want for shipping containers.\u00a0There will be shipping containers everywhere, just laying around to be used for any purpose.\u00a0So that wasn’t very exciting\u00a0to get started building.<\/p>\n

But then this truck model in my closet caught my eye. It’s\u00a0a WW2 US Army Eager Beaver 2 1\/2 Ton Truck 1\/35 scale model from Monogram.\u00a0That scale is\u00a0oversize for 40k, which is closer to 1\/48 as much as it has any scale (it doesn’t). But these older trucks and vehicles tend to have actually been\u00a0a lot smaller and more frail than our modern mega-sized\u00a0age conceives of them. To put it into some perspective: WW2 Jeeps had 4″ wide\u00a0wheels. I have a mountain bike with 4.8″ wide wheels, and there are 5″ and 6″ models available. On top of that,\u00a040k and many other miniatures games\u00a0have\u00a0an\u00a0oversize aesthetic to accentuate (and render more easily paintable) guns and other equipment details.\u00a0So, between our modern expectations and the dramatized\u00a0aesthetic, many—though not all—1\/35 model kits like this\u00a0fit in just fine.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure if this specific model is still in production, it’s no longer\u00a0available on Amazon.\u00a0But you can generally find 1\/35 and 1\/48 trucks like this for $20–$25US. Many of them, like this one, have been manufactured\u00a0for thirty years or more. So some of the idioms and conventions are a bit different from a modern kit. For example, the front cab\u00a0assembly on this one didn’t really lock into place, it all just sort of lined up and hopefully you held it in position\u00a0long enough for the glue to set. On the flip side, these older kits are cheap, go together quickly, and\u00a0look great.<\/p>\n

\"Mod<\/a>

Mod Podging the gravel into place.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Campsite<\/a>

Campsite details.<\/p><\/div>\n

Around the truck I wanted to suggest a little story vignette of a team of refinery workers, scouts in the ongoing conflict, or vagabonds driven on by the war to have roughing it\u00a0here overnight among some cover, but having to hurriedly abandon the position for whatever reason. The\u00a0bags and small drum are from a Tamiya 1\/35 Allied Vehicles Accessories kit<\/a>, a great source of\u00a0these kinds of bits.\u00a0The rifle is from a Space Marine Sniper Scout box.\u00a0The wood oil drums are from\u00a0CraftParts<\/a>. You can find them at Michael’s and other arts &\u00a0crafts stores, but usually\u00a0only in bags of ~2.<\/p>\n

The rocks are some kind of chalky, very light material that I stole from a friend’s miniatures basing kit while we were working on a project<\/a>. Rather than using\u00a0my limited supply of them to build up the pile in the corner, it’s\u00a0cut-up scrap foam under a single layer of rocks. The small gravel is affixed by brushing on\u00a0a layer of Mod Podge<\/a> and then sprinkling it around, as I’ve done with all the pieces in this set. The primer to be used for the ground is a texture paint that will provide some smaller grained variety, though in the future I have to restock on\u00a0a larger variety of gravel sizes and mix them for this sort of thing.<\/p>\n

Water Tower<\/h2>\n

The water tower is a more elaborate scratchbuild, much of it digitally. I started with some inspiration from a canister of hot chocolate powder and wooden dowels. From there I modeled some feet for the legs and an insert for the bottom of the canister.<\/p>\n

\"Working<\/a>

Working up some inspiration.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Modeling<\/a>

Modeling an insert for the bottom of the canister to position and hold the legs.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Prototype<\/a>

Prototype foot printed out for testing.<\/p><\/div>\n

The canister\u00a0I wrapped in cardstock and tape, then added\u00a0Plastruct struts regularly\u00a0around it for texture and to mask its identity. The\u00a0outlet pipe I modeled as\u00a0parts to be assembled, to\u00a0be printed without supports.<\/p>\n

\"Modeling<\/a>

Modeling the outlet spigot.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Assembling<\/a>

Assembling the outlet spigot.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Assembled<\/a>

Assembled outlet spigot.<\/p><\/div>\n

Throughout all this modeling and building I try to think a bit about how the\u00a0terrain\u00a0structures and represents the\u00a0gameplay on it. For example, most people play a piece like this in 40k such that models\u00a0on the top of\u00a0such a structure would get some\u00a0kind of cover. That’s kind of funny seeming thematically if it’s just a bare roof or top. So I like to have bits around to give a suggestion of the kinds of things the\u00a0figures\u00a0are hiding behind. For the bits on top here I used some of the generic 3D printed bits I’ve designed, as well as some I downloaded. Of course then the soldiers need a plausible way to get to the top, so a\u00a0ladder was constructed as in this tutorial<\/a>\u00a0and hung off the side.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, I was thinking a bit here about the story image of the civilians who operated this tower. Specifically, I thought about the engineer\u00a0having to climb up this somewhat perilous ladder to turn the wheel\u00a0controlling the outlet, and then the even more dangerous task of climbing up to replace the small fuel tank powering the machinery on the roof and inexplicably hung off the side. So there are a couple\u00a0real design\u00a0details, like they ladder has been placed in reach of both, and the fuel tank hanger\u00a0designed with a bottom insert and a backing cage with rounded edges such that you could plausibly hang by the ladder and throw a tank on. That said, it’s important to not worry too much about the story. For example, how does this water tank get refilled? Don’t know, don’t care.<\/p>\n

The train track is a random HO scale piece I had laying around, cut down a bit with a Dremel. The scale of it\u00a0works much like the truck discussion above but in reverse. HO scale is actually much too small for 40k, being\u00a01\/87 whereas 40k is around 1\/46.\u00a0For train cars, buildings, and equipment, O scale at 1\/48 is much more appropriate. However, set on their own, I think HO tracks like these work visually. People underestimate how wide train tracks are in reality. Plus, in a use like this it’s easy to imagine\u00a0the tracks being for very narrow gauge rail or even just small material\u00a0hopper carts such as is used in mines.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A recognizable tower, but still a work-in-progress.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Details<\/a>

Details added to the top, and a ladder to get to them.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The feet in place along with some surface texture.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The assembled water tower.<\/p><\/div>\n

Models<\/h2>\n

Both these pieces were a lot of fun to put together, in different ways: One very old school modeling, and the other very futuristic high-tech crafting. The 3D models developed so far are available for free on\u00a0my Thingiverse account<\/a>. More to come as\u00a0the remaining Medea Refinery pieces get completed and painting begins!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two more\u00a0pieces completed for the Medea Refinery board: A water tower and a resting place.\u00a0I have\u00a0two more in progress to complete tonight, and then tomorrow a group from PAGE is coming over to paint, paint, paint! With these last pieces the set will come out to almost exactly a 2’x3′ area and thus definitely cover … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[412],"tags":[272,320,323,274],"class_list":["post-4478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terrain","tag-40k","tag-libertyhammer","tag-medea-refinery","tag-miniatures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4478"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4508,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4478\/revisions\/4508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}