Forward Base: Habitat 5 part 6 wrapping up

Wrapping up Hab 5 construction by adding the exterior steps, some resin details, and the exterior light acrylic.

Antenocitis Workshop have recently released some new steps and stairs for Forward Base which use acrylic steps for a super cool Sci-Fi look. I've not used them on Hab 5 because its a Vehicle Garage and Maintenance building so I rather liked the industrial grate feeling of the stock step but I will be using the new kits when some of the entertainment and command buildings show up on my desk.

As steps go these are pretty easy. I set the stringers in first and then set the steps while there was still some flex in the glue.

There are two exterior personnel doors.  In retrospect I might have made the steps removable for ease of storage between games... that may yet occur if the prove too vulnerable jutting out as they do.  The vehicle ramps are hinged and fold flat against the side of the building when not in use so they are much less of a concern. 

Next up are they acrylic exterior lights.

One of the upgrades to the building included full light brackets instead of the tiny resin caps that are usually used for mounting the lights. I really like the full brackets but they have a small disadvantage in that they have a set length... (Doh! I have, somewhat belatedly, realized I "could" have cut the bracket to alter their length a bit.  It would have been fussy but totally doable... oh well... lessons learned!)

  The acrylic rod provided with the kit was just a bit short of what is required to fully fill all the brackets.  With the stock endcaps I would measure the rod and set the individual light length according to rod supply... except... that I think of Forward Base as a modular system with many interchangeable parts which means, for example, all lights used for all "Hab 1" style buildings should be the same length... so it looks wonky fast if that is not the case. 

Left you see the universal jig that is evolving to cover the various Hab light lengths. 

Right we see... I ran out of acrylic rod! Not to worry I'll swipe some from the next building I open and fill it in. Antenocitis also sometimes has acrylic rod available separately which is super useful.

The fixture count was odd.  There were six brackets but 7 scribed locations for them. Its not a big issue as this middle location is a bit camouflaged by the other scribed details.

You can see here the Bay Doors in their closed position. The resin face is inside the bays as thsi orientation gave the best fit.

I didn't have any vehicles close to hand for a comparison but I did have the Forge World Gargantuan Squiggoth on the table for some repairs. The poor thing took a hit to the tail and some of the Big Shootas during the move here. Its all better now. You can see the Hab 5 is large enough to offer even this big fella some cover!

It also occurred to me that Hab 5 might make a good Lair for a Supers Game... Its a really big space with room for a couple of vehicles and multi level combat internally... food for thought!

 

 

Forward Base: Habitat 5 WiP part 3

 

A quickie today as the resin/MDF hybrid vents get installed en masse.

Lots of clamps!

I think there were 9 small vents and 8 Large ones.

These were fussy to paint even though the scheme is simple.

The end result however was very cool.  The vents show well on both sides and the final glue up went without a hitch.  In the bottom picture the MDF inside vents are visible as well as the resin outer pieces.

The important part is to assemble the vents so that the smaller MDF portion is precisely centered on the larger resin bit and the overhang is even all the way round.  This has the effect of lining everything up nicely with no adjustment required during the clamping.

The White Formula is: Graveyard Bone (Reaper (R)) x2 over Black Primer, Dry-Brush Splintered Bone (R) edge with Storm Shadow wash (Secret Weapon) wash interior areas of vent grilles with Storm Shadow on both large and small vents.

Next up for Hab 5 are the ramps to the vehicle doors and the resin upgrades to that same area.  After the ramps we'll be moving beyond the "Rough Guide" to do the remaining interior details, access ladders, additional air handlers, figure out what to do about the area around the side door that looks unfinished and out of place... and finally... add the acrylic light fixtures to the outside.  That should finish the build except for any weathering that I decide to do later.  That will be done as a batch of buildings to help me keep the effects consistent. 

Forward Base: Habitat 5 WiP part 2

Today sees the construction of the main structure. But first a little more painting of panels and resin bits.

A few of the vent panels were not laser cut so were painted in while painting the punched out vents and their resin replacements/additions. All the vents, windows, doors, etc. were punched out prior to assembling anything and dry fitted to see if they could be easily installed after assembly. This turned out to be true for the vents and garage bay doors but not for the acrylic windows and doors which fit very tightly and were installed prior to general construction.

The MDF vents were glued to the resin parts and painted both sides. You can see the left side are the painted MDF and the right are the painted resin. The white is Graveyard Bone (Reaper(R)) and Splintered Bone (R) over black primer on the resin and clear sealer on the MDF.  On the MDF side the vent cavities are Glowing Mist (R). For the resin Cavities Soft Body Black (Secret Weapon( SW)) wash to clean up the dry brush bleed.

On the interior rear wall of the building the rollup doors for the toolboxes got a thinned  Phoenix Red (R) and the clear acrylic door was placed.  

