Legendary Necromunda tables Hall of Fame

[Grognard Gluefingers]

Most of the culture I know of likes to rank things top to bottom, picking winners and losers. I have a competitive streak myself, but egos can sour communities and hobbies. Ranking first place, second place, and so on can get feathers ruffled. Even a first place win can put pressure on the winner to perform or go to their head a little too much. Perhaps there is a more friendly and supportive way to recognize achievement.
TL;DR: Post shots and links of the coolest Necromunda tables ever

I've spent an enormous amount of time, effort and money making one of the largest and most detailed sets in the world. Is it THE best? No, nobody is THE best in this thread because it's not about that. Art is subjective anyways. Let's respect each other as crafter and artists that have delivered results. I believe that merits extra recognition and praise for the ones that have gone above and beyond. We should boost each other up and provide inspiration to one another. Everyone needs a board to play on so give a shout out to your local terrain guru.

Legendary is a tall order though. I am still setting a high standard for what's posted here. There are other places and the whole gallery here for random terrain pictures. I will say that for Necromunda, on average we have the best terrain crafters in wargaming. That's pretty awesome. My evidence is that I have seen a ton of wargaming terrain of mixed quality, and almost never see a bad Necromunda piece. I think we just care about details and craftsmanship more commonly due to the nature of running a personalized customized gang. It attracts creative intelligent people and that is why YakTribe is so amazing. Thank you everyone.

OK, I'm not going to enforce these standards or talk down about any project. But I would encourage posters to consider the following for what I consider LEGENDARY. I request as a favor people post pictures of their favorite tables here and hopefully a link. If we get enough links they can be edited into a compilation list.

Size. Should be able to fill about a 4'x4' at minimum. (1.2 x1.2 meters)
Height. Should be at least 1 foot tall (1/3 meter)
Good quality of build (generally not an issue)
Good quality of paint (tabletop+ level generally)

At least one of the following:
Use of unusual parts such as toys, found objects, custom sculpts or 3D prints
Theming and creativity, visual story-telling
Great playability
Weathering effects, rust and corrosion
Water effects
Lighting or working mechanics
Posters or graffiti
Lived in feel, with furniture or objects scattered about

A truly ultimate legendary board will have ALL of those elements in my opinion. But I don't want to gatekeep too hard. This is about what you, the Yaks think is super cool.

I have some fabulous projects in mind but wanted to give others a chance to nominate some legends first.

Thank you.

 

[Pierric]

Hello,

I think your technical specifications are a bit restrictive, and too much diorama oriented IMO. Having been though the process of creating my own tabletop system the last couple of years, I thought a lot about this topic.

I reckon we all dreamed someday of playing once with some top notch scenery like this one :

But let's be realistic :​

• It is more a diorama than an effective gaming tabletop...​
• You don't want your project to require 6 long years of week-ends assembly and painting sessions and dedicate half of the family basement to it...​
• As a player, you don't want to know by heart every hide-out, ambushing corner or shooting lane of a static set-up after half a dozen games...​

For Necromunda gaming, at some point, compromise between terrain realism / scenic effects and playability is the key point.

So I defined the following specifications, totally subjective and suited to my intended use. My terrain would be :​

1. Modular
   Ability to play a lot of games with different set-ups of the same material, for a renewed game experience each time.
2. Based on a tile system
   A reduced number of fixed terrain elements, so I can assemble and paint them in a reasonable period of time (initial deadline : less than 12 months. Actual lead time : more than 2 years).​
3. Standardized​
   Similar tiles dimensions, to be able to randomly put the elements any way on the table, including walkways between them.
4. Quick to install before playing​
   No dozens of scatter elements, no plenty loose bits, reduced pre-game building, but a quick and random system including ground, ways and structures, allowing to put a tabletop together in no more than 10 minutes, and with a different result each game.
5. Multi-level​
   Including towers, platforms, ladders, so as to express the very essence of the game, and not restraint ourselves to dungeon-like corridors system.
6. Storage friendly​
   Being able to put all the elements in one (big) box and bring it to a friend's house, or to the gaming club.

So I'm now quite happy with the results, matching almost all my initial specifications. During my last visit at the gaming club, we had two grognards watching our battle, not so much interested with the on-goings or the miniatures, but one commenting "that's a nice gaming table" and the other one adding "Yes, very nice indeed. Congratulations".

