As I had some spare 40mm bases knocking about I thought I would preemptively make some scenic bases for the Knights from Adeptus Titanicus. The game releases this weekend, so I don’t have the models yet. I only hope I can get the models to fit on the bases. If they don’t I will have to find a use for them as objectives or something.

I went up into the loft and found my old Epic Armageddon stuff. I found some really epic gems up there (bad pun intended sorry) more about those at the end, but for now I found what I was looking for – the old epic ruined walls.

There are two sizes of ruined terrain made back in the day for Epic 40k/Armageddon. The first came on the rectangular infantry base sprues, the second were actually the terrain that came in the Epic 40k box. I felt that the black infantry sprue walls were a little short, but the grey terrain walls looked good. I wanted to use a mix of these walls on the bases and to see if I could make the shorter walls look a bit taller. I also decided to use the walls sparingly as I don’t have the models yet and therefore don’t know if the model would fit on the base if I covered it in walls.

I also rummaged in my bits box for scraps of plastic and for other bits to add to the base, mainly looking for inspiration. I also had the advantage of playing with the new toy recently, the printer.

I used the 3D printer to give me some more unique details. Stuff like small vehicles with a sci-fi feel to them to make it look like the Knights are striding through a ruined warehouse or something. I also printed some crates (to see if they would print).

The above image shows a couple of stacks of crates, the sci-fi loader in its component parts attached to a ‘raft’ to support the print. If you flip the raft over (on the right of the image) it has a nice texture to it, this is what forms the flooring on the bases. I’ve struggled to print these as I shrank models that were intended for 28mm – 32mm gaming. This has led to some issues in the finished prints, maybe I can sort these out in the future as I get more experience with 3D printing.

If you have your own 3D printer, here are some links to Thingiverse:

• Loader link.
• Crates link.

War-torn Warehouse Bases

I am a bit nervous about how the Knight models are going to fit on these bases. In particular the tall grey ruined wall might impair the model even though I put it as close to the edge as possible.

The first base, on the left, has the wall positioned as close to the base edge as possible, the textured raft covers the rest of the base surface. Sand was added around the bottom of the wall and randomly across the base. Finally some scrap plastic was added, along with a poorly printed and subsequently crushed single crate.

The second base, centre, possibly the most interesting has a false bottom put on the base to allow the surface of the base to have a crater put into the surface. Then the textured raft was added with a rough cut edge to the crater. The sci-fi loader was assembled and placed to look like it had slipped into the collapsed floor/crater. The single crates that printed well were used on the opposite side of the base and a small wall added to as close to the edge of the base as possible.

The last base, on the right, uses the textured raft material, however I decided to use some cable ties to break up the texture. I imagine them being some sort of loading rails/track. I then added the stacked crates. These didn’t print as expected I crushed the dodgy ones to make it look like the stack had been hit by falling debris. After this I thought that a little sand to break up the surface texture some more and some scrap plastic would finish it off.

Paint Job

Painting them was supposed to be a quick job – it needed to be to get this post written and up before the Saturday release day. Otherwise I may as well wait for the models turn up lol.

They were sprayed black, followed by a quick spray of grey. Great photography skills here – not!

I added colour to the grey but not too bright as I don’t want to detract from the Knights that will hopefully be striding through the ‘warehouse’. I feel out of practice in painting! They have had some drybrushing, and a few washes. I haven’t finished them, and they feel like they have a long way to go to what I had in my head. Anyway as they aren’t finished, I’ve still got some painting to do, so watch this space.

UPDATE (16 August):

Painting session tonight meant I got the bases to where I had them in my head. Here are some final pictures.

 

 

The hidden gems in the loft…

I have posted about my converted Deathwing before…

…but here is a selection of the Dark Angel force they were from. Goblin Green bases were obviously still ‘in’ when I started painting these (guess ’97?). However, looks like I was in the process of changing them at some point (~2003).

But I also converted an Abaddon the Despoiler for my Black Legion force (which never got completed – I’m sure you’re not surprised by this if you follow this blog at all). I painted up some tester bases of Black Legion, Word Bearers, and Iron Warriors too. Great photography skills again sadly.

I also had a nearly painted Eldar force. The painted elements of which are below.

The other nice find, and what I set out the look for, was my old Epic terrain, and in particular the unused old plastic ruined buildings and the ruined wall sections that were attached to the rectangular infantry base sprues.

Admittedly it has seen better days and some bits are missing damaged. Thank goodness that there is large number of terrain making companies these days that have scenery suitable for Adeptus Titanicus.

(Also found my Neromunda models, I’ve save those for another post though)