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Custom Terrain by Porkins

Porkins

Porkins

guy who got blown up over Yavin, The
Site Supporter
I've built enough custom terrain pieces now that I wanted to put up a display thread. Some of the items will have tutorials because I generally take pictures as I make them. I'll post these in reverse chronological order so you can see that as I learned and gained experience doing it, I gradually attempted more and more complex items. Browsing this forum for ideas and inspiration helped me a lot, as did looking at other sites. I also take ideas from actual objects I've seen.






I started on these fences a loooong time ago...I had to get sick to be able to finish them off today! I used the Grishnakh hex templates for the bases, which are cut out of matte board. Then I mashed some air dry clay on top with bits of sand and gravel, along with the dowels, which are from BBQ skewers. Next paint brown, wash dark brown, drybrush with brown mixed with yellow and finally drybrush again with ivory. Lastly I attached the screen (from an old window screen) with short pieces of the wire from a twisty tie and glued on the foliage.


9C488337-66CB-4494-A3B5-06782BFC569C_zpssja9jnxq.jpg



A9A93D70-190C-43A4-A0C6-365C55D7325B_zpsssyvglyd.jpg



262EFFAA-F975-471C-8EE7-DC2DA9478310_zpst4vnngtv.jpg






I finally completed the Baxter Building by Grishnakh as a store-flat building. Here are some crummy pictures taken at night in a too dark room:
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I've made several Grishnakh buildings. Here are some pictures of them in play:
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The only problem with these buildings is that they take up so much storage space. So I built the tallest building in the back of the picture as a stackable, store-flat building. Tutorial




Vydar's Cloning Chamber. My entry into Lamaclown's first Trash-to-Treasure Custom Terrain contest. Tutorial.
Spoiler Alert!





Kingman, AZ Petro tank tutorial
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Tucson I-10 water tank tutorial
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Star Wars Rebel Power Generator from the planet Hoth (tutorial):
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Dice Tower tutorial:
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Lava Terrain tutorial:
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Simple fish tank trees. These were my first customs, made shortly after I got my first Heroscape set. Just stick 'em on with hot glue. One even has some rocks added in for the roots to climb over. Despite being so simple, they do add a lot to the battlefield, particularly if you don't have any jungle terrain.
Spoiler Alert!
 
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Really digging the power generator, it is very recognizable. The water tower turned out good too, you just need to add a figure to the pic for size comparison. Or throw it on a game board so we can see how it fits on a map.
 
You will! I've already taken the pictures on the map for both of the tanks, just need to get them uploaded. The water tank has a ladder up the back side of it visible in the picture that is specifically made to fit scape figures.
 
Updated pictures of the tanks. Tutorials coming soon as well as a few more smaller projects I have at various stages of completion:

Dungeon Walls
Cell Phone towers
Road Barricades:

barricade.jpg
 
Those look great on the game board. The top of the water tower is pretty sweet with the not so obvious hexes. I also like the fact you can go underneath it to avoid a ranged figure camping on top. What did you use for the hand rail on those steps? Toothpicks?
 
The upright pieces supporting the handrail are toothpicks, while the rails themselves and the remainder of the support structure are coffee stirrers. Same goes for the ladder on the other water tower.
 
Dude, that's some pretty seriously cool stuff!

So many custom terrain builders ignore the fact that custom terrain has to work within the established terrain framework of the game. I can see that you've gone out of your way to make these tanks work. You should be very proud of these sitting on your game table. Great job!

A couple of questions: do you know exactly the level of each step on the petro tank? If not I would simply measure it and then mark it in small text next to each step. It would look like part numbers on the side of the petro tank for example and would be very small. That way, during a game, you can tell if a tall figure is adjacent to a small figure standing on a step.

Love the hexes on top of the water tower. Are you using my half hex rules for them or are you considering them full hexes?