As you say, even if I reduced the level of building and painting to tabletop standard and not diorama level, they were impressed by what you call the average Necromunda standard, and were more used to more basic 40K or WFB scenery based on a few scatter elements on a gaming mat.

As for the "legendary" aspect, I will say that it mainly comes from the games you play with your system and the epic battle memories you build around it, whatever the aesthetics of your terrain. When I was in College back in 1995, we played in our student room with our gangs and a few cardboard boxes and food cans with my good friend of the time. I'm afraid no gaming experience with my tabletop system (which I would only have dreamed about it in my wildest dreams back then) will ever beat these fond memories.

You don't need lightings and working mechanisms in an enjoyable tabletop system.

You just need a good friend.

 

[Stoof]

You'll be hard pressed to beat @Tiny's Sumpton upon Sump board or @ClockworkOrange's Trollholme.

(Pics taken by @MusingWarboss at TribeMeet 2021).
Sumpton perhaps lacks height, but it's great fun to play over.

Trollholme is awesome to fight through.

Both mostly built of scrap & mdf - not much in the way of plastic kits.

My offerings are more of the flat-pack classic variety due to not having the room to store boxes upon boxes of terrain. However, they are still popular tables and the ability to reshape them game after game is very handy compared to boards which are fixed - even Trollholme or Sumpton become samey if you play on them repeatedly without mixing it up, and you can have brilliant games on old 90's cardstock. Or piles of books with a cloth over them!

At a TribeMeet you can fight over all sorts - Laser cut tables, scratch built tables, scrap tables, carboard-and-bulkhead tables... you'll be able to have great games on any of them! What I'm saying is come to TribeMeet 2023.


TribeMeet. You know you want to.

 

[ClockworkOrange]

Did someone say Tribemeet? TRIBEMEET!

 

[ClockworkOrange]

PS whilst Trollholme has had a kind shout out above from @Stoof New Barterton is actually my favourite table that I’ve made. Just because of the general Choas.

E9C25729-DB78-48BB-9C34-973B1EC9A258.jpeg

• ClockworkOrange
• Sep 26, 2022

C3F2D87B-75F5-4A13-B845-125A9C75BE9E.jpeg

• ClockworkOrange
• Sep 26, 2022

12F6618E-E455-46DD-968B-064443C6F4EE.jpeg

• ClockworkOrange
• Sep 26, 2022

7630BF2E-C4B4-4B17-ADFC-F00E22AE0A3F.jpeg

• ClockworkOrange
• Sep 26, 2022

Obviously I’m also rather fond of my THUNDERCUBE MKIII (not to be confused with @radulykan ‘s Hasbro toy spray paint effort MKIV)

 

[Tiny]

Thanks for the kind words @Stoof . There are more pics of Sumpton Upon Sump in my gallery if anyone is interested. Also more of this year's Tribemeet tables (although sadly forgot to take pics of a lot of the tables).

Some of my favourites are Sean Patten's tables that he's had on his Necromundicon site for decades (I believe the one @Pierric showed above is also his but can't see it on the site).

 

[Tiny]

Also, who can forget this crazy bad boy from White Dwarf back in 1996(?)

 

[MusingWarboss]

Well @Grognard Gluefingers I'll split this up into sections.

Keepin' it at the Yak.
So to start, you want a few photos of cool tables - actually you're at the best place for it! YakTribe has had some amazing terrain over the years but as we've already mentioned Tiny and ClockworkOrange I'll resurrect an older thread - @timdp 's Sevastopol Sector!

Necromunda - Sevastopol Sector terrain and gaming blog

Have been digging out all of my Necromunda appropriate unpainted Armorcast scenery and prepping, priming and giving it all a wash in prep for doing a Necro table. These were the prototypes for the Armorcast bubbly tanks that I (fortunately) kept.

yaktribe.games

I think this project pretty much has all of your requirements in it.

What I think is most notable in this project are the risers. These elevate (ho ho ho) the project by making it not just a series of buildings but a whole load of maze like structures which have various terrain elements on or around. To this end @Tiny 's Sumpton would also work pretty well if placed on a mat other than the sump - you basically gain an extra level from the ground to the plinths the structures are on.

