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Author Topic: 3D Terrain  (Read 10940 times)

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Offline bobloblah

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3D Terrain
« on: February 02, 2011, 03:06:49 PM »
Has anyone here considered making 3D terrain for Legions of Steel (not Planetstorm)? I'm thinking of something along the lines of [something from Hirst Arts that I can't show you because the board won't let me post a link], which is for Space Hulk.

I've looked at this for a while, and even began discussions with a contractor who makes these for SH and Descent with Hirst Arts molds. It appears quite a bit more difficult in this case, as LoS tiles all have "half-squares" along their  open edges, and considerably more variety once you add in the Template Packs.
Best Regards,
Bobloblah

Offline Kindred

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2011, 12:42:25 AM »
I've made terrain for LoS Planetstorm (outdoors) as well as for WH40K.

We never bothered with the squares, but I have thought about it.

I actually have a set of pieces from Dwarven Forge that I use for D&D gaming...  they also have some sci-fi sets

Offline Dave Chase

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2011, 08:08:45 AM »
If you can find them, MageKnight Dungeon tiles would work.

A box game called Battlestations has squares that represent parts of a ship. It plays like a cross between a miniature board game and a lite RPG.
It has supplement boxes for it also. (Made by Gorilla Games)

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Offline bobloblah

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2011, 10:01:03 AM »
I'll have a look at Dwarven Forge's sci-fi stuff (which I didn't know they had). I've looked at Mage Knight before, but didn't like the aesthetic; not sci-fi enough. Battlestations is new to me, and while it looks cool, it appears to be just as 2D as the existing tiles. Still, probably good for some variety of environments.

Have a look at the Hirst Arts website under Space Hulk, if you haven't already. That's very much what I had in mind.

EDIT: Okay, so Dwarven Forge looks pretty cool, but making a complete set of LoS tiles would be unbelievably expensive! I've actually had quotes on Hirst Arts versions (fully painted!) that would cost far less than Dwarven Forge.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2011, 10:07:57 AM by bobloblah »
Best Regards,
Bobloblah

Offline Kindred

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2011, 12:04:20 PM »
lol...  yeah, Dwarven Forge can add up.  I have enough of the Dungeon and Cave sets to cover an entire table, but those were acquired over a fair period of time.


Dave,
Are the MageKnight tiles 3D?  I know of several locations of 2D tiles, but purposefully only listed what I use in the 3D design...

Offline Dave Chase

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2011, 06:47:00 PM »
Hirst Arts. Yes they are a good company and make some very fine molds.
If you look hard enough through their website you might find the contest I hosted via WizKids LLC on Dungeon tiles.
At GenCon that year of the contest, I took all the contest tiles and we made a huge dungeon.
It was 6 ft by 20ft (or so, 2 tables deep and 3 tables long). It was so good looking (because of all the 3D'ness and the fact that there was no 'art direction' that even GamesWork shop people said that they like it a lot.

MageKnight: Dungeon tiles are flat but have walls and doors that could be inserted in them. One of the things we use to suggest to players that wanted a complete 3D feel with out spending lots of money (of course this was an unofficial suggestion ;) )was to take grey colored paper or wall imaged paper and place wall pieces far enough apart that the paper could be taped to them to create the imagery of tunnels.

Dave Chase
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Offline bobloblah

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2011, 09:59:55 AM »
That's a neat idea as far as walls go. i know walls can be a bit of bugbear; that was why I liked what was done with the Hirst Arts stuff. It gave the impression of walls while still being unlikely to interfere with the miniatures. There's actually a really interesting discussion of the topic of 3D terrain, walls, and the issues with both on BGG. LINK
Best Regards,
Bobloblah

Offline smokingwreckage

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2011, 12:15:36 AM »
Worth considering: Armourcast has resin sci-fi tiles. http://armorcast.com/store/index.php?cPath=120_153&osCsid=86ad7798a67a2dc55c445a673b30d00e

WorldWorxGames has a variety of grid-marked terrain suitable for the genre, which would be lighter and cheaper. Their stuff looks gorgeous on the table (though doubtless not on a par with a full, modeled, 3D layout) http://www.worldworksgames.com/store/index.php They have cityscapes that I've been using for Defiance: Vital Ground battles between my UNE and Machine forces which, with a tighter layout and use of the "indoor" areas, would probably work well for LOS.

Offline SgtHulka

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #8 on: February 15, 2011, 07:34:50 PM »

Offline Vile

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #9 on: February 16, 2011, 09:36:38 AM »
Oooh, nice! See, that's why the future is so grubby. All those nooks and crannies are impossible to keep the dust out of.
Too young to be an Urvile ...

