Project Log: Demon Ship, Part 5

After a brief hiatus, I'm back to work on the Demon Ship board, building the wall segments:

 

 

As with the other components, the walls needed to be magnetized to lock in on the floor tiles. I cut a 1 x 3 inch sheet of styrene and, with it aligned on the floor grid, put magnets on top of it so they would snap into position. Then, I traced around the magnets and drilled holes in the styrene template.

 

 

Using the template, I traced out the wall segments on a sheet of 1-inch thick styrene.

 

 

I made two 3-inch sections, a 2-inch section, and a 1-inch section. each with magnets set into the bottom. I then sliced 1mm off of each side, to accommodate the vertical styrene walls that would be built over these bases. 

 

 

From there, I needed to work out the construction of the walls themselves. I came up with the idea to use a piece of foam core board in the center covered with pipes, and a layer of framing over that, through which you could see the interior pipes.

 

 

The pipes are from my Skull Forge Scenics resin industrial bases– Every time I have a miscast base, I cut out the section of pipe detail and set it aside to use in projects like this. I've collected enough that I can easily cover these wall sections.

 

 

However, before I started gluing pipes to the interior, I decided to address the exterior of the walls. I settled on something similar to the MDF Demon Ship terrain pack– Straight walls with access panels cut through. Some of the panels would be open, and I would only need to place pipes behind the open panels, which would cut down on the amount of resin pipes I would need. I also needed to ensure that the sides of the walls were straight and relatively smooth. According to the room layouts in the rule book, the wall sections butt up against each other in various configurations, so they couldn't have bits and pieces protruding.

 
The sides measured about 3-inches long by 2.5-inches tall. Initially, I tried to jump straight into 1mm thick styrene for the panels, but it proved too difficult to get clean, precise cuts through the thick card. Instead, I used two sheets of 1/2mm thick styrene, which was much easier to cut. I drew and cut out the surface layer, with all three of its access panels cut out. Then, I glued this to another solid sheet of styrene.

 

 

On the inner sheet, I cut out a smaller opening, leaving about a 2mm lip all the way around. I didn't bother cutting out the panels that would remain closed.

 

 

The cut-outs from the surface layer were saved and used as the panel door. I trimmed the edges slightly smaller to leave a slight gap all the way around and glued them back into the recess. The latches on the top and bottom were made of off-cuts from a small styrene U-beam. On each of the open panels, I cut notches in the top and bottom of the lip to represent where the catch would lock into place.

 

 

The edges were trimmed, and here you can see how it would look with the pipes visible inside:

 

 

Then it was on to the fun part– Detailing the interiors with bits of pipe and other plastic bits. I used some large square tube to fill in some gaps and create connection points for the pipes that "dead end" into nothing.

 

 

The first side was finished, and would look something like this:

 

 

And here's the first side of the second wall:

 

 

For the ends, I used the same process to make three open panels and three closed panels. The grey vents at the bottom were taken from the industrial base accessory sprues, and were glued into cutouts so they didn't protrude too far out from the surface.

 

 

To construct the interiors of the wall ends, I glued a thin piece of card in place and then attached the resin pipes to it, positioned so they would be visible through the open panel. I concealed the rough edges with a bit of styrene.

 

 

The end panels were extended wider than necessary so they could be glued and trimmed, as you'll see below.

 

 

On the opposite side of each wall, I used a different configuration of which panels would be opened, to get as much variety as possible.

 

 

Once all the interior "guts" were finalized, I glued the outer panels in place. As I mentioned, the ends were a bit longer to to make it easier to fit everything together. I only glued the wall panels, taking care not to stick them to the base.

 

 

This outer shell was then carefully removed...

 

 

...and the ends were trimmed and sanded to create smooth, sharp corners with no visible seam. I used sanding sticks, working from 180 grit, through 400 grit, and finished it off with 600 grit.

 

 

Next, I added a sheet of 1mm styrene on top, again cutting it a bit larger and then trimming and sanding it down to size once the glue had set. Each of these outer shells fits snugly over the interior framework and footprint. My plan is to paint the shells and interiors separately so I can get at all the detail without too much fuss. 

 

 

Here are how the walls look on the board. I was hoping to get all four of the wall segments finished, but both of these 3-inch sections took longer than expected.

 

 

The walls magnetize to the floor, and butt up against each other, just as planned.

 

 

One final detail I was considering was adding some pipes and machinery on the tops, but that will have to wait for another day.

 

 

'Til next time!