Down on the Farm

I've painted a fair few buildings over the last couple of years for my Hyam's Landing setting. These have pretty much all in the same style as the unreleased 40k habs I was lucky enough to pick up. The general vibe is space western / frontier town. The buildings are low-level, run-down & rusty! After painting the sheds/barns from the other week, I decided I wanted to pull together an out of town set. It will eventually comprise of the sheds/barns, fences, possibly some livestock and agricultural vehicles. Most importantly though, I needed a farmhouse centrepiece.

Bits & Pieces - Servitor Bodyguard & Warning Sign

I have a few hobby tasks I needed to complete prior to Bring Out Your Lead 2025 between 8-10 August. Mostly these are bits I want to use in a planned game of Stargrave, which should see my Muller cultists take on some mutie scum. I'm working my way through the to-do list: first up is a figure kindly given to me by Aidan of Warfactory Miniatures at Lead & Steel earlier this year.

Every Pirate Crew Needs a Ship - The Squat Jetskull

When I originally put my squat pirates together, I knew that they would need something to ride around in. My initial thought was to buy a second-hand Action Force Roboskull and adapt it, but it turns out that vintage toys are collectible and expensive, so I would need to do something else. I ran with the flying skull theme though, and put together what I've been calling the Jetskull.

Squat pirates prep the Jetskull in the landing bay of their mothership.

Graffiti, Posters & Rust - Urban Walls

Following on from my last post a couple of weeks ago, it was apparent that if I had some gates and entrances, I would also need some blank walls.

Once again, I roped in the talents of Graham at Grimsforge to make me some basic walls that I could put in between my other buildings. There are four walls - two long and two short. I painted one side with urban graffiti and posters, and the other side more neutrally to give me some backdrop flexibility.

The Back-Alleys of Hyams Landing

The next evolution of Hyam's landing is to make sense of the spaces with dividers and connectors. No human settlement is comprised of a selection of completely separate buildings - there are walls and hedge, roads, alleys and fences. I got Graham at Grimsforge to make me a selection of structures that I can place against or inbetween my existing buildings to try and emulate that real urban feel.

The new structures are four walls with access points in them (solid walls to come at some future point. Like the rest of my Grimsforge terrain, I drew up what I hoped would look cool, and then Graham built them for me mainly from card.

The Iron Fist - Block House #5

Illustrations of Imperial architecture are pretty rare in the Rogue Trader rulebook. Yes, there's the fantastic spread of Helsreach illustrations as well as the Emporer's Palace, but for the rest of the book we only see glimpes of background shapes, walls, ruins or ductwork.

I was delighted to see Tony Ackland's brilliant unpublished* Rogue Trader townscape when he put it up on Facebook a little while ago. The image shows a backwater frontier town complete with rickety shacks, landing pad and an imposing block house festooned with gibbet, observation cameras and spikes.

*correct me if I'm wrong.

Illustration by Tony Ackland.

You Can Buy Anything IF You Can Find It - The Bazaar

If the first part of a project involved some vendors and goods to sell, then the second part of the project needed to be a location for them to do some selling. It's not the fantastic Necromunda market (although I will get round to doing that at some point). It's another creation build for me by Graham at Grimsforge - a bazaar with some little commercial units for my vendors to occupy.

Vendors and Their Wares

If you've read this blog for a while, you're probably aware that I like a nice sci-fi civilian model. It's been a little while since I last painted any, but over the last couple of weeks I've been working on a project to paint up some nice new bits of scenery and set dressing. The first part of this project is a trio of vendors and their goods. I settled on a carpet seller, a tech merchant and a general food seller based on the models I had to hand.

L-R: Astropolis, Crooked Dice (Colony 87), Crooked Dice (Colony 87)

Sheds, Outhouses and Shacks

Before Christmas I asked Graham at Grimsforge to work on another couple of projects for me to round out the variety of buildings in my fringe-world setting. Along with some bigger pieces (more on those at a future date), I wanted a selection of smaller sheds and shacks that I could use as scatter or butt up against a larger structure to change its footprint.