But mostly because you don't seen many around these days*; they were all the rage about a decade ago but ever since GW started issuing it's own plastic stuff for SW:A and Necro it's died out. I'm pretty tempted to make a few myself actually, you don't need many but they really add to the hectic and weird nature of underhive scenery and gives you more levels without having to have an extensive building collection. Plus as Sumpton shows, change the mat and those risers become the ground over sump water, chem pits or rivers of moltern metal in a forge (whatever ideas you have).
If anyone else wants to give their thoughts on risers and why you don't see any these days please chip in!!

Plus as said - these are on gaming mats! You can make your own gaming surface for sure but I get a little itchy around sand glued to MDF and nicely painted models in a game that requires you to place models paint-to-table or slipping from a height onto sandpaper hill. So the soft comforting mouspaddy base of a gaming mat is nothing to be ashamed of!


My thoughts on Scenery.
Much like @Pierric above I think that huge diorama tables aren't really what the average player needs. I think they're great for events, conventions, Gaming Stores (FLGS or GW) or display projects but as a general purpose gaming experience they soon come unstuck. As outlined above one of the biggest issues is that in a few short games, possible the course of one campaign, you can identify fire lines, where to stand to see everyone, where not to stand unless you want to get shot etc. Then there's the space they take up. 4'x4' is what a lot of people favoured in years gone by but I think 3'x3' allows a better chance to get into doing anything without having to waste a turn moving people in.

I also like to see my scenery like a theatrical backdrop (or a backdrop in a film) - if you're admiring the scenery then the actors are doing a poor job!!
So I prefer the scenery to be functional and reasonably pretty but not take too much away from the figures - or worse, make it bloody hard to see the figures on the table (a frequent problem with Grrrrrrrimdark Blanchitsu on rusty ruins. Too much brown, orange and red!! On everything.

Also think about where you roll your dice. Are you a scenery space roller or table roller or some sort of dice containment roller? Because on a huge display table that's very scenery heavy you're gonna get a lot of cocked or lost dice, the GW table that used to be in Warhammer World comes to mind - you could not roll dice on that at all!!

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/02/12/12th-feb-necromunda-the-narrative-approachfw-homepage-post-2/

So I favour stuff that's not fixed in place, that you can move around and modify add or subtract from games and basically make it a scenery collection rather than a model railway without trains.

Also, who can forget this crazy bad boy from White Dwarf back in 1996(?)

I remember it well, always wondered what it was like to play on - looked almost a little restrictive. I remember @Kiblams had one here, was hoping to see it at a YakMeet but he's not been active for a while, which is a shame as I liked his stuff too.

Vanity:
As I'm here I'll just post a shot of my own stuff - which while no way near as impressive as others here in daylight (hissss, melting) if you take a few arty shots it looks pretty good to me!! Plus I can expand as necessary.

MusingWarboss’s Scenery #9

• MusingWarboss
• Sep 28, 2022

Hivefreight depot.

Zone Mortalis

• MusingWarboss
• May 16, 2020
• zone mortalis

The darkened tunnels under the underhive.

*I think moudular terrain in the latest fad, thanks to GW's tiles in the 2017 box and the plastic ones.

 

[ClockworkOrange]

I second the shout out for Ironhands - that website inspired so much that I make especially my obsession with scratch building.

Then there’s these in no particular order, all of them make the Troll itch with envy at the ridiculous skills on show the utter bar stools

Level Up

Yesterday I went to the DIY store to buy some stuff for a some kind of frame to put another level of terrain tiles upon. After an hours work I were quite satisfied. Luckily some friends came by to …

thenickeninja.wordpress.com

@Draconic
https://yaktribe.games/community/threads/slave-to-the-necro-wip.7882/post-230312

@neil101 https://yaktribe.games/community/media/albums/hive101.5120/ and

The world of Necromunda

yaktribe.games

The above 3 are the best of the best for me and take this weird niche of a niche of a niche, that a few of us obsessive Necromunda scenery builders live in, and make it into an art form. It’s truly awesome that they are all part of the community we have here.

 

[Sundown Dreamer]

What I really like at the moment is "Dylan Gould's Amazing Underhive Table".
https://www.goonhammer.com/necromunday-spotlight-dylan-goulds-amazing-underhive-table/

And the table that I like best over time to this day is an old gaming table from an event in France with the title "Necromunda Specialist Games Range Table 25" from the Cities of Death time, maybe about 15 years, but I can't find any pictures online and don't have any image rights.

And then the Necromunda tower from the WD. It was an original idea, built from simple materials, painted effectively and played well.

