I hope that this first installment of my WIP will be ok here. While it's not WWG product, it is what I am currently working on while saving up for more ink. I promise that future uploads will be of the paper variety.

Today's project is a multipurpose display board for my Pre-Heresy Era Dark Angels.

Using foam board and card and an old GW template design I've had for years, I'm building my own display board. I've mounted it to hardboard so I can use it for terrain as well, no sense using so many materials for just the one purpose. I intend to put sheet metal that a friend of mine has on all the floor surfaces so that my already magnetized models wont fall off. So this will begin the WIP for this project. Hope it meets the standards of this extremely creative group.

I started with a 20x30 hardboard base and set up the outer walls


Then cut out tier flooring and interior walls to be flush. Trying to minimize exposed foam


Also included a landing platform into the design


The overall area of the floor space is roughly 17x27, give or take a centimeter for the foamboard walls


With the intention of being terrain, I wanted a working door, so I installed a slide


The doors work well. I plan on attaching some servo skulls to them to act as handles for easy operation. Here it is open

And Closed


I wanted more texture for the exterior, so I included a skirt wall. I started with basic buttressing


Then added card to make the skirt. Very tedious work lining up the panels to match the buttresses, with each having to be custom fit to the others, but I believe it turned out well.





Anyway, that is the project so far. Will be meeting my friend sunday to do the flooring. I'm planning on cutting small square panels and tiling them in to get a STC style design. Thoughts and comments are welcome. More to come.

Looking great! Can't wait to see where this goes.

Great construction.

Have you thought of adding WWG textures to enhance the look?

I have, but as I am currently bereft of ink... That and I have some texture paint I've been wanting to try out. This particular build would actually look pretty good with Mars Station textures on it. But, I will probably cut some card to add gothic details to the walls, as well as make doors on the interior. I might have enough ink to do a few doo dads like ladders and some of the street tech from Mars Station and lab tech from First Light to give it some character. Once I get the floors panels in, I'm going to paint a giant Dark Angels sword eagle in the center and possibly on the door as well.

+1 so far, sir.
Did you hot-glue the walls to the hard base?

No, plain ole white glue and a few anchor spots of super glue. The large area gives it pretty good stability and strength.

Looks good so far!

Reminds me of the castles, towers, manor houses, and other odd buildings. Though I have never used foam core for the walls, it is there in my mind for the 15mm WWII stuff I want to build.

Currently I am building a 15 x 24 inch Inn from the Friar set. The first floor is finished I guess. The second is about half way done. The third is only a floor. No roof structure is even started. I am so slow.

After I had the second floor almost finished, I went back and took it all apart so I could edge it because it looked kind of shabby. Well, it looks real good now, but I have redone much of it. I had cheated by using the pieces with the bracing in the interior and some without the bracing on the exterior simply because I wanted to finish faster. Well, second time around I am doing it correct. It does look so much better, even if it is taking more time and effort.

A quick update. Spent about 4 hours yesterday cutting sheet metal with my buddy John. Had to custom fit each piece, but it was really worth it. Almost every seam is a perfect fit. Just a couple joints where I'll have to GS the gaps. This will make the displayboard really hold all my magnetized models, and add stability to the entire structure.


We even cut a couple small pieces to act as runners for the gate, so that the gate doesn't bow or wiggle and slides freely.

With just enough gap to allow free movement. Don't want the foamboard hanging up on the sharp edges of the metal.


Well, that's it for this update. Next step will be to add some card textures to the walls and cover the rest of the exposed foamboard. Any thoughts or ideas to add to the project will be appreciated.

looking good love the metal idea.

Quick update, have been layering levels of cardstock textures all over this thing. Currently working on a firing wall around the perimeter, and hope to have some pics in the next couple days (if my son will let me work) before I get started painting on it. Wanna make sure everything is complete before drop one touches it. Still have guardrails and ladders to make for it for sure. Probly dont want to put those on before I add the texture paint to it though.

Finally got some pics of the project to share. All the niggling little bits took forever to cut out.

First off, the detailing, arches, supports and doors.







Also some scale pics. I think the scale is spot on. The gate should be able to fit a Land Raider, though I cant open them all the way or Id lose the gates in the wall.. Ah well, its a display board...








