I’ve a strange relationship with gaming terrain. I really really enjoy collecting and making it for my games, but often end up not using it that often and donating it when it’s taking up valuable storage space somewhere. Over the past couple of decades I’ve probably constructed several full tables worth of terrain multiple times over. Cyberpunk cities for Infinity, the depths of Hives, bug planets, asteroid fields, fantasy realms for Warhammer and Middle Earth, snow and ice boards, desert boards, volcanic boards, grimdark city ruins and more than a few iterations of ‘epic’ scale tables.
Basically a lot of terrain, most which I no longer have anymore. With maybe two exceptions; Necromunda and Epic. The former is a slow burn project which is ‘mostly’ built and I’m just grinding my way through the painting phase at the pace of glacial erosion. I invested far too much time and money into that build to not keep it. Plus it’s generic enough I can use it for Heresy Zone Mortalis games, generic sci-fi and skirmish Kill Team style, role play or just good old gang warfare like it was designed for.
Epic. Now that’s a different thing all together. That’s the one system I have been meticulously storing my old terrain collection for a time such as, well now in fact. It’s not wholly complete, there are a couple of iterations of boards that have long since been retired or upcycled. But much of the scatter terrain, ruins, buildings and the like I still have to hand today. They need some renovation and TLC for sure, but I still have them and now seems a good time to review what’s there and how I can integrate them with the newer kits released for Adeptus Titanicus and Legions Imperialis.
Forgeworld
I was expecting these to look a bit small alongside the new plastic kits, but I think they actually look fine. Doors do look a little downscaled in comparison, but honestly I’d quite happily use these in games. Definitely in the ‘renovation’ pile for a re-paint.
Epic 40K era plastic ruins
These also looked less dated than I thought they might. I think the bases will need some work to re-texture in a more appropriate scale so they blend in better, but that’s not a lot of work. Again, happy to add to the renovation pile.
The new stuff
Here is where the fun begins. I purchased a few of the current sets when they initially launched for Adeptus Titanicus. These were the core ‘Civitas Imperialis’ sector sets and absolutely loved the modular nature of them. Since then, three more sets have been released, the Spires, the Industrial sector and when Legions launched, the Civitas ruins. All three integrate wonderfully with the core Civitas kit to create an almost limitless selection of building designs.
Being the obsessively organised hobbyist I am, I’ve built most of the sub assemblies from the industrial and spires kits, and sorted the parts from the Civitas buildings into bags ready to unleash onto the workbench.
I’m really quite looking forward to this.
Go big or go many
The hardest decision I had to make was whether to maximise the kits and make lots of small to medium sized buildings, or just make a smaller number of more impressive ones. The latter route can get expensive, even with the largest of the Civitas bundles. But there’s just something about the maxxed out sets that just doesn’t scratch my hobby itch. in the end I think I settled on somewhere between the two, with a few nice sized pieces made from the Civitas kits and a selection of smaller ‘filler’ buildings using a mix of old Forgeworld and ruins.
The builds ended up being a mix from what I had to hand, which included the Civitas kits mentioned above, some old ones I partially assembled and painted for Titanicus, and a selection of 3D printed parts I had in the box. I think I won these at an event a few years back. It was a while ago and unfortunately I don’t remember where they came from, or who donated them I’m a bit embarrassed to say. But they did integrate quite nicely with the Civitas parts, so it was really nice to be able to use them. I think they ended up as some of my favourite builds.
All of the buildings including the Forgeworld and partially painted ones will be completely re-primed and painted to bring them up to spec. Most likely to match the style I’ve used on the war engine bases, or similar.
Industrial?
I’ve still a few of the Industrial pieces to make use of and of course some small to medium sized scatter and low ruins. I think these I will play around with another weekend as I need to get back to painting the White Scars for September, now the weather has cooled down again. I’d also ‘like’ to try to get the vanguard units at the very least done before this weekends pre-orders come out in two weeks time.
The buildings were a very welcome distraction however, they have been on my list for the longest time so it was nice to be able to finally crack open the box and get creative. Between what’s shown here, my old Forgeworld and Epic 40K era buildings and a good chunk of yet-to-be-seen bits, I think I’ve probably got all my terraforming needs covered for now.
Ok, with that box ticked I think I’ll break out the paints and get back to adding markings to tiny jet bikes.
Have a great week!
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