Tuesday 30 January 2018

Home Sweet Home - Prototype 40k Buildings

I was lucky enough to acquire lovely a pair of buildings recently. What makes these interesting is that they are hardfoam prototypes from the early 2000s, produced by GW when it was looking into the terrain market. They were produced at roughly the same time as some of the terrain that saw release, including the 54mm scale Imperial STC Habitat for Inquisitor. I only have two of the three buildings that were prototyped - the third has a circular tank on the roof.


My buildings appear to have been scratchbuilt from plastic strip, textured plasticard and plastic kits, then cast in hardfoam resin. They came to me ready primed and ready for a splash of paint.

EDIT: Riot pointed out below that the smaller of the two buildings was featured in the pages of the 'How to Make Wargames Terrain' book, published by GW in 2003:




Building 1 is slightly larger, with a 130x140mm footprint at the widest points, and 90mm in height.


The buildings have numerous air bubbles from the casting process (like the window sill above). I filled the worst of these with Milliput.


Note the cast in elements from plastic kits, such as the ammo boxes and barrel.



Building 2 is slightly smaller, with a 150x110mm footprint and 70mm tall.


This building had slightly more miscast areas (see window sill above and the door rim below). I used some plastic strip and the edge of a round slottabase to repair them!



Stylistically, the buildings are perfect for a fringe world 40k / sci-fi Western vibe. They have fun interactive elements such as the walkways, steps and ladders, as well as a nicely beaten up and ramshackle look.

Shootouts are common in the lawless outer reaches of the Imperium.

I painted my pair up in a nice blue-grey that suited the utilitarian look and feel of the structures. A drybrush with a light brown, some stippled dirt and rust patches, and they were pretty much done.



Suitable posters stuck to the wall, supplied by cheetor!


The transfer I used on the door was so old that it fragmented when I applied it, but that just enhances the look!





Yet more posters - this time of undesirables with a bounty on their heads



I really enjoyed painting these. It's a real shame they never went into production - I'd have liked a little town of them. I suspect I can mix them in with my existing terrain easily enough though. I do fancy attempting to make a couple of facsimiles too. It can't be that hard, right?!

25 comments:

  1. The smaller building is a carbon copy of the scratch built effort featured on page 69 of the 'How to make wargames terrain' book I was just flicking through!
    The book is copyrighted in 2003 so that would match your dates.

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    1. I just sprung to my shelves to pull my 'How to Make Wargames Terrain' book off, wondering how on earth I missed that. Turns out, my version of the book is the earlier one published in 1996! I need to track down that 2003 publication!

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  2. These are brilliant! I agree, it's a shame these were never put into production.

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    1. They are precisely what I want and need, but I suspect that many 40k gamers want terrain with in-game rules / benefits. I guess that it was considered that there was no market for them.

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    2. I'll see if I can find out!

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  3. These are brilliant and couldn't have gone to a better home !

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    1. I will certainly cherish them and use them - which is what all terrain wants to happen to it!

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  4. Replies
    1. They're pretty much 100% what I want in a building :)

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  5. Excellent work mate, and well done on bringing such a rarity back to use! High fives dude :-)

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    1. Thanks mate! All being well I'll bring them to BOYL and we can get a game on them ;)

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  6. I lo love both of them, and the paintjob is just what they called for. Cool!

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    1. Thanks Suber! The paint job is a bit rough and ready really, but it does the job :)

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  7. Very cool that you have these for your table. it really is too bad that Fantasy and 40k went so far down the "terrain with rules" path, because more of this sort of thing makes all the fighting and dying seem more... real.

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    1. I agree absolutely- there is a big gap for decent sci-fi terrain of this sort. It always enhances a battlefield.

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  8. Great find Axiom! They look non-specific enough to be used in a post apocalyptic setting too. A couple of lovely additions to your ever growing building collection mate :)

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    1. They're great for post apocalyptic stuff too I agree. Thanks buddy!

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  9. That was such a great range of sturdy terrain that was light enough to store and transport. Shame it went away.

    Absolute treat to see you giving these homes a new, er, home.

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    1. I know there are disadvantages to the material (not least the casting quality), but they are pretty flexible and light as you say. I wish there were more, but I'll just have to try and substitute in something in the same vein.

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  10. If they had gone into production, these terrain pieces would've fit in nicely on most wargaming tables. Nicely weathered by the way! :)

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    1. I think they would have been very useful and a great option to quickly populate a table in something other than gothic ruins.
      Glad you like them :)

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  11. Those are nice designs. The integrated walkway echoes wild west boardwalks in a pleasingly understated way, which also makes the terrain feel interactive, rather than simply a LOS blocking lump.

    Isn't it strange that what is essentially a very simple design is something that is craved? What is the secret ingredient, the X factor that makes them desirable do you think?

    The finished products would be slightly less tumbledown, but it would surely be a straightforward process to make simple laser cut models of those buildings.

    If you had maybe 8 or 7 you could have an entire colony on the table.

    Someone should run a Kickstarter ;)

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  12. So, I asked a couple of people with regard to these: they were produced at the same time as the Inquisitor STC terrain and were all made by Dave Andrews. It's part of that never-ending search for terrain sets that can be sold for a price that people are willing to pay for (people aren't as willing to pay as much for terrain as they are for miniatures as so many people regard it as secondary to their game, or would rather divert their funds towards paying for new models, so that's harder than you might imagine). These remained unreleased after the company decided that they couldn't make any profit from them, which is a shame.

    Great find, though! I'm pretty envious as these are exactly the kind of thing I'd like on a table.

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