Lastly, and yes - I know I'm OCD about these things - do you think you could base the water tower so that when it's placed it lines up exactly with the hexes? (Like you did with the petro tank.) That way the ladder lines up with the entry hex and you know exactly wether or not the supporting beams block movement? Don't know if it can be arranged to fit the hexes though. Or, if you're like my group, it doesn't so much matter since we play more friendly rather than competitive games.

Again, great stuff! :D
 
That Petrol tank is amazing! I love the stairs, that is a brilliant way to make it climbable! I'm looking forward to more updates, you make some seriously awesome stuff.
 
The steps on the Petro tank are exactly two levels each, with the difference between the top step and the top of the tank being slightly less than one hex. I suppose I could have shimmed the whole tank up a bit to make it just right.

I do use your half hex rules.

I decided not to base the water tower because I wanted to be able to use it out in the open on any kind of terrain like the pictures or on top of my Grishnakh buildings. Instead of basing it, I designed it to fit right onto 6 hexes. If you look closely, you can see that the legs perfectly straddle 4 hexes (except for the one leg that ended up kinda wonky) with a fifth between them. Then the drain pipe falls onto the sixth hex. The ladder I also designed to mesh with normal hexes as closely as is possible on a round object. I relied heavily on your hex sheets to do this; thanks for those!

One thing I realized too late was that when I set up the Petro tank on the hex template, I screwed up and cut on the black lines instead of the red lines. So when I put it on the battlefield, it doesn't fit quite right if there are terrain tiles stacked up next to it, because they push each other out of place. But, nevertheless, I am very happy with how it turned out.
 
Porkins said:
The steps on the Petro tank are exactly two levels each, with the difference between the top step and the top of the tank being slightly less than one hex. I suppose I could have shimmed the whole tank up a bit to make it just right.
Click to expand...

I sort of thought you had it worked out.

Porkins said:
I do use your half hex rules.
Click to expand...

Cool. The edges along top of the petro tank is perfect for them.

Porkins said:
I decided not to base the water tower because I wanted to be able to use it out in the open on any kind of terrain like the pictures or on top of my Grishnakh buildings. Instead of basing it, I designed it to fit right onto 6 hexes. If you look closely, you can see that the legs perfectly straddle 4 hexes (except for the one leg that ended up kinda wonky) with a fifth between them. Then the drain pipe falls onto the sixth hex. The ladder I also designed to mesh with normal hexes as closely as is possible on a round object. I relied heavily on your hex sheets to do this; thanks for those!
Click to expand...

That one leg and the pipe is what threw me. Perhaps you can force it back into place without breaking it. A better idea would be to add some sort of piping or machinery to the leg that fills the hex up a bit more. That way it would easily be read as a hex that cannot be occupied. Or just leave it alone, which is probably the best idea!

Porkins said:
One thing I realized too late was that when I set up the Petro tank on the hex template, I screwed up and cut on the black lines instead of the red lines. So when I put it on the battlefield, it doesn't fit quite right if there are terrain tiles stacked up next to it, because they push each other out of place. But, nevertheless, I am very happy with how it turned out.
Click to expand...

I saw that as well in your photos. That offset does help it fit. Oh well, you'll do it next time!

Anyway, all of this is minor stuff. Let me say again that these are really cool and shows a lot of thought and creativity! I might have to try my hand at something like this someday.
 
Cool stuff Porkins. I had the thought for the Star Wars shield generator for ages & it keeps coming up in head but I don't have any SW figures so I quickly forget it again, but it is strange that my thoughts keep coming back to it, but hopefully now that you have done it I won't think about it again. Great job on all. Sadly my rep cannon is empty for you (you must be doing too much great work lately ;)).
 
Awesome stuff here Porkins. Live how you mades the C3G logo as graffitti tags on the water tower and petro tank. My rep cannon for you is empty as well.
 
Tremendous work Porkins both towers are amazing. And that Generator will be fun for a Hoth battle.

I must've been missing out on all those great posts beacuse my rep cannon still needs to be shot over to you. *3....2....1....Fire!!!*
 
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