Bloodbeard:
Welcome to my sci-fi blog!
I’m about to embark on my journey into Deadzone (and following the kickstarter also Warpath). In this blog I’ll share my projects with you all. Hope to get some nice feedback, perhaps inspire a few people. The blog will contain painted models, battle reps, conversions and scratch builds.
A bit about me:
Well… Warhammer is not the thing for me right now. The friends I regularly played with are busy or have moved away. We need a smaller game (and AoS aint it). Started my woodelf tree spirit project (almost painted my treeman elder), but since they aren’t gonna see use any time soon I’m not feeling motivated.
Summer is over and I want to start hobbying again. Now it’s time for some sci-fi.
Why Deadzone?
Had a couple of games with a friend and I got hooked. I love this Warpath sci-fi setting . it’s hitting so many of my favourite things. And Mantic does make some great games. Love the miniatures and think battle zones are really cool. I have a Lockdown coming from Deadzone: Infestation and Total Warfare and loads of add-ons from the recent Warpath Kickstarter.
What do I have?
At the moment I’ve got my early shipped Faction Starters and a Rebs booster (think that on brings the most needed stuff). When the Beta rules for Deadzone Redux hits the internet, I’ll start making the strike teams. Will try and build one legal force and paint them up - then add more miniatures to the warbad as I go. No need to use tie on painting a lot of enforcers, when not all will see battle.
A sci-fi urban district.
Now with out further talk and text, I’ll share my first project with you guys.
Bloodbeard:
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Bloodbeard:
Construction Crane
I love the idea of the corporation sending people out to colonize planets. There’s a neat Weyland-Yutani thing about it. I imagine that this outer rim planet are pretty rough to live on. The battlezone is designed and described as multi purpose. The are containers for the flight and used for housing upon arrival at a planet. Settlers will then have to work hard if they hope to get anything new from the corporation.
So the things I build will look like this. They’ll have battlezone elements and then a lot of homemade, junk looking things as well. The people having had to make due with what they’ve got, because they can go for years without hearing from the corporation and getting aid.
StartUsing four walls from my battlezone set and a lot of cleaned sprue.
Building up with lots of long bits. I’ve decided to not cleaned the sprue after some consideration, thinking it’ll look better when the building is painted, washes and weathered. The more stuff to break up the long sprue the better.
As Deadzone is played in 3’’ cubes, I build the crane in these as well. So decided to have an elevator 6’’ up. It’s made from some fine metal net bought at the hardware store and some sprue framing.
The top level/roof of the crane is again from the battlezone set. I’ve been trying to find a good balance between homemade and bought. The bolt and nut is part of the mechanism for the elevator.
The chain for the elevator is superglued on every link, making sure the elevator is stable for miniatures. Good trick seen in some Artisan’s Contst.
In order for miniatures to get to the elevator level in game I wanted to make a platform a 3’’. Measured to be 1,5’’, so as wide as the other half-size battlezone tiles. Made from the plastic lid of a store bought potato salad.
The square cut from the lid will be used as a floor for the crane.
With miliput and a pin roll from Green Stuff World I’ve added some detail to the platform. This is my frst atempt using the pin roll on such a large area. Next time I’ll do smaller elements and glue them together afterwards. I think that’ll give me a better result.
I’ve made miliput details on both sides of the platform. Chose the best looking side to be upwards. Superglued to the building and added support rods made from battlezone sprue.
The crane arm is made from sprue. This is also made as a 1,5’’ wide and 6’’ long.
Added a bit of sprue to the inside that looked like a rail of some sort (must have held shields or something). Superglued the a chain to it, it’s attached in the other end to a large bolt and nut (bigger than the elevator ones).
For the hook I’ve found some 40k bits (I think it’s from a defiler). A bit of cutting was needed to angle it right.
And some other detail bit found in the bits box. These are at the top of the crane. Some kind of controls I guess.
Finished build!
And now the build is finished. 12’’ high (4 deadzone cubes). With the platforms made as the are (depending on the new rules), miniatures should be able to climb to platform 3’’, then to elevator 6’’, then to platform 9’’ and roof 12’’.
The crane arm won’t hold all miniatures because it’s 1,5’’ wide.
The cranes chain and hook is superglued so it’s solid and keeps in place. It’s 6’’ off the ground. So I plan on build a square like the elevator that fits on the hook. This gives sort at a flying area, that can only be accesed through set-up or by climbing the crane and jumping (falling controlled) down to it.
