Esher Chem Zone

[Inxentas]

I'm building my own Necromunda table on a budget. While I'll probably add a few MDF kit buildings and walkways, I've decided to give simple woodworking a try in order to create terrain. I live in a relatively small apartment, so I don't have a garage or a great workplace: all I have is a saw, a knife, a mitre box and a vacuum cleaner. Still, some simple chips packaging inspired me to create some sort of chemical plant with lots of piping. I started out by going to my local hardware store to get some 3.9m MDF cut into 25 x 25 cm squares. That's not exactly to "Zone Mortalis" spec but it fit my mainland-european-made table nicely when laid out in a grid:

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• Inxentas
• Oct 6, 2022
• chemzone esher

Laying out the MDF tiles. Each is 25x25cm, both my tables fits a nice 3x4 grid.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Inxentas]

Next I added a rim to some of the leftover MDF, which was e3xactly 25cm in length and thus fits a board's with exactly. I sawed off 4 pieces of thin finisher-wood with a mitre cut and stuck them on the sides with some wood glue. I got some plastic mesh a friend brought from work, seemingly gas containers come wrapped in this stuff. I wanted the mesh to sit at a 45 degree angle so I had to cut it out sideways, using the platform itself as a guide. I then cut off twice the length and width off the mesh rectangle to make it fit snugly in the area I made. I glued this on with superglue and added a little middle beam for visual interest:

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• Inxentas
• Oct 6, 2022
• chemzone esher

The first platform is ready!

The next day I simply repeated the process, making another walkway. Now I am out of wood for the rims (although I think I can do one of the smaller platforms) but together these two platforms make a nice filler for a single tile. I did not glue them on the containers yet as I have some ideas on how to make those modular.

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• Inxentas
• Oct 6, 2022
• chemzone esher

The second platform is ready!

Next up is adding some piping!

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Inxentas]

That friend that gave me the mesh also gave me these small carboard pipes. Now these are quite short, but when I cut the tops off with the mitre box and glued them back on backwards I got a nice connection. These were a bit of a pain to cut up (I had to actually saw them) but with better tools you'd get better results. I still liked the effect and by cutting small rings from the same pipes I added some rims for visual interest. The parts that are not covered (because this is the same size pipe) are simply hidden on the inside or against an adjecent pipe.

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• Inxentas
• Oct 6, 2022
• chemzone esher

Added some piping details.

And here are all four columns with their piping!

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• Inxentas
• Oct 6, 2022
• chem zone esher

All the supports now have additional piping.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Brendan Flynn]

Keep it up for it is from such humble beginnings great boards are made.

 

[Ben_S]

all I have is a saw, a knife, a mitre box and a vacuum cleaner.

You could probably make some great stuff out of the vacuum cleaner...

 

[Inxentas]

You could probably make some great stuff out of the vacuum cleaner...

Ha ha I bet! I do have an old printer lying around somewhere. I might erm... "open" it to see what kind of greeblies are inside...

 

[Brendan Flynn]

Loads of useable greeblies in the inner workings of household stuff. I have a whole bunch of computer mother boards which I hope to chop into sections for the walls of a space hulk board.

 

[Inxentas]

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• Inxentas
• Oct 15, 2022

Adding some detailing to the bases with mesh and cardboard.

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• Inxentas
• Oct 15, 2022

Undercoated the first pipe with a spraycan.

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• Inxentas
• Oct 15, 2022

The first pipe has these custom drains. The rivets are small nail beads from the dollar store.

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• Inxentas
• Oct 15, 2022

First coat of acrylic paint. Went with a dark metal for the bases and trimmings, copper for the...

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• Inxentas
• Oct 15, 2022

Just a little setup with a mini for scale. Now to finish up the rest, adding slight weathering...

I had a busy week, with an actual Necromunda game with my Eshers and a D&D session. Still, I found some time to shop for materials and managed to get one of the pipes as far as to receive its first layers of paint.

 

[Thorfinn]

Looking great. Some advice from me from my future... Find the box you plan to store these in - a big clear plastic tote is good. As you build, make sure you don't build bigger than that box, or at least make everything able to break down so that it fits in that box.

Terrain that can be stored easily and compactly is terrain that doesn't end up having to be scrapped later.

 

[Inxentas]

Looking great. Some advice from me from my future... Find the box you plan to store these in - a big clear plastic tote is good. As you build, make sure you don't build bigger than that box, or at least make everything able to break down so that it fits in that box.

Terrain that can be stored easily and compactly is terrain that doesn't end up having to be scrapped later.

Good point! There's a store not far from my house which sells storage boxes in all shapes and sizes. I will indeed keep the platforms detachable from the pillars from this reason. But for now, the pieces I am making will be used as a pedestal to display the gang in my bookcase. The TTCOmbat stuff I build can fit behind it, creating an interesting looking industrial wall - I will probably end up peppering these with hangers-on and such.

 

[Inxentas]

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• Inxentas
• Oct 25, 2022

Ivy Icefang and her crew.

This here is Ivy Icefang, one of my Esher Matriarchs. Just wanted to show off some of my progress on the actual gang for whom I am making these terrain pieces.

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• Inxentas
• Oct 25, 2022

The platforms turned out to be the perfect height to mix up with TTCombat terrain.

My TTCombat order came in, and surprisingly the walkways are about the same height as my own pieces! That means I can easily setup walkways to and from the platforms.

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• Inxentas
• Oct 25, 2022

After assembling 3 MDF kits from TTCombat I declare my table "playable". That is still far from...

Just to give me an impression how much terrain is needed for a 3x4 table, I placed 12 tiles and spread the terrain around randomly. It's looking a lot different from the first picture already! Now I am debating whether to start painting the pieces, as the table looks pretty playable already. The final table is 3 tiles larger, so I might open the last MDF flatpack for some extra walkways and ladders.

 

[Brendan Flynn]

Thats looking ready for a lick of paint alright, suitably dense and multileveled to represent the underhive. The TTcombat terrain mixes well with what you have made yourself, so now enjoy it with a few games.

 

[Punktaku]

What are those gray disk thingies?

 

[Inxentas]

What are those gray disk thingies?

Sorry for the late reply, but in case you mean the bases of the green silos, they are old CD-ROMs. In the 90's download speeds were terrible and people who (illegally) copied content distributed them in cheap-ass carboard packs. Most of these are old B-movies and music disks of a bygone age of bootlegging. So part of my terrain even includes illegal ancient archeotech

 

[Inxentas]

I'm also sorry for not having posted any pictures in the last few months. Most of the terrain is ready now, and I've enjoyed some games on them already. I've just been very busy painting the rest of the TTCombat terrain, and my friends gave me some Leagues of Votann models for my birthday which I've been painting up for a small army. I have a game tonight and will attempt to make some pictures! The lighting is very bad in my place, especially during the evening, but I'd like to show off the final result of the handcrafted silos.

 

[MusingWarboss]

Hi there! Your last Picture showing the setup as it was in October 22 looks really good! The TTCOMBAT stuff is excellent, I’ve been building up my table using it as I think it gives you a decent base to work off for very little expenditure.

Your home made stuff is looking good too. I’m going to be embarking on building some silos and storage tanks *sometime* soon so I’ve collected a few.

Obviously GW plastic is lovely but it has a price point that is a little above what I consider reasonable for creating a game table - plus I remember scratch built stuff from the 90s - so much personality can be instilled in your own creations!

Your Escher look great too!!