Offline smokingwreckage

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #10 on: February 16, 2011, 09:51:17 PM »
That looks like Hirst Arts stuff! Check out Hirst Arts, they're brilliant.

http://www.hirstarts.com/

Offline SgtHulka

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #11 on: February 17, 2011, 11:36:41 PM »
This looks like a nice alternative, too:

http://www.creativegamescapes.dreamhosters.com/

It's plastic sci fi corriders.

Offline smokingwreckage

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #12 on: February 18, 2011, 01:31:06 AM »
Wow, Sarge, those do look nice.

Offline bobloblah

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #13 on: February 18, 2011, 02:28:29 PM »
Yeah, those do look good. I wish there were more pictures on that site. Having said that, it's pretty clear which game those are designed for. Unfortunately, Space Hulk has created the "standard" layout for corridor crawler games. Too bad, too, as I still find LoS tiles way more flexible and interesting.
Best Regards,
Bobloblah

Offline peterpotente

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Re: 3D Terrain
« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2013, 10:18:07 AM »
Servus,

I´m just thinking about to build  a 3D Corridor"system" for LoS. This ,for me has to fullfill some criteria:

- not too expensive
- easy to build
-easy to paint
-easy modules
-easy to storage
-easy to play with -- (I mean tactical view and physical miniature handling for fast playing)

Now, my first idea was looking at the scenarios from the Black Box  for the tiles I would need  and thought that it perhaps would be better not to make  single 3D tiles with rooms and corridors. Instead I thought to make one big table  cobbled with casted plaster tiles from Hirst Arts or something like that. 


1.The Squares
In comparison with “easy to play with- criteria” I decided to use the 1” squares to keep the whole table as “small” as possible.


2.The Table

The largest scenarios from Black Box measure 10 x 7  and 8 x 9 tiles
Therefore the table has to have a size of 10 x 8 LoS tiles to make all scenarios from the Black Box playable and still offering room for more scenarios, even big factory events where you could use vehicles, big machines and long range weapons.
In this case the table has to be about a minimum of 41" x 33" inches when using the 1"squares

This means that I´ll need “only” 10(h)x8(w)x16(squares/tile) little casted plaster squares.
 + 40 extra in height and +33 extra in width to compensate the half squares when arranging the modular walls at the edge of the table.                                                                                                       

Makes 1353 pieces totally. Am I crazy???? :P

If there is something wrong in my calculation,please feel free to correct me ... as long as you reduce the results ;)

Okay that will be a very chewy but an easy  and not complicated work.
 After gluing them all on a wooden board, the airbrush, some ink and a  very large drybrush will do the paintjob.
Because of the odd number of squares required to come along with the halfes, I would have space at the edge of the board to fix a slim aluminium (0,5”) frame around it, covering and protecting  the edging square .


3.The Walls

This work I believe can be done very streamlined.
The walls are made of a few wooden slats with 1,5cm thickness,this is the height of  the finished walls.Not to high,to match the "easy  to play"- criteria. These have to be cut down in size comparing to the walls from the original printed floortiles.

Beginning with the corridors,the bulk of the Walls have to be 1,5”x1,5” pieces and 1,5”x4”pieces .
The 1,5”x1,5” are needed for all crossintersections,T-Intersections and L-corridors.
The 1,5”x4” rectangles are needed for all straights,T-intersections and L-corridors.
Then I need 1,5”x2,5”pieces …….to glue them to the 1,5”x4” to got a L-corridor
And so on with the rooms…….

It could be better to make the walls a little bit slimmer than 1,5” what would give larger minis more space to be moved without bouncing somewhere all the time.

Like the original floortiles ,after applying some structural paste and some wires on top of the walls to get the look of reinforced concrete, I would spray  the inner part of the walls in black or another very contrasting color.
 The“visible” part of the corridor would get a kind of white adhesive tape to get a real “clean” look with only little details in colour.
Or how could these walls as part of a machine facility look like?

To match the "easy to store"- criteria …it´s a bit like Tetris


4.Doors and Doorframe

Doors are casted in resin or plaster out of the Hist Art Moulds .
Doorframes should be, beside objectives and interior, the only outstanding objects. I would like to fix them with magnets on top of the walls. And I guess that they should have a Omegalooking frame to have enough space for the bigger minis which expand to their upper bodyparts.



What colours and structure would you use, are these facilities more metallic or abacterial white?
« Last Edit: March 11, 2013, 04:15:22 AM by peterpotente »