Of the ones already presented above, the lovingly and beautifully painted Necromunda MDF terrain by MusingWarboss catches my eye. And I agree with that of ClockwerkOrange from draconic: https://yaktribe.games/community/media/completed-board-zone-6x4.47030/

And from the professional work of GW, I think the "Big Necromunda Display" and the "Dark Uprising Diorama" from WarhammerWorld and WD are good representations.

 

[MedMos]

I think it might still be wip, but I also, in addition to the ones mentioned above, really like @Gdolkin's table.

Board Aug19 2.jpg

yaktribe.games

 

[Grognard Gluefingers]

Well I'm quite pleased and thankful this Yaksgiving. Everyone took the idea and ran with it and got the basic point. I will fill in a few missing pieces next week.

Before the end of the year I plan to get the first group photo of my new work the last three or four years. I literally don't have the space to open tubs of anything older at the moment and may even leave out the stand-alone shops and scatter terrain.

The idea behind the criteria wasn't a strict checklist but just trying to set a standard for the Hall of Fame. Everybody got the idea. We're looking for completed tables or outstanding constructions that go above and beyond.

Everyone's perfect table or dream table will vary a bit, no problem. We don't need perfection anyways.

Most of the projects presented so far have been direct inspirations for my own work. Part of the reason for this request to help build out a Hall of Fame together was to show the legacy of Necromunda building. It's a history of mutual inspiration and source for the future. Job well done.

I am contemplating putting together a crowd-funded 'coffee table' art book attemot of my terrain work. If it goes well, I can take the proof-of-concept back to the Tribe and see if we can get a "best of YakTribe' print run going. We should probably limit it to one or two pages per Yak depending on interest.

When I came across Necromundicon around 2007. I felt a weird sinking feeling that someone had done it better, and had the terrain collection that I wanted to build. Ever since I resolved to up the level of detail, trying to emulate the busy 'greebling' style and sense of impending doom and decay some of the pieces brought.

Some note on table design and layout: I don't think that single piece huge full boards are the way to go. That was never what I was asking for. Nor was I saying a project is only good if it has lights pr posters. I was just asking for some extra effort to put it above and beyond, to qualify for somehting called Necromunda table Hall of Fame. Keeping most things on tiles about 1-2 feet on a side at most usually makes the most sense.

Certainly everyone is welcome to buld and play what they want, how they want, etc.

Gameplay and diorama-level of detail do not have to be at cross-purposes, although it can be a challenge. That's been my design philosophy these last years: that I can make it is detailed as I want, but it has to remain playable and accessible no matter what. I admit there are some tight fights here and there, especially if you crammed everything in together without spacers or extra gantries. 1-2 feet long. I think for the most part I hit that balance. Once I post final pictures everyone can see what I mean better. To finish off the project I plan to construct magnetized catwalks. This will make it more modular and connected without having too maqny fiddly bits flying off away from the main footprint of the construction. It also provides options like moving something out of the way or removing a destroyed bridge within a game.

I'd love to keep this going in perpetuity. Since I'm hosting I decided not to weigh in on favorites or get into praise / criticism at this time. You have all done an excellent job, both the crafters and the people linking and commenting. I'm trying to click Like on everybody's posts so far, sorry If I missed one.

Happy Yaksgiving and thanks again, this is exactly what I was hoping for and more than expected.

 

[Gdolkin]

Aww, cheers Medmos! It's still wip in the sense that I have not and may never start work on the originally intended second pair of 2'x2' boards to complete a 4'x4' table, but the initial pair were finished, displayed in WHW, featured in WD, have been gamed on in a great many of the possible modular configurations,and are behind me right now covered in Necromundan peoples.

 

[Punktaku]

In addition to these (may have been added since I last looked at this thread), Yggdrasil board (by @neil101 ?) and one by Nickeninja we’re both spectacular.

But @Draconic ’s modular board is perfect in my opinion. Maybe because I was cheerleading when he was making it…

 

[Draconic]

Cheers for the mention fellas.
Nickeninjas stuff was a big initial influence for me, crazy good use of random scratch built junk so thats its barely noticeable, and yeah, most of us probably already know Neil.. "we're not worthy" 101 - God tier.