 This was a tight fit and, in retrospect, I might have positioned it a little differently because this wall gets doubled by the outside wall which leaves this door recessed vis-à-vis the outer wall. Its not a big deal just something to add to my lessons learned when doing future builds.

Now construction can commence in earnest!

Before attempting to slot things together I carefully trim one side of the coating off the tiny tabs.  This coating helps give these kits a smooth finish but it often seems to bunch up when going into slots and the excess has to be cut away afterwards. Cutting off just one side retains the strengthening effect of the coating while reducing the bunching and occurrence of too tight fits to practically zero.

"The Rough Guide to building habitat 5" on the Antenocitis Workshop site notes that this kit is a little complicated and should be approached in a certain way. Believe it!

The first assembly is the Lattice with Beam, Support Struts, Top Side Panels and Roof Guides for the rear part of the building.

 True to its name the guide is a little quirky. As is the usual case with these kits all of the components of the model have very specific names but the parts are not labeled so have to be carefully selected and test fitting is essential. Some of the parts have names that imply the existence of other parts for example "Beam 1" seems to be the only part named "Beam" in the kit so I spent some extra time trying to located the other "Beams" to make sure the one I had selected was actually "Beam 1"

Next up come the first aid stations.  Volgren Troller has very generously supplied a full First Aid Station and sink for each vehicle bay. The Rough Guide was a little fuzzy here. It details about half of building the most complicated side without mentioning the small positional markings on the struts or how the First Aid stations are constructed... and do the same for the other side... which I mistook for a comment about installing the other side wall when it really specifically was referring to the First Aid Stations.  The kit is very well designed so once I started dry fits it became immediately obvious how things were meant to go.

The inner framework, complete with matching First Aid Stations and side catwalks. The catwalks are not only great places for miniatures to lurk but help a lot with giving the tool boxes and other etched features an illusion of depth.

Now comes the Interior Rear Wall.  Once this wall is in position the whole framework can be slotted into the floor.

Floor installed. For as many slots as the floor part has this went together very easily.  The precision of the laser cutting is really great. The Rough Guide helpfully mentions that the floor should be worked starting from the rear wall. The front wall is not yet on and the side walls are still a bit flexible at this point making them a lot easier to deal with in the fitting.

Time for the Front Wall.  This slots into the floor and relies on the flexibility of the Top Side Panels to be lifted enough to get the wall into position.

Next comes the Exterior Rear Wall which completes the main structure.  There ae still a lot of things remaining to do but this was the tricky bit.

Remember those resin vent panels? Add them in here as they get painted. The printed side is reversed to show the etched detail on the other side of the wall panel and the slightly larger resin side allows for the whole thing to be glued in flush.

First picture shows the resin side.

Second picture shows the painted MDF side.

These slide in very easily and add some extra detail. 

Back to the desk to work on the ramps, doors, ladders, interior details etc...

 

Forward Base: Habitat 5 - The Workshop WiP

Forward Base: Habitat 5 - The Workshop

Habitat 5 is a workshop with two vehicle bays that should be an early structure for a new outpost.

The kit is from the Forward Base Kickstarter by Antenocitis' Workshop and this one includes the resin upgrade as well as the other additional rewards from that campaign.

I sprayed all the MDF with a dead-flat sealer and began painting the details.  These kits are pre-painted which does not mean that no painting needs to be done but rather that they have a single color per sheet paintable coating which allows for the painted surface to look a lot less like painted MDF.

You can see here the ramps are on a yellow colored sheet and I've painted in details like safety markings, logos, tools, etc... The floors and walls are grey and roof panels white. 

These are weathered panels which means the laser cutter was turned up to do some light scorching. It makes for a nice effect on the large areas that I leave unpainted like the grey floor of the vehicle bays.

I still have tool boxes and some cabinets to paint in before assembly.

Then came cleaning and priming the resin components and familiarizing myself with the types of parts that might be included. I learned from some earlier builds that the resin parts need to be considered from the very beginning as they sometimes completely replace structures early in the build process.

For vents and doors the MDF is pre-cut so the etched part can be removed and replaced with a resin upgrade. I have removed the parts to be replaced, turned them round, and glued them to the back side of the resin replacements. Now I'm in the process of painting both sides. In this way I get detailed vents and garage doors on both sides.

 

More on Hab 5 next installment... I also got a little work done on the body bags and am starting the ice vending machines and porta-loos for the Post Apocalypse table.

Last, but far from least, The massive Etherfields boardgame arrived just as I was coming up to post!

With a 17.5 kg mailing weight this thing is a real beast.  I'll be taking a look inside after my wife gets home so she can enjoy it too.

Cheers

Forward Base Habitat 3 construction process part 2

 One of the common issues with MDF buildings is that they look like MDF buildings.  Part of this is the way they interlock with visible joins but another way is that the overlap surfaces tend to be ignored in terms of details.

Antenocitis Workshop addresses the second issue by including a detail card for the end-caps.  This glues in place and ensures that the nooks and crannies have detailing that is thematically similar to the rest of the model. 

