Abecedar:
All good things take a while and that looks great. keep perservering
Nicodemus:
Not quite a year since my last update to the thread. Oh my. Working 80+ hours a week is really eating into any spare time though and when I do have time I usually pass out. At least I have this dungeon tile finished finally (the large statue representation of Hashut isn’t done yet though).
4x10 Objective Room - Temple of Hashut Entrance
I felt like the floor was a bit flat before so I did a bit more shading and then I hit the carved edges with a sharp highlight… plus some lava behind the floor symbol.
I wanted the temple entrance door to be more weathered and grimy from lots of ash-covered gloved hands touching it over the long years it has stood.
… NOW … the main thing that has been holding me up with this project besides the all-encompassing work distractions is that I had no vision for the Objective Room that I wanted to be the new Daemonsmith’s Forge.
I have been searching off and on for over a year for inspiration and nothing really clicked until I found two pieces of art:
Credit: Herve Groussin aka Nuro (Senior Concept Artist at UBIsoft - Prince of Persia)
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0Eyw
and
Credit: posted by BinaryReflex (touched-up screen shot from The Fighters Guild Quest in Elder Scrolls Online)
The Earth Forge by BinaryReflex on DeviantArt
So the parts I’m interested in are the slightly elevated platforms in the first image and the areas where they intersect, and in the second image it’s the forge itself and the pipes and conduits leading upward that meet with the rock above - has a nice symmetry between the rock above and the forge below. I’m still not decided on the look of the forge itself, but this has all the elements I’d want so I may stick with it.
The Daemonsmith’s Forge will be a 5x8 tile, so 1 row wider than the usual Objective Rooms, but some of the floor will be blocked by lava and rock, although there will be elevation gain for models to spread out nicely and I may allow some of the elevated areas to spill outside the footprint of the 5x8 area. We’ll see.
~N
Helblindi:
That is some very impressive terrain! I like the crumbled stairs especially!
Admiral:
Great to see you back at it! Good touches, and promising inspiration for your next move. Please know that this log is a treasure trove of good ideas and neat dungeon scenery. 
Nicodemus:
5x8 Objective Room - Daemonsmith’s Forge
Testing a general layout for the forge. Very rough, but the placement seems like it’ll work. I’ve also got a few extra billows of “smoke” from a while back and I’m expecting this will go on at some point toward the end.
Testing out some foam carving based on some of the nice artwork we have access to. I did a line drawing over the original image in Power Point and then scaled the whole image to the size I wanted and printed out the line drawing so I had something to start cutting.
A little farther along, building up some of the detail inside. I chose not to do too many levels and kept it fairly flat, just going with outlines for the detail.
Testing out the placement for the carving and also the layout of the forge based on the artwork in my above post.
Having decided I liked the general form and layout I put a few more pieces on here and there to get an idea if I sill like where some of this is going (note, the other line drawings aren’t where they’ll be, there for reference).
Looking straight down from the top to the floor area of the forge (not visible from the “front” view).
Second carving
Making some progress on the forge area. Note - the forge is BIG, it’s large enough for 6 CDs to fit inside.
Checking layout for some taurus heads.
Trying to figure out how many levels and step segments I will need to get up to the height of the forge (it’s steeper than I’d like). Also added a bit of extra carving to the backside of the forge.
Pretty rough layout of the taurus head carvings and testing out a piece for the inside of the forge.
Getting ready to go on vacation for 2 weeks… it’ll be good to have a break. Although I’ve only worked on this for a short time over a few nights taking a break will give me time to think about how to improve the look and bring the parts together without rushing - as it could easily go toward a look I don’t want.
~N
tjub:
So cool to have this project back on track! The new pieces looks good so far as well, and is that a hall with pillars in the background?
Ghrask Dragh:
Oh my, this is next level stuff! Incredible mate, can’t wait for more
I really like the way the way you’ve included all the CDO artwork into these too
Amazing
:cheers
Nicodemus:
After thinking about it and re-assessing I’ve realized that with the height I want the approaches are going to be too steep on the sides to be playable, so I need to increase the size of the board section. Looking at the old size now I feel like it’s obvious that it was too small:
In the mean time I made some adjustments and got a start on the pipes and conduits:
I decided that I wanted to base the ‘base’ of the rock and stone on a taurus (although with horns curved down just to save on space)
And after some testing I’ve settled on a 7x10 board:
Testing out the general fit (after some hacking of the previous piece), so far so good.
Building up the horns in preparation for steps
A rough view of how it’s going to look with some of the pieces assembled.
