More MDF Madness: Concrete Walls WiP, Sign updates, and found resin interior sets... whew!

A section of nearly complete Concrete Walling from the ever awesome Antenociti's Workshop.

Below are the resin tops being painted up with a variety of broken glass to discourage all but the most determined of intruders.

 Like everyone else in the Hobbyverse Antenociti's Workshop is being battered by the COVID-19 but are still able to fill orders at this time... and are super happy to get them!  If you have a moment to drop in and see what they have on offer please do.

 Left are the raw resin bases for the wall sections.  This is a hybrid MDF/Resin kit with the MDF being pre-painted and the resin needing paint.  They also have some super decal sheets to help graffiti up the walls.. I'll be exploring that this week.

 These signs were shown in previous posts and I become progressively less happy with the "see through" cut outs because the were hard to read at any distance.  I decided to do some simple backings to make them solid and more visible.

The rest of the set is getting this same treatment and I'm experimenting with a variety of backing materials from photo prints, to aluminium foil, to painters tape and beyond.

Once the Sign fronts are worked out there is an ugly mess on the back that needs covering so I've created completely different B sides.

In keeping with the Asian influences I've borrowed graphics from the Tiger&Bunny Anime series and from the super popular Hatsune Miku. 

In previous posts I did some buildings that were super detailed, inside and out, and some that were basically external MDF shells... I've since located the resin detailing packs for those buildings!  The good thing is that the resin bits in these hybrid kits are designed to be added after building construction to allow time for them to be painted as a separate project.  They are currently moving through the resin prep process and should be on the painting desk in no time!

Back to the Desk!

Whiskey Jacks and a Stepped Tenement added to the Undertown table

Whiskey Jacks is the seedy watering hole that the Undertown needs to survive.  Home of all manner of ill favored leisure pursuits its the bane and the glue of the Undertown.

The kit itself is the most complex of the Undertown buildings I've worked on to date. Its also got the most sparse set of building instructions which seem to assume that you are already familiar with these buildings.. which... I am! so its all good but if you start your Undertown journey with Whisky Jacks be aware that you'll have to search a around the blog a bit to find instructions for some of the sub assemblies.

 One of the coolest features of this kit is also super simple... but brilliant!  It includes security shutters for the doors and windows that are easily placed or removed via some hooks.  This makes the shutters themselves all single piece items and likely to stand up well to use.

 Above you see the security shutters in place and to the left they are removed to reveal the reverse etched window details and doors.  Of course this is the Undertown so the doors and storeroom windows have permanent security bars installed even during business hours.

 I re-enlisted the aid of Sister Scout Celenia for scale from the fabulous Raging Heroes lineup.  Also appearing are some police/security guards from Mantic's Star Saga as obstacles to Sister Celenia's investigation of the moment.  Fortunately she is adept at moving unseen through the Undertown and evades the very alert security team.

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The upstairs residence (or VIP room) is an example of how it helps to understand the way these buildings are assembled.  The instructions ask you to place the front hall wall before adding the black interior  detail strips and door frame.  This is contrary to all the building instructions I've previously assembled from this series.  Adding the front wall first would make it much more fiddly to glue the interior wall details neatly into place.  Armed with the experience of the previous kits I left the front wall placement until after completing the interior hall details.

 While the interior is not the highly detailed variety that we saw with Suburban Office 2 it does have a nice, operational, bar and I'll come back and detail this up once I make certain I don't have some resin upgrade or scatter package for it in the big box o Undertown stuff.

The Office door was completely missing from the instruction write up but did show up in one of the interior pictures. Be careful when installing the Office door base plate as I got it in backwards and had to drill a new hole due to the door being directional.  Always dry fit first!  The other doors are less fussy but they get build with a definite front and back which is important for a nice fit when closed.

 Whiskey Jacks comes with two main signs... one designed for permanent mounting which, due to my failing to read the entire assembly guide before starting the build, I was unable to attach as designed.  I had already used the alternate part and the glue was well set.  No worries though the detachable sign works quite well (after modifying it to accommodate a larger border wall.  Its set up for single wall thickness and all the roof-line walls are double thick) and I'll be able to convert the other into a detachable sign as well... never too many signs!

 Random Tardus? from the Reaper Bones Line.

The Stepped Tenement allows you to be the vicious Slum Lord of your dreams! Not content with merely providing the miserably small living spaces and thin walls of the basic Tenement it lets you actively oppress the residents by forcing them to walk through every square inch of hallway and stairs in the building to get to their room!  Fiendish!