Next up is a solid coat of texture paint followed by adding railings and ladders. I'm thinking about installing a Mechanicum repair bay in the wall where the Razorback is sitting. The recess is actually big enough for two predators to sit side by side.

All for now. Will update soon. Have to have this done before the end of July for the first tournament of 6th.

That is coming together very nicely.

Got the texture painting done. I used Rust O'leum Multicolor Texture, it is a very fine texture, and gave the model the feeling of brick or mortar.



A little closer look, you can see the actual texture and how tight the layer is.



Next up is a base coat of a very dark grey that Ive had lying around. I think its craft art or walmart special. All I know is its a huge bottle which I dont expect to have much left of when Im done.

Played with my airbrush yesterday. Got my basecoat and most of the drybrushing done. The main floor still needs work, but Im very happy with how the walls turned out.







Still trying to figure out how to make the DA eagle stand out. The drybrushing didnt highlight it as much as Id hoped. Im want to add wash to it and change the color of the indention, but I have a feeling that may be the only way to make it more defined.

Just a thought: create a mask stencil for the eagle and (making sure to drape *everything* else) due a very light spray of a gray-ish color. Just enough to give the eagle a splattered/speckled highlight without actually completely covering it. ... Just a thought.

Beautiful build!

Well, its finally done... Would have updated some pics sooner, but couldn't stop till it was done.
First up, The Main Gate, Closed and Open.


Next, the concourse.

Repair Bay.

Landing pad.

And finally the overall Fortress for the 4th Company.


The 4th company has moved into their new digs. This is the last list I ran a few weeks back, 1850 seems to fit nicely with plenty of room for growth.

The Repair bay fits two nicely.

Lotsa room for bodies.


Sorry for the massive amount of pics, but it was a huge project.

Very cool looking!

You really don't have to apologize for the photos, they saved many words, and did a better job in the mean time. Actually, those photos were great. Thanks for the inspiration.

I finally have an update for this thread! YAY! My local asked me to make a display for their Imperial Fists store army. They like what I did with my display board, and wanted something special. So after a few weeks thinking about it, I decided on a HUGE wall set between stone facings a la a ravine. I am designing it with an open back similar to the old playsets we used to have for HeMan and GIJoe back in the day, and it will be able to be used on an actual tabletop for every thing from special scenarios and Planetstrike to Apocolypse. It's going to be slow work as I have a lot of class work this semester, but I thought I'd share the bare-bones of the wall I have done so far.

Front


Front Down


Right and Left Rear



And just in case you weren't clear on the scale of this thing...


The wall currently is 12" tall and is only the first floor. I plan on adding a second tier that will take the over all height to 15". It's very naked at the moment and will have much more going on than my last one. I'll keep you posted as time marches on.

Looks awesome!

Finally got a break from homework to work on this project... Small update, very slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

This thing will be epic when complete. I know it'd draw me into a store for sure.

If some of my ideas actually work out for this, it will be quite probably the greatest thing Ive ever built. Have plans for an elevator going upto a landing pad, stair'd platforms leading to the ramparts and stone facing with ledges for weapon system mounts w/ opening doors accessed by the stairs. Just have to do some wall detailing on the first floor here and it will be done till painting. After that I will be working on the 2nd level, followed by the side access towers, then the stone facing and landing pad and command bunker.
Would only take a few weeks to get done if it was all I could work on, but my current sub-netting class is kicking my teeth in and Im a couple weeks behind in it...

Taking a short break from the Imperial Fists Fortress to work on a kit I've always wanted to build and never got round to. Finally got some ink so I started building the Podtel last night. Hoping to get most of it done tonight. Already have the core build and just not sure how long it will take to slap the rings together. Will post pics as soon as I'm done.

I have a PodTel about half done (the core, and two rings). It looks pretty good. (I got distracted from it to do some Necroblock TCP conversion work.) The rings definitely take longer than the core. Its turning out to be an impressive piece of terrain, though.

Meant to ask how you did the fist graphic. Stick-on cut-out? It looks too smooth to be painted.

The first graphic? Not sure what you are refering to here?