I also really like these creators on socials. (would still be missing heaps as i'm way out of touch atm)

Josh (dakkatastic)
Alex lunde (hrosshvalur_lunde)
Tanuki_sly
Shibboleth02
Steve Brice (hobbydad)

I reckon the perfect gaming board is unachievable and could send somone crazy trying to achieve it. Realsim tends to diorama, sacrificing modularity. Modularity typically lends to less realism. I tried to combine them both but im not 100% happy with my terrain and would do it different if i did it again, as is the value of hindsight.

 

[cronevald]

I won't pretend to have setups even close to to the glorious ones presented here, but I do have a legendary terrain box. It's a big white shipping box filled to overflowing with bulkheads and intact cardboard from the original game. I'm not sure exactly how much is in there but I do know that it could fill two tables and still have complete buildings left over.

 

[Grognard Gluefingers]

I think the only mega-set not mentioned so far I know of is in a video here:

by Dingues de jeux.

There's also a Warhammer World display that would count but this is more about community recognition.

I also wanted to mention Eric's Hobby Workshop. Some of the terrain 'battles' he gets in show some stellar scratch-built work on both sides. I haven't seen a massive layout from everyone I like, but check out 'Magrathea builder of worlds' he does great stuff too. I think hobby tutorial wizards deserve a separate thread so I will wrap there.

My girlfriend is tired of half our living room looking like the underhive so it's well past time I post my own pictures! I'm still caught up in details like making fish and market stalls. It's really hard to stay on track and on schedule. But soon you can see the results of all the collective inspiration I have taken from these legendary tables.

I still think tiles between about one or two feet on a side give you plenty of molecularity and still allow for lots of visual story-telling and diorama details. Especially if you build tall you have even more room to work. Scatter terrain is a tough compromise but it can make sense to combine smaller elements into a larger piece for ease of play. If you are knocking around individual barrels and boxes it might be too fiddly. But part of me likes keeping things really loose and having tiny pieces to use... just in case.

But honestly for the upcoming photo set of Habzone Quandary I'm planning to only use big tiles for now, maybe a handful of small buildigns. It's a long story but I fantasize almost every day on having a garage or other room big enough to hold table after table of terrain details all connected as a city. For now it's just going to be whatever I can fit in the frame in storage, on the ground.

I'm also working on concepts for stand-alone interiors made out of plastic drawers or take-out containers. Rooms can be underground, accessible through a hatch.

I have to laugh a little at multiple comments indicating how crazy it would be for some maniac to spend 6+ years taking over sections of the home with Necromunda diorama terrain projects they can't afford or store. Well, if the shoe fits... Yeah, that's me, and I've been teasing this madness for a while now. But I could not have gotten here to this point without the hard work of those who came before.

Keep the photos, links, and praise coming, this is great momentum we have going. I still have some scoping out to do of what's been posted. Thanks again.

 

[Sundown Dreamer]

If you look around and for a collection and an overview of different types of possibilities, I take the liberty of expanding the suggestions:

A ZM and a SM gaming table with 3D prints by Dingues de Jeux:

Interesting game tables with Zone Mortalis Tiles that I like and can be arranged in different ways:
Double Skull Wargaming https://www.youtube.com/@doubleskullwargaming/featured and Rapid Tabletop Gaming https://www.youtube.com/@MrLeonarddime

For Necromunda on Playmat (and his Battle Reports), I mention Miniature Game Montage https://www.youtube.com/@MiniatureGameMontage/playlists

Then there are the tiles by Bjrani (Bjarndali) presented on WHC, which can be stacked to form a ZM tower:
https://www.warhammer-community.com...rain-quite-like-this-necromunda-gang-hideout/

 

[Sundown Dreamer]

by Dingues de jeux.

Ha, that rarely happens, but apparently we had the same idea with Dingues de Jeux at the same time.

 

[Tiny]

I reckon the perfect gaming board is unachievable and could send somone crazy trying to achieve it. Realsim tends to diorama, sacrificing modularity. Modularity typically lends to less realism. I tried to combine them both but im not 100% happy with my terrain and would do it different if i did it again, as is the value of hindsight.

This is entirely true. My Sumptown board was built to be as playable as possible and semi modular but loses a lot of the realism and detail it could have had were it more static.
I think making a board too tall can also be a trap. It looks impressive but they tend to be terrible to play on with heavy weapons dominating and games taking ages due to needing to move so far.
That said, one day I’ll make a 4’ tall board. Just for giggles and the challenge of making a super tall board at least somewhat playable.