 These thin cards are easily attached with tacky glue or Super-Phatic (very thin, strong, PVA).  I clamp them in place for a few minutes to ensure a strong bond.

 Here is a "before" shot showing the plain end-caps.  Since the MDF is pre-painted it actually looks fine as it is... but its gonna be so much better after!

 To the right the end-caps have been installed and the detailing is very nice.  You will notice a difference in color between the edges of the end-caps and the base MDF.  This is easily sorted later with a quick touch-up pass using Nut Brown (Reaper) paint.











Clamping up the rest of the assembled shell.

 The remaining bits.  The two topmost thin strips that we were careful not to glue into place during the build, the roof/lid, and the end-caps for them.  Its best to wait to install the end-caps for these parts until after the resin goes in.  For the most part they work if the ends are aligned but small differences in the shell construction can be adjusted for in the final fit of these.

 Moving on to the remaining resin. Some of the resin was installed earlier in "part 1". To the left is what remains. (There is one extra locker shown as I was touching up a part from a previous Hab 3).

The large bunk wall usually requires a hot water bath to adjust for warping.  This is likely due to the big hole in it for the bunk assembly.  Its easy to straighten and when the bunk is attached to the wall it reinforces the shape nicely.

 At this point all the remaining resin gets pre-fitted, sanded as required to adjust the fit and then painted.  These are often a very tight fit that should be adjusted via sanding the edges of the resin bits until they fit snugly but don't require force to get into position. Keep in mind that the height of the resin will also likely need to be adjusted to be level with the top of the MDF.  I failed to notice that during this build and the top retaining strips were very tricky to get installed.

 The pre-fit of these parts is critical and should not be skipped.

 The painted walls can now be slid into place.  I align them using the printed floor graphics.

   Antenocitis Workshop really excels at minute details and photographic elements like video screens etc.  All the graphic elements here are from them except the tabletop which is repurposed from some hobby packaging.

Once the interior resin is in place the Topmost strips are finally glued into position and  the remaining end-caps can be installed.

Test fit the roof/lid for alignment mark with pencil and glue in the lid end-caps.  There can be some variation so be careful to get the alignment right before gluing these in place. Carefully trim the overhang, if any, with a sharp hobby knife.

Now its touch up time.  Go round the whole model with Nut Brown and toch up the spots where the MDF shows bare... like where it was previously attached to the frame etc... 

 A "in progress" view to the right.  you can clearly see the difference between the touched up end caps and those not touched up.

All that remains for "part 3" are the exterior acrylic lights... which are a tiny bit tricksey..., the interior/exterior scatter, and the lower "feet"  which are unique to Hab 3 and help it interlock when stacking with other buildings in the series (specifically Habitat 1 or Habitat 4) and should not be installed until their companion buildings top lugs have been installed to make sure they line up properly. 

Part 3 will be a bit coming as I'll want to finish this after building Habitat 1 or 4...

Cheers

Halo Fleet Battles - a quick look inside the Gen Con Special 2 Player Battle Box

 I missed Gen Con but, thanks to Niel at The War store I didn't miss out on one of the amazing specials... the HALO Fleet Battles 2 Player Battle Box!

I found it waiting for me when I made my weekly pilgrimage to the mailbox and just had to take a quick look inside!  Here is what I found...

 The first thing that I notice is that the box is massive!.. I mean really large... and heavy too.  The colorful outer sleeve is not particularly sturdy... nor are the two content boxes inside.  This isn't a big deal but I like the look of the box and suspect it won't hold up to handling for very long.

No worries! That is what bespoke cases are for!  And well need some because this box is packed with stuff!

There are two sheets of punch out terrain to dress up the battlefield which I encountered in the box sleeve, that are made of a similar material and are a similar weight as the sleeve so be careful not to miss them when opening up the box.







 What I'll refer to as Box 1 has a perfect bound rulebook, a less robustly bound campaign book, several bags of dice, assorted tokens, reference sheets, overlays,  and the packet of Gen Con Extras.

 Here is the packet of Gen Con extras.  Its a capital ship sprue from each faction which is a huge upgrade to the set as each faction comes with one capital ship, a few middleweights, and a pile of frigates.  With this packet you double your Major vessels and get a couple of extra frigates to boot.  The packet also contains the related tokens and game markers for these ships.  Thanks Niel!

Box 2 contains the ships and flight bases.  There is a pile of them... 49 very detailed ship modles molded in hard plastic in good faction colors... 55 when you add the Gen Con goodies!  It looks like a quick wash would see them tabletop ready but there is a lot of room for actual painting as well.






I'll be reading the rules next week and see about a game... but, at the moment, I'm glad I picked up two sets of this!

I've always been interested in the Spartan Games offerings but have never jumped in.  If the rest of their catalogue is up to the quality of this set I've got another company to go all fanboy over!

Now off to the War Store to see about pre-ordering more Halo stuffs....