And with the top rock piece in it’s general position above the main forge. You can see one of the other carvings that’s been installed on the right horn (to the left) and on the left (to the right in the image) there’s a bit of a base set into the horn to accommodate some steps and the smaller forge within an alcove.
I also like that there’s more floor space on the main level of the board to allow lots of models to fit on and get some good action going. Once the stairs are started that’s going to help open up additional space for models as well.
~N
Uther the unhinged:
Wow, that is just incredible, not just the execution but the vision and ambition. It will do what Hashut would want, make the mortals feel small. Amazing.
Zanthrax:
Awesome - where are the pipes from?
tjub:
Looking good, the pipes are spot on!
Nicodemus:
The pipes are from the 40K terrain set called Thermic Plasma Conduits. I didn’t use all of the bits, as some of them are supposed to be glowing coils that I didn’t think were suitable. 
Although they’re not shown I’ve also got some of the conduit pieces from the 40K terrain set Sector Mechanicum Alchomite Stack as well, but again, I’ve been picking and choosing carefully to avoid anything that’s too futuristic looking… in some cases it’s just a matter of cutting parts off that don’t fit the look I want or shaving surfaces down to remove unwanted surface details.
Nicodemus:
7x10 Objective Room - Daemonsmith’s Forge
Progress:
After a lot of measuring and checking I blocked out all of the spacing and heights needed so that each step is approximately the same height, all the way up to the main forge.
This is still with all of the rough-cut pieces in place, several of which are much larger than needed. Now that the steps are in I can start trimming.
Carving away pieces from the edges and overhangs.
Trimming away the carved column piece for a more natural/aged look.
View from the opposite side (can see the small stairs up to the smaller forge area). You can see as well in this image and the last one that I’ve been trying to keep track of the approximate position of the grid pattern of the base. A little hard to do, but it only needs to be approximate for the stair sections.
Re-fitted with the central piece - All of the major trimming done and re-checking the fit and look… I think this view will be the best to show off the taurus.
Re-fitted with the central piece - View from the top
Re-fitted with the central piece - side
Re-fitted with the central piece - side. You can see at the top that there’s still a big jump from the top of the stair section to the level with the forge. The plan is to model some metal stairs connecting these two sections, bolted into the central section with the main forge for support. :hat off
Nicodemus:
Not like either of those would stop me from posting!
Before I get back to the Daemonsmith’s Forge, here’s one/two of the new sections I sketched up while on vacation:
~6x6 Descent into Madness / ~6x6 The Crossway
This is two 6x6 board sections that have a central 4x4 section with adjoining pieces for connecting doorways. The Crossway can be used as a 4-way junction, or the stairs can be placed on top, in which case there are a total of 6 possible entrance/exits at different heights.
Here it is with the stairs placed on.
This one took a fair bit of work to make sure most models could fit on each of the various levels, and required some special reinforcement so that the top level could support the weight of large older metal models.
And here’s the current progress on the Daemonsmith’s Forge:
I’ll be sure to post a more detailed guide to these in the next day or so :hat off
~N
Admiral:
Now the mad build crystallizes! I was waiting with anticipation over where this latest development were going, and it’s looking splendid. Groundbreaking concept designs! (Also I don’t always comment, but habitually watch new log updates with interest, silent or not.)
Great touch with the horn-stairs, very clever layout, and absolutely brilliant relief carving detailwork. :hat off
As a fan of Daemonsmiths this scenery piece is extra thrilling to my eyes. Any plans to make some kind of soulfurnace with heat-roaring open maw? How about a cracked and chained anvil? Daemon-possessed, probably, and being a demented working bench also representing the forsaken pre-Hashut ancestry of the Dawi Zharr. A pool of bubbling lava or molten metal, perhaps with Daemonic faces forming in its surface?
Uther the unhinged:
This is just amazing stuff. Totally wonderful!
Abecedar:
God I love this. Just need to make time and make some for my son.
boyfights:
Wow, this is some inspirational stuff! Much more ambitious than what I had planned for my dungeon :o Multiple levels is not something I’ve seen before, very very cool!
Warhammer Quest was one of the few GW games I never got a chance to try but always really wanted to and your board looks like a dream to play on! I had to go back and read from the start, incredible work. I’ll be keeping your thread in mind if I ever decide to take my games underground
Nicodemus:
All joking references to desperate pleas for attention/posts aside, we all know I’d be posting regardless of the responses 
Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. Or maybe another yes. Anyway - “YES”. The cut out section of the base will be filled with lava, and I’m planning to have a central outcrop of rock with a cracked anvil on it, surrounded by swirling daemons and bound spirits. The main face on the upper level is the furnace and the open maw is going to have flames and skulls, etc in it. There’s also going to be an anvil and working area on that upper level too, as well as a smaller secondary oen off to the right of the lower lava pool.
