Landing, Proserpine: Urban Terrain for the Tartarus Rim

[symphonicpoet]

I've been in need of better, denser urban terrain for the Tartarus Rim for a while. (After all, even out on the edges of the void there's still a few cities to make everything tick over properly.) My previous terrain has been mostly reminiscent of the west of the United States, which makes sense, since so much of the Sci-Fi I grew up on was set either there or similar places. But sometimes you want something just a little bit more Walled City of Kowloon. To that end, I bought a bunch of MDF container structure models from TT Combat. That seemed like a good way to suggest the sort of neighborhood you might have near a busy starport. It ought to be a thing of warehouses and improvised buildings, right? (My actual hometown port is . . . atmospheric, let's say. Busy and colorful, but quite gritty. A mix of old brick and new prefab, all covered in a healthy amount of grime and rust.)

Anyway, to spare you all the dialogue, here's the progress so far:

And here's a few shots of the one really complete structure mixed in with some other buildings and miniatures for context.

 

[ManicMan]

off to a good start

 

[symphonicpoet]

^Thank you! I'll get back to it then.

 

[Fimm McCool]

Looking good. Definitely getting those Bladerunner vibes.

 

[symphonicpoet]

^Thanks! Long way to go yet. I'm thinking I need to gribble them up and add more markings. (Not sure why I forgot that containers would need unique identifiers to keep track of them. Which will probably have been crossed out since they've been sold, but . . . there might still be traces.) I figure they need signs and maybe some interiors and additional details. They should work well with the Colony 87 market folk. And there's a bunch of stuff to build. I'm not getting quite as ambitious as a full modular table yet, but . . . maybe that'll come one of these days. (I definitely want more terrain. And I need a change to get working again.)

 

[inchmurrin]

Like where you are going. In york next to the castle mound and down the road from the Roman ruins there is a shopping/ hospitality centre Spark York CIC made of containers they are completely repainted so no identifiers.

 

[symphonicpoet]

^Valid point. Maybe I could leave some unmarked and others simply lined out. Did not get to the market when I was in York. (Did get to the railroad museum, though. And the cathedral.) I need to do a bit more research. My lines are/will all be fantasy, of course. But ideally, I want it to reflect a more utilitarian, working class aesthetic than the fancified stuff of the container structures in my own town. The closest thing I've personally seen is construction trailers. Research. More research. For fantasy toys. Hmm . . .

Anyway, glad you like it. Thank you! And I'll keep that in mind next time I'm able to get back to York. (Lovely town.)

 

[inchmurrin]

Loved York especially standing beside the roman column next to the Cathedral. Standing somewhere in the same spot as Constantine the Great founder of Constantinople is pretty cool.

 

[symphonicpoet]

^I completely missed the Roman remnants. Apparently because they are the bottom portions of otherwise Medieval looking structures which I did look at.



Missed the Constantine memorial entirely. I was on my way to Edinburgh, I think, and expected for dinner. So I visited the minster, grabbed an dangerously tasty lunch at the Guy Fawkes Inn, and went on my way. And when I came back trough a few days later I was distracted by trains. Definitely a town worth another visit. My truly surreal moment was in Peterborough. I found Katherine of Aragon by nearly tripping over her grave. Looked up from the pomegranate and saw "Queen Katherine" on the plaque and did one heck of a double take. "No! Can't be. That Katherine? Is here? In the floor?" Once in a while history bites you.

 

[ManicMan]

most of the ruins and 'remains' we have local to me are more medieval (and there are quite a few) but some Roman stuff too and a number of more recent graves of interest.. Whistler's mother (of whom his famous painting is) is burried a couple of miles from me, Harry H Corbett, Spike Milligan and Richard D'Oyly Carte among others.. Oh and kinda King Harold

 

[symphonicpoet]

^He counts. (I'm assuming you mean Godwinson.) I will make an effort to hit the sites missed next time. (And if anyone on the list finds themselves in St. Louis I give a nice history tours, and sure, we have plenty of USCW stuff, but also French colonial and even the largest collection of native American ruins north of Mexico. We were a big deal in the eleventh century, odd as that may sound.) Anyway . . . space stuff.

