Project Log: Demon Ship, Part 3

In this post, I'll show you how I built the console for my Demon Ship board:

 

I have a bunch of spare Necromunda consoles from the Objectives and Barricades set. They're perfect because they even have a lever, which is a feature of the console in the MDF Demon Ship terrain set. I planned to mount it on a 20mm square base so it could fit neatly within a one-inch floor tile, as well as on the raised platform.

 

I wanted to add caution stripes to the side walls of the base, but in order to cleanly scribe lines into the base edge, I needed to come up with a way to securely hold it. I settled on using a scrap piece of wood with a slot cut out so the base could be positioned with its side flush with the surface of the wood, allowing me to lay a straight edge on top and as a guide for the plastic scribe.

 

 

After marking out the position of the base, I used a hobby saw to cut out the channel. I kept it pretty narrow and cleaned it up with a knife so the base would fit tightly and not move around.

 

 

Here's the base in position:

 

 

By gluing two thick pieces of styrene card together, I made a jig to mark the angle of the stripes.

 

 

The topmost piece of card also served as a guide for the plastic scribe to etch in the lines.

 

 

Viola! It took a couple attempts to get it right on all foour sides, but I had plenty of spare 20mm bases to practice on. 

 

 

The top of the base was covered with a layer of thin styrene. I used my trusty rotary hand sewing punch to press some rivets around the perimeter of the square.

 

 

The gap on one side is to accommodate the bottom of the lever on the console.

 

 

Here's the finished base with the console in position:

 

 

Next up was detailing the console itself. This was a fairly organic process; I just took whatever spare bits looked like they might fit onto the piece to enhance it. I cut a small groove in the top of the console to fit this backpack sensor from the Imperial Fists upgrade sprue.

 

 

I used this section of pipe cut out of one of my Skull Forge Scenics industrial bases...

 

 

...and trimmed it down so it would fit on the back of the console.

 

 

To fill in the gap at the edge, I used some small bits of styrene. The grey bolts were carefully sliced off of the console, and then glued onto the white bits to make them look like brackets securing the pipe in place.

 

 

This wire was made by bending thin metal floral wire and inserting the ends into holes drilled in the plastic.

 

 

To add a little more detail on the front, I drilled holes through the cross piece and fed styrene rod through. The rod was bent a bit and fixed in place with super glue.

 

 

The skull on the front is a detail that's really specific to the 40K setting, so I covered it with a new screen cut from the handlebars of an old Space Marine bike. That round lens came from another 40K bit that I dug out of my parts box.

 

 

I magnetized the bottom by adding a mound of putty and pressing a magnet into it, then pressing the base to the Demon Ship floor to ensure it was flush with the floor and centered within the one-inch tile.

 

 

And that's it! Here's the fully-assembled console:

 

 

I'm also thinking of using some of the crates from the Necromunda or 40K objective sets, but I need to make sure they'll fit in the tiles and be large enough. If not, I'll have to build something out of plastic card.

'Til next time!