Going into detail

Once the bare basic were done, and I had a frame to work in, I could start adding details.

When I had decided I would start work on the Space Hulk I immediately started collecting bits and bobs which could serve for detailing. I had a root through my stockpile of scenery materials and filtered out the bits usefull for detailing the Hulk.

 Once the basic shapes were done, I staked a claim on the garage. I arrayed the bits around me, took out a couple of corridor sections and started work… By going back upstairs and spending a couple of afternoons and weekends sketching out ideas, and viewing reference materials (aka my Games Workshop books and all Aliens movies ). As I sketched and pondered I noticed that certain ideas and designs I sketched down sparked some kind of background story/function for the corridor in question, or a simple storyline. These were the ideas I worked out more fully.

After that work could begin in earnest.

Here is one of the narrow corridors, fully detailed and ready to get painted (and currently it still remains in that state….):

This corridor shows about how deep I can make the detailing on the walls of the corridor, and still be able to move genestealers through it. The corridors are faily spacious to the old 1st edition Terminators and Genestealers. When using the new, large-base, terminators and “wide” genestealers, you really get that claustrophobic effect… This particular corridor I imagine to be used by low ranking officers. It isn’t as barren and austere as the gangways and gantries used by ratings, but still far from the opulent boulevards reserved for the highest ranks. I’ve also tagged it for use as one of the Terminators’ entryways, it’s currently in storage until I can return to working on the Hulk and finish it’s companion corridor (Which will have a slightly different style, but about the same level of ornamentation).

Oh, and I completely finished 4 wide corridor sections before the current hiatus in work on the Hulk started:

3 corridors lined with big, brass conduits, transporting who nows what throughout the ship. The smallest corridor (a 2 square one) features a Cogitator Alcove to monitor and control the flow inside the conduits.) And a fourth corridor filled with vent and intake stacks of the original vessel’s air purification system. As all the air in the ship passes through this section at one point or another the air is humid, and a thick layer of dirt and corrosion has built up on every surface.

4 down, 30 more to go… (Oh, and 6 rooms…)

And that’s as far as I got until the garage was claimed for other projects…. But the itch is starting to build again, and if everything goes well, the garage will soon be available once more. Then, another bout of building and painting can begin….

The bare basics

Here’s what the bare frames for the corridor sections look like (A corner piece in this case):

 

 And here is the lot of them:

In front of them are 6 paper squares I cut out to give an idea of the size the rooms will have. The red stripe above that is a 18″ Games Workshop plastic ruler, and above those are 3 Games Workshop miniatures.

As you can see, I’ve made part of the corridors extra wide, so I can cram more detail in. In the narrow corridors I only have .5 cm (about 1/5th of an inch) to fill with detail…

 The narrow corridors are about 8 cm (3″) wide, and the wide ones are 12 cm (3.75″) wide. They’re made from 3mm thick, somewhat foamy, plasticard that gunbird gave me. The bottom is made of double thickness, for added weight and sturdiness.

Once the groundwork was done, the fun could begin…

Post one: A little history

I’ve always liked Space Hulk. And I’ve always thought that it would be so much cooler if the floorboards were as 3D as the miniatures.  Sometime last year I decided to do just that! I spent some time measuring things (miniatures, bases, the “span” of a genestealer’s outstretched arms…) and sketching out ideas.  After that I established some basic measurements, made a “shopping list”, and started cutting and glueing plastic sheet. I made sure they were sized to accomodate both the old and the new miniatures (new Terminators have 40mm bases, new genestealers have a larger “span”).

A few weeks worth of evenings later, I had the barren skeletons for all the corridor and junction sections.  I haven’t built the rooms yet. I wanted to really go to town on those, and want to prevent myself from being restricted by a premade frame. After this I started detailing the corridors. Basically I wil be detailing and painting the corridors in small units, so I can get something completed to look at. This way I hope to prevent myself from suffering the demotivation that would come from detailing all corridors in one go, and then trying to paint all of them at once…

I’ve still got a lot to figure out though… I’ll need blips, counters and such and I have no idea how to do/make them. But first things first, and that’s building the boards themselves!

I’m not planning on using the corridors for Space Hulk alone… So much could be done with them: Playing Killteam, Boarding Actions, Necromunda, they’re just high enough to accomodate Inquisitor miniatures… I even have ideas floating around for making cards for each corridor section, so I can create a sort of 40K version of Warhammer Quest…

A word of warning though: expect this blog to regularly go on hiatus.  As the building of the Hulk demands quite some working space, I need to claim the garage for it. This isn’t always possible, sometimes the hobby needs to give way to necessity…. I’m also putting a lot of effort and energy into building it, and every once in a while I need to recharge by doing something different….