Grouped together the sheds make a nice little homestead.

The Botched Deal (at Bring Out Your Lead 2021)

Like most gamers, I haven't had many opportunities to play miniatures games in the last 18 months, so it was brilliant when after being cancelled in 2020 and delayed from August 2021, Bring Out Your Lead was finally able to be held.

Cheap Beds For Hire - the Only Hotel in Town!

In my last post, I showed off three of the fantastic buildings scratchbuilt for me by Grimsforge. This time round it's one of the larger buildings that Graham built for me, which I'd described as a 'two-storey house' in my concept sketch. As it turns out, there's been a change of use and it's now the town hotel!

A weary traveller attempts to negotiate room rates.

Getting the Contractors in - Scratchbuilt Buildings

Generally I prefer to make my own models and terrain, but every so often there are projects where a specialist is required! In this instance, I wanted some more buildings in the same vein as my prototype hardfoam GW habs. Whilst it might be within my capability to construct something in the same aesthetic, some of the construction techniques looked beyond me, especially when it came to some of the more interesting shapes.

The settlement just keeps on growing!

Mech + Tech Services - An Underhive Workshop

Back in May and June 2020, I went through a flurry of building some fun buildings out of old Necromunda bulkheads. In July 2020, I build a little workshop, then did nothing with it!

I discovered it in a box during a bit of a tidy up over the weekend, so decided to do a quick paintjob and get it ready for use.

Welcome to Zone 3 - a New Backdrop

A new backdrop for my miniatures photography is long overdue! The last one I made was back in 2019, and I could do with another location for a bit of variety! I was lucky enough to pick up a set of 3 unreleased 40k scenic panels from the Oldhammer Trading Company Facebook group, and that prompted a quick and dirty build and painting session. Here are the results:

Cargo bay 3 is a hive of activity for loading mineral ore from the Eastern Mines.

The Shop on the Corner - A Necromundan Trading Post

Hopefully you're not bored of seeing buildings constructed from old Necromunda bulkheads, as I've finished a couple more!

This time I've delved into the world of commerce with a general store topped by another hab unit (a mixed commercial and residential unit if you like!).

Smaller Habs for Humble Folk

In my two posts I've covered the making of some habs from old Necromunda bulkheads, and this post covers more of the same. This time I've made a pair of small habs with some street accessories, and I've made a small foray into a flexible layout.

The thoroughfares of Necromunda are often bustling and lively.

A Larger Hab for a Person of Means

After enjoying the construction and painting of the previous two habs, I've been on a non-stop urban expansion drive! I've finished a third slightly larger hab, and have another five at various WIP stages.

My third hab is a two-storey (or possibly one-and-a-half storey) construction to add some height and variety to the settlement.

New Home Construction - Some Necromunda Habs

Bulldog Lopez posted a really cool building he'd built from classic Necromunda bulkheads on Facebook the other week. The design worked brilliantly because of its simplicity - the bulkheads were just glued together and a roof dropped on top. I'd been holding onto some bulkheads with some much more complicated plans in mind, but hadn't got round to attempting anything. Being shown a simpler and effective option got me motivated to make some buildings of my own.

The first two buildings of a new settlement.

The Big Building In The Next Street - A Scenic Backdrop

In my most recent post about some new Fogou Models buildings, you may or may not have noticed the big building in the rear of the scene. Check it out - the one with the blue door:

If you didn't notice, that's fine. It's just a simple scenic backdrop that I quickly put together to stand behind my street scenes.

Observation Tower - Old School Yoghurt Pot Scenery

With a week to go to Bring Out Your Lead 2019 at Wargames Foundry, I have completed all of the models I need to use in my planned games. I do still have a few pieces of terrain to make for my ash wastes racing game, one of which is a sort of VIP observation tower / commentary box.

I had nearly bought a suitable resin tower kit, but then decided that an old school approach would work equally as well. After all, it's sanctioned by the text in the Rogue Trader rulebook no less:

I figured I could ape the look of these buildings pretty quickly and easily.