As a fan of Daemonsmiths this scenery piece is extra thrilling to my eyes. Any plans to make some kind of soulfurnace with heat-roaring open maw? How about a cracked and chained anvil? Daemon-possessed, probably, and being a demented working bench also representing the forsaken pre-Hashut ancestry of the Dawi Zharr. A pool of bubbling lava or molten metal, perhaps with Daemonic faces forming in its surface?
Admiral
Warhammer Quest was one of the few GW games I never got a chance to try but always really wanted toI had HeroQuest and all of the expansions for it, but I was a young teen at the time and money wasn’t easy to come by at that age. I also lived on a relatively small island with a smal population and no gaming stores of any kind. If HQ hadn’t gone main stream I’d have never gotten into the hobby. But I digress. I remember seeing Warhammer Quest at one of the Maritime “Wilkey’s” game and hobby stores in Halifax and was totally amazed, it was HQ on steroids, but the price tag was so far beyond anything I could afford I had to put it back. I picked up a few parital sets on eBay here and there starting about 15 years ago and now have 2-3 full sets. You can get pdfs of the rules easily enough and I highly recommend the “classic” WHQ Roleplay rules that came with the game. It was roleplay light, but allowed you to level up, spend your money on new gear, etc. It’s damned hard at low levels and we’ve had many new parties get wiped on their first foray, but that adds to the appeal if you’re expecting that I think. Once you get a few magic items and some armour you’re in better shape to at least be able to survive fleeing the dungeon if things go bad
boyfights
So…
7x10 Daemonsmith’s Forge
Checking the placement of the upper rock formation and conduit pieces before cutting
I decided not to bother using full pieces of conduit for the pipe that wraps around the forge, and therefore only used one side. This required blocking off and hiding connections and gaps with random pieces of foam.
Roughly how the connection beteewn the forge and the rock formation smokestack is going to look… I’m not sure I’m happy with it, but it’s maybe good enough for now.
Blocking off more sections on the backside of the base to hide gaps in the foam and fill-out the shape.
View of the front after carving some of the in-fill pieces to help with transitions.
A little more in-fill and carving (not as obvious, but at least you can’t see gaps anymore)
Starting to carve around the forge. It’s still looking very rough, but it’s a start.
As these conduit pieces are from 40K terrain there’s a few spots that some of the subtle too-futuristic-for-fantasy details I felt needed to be trimmed away. On pieces like this I trim away the grill and light fixture as well as the raised bit above it that has a symbol on it.
The bottom of this large piece was open, for connecting more pieces to, and the round cover I used had a 40K faction symbol on it (Mechanicus I think?). I put on a good helping on dichloromethane and brushed it to smooth out details then put some foam scaps on and added more dichloromethane. The solvent immediately liquifies the foam and it kinks into the recessed details. I also carved a few other pieces off this one already on one of the tanks mounted higher up.
As the central piece is supposed to be part of a smokestack I felt I needed more than one. I cut down some clear plastic tubing (used for canes for cryo storage) and made an extra smokestack as well as a top for the large one.
Working farther up the smokestake formation I used the same tricks as before by using foam to hide the ends of conduits and missing details.
I also felt like the rock formation overall was too columnar so I started bulking out to the top to give a nice contrast with the lower part of the forge.
So here we are after some building-up with more foam and then carving away.
It’s getting there, but I think the top needs more of a “W” shape to the top
View from the top
And the front
Descent into Madness / Crossway
So this is where the whole thing started, two 6x6 tiles, with a central circular section that accounted for the inner 4x4 area on each.
I also tested out the general shape by blocking off areas of the tile with the basic shape the spiral staircase was going to have (balance was a big issue as the top piece is only supported by a small area.
Checking out the general fit of the Warhammer Quest Stairs and Doorway placement - seems like the fist of the upper exits will work.
After some hot wire trimming:
I realized after checking the fit and placement that the upper section was going to block the approach from the stairway too much, so I reduced the size of the upper area considerably. I decided to go with this size instead of a) blocking the stairs with a large board section, or b) altering the overall shape of the upper section to try and increase the number of usable tiles.