Here's the continuing progress. Finished the final story of the big building, finished painting a third market structure and made significant progress on a fourth. Here's how they all look together as they are right now.

Here's the rooves on a couple pulled and a few and some miniatures from assorted manufacturers scattered throughout for flavor and scale.

Most of the buildings don't really have interiors, per se, but they also don't have floors, so you could simply place the miniature and set the building over it. Which is . . . slightly annoying, but they're small. (And you could, in theory, stack them on one another more easily that way.) The big building has removable rooves and a removable upper story. I think the ground floor isn't intended to be accessible, but I may do something with it anyway. Here's a couple of detail shots.

The usual Imperial complaint about the lack of railings applies, of course. I may try to do something about that as well, since I intend to create a somewhat permanent configuration. Heck, maybe I'll go back and make the rooves removable on all of them too. (And create access to that bottom story on the big building.)

 

[inchmurrin]

Looking great especially like the market section. My colony 87 market people would pay premium raes for a stall, so long as the protection rates from the guy with the mohican weren't to excessive!

 

[Old Hob]

Love the wallpaper in the takeaway.

 

[symphonicpoet]

Looking great especially like the market section. My colony 87 market people would pay premium raes for a stall, so long as the protection rates from the guy with the mohican weren't to excessive!

I expect a fair few immigrants from Colony 87 will probably set up shop there, in fact, there are two in the pictures already, though they're maybe hard to see, as they're inside buildings. The sushi seller has set up in the yellow shack with the birds on the back wall, and the gadget seller is in the Rad Shack, which is the little grey one. The fellow with the Mohawk isn't the one to worry about. That's Jackson. He's a sweetheart. Runs with the Duchess of Pain Court in her Boudoir Noire. It's the fellow with the gold beaky mask who's the issue.

Anyway, glad you like it! It's a happy-making project.

Love the wallpaper in the takeaway.

Thank you! I'm trying to figure out how to add some more interior detail to all of them. That's a first step. I was pleased with how it came out. It's just paper, of course, but . . . that even makes sense, under the circumstances. Fitting, somehow.

 

[twisted moon]

good to see you back in production, and this looks like a promising project.

 

[symphonicpoet]

It's so hard to keep from getting bogged down sometimes. I may be in the middle of a workshop move. (My wife is chafing at the amount of space dedicated to my hobbies and the clutter that goes along with them. Right now, I have a nice upstairs room. Might get kicked into the basement. Which is where the actual gaming table is, so . . . it's not all bad.) That said, I appreciate the encouragement in this difficult time. (And to be fair, I do need to give her a bit more space and keep better control of my clutter. I might have soaked up a hundred square meters of our house for my assorted toys.)

 

[EricF]

Looks brilliant. Going to enjoy watching this lot get further greebled up!

One day I must get back to doing some proper sci-fi terrain, but every time I wonder I look at the rather daft collection of fantasy resin buildings I have that need painting and think I should do them first! I also can't quite decide if I do Gothic 40k, Retro 40k or Atomic 50s science fiction that would go with my Retro Raygun minis!

 

[symphonicpoet]

^Thank you! I picked up some 1/48 scale dollhouse furniture and some MDF 28mm gaming furniture that should help with the greebling. Got started on the MDF a little while ago. Nice large set from father and son gaming. lots of tables, chairs, beds, cabinets. It's pretty simple stuff, but it'll paint up well, I think. The dollhouse stuff is plastic, and a little old-fashionedy, but with paint and maybe a little modification I think it will serve fine too.

 

[twisted moon]

looking forward to seeing that.
i have some mdf tables, benches and chairs that i really should get on with.