Admiral:
Neat! I look forward to follow this, you jolly Dane! :cheers
And that terrain is top-notch. Carry on like that and you’ll have a wondrous battlefield.
Fuggit Khan:
Very cool crane…did you reference real cranes at a construction site? It looks 100% functional, a miniature of the real deal. I love large models of engineering/mechanical stuff such as this, especially when the model looks operational in a ‘true’ sense.
And the steel bolt is cool, looks the part of a real winch drum and adds some center weight to the model as well…very clever idea :hat off
Abecedar:
Its looking great so far.
Although I am a bit disappointed that the elevator and crane don’t actually work.
Trying to create details like that is what does my mind in.
TheHoodedMan:
Looks great so far. I like sci-fi as well and the warpath stuff looks promising. Nice to see some pics from you again :cheers.
Bloodbeard:
@Admiral: Thank you.
@Fuggit: haven’t looked at anything. Build it from the picture I have in my head. Been some time since I last saw one of these type of cranes.
@Abecedar: Never got the hang of doing anything with wires. Would love to build som LEDs into my sci-fi terrain - but I haven’t got the know how or the tools.
@HoodedMan: It’s good to be doing some hobby work again. Weather is begging for it. The time for doing cool stuff outside is over.
Basecoloured crane
Got some colour on the crane and just wanted to show that off. I’ve spray painted the model with a brown from Army Painter. It workds quite well. The matt yellow looks good on top off it. And the brown shines through somewhere giving a nice rusty and dusty look.
Added some more screws and bolts to the crane. Just to add some more weight to the buttom and to look like junk. Think I’ll add some cannisters/barrels to the top platform, get a way to add some bright contrast colours to the thing.
Let me know what you think.
TheHoodedMan:
Did you bust dirt over the summer ;-)?
Abecedar:
I know what you mean. I over complicate things all the time by trying to make them actually work.
I’ve played with DIY LED’s before but now I’m thinking of using pre-made stuff.
Have a look at small (el-cheapo) LED XMAS lights. The battery pack ones can sometimes have only 10 to 20 LED’s in them
Bloodbeard:
Did you bust dirt over the summer ;-)?
TheHoodedMan
Once, in august. Great weekend!
Dangerous yellow/black stripes
Small update. Currently working on a landing pad build. Gonna make an update on that one later, I'm taking lots of pictures.
So this is just to show off the progress on painting the crane.
I've ordered some GW technical paints (blood, oil/rust, nurgles rot) and some Vallejo weathering powders (rust, soot). That's gonna work wonders for the industrial look I'm going for.
Admiral:
Hazard stripes are a surefire way to make good science fiction terrain, in my book, They might be offset a bit by the yellowness of the crane as a whole, so I look forward to see what you make out of the crane with the special effects paints. Besides, the catwalk look neat already. Perhaps you could make chipped areas of paint at some exposed edges, with the metal visible? Just a thought. A dark brown stain, with metal in the middle usually does the trick.
Admiral:
Your log here is quickly turning into a wealth of sci-fi terrain ideas and tutorials. Very good work on both landing pad (lovely attention to detail with the hatch etc!) and shipping container. Solid, simple stuff that looks convincing.
Bloodbeard:
Your log here is quickly turning into a wealth of sci-fi terrain ideas and tutorials. Very good work on both landing pad (lovely attention to detail with the hatch etc!) and shipping container. Solid, simple stuff that looks convincing.
Admiral
Thank you Admiral.
Deadzone Mat
Deadzone is played on a 2'x2' board. It consists of 8x8 3'' squares. I have two high quality mats coming from a Deadzone Kickstarter. But the beta ruels for DZ 2nd edition will be out soon, so I needed something to start out with.
Found this old table cloth and the the stipes were excatly 3'' wide. So just draw some lines myself for the other side.
Need a couple of more big pieces on there before there's enough terrain there.
Next up is an elevator for the landing pad.
Admiral:
The attention to detail and overall look is turning out gorgeous. Smart way to make razor wire. I particularly like the elevator box and the textured floor. Looking forward to next update!
Abecedar:
Certainly is coming along great.
Another way to make “barbed” wire is to cut along a single strand of fly screen wire so that the crossing threads stick out both sides.
Fuggit Khan:
There is some really inspiring work here…so many cool idea’s that I’m gonna borrow (steal), the barbed wire is a really nice touch. Nothing says ‘combat zone’ like some good old fashioned barbed wire 