 The scene is further set with some vending machines and dumpsters.  I believe the Vending Machines here are from Armorcast and the Dumpsters from Antenociti's Workshop.  The rooftop signs are from the Forward Base Kickstarter from Antenociti's Workshop.

 Sister Scout Celenia ghosts past security as they search the Stepped Tenement. heading for the Traffic barriers that are blocking the road out of the Undertown.  The traffic barriers are also from Antenociti's Workshop and still await, as does the rest of Undertown, the addition of proper amounts of graffiti!

Internal view of the Stepped Tenement Its similar to the basic tenement except that the halls alternate sides by floor.  Great for making sure that anyone who is trying to sleep has hallway traffic noise above them, below them, and outside their door.  Evil genius!

Undertown Flats, signs, scatter, a table in progress

With all the COVID-19 stuff flying around I thought it might be time to set a Mantic themed table with some Plague vs. GCPS (Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere) vignettes.

I'm really digging into the backlog of cool Sci-Fi scenics from Antenociti's Workshop

With my wife home a lot lately I've not been able to work at the painting desk for long but its been relatively easy to sit in the living room, or kitchen, and assemble pre-painted MDF buildings.  Its surprising how quickly a viable table comes together with this stuff!

 GCPS troopers in 3 man teams containing a Plague outbreak in the Undertown while the news boards report.

The quality of the photo print components supplied with these kits is amazing and for the 'small signs' set pictured above you get a set of two triangular signs each face having a different graphic... and there are 9 to choose from in the kit so you have options right out of the box.  With a little effort you can make signs from practically anything so the possibilities are pretty cool.

The Flats are a 3 level structure with a single, full floor, elevator serviced, apartment on each level.  I've not yet done interiors for these so what you see is the kit with no additions.

The rooftop is also accessible via elevator which is shown above.  I've made the top most roof removable and may retrofit lighting to this area... and many others... the better to show the cool acrylic doors and interior graphic details that so many of these buildings sport.

 More views of the sign scatter... large enough to obscure most models and fun to look at.

The acrylic tops and rods are meant to be held in place by pressure lugs but these quickly get knocked off and go missing so I've put a tiny dab of glue on the lower part of the lug to convince them to remain in place.

Likewise the acrylic rods are meant to fit tightly into the base without glue but just slide right through so I glued some of the very good paper left from trimming the photo-prints to the bottom of the sign so the acrylic rods have a floor to rest on.  The acrylic needs careful handling during construction to avoid getting glue on it and ruining the effect.

 The benches are resin components that require a little paint which was as simple as spraying them with Rustoleum Hammered Metal, giving them a wash of Secret Weapon Armor Wash and a quick drybrush of any silvery metallic.

 The Undertown starting to take shape on a small table we usually use for card games.

Lots of scatter elements like street lights, info kiosks, adverts of various sized, vending machines, mail boxes, dumpsters and recycling bins.

The Plague erupted at lunch time with a move on the Spicy Pupniks food cart parked outside the Neo-Tiki Motel Office.

 A GCPS team clears the main building of the Neo-Tiki Motel and moves to assist the situation developing at the office.

Red Oni Sake has a location right next door to the Neo-Tiki Motel and also provides vending machines and mail drops.

 A view across the plaza.  The Game Mat is the small Undertown Mat from Antenociti's Workshop and is printed on mouse-pad material.  There is also a large version of this mat that joins nicely with the small mat for an even larger set up.

Plague taking cover behind the various bins. 

 The Undertown is relatively free of graffiti at the moment but will get tagged up... possibly during games!  I think it would be fun to put a blue tack marker on a spot to be tagged and do the actual application between games.  I mean what gang war themed game would be complete without turf and tags?

 I just managed to finish up the set of Large signs.  These are tall enough to obscure Knight Class vehicles or even low level flyers.

 A set of two, triangular, signs with 6 different graphics in the box.  You don't get the extra couple of choices that came with the "small" signs but they are really large prints with great, high quality, art so I'm not complaining.

 They even have a Sci-Fi Nun on this one!  On my table they are chronicling the adventures of the Sisters of Eternal Mercy! Although any Space Nuns would fit in.

I'm working on the Stepped Tenements today and whatever else pops out of the big box-o-MDF!

