Saturday, November 30, 2013

A foggy day in old London Town! - WIP - Empire of the Dead base board

With Curts painting challenge approaching, over on Analogue Hobbies blog, I have been hard out all week prepping stuff to paint for the challenge... So far I have 5 15mm PSC Panzer IV F1's, a Battlefront 15cm sFH18 Howitzer battery of 4 guns, another pack of Battlefront Begleit Tank escorts, for my StuGs, my Hobbit set of 13 Dwarves and Radagast have been rescued from the back of the painting table, and I made a start on my Requiem EotD stuff, prepping the Gentlemen with Guns, Lycaons, and the character pack of Dracula, his brides and Renfield. I've also done the 4 40k terminators to go with the test Das Reich terminator I did sometime ago...

So if I get through that little lot over the next couple of months I will be thrilled. I am keeping an eye on the fortnight theme aspects of the challenge too, and have some ideas for civvies, casualties etc...

After all that figure prepping, I thought the weekend, should give me a little time to work on terrain, and a wet and windy Saturday gave me a perfect chance to make a start on my Empire of the Dead London base board...

Now since some fine fellows suggested I should try and add some fog effects to my terrain board to go with the Building lights and Gaslamps I did, I thought I had better make a start...

I got a sheet of 5mm MDF and a 2" think sheet of polystyrene, cutting both to 48" x 48". I also got some 15mm dia plumbing pipe, with simple screw-fit connections, and made a start on a piped sewer system. I blanked off the ends of the pipe and added an upright to each that will just stick up proud of the poly sheet for now. This will be covered with a pastic mesh that will look like a drain cover...

The pipework will allow dry-ice to be pumped into the game, giving a foggy ground layer to the game.


Here's the pipework in place, on the MDF sheet.



I also used the pipework as a template to cut out the poly sheet...


Then the pipework was glued into place, and the poly sheet glued down around it. This will all dry overnight, giving the PVA glue a good chance to dry out. The books weigh it all down while it sets... I knew all those rule books, supplements, magazines and history books would be good for something! ;-)


While all that is drying... I finished off my 'smoke machine'... an empty 900g powdered food tin, a 2.5" 2nd hand computer case fan, a 9v battery cap connector was soldered to this, to power it up, glued to the plastic lid of the tin, that I had cut a fan sized hole in, so it blows down into the tin. An off cut of plastic pipe, and a bought piece of flexible pipe from the plumb shop, and we are ready to go... hot glue and insulating tape finishes it off...


...so this is all connected to the pipe 'sewer' system, via a screw fit straight connector... all I am waiting for is a test run...


...I need to get some dry-ice... the trick is, put some boiling water in the tin, drop in some dry-ice, put lid on and whack the fan on and, hopefully, hey presto - a smoke laden gaming board...

...for the chemically curious among you, the dry-ice, sublimes, i.e. goes from a solid, straight to a gas, missing out the liquid phase... to create a cold ground hugging fog effect... common to all those 70's pop group stage videos etc. and cheesy horror movies...

Warnings! - the dry-ice is seriously cold ( −78.5 °C), handle with thick gloves to avoid frost burns, oh and the gas is  CO2, so open the windows too, to avoid hypercapnia!

If I get it all to work, I'll upload a video... fingers crossed!


25 comments:

  1. Looks very interesting, looking forward in seeing more progress on this board.

    Kind regards

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  2. Blimey. This is gonna be mental.

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  3. This sounds brilliant. Can I come on holiday and play a game!

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  4. Wow, that is really neat, look forward to seeing it in action.

    John

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  5. Well that's taking it to another level! Sounds cool!

    Christopher

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  6. wow just wow, can't wait to see how this comes out

    Ian

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  7. Wow Scott You've taken it to the next level I hope you remember to open the window.

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  8. Cor blimey Govnor, would you Adam and Eve it, this has got to be a first for a wargames table. Combined with the lighting this is going to be fantastic.
    Cheers,
    Pat.

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  9. Now that is a wonderful idea. I want to see the video for it.

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  10. Wow, that is going to be incredible to see!

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  11. Fantastic stuff Scott!!! Video will be a must!

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  12. What an amazing idea! Your table will be awesome for night games. I will have to get a head torch when we all get together for a game. This gave me an idea for making a sewers map using pipes. Doubt I'd get round to it but at least it's, ahem, in the pipe line.

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    Replies
    1. The other end of the polysheet I bought is destined for a proper sewer board... which if I cut a couple of holes in the bottom of to match the current WIP board, and overlay, I'll be able to get smoke in the sewer network too!

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  13. This is one of the coolest projects I've even seen mate! Can't wait to see it in action.

    Can I suggest inserting a small valve somewhere on the pipeline so you can control the volume of "fog"?

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  14. This is insane! Insane on a wonderfully, creative and all genius level!

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    Replies
    1. They do say there's a fine line between genius and lunacy... ;-)

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  15. I can't do half of the half of hundred hundredth and a half of that work !!
    I'm sure that the result would be perfect !
    I follow !

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    Replies
    1. Its amazing what you can 'bodge' together with hot glue and PVA !

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  16. Excellent idea! Can't wait to see how it looks in action.

    Roly

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    Replies
    1. You'll be welcome to call and check it all out 1st hand :-)

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  17. Thanks all for your kind words :-) I hope I don't disappoint!

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  18. I know its a really cool idea but just gotta warn ya'll those dryice are frozen compressed CO2( Carbon Dioxide ), so flooding the room with CO2 may not be a good idea. Well VENTILATED (I mean more likely outside) room with consent supervisions. So enjoy safely. :)

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