Even with the top section being smaller it’s still only supported from one corner and is not very strong. One heavy metal model on that top section with break it so I needed to build in some reinforcement.
I hollowed out about half of the upper section and inserted a piece of hardboard
Ripped through a little of the backside/underside, but that can be hidden later.
I decided to use 3 pieces for support that will form a “U” shape. Under the top platform is a longer piece of hardboard at a right-angle that will extend out into the adjacent stairway piece, and below that piece is another long piece of board, again at a right angle, that will sit under the platform where one of the doorway segments is located. The plan is to drive two screws up into the top piece, and then drive 2-3 screws down into the side piece.
I was smart with these two piece and flush-cut the board pieces into the bottom.
The boards are 1/4" thick, which works out very well for making stairs, as the rise of each step ~1/4" and I was able to trim the bottom step just a few mm taller than needed to avoid exposing the board underneath.
You’d never know it’s in there, but it’s damn solid now!
After putting the pieces together you can see some of the screw holes from above…
… and below.
Glued, screwed and assembled
I also tapered the underside of the upper level a little extra to help with clearance on the approaching stairs.
Relief!!! Everything lines up!!
A Descent Into Madness indeed
And a final check to show the lower level can still accommodate a doorway, even under the support area. Now that I have a few different heights I’ve got even more reason to build more Dawi Underway arches to use as supports :hat off
I’m not going to attach the stairs to the base as I like the option of having the 4-way intersection as a separate piece and in all honesty, I’m too lazy to make an extra 4-way segment just for the sake of having it.
And finally - I realized that with the scale of the Daemonsmith’s Forge piece, the old Warhammer Quest Doorways were just too small and insignificant and the piece really demanded a grander entryway. I’ve been putting off making any more Chaos Dwarf-themed Doorways for a while (not sure why) but I thought making a big one would be the best start
Objective Room Doorway
The normal WHQ doorways are 2 tiles wide, although I oversized my tiles relative to be base game by +50%, so the WHQ doorways don’t look out of scale, but for large board sections they look “modest” shall we say. For an epic-scale Objective Room like the Daemonsmith’s Forge I need something more grand.
This will be somewhere between 4-6 tiles wide, so quite a bit bigger than normal.
Carving the doorways
The doors are also rounded to allow them to swing past each other without catching.
Close enough. Now I just have to indent the rest of the lines. Even with small mistakes in the lines, those sins can be hidden at the painting stage
I’ve been saving bitz for over a year with the idea of a doorway in mind, and now I have a suitable project where I can put them to use!
Doorway front.
Doorway backside.
Carving out the taurus and horns for above the doorway.
Still so much to do!
~N
boyfights:
I had HeroQuest and all of the expansions for it, but I was a young teen at the time and money wasn't easy to come by at that age. I also lived on a relatively small island with a smal population and no gaming stores of any kind. If HQ hadn't gone main stream I'd have never gotten into the hobby. But I digress. I remember seeing Warhammer Quest at one of the Maritime "Wilkey's" game and hobby stores in Halifax and was totally amazed, it was HQ on steroids, but the price tag was so far beyond anything I could afford I had to put it back. I picked up a few parital sets on eBay here and there starting about 15 years ago and now have 2-3 full sets. You can get pdfs of the rules easily enough and I highly recommend the "classic" WHQ Roleplay rules that came with the game. It was roleplay light, but allowed you to level up, spend your money on new gear, etc. It's damned hard at low levels and we've had many new parties get wiped on their first foray, but that adds to the appeal if you're expecting that I think. Once you get a few magic items and some armour you're in better shape to at least be able to survive fleeing the dungeon if things go bad ;)I had a similar early gaming experience; I grew up in a small Ontario town playing Heroquest and D&D early on, and was lucky enough to have a nerdy relative who introduced me to 40k 2nd edition. We had no local stores either, but ended up with a long-term WD subscription and did plenty of mail ordering :) The articles about Quest always captivated me, it sounded like the perfect hybrid of Heroquest and D&D in a setting that I love and your description makes it sound even more appealing, right down to the grueling difficulty!
Nicodemus
I actually came close to finally realizing my childhood dreams and strongly considered the Silver Tower box as my first GW product in years, but balked at giving myself such a large painting project without being sure I enjoyed painting 28mm first and settled on Shadespire instead. Is old style Quest fairly solo-friendly as well? That was a big draw for me with the new rules, as I'm still in small town Ontario and am a sad lonely nerd :P
edit: almost forgot to mention your new stuff is insanely good and cool as well :) I didn't see you mention a height, how tall is the Forge now?