Antenociti's Workshop Suburban Office 2 with Upgrade Pack

 Continuing with Antenociti's Workshop recent releases with Suburban Office 2 and the Suburban Office 2 Upgrade Pack. With Scout Celenia for scale from Raging Heroes.

Here we envision Scout Celenia as a Vampire Hunter in a Sci-Fi future setting. 

The Suburban Office 2 has a Sake Shop on the top floor!  This is gonna work out great given how many times I run the "Rescue and/or Steal the booze" scenario.

 As with all of Antenociti's Workshops new building offerings this is pre-painted MDF using  MDF, clear or translucent acrylic and photo print graphics.

The roof features a detachable, multi-position sign and an aircon unit that doubles as a handle for removing the roof to access the gloriously detailed interior.

 As you can see the roof can be removed while leaving the rooftop sign in place.  The sign can be removed for storage or repositioned to any of the double layer MDF tabs on the roof.

The countertop is in the center of the model leaving a lot of space for cramming in a thirsty squad.  I elected to glue the counter in place but there is no downside to leaving it free and completely removable... it could then be used as an outdoor sake kiosk!  Ooops! clever... belated... thought...

 While the individual shop doors are constructed with etched acrylic the other doorways and windows are open.

 With the upgrade pack all of the interior walls are detailed otherwise the buildings are empty shells with a bit more space to fill with troops.

The first floor is occupied by a clothing shop.

 The shop is complete with sales counter and two fitting rooms each with mirror and advertisements.

 The walls are covered with goods on offer or advertisements.

 There is a small learning curve making sure that each part is dry-fitted in the correct spot.  They pop off the sprue easily with the aid of a box cutter or similar.  A bit of light sanding on the non visible surfaces really makes the bits go together more easily.  This time I succeeded in making the doors freely operable... when I built the Neo-Tiki I failed to sand the bottom of the doors and to make sure that they operated freely... as a result they open under some duress and will likely damage the floor eventually... fortunately building them right isn't hard... it just requires a bit of adjustment before they are glued in solid.

The stairs are functional... which is super nice!

I left a large space available for graffiti so more fun tinkering to come!

Back to the desk!

Antenociti's Workshop Habitat 3 and barricades from the Forward Base collection

 The nearly complete Habitat 3 from Antenociti's Workshop... nearly because there are some lugs for securing this building to the roof of another (Habitat 4 or Habitat 10) that can't be placed until the appropriate other structure has been built.  I guess one of these will be pretty soon on the desk!

 The roof features detachable safety barriers and solar array. The hatch vents, power supply and  air handling equipment in this version are resin but the current model features all MDF and Acrylic parts.

At under $18.00 its a very nice model with a flexible footprint.

With the roof removed you can see the interior scatter.  A table, a couple of chairs, and a personal gear locker.  These are all removable/repositionable and, when not in use,  the non-affixed roof components fit inside for easy stowage.

There is a lot of this sort of scatter throughout the project which is really nice for RPGs and can be left out when playing games with larger unit sizes that all need to squeeze in there.

Keep in mind this is the smallest of the buildings in the collection and most of the others fit full squads with ease.

 Colors help build themes so I've started with bordering the openings with yellow for "No Access" (conveniently etched into this bay window) and red for "Access" I figure a lot of these type of bases will be in places with adverse, or minimally sustainable, environments and in such settings it would be nice to know at a glance, and at some distance, which of the windows are transit-able.

The models from the Kickstarter don't include full up air locks but they imply an environmentally regulated interior and the new versions have redesigned doors that open look like full airlocks.

These acrylic doors look really nice.  They don't open but I imagine them as energy barriers in lieu of airlocks.   

I like the little table with the recessed top.  I was able to put a graphic on it so it kinda looks like a holographic RPG is set up on it... geekforce is strong!

Some hastily assembled barricades made from relatively intact containers of various sorts pressed into base defense positions.  Here the barricades are being tested by a Necron from the ...For Scale Dynasty... it is an older model so a bit on the small side for current industry offerings.

This is kind of a Borderlands light scheme.  Not as exaggerated or as heavily black lined but the colors are a nod in that direction.

While I mostly play in the Grimdark I've been very interested in the more traditional Sci-Fi looks and I think there is a lot of room for less Gothic battlefields even in 40K.




...on another note I was pleased to discover that Arthenya VI The Arch Papess made the move across the continent intact and is ready to take up residence when the War Stages Kickstarter rolls in... for now she must be content with her 3D printed Pulpit.