Project Log: Demon Ship, Part 6

The hard part (or at least the most time-consuming part) is over– The modular walls are finished. Here's a look at how I built the last two and detailed the tops.

 

 

Last time, I built the 3-inch wall segments. That left the 2-inch and 1-inch segments. For the 2-inch wall, I used the same techniques– a foam core board interior, with the double layers of 0.5mm styrene card to build the outer box frame. On the long sides, I cut out two horizontal panels.

 

 

With everything cut out, it was time to assemble it.

 

 

On one side, only the top panel was open, and I used piece of Industrial base from my Skull Forge Scenics line. Other bits and pieces of the bases were chopped up to fill in the rest of the cavity.

 

 

The opposite side was totally open; I combed through my bits and pieces and jigsaw-puzzled them together to decorate the interior.

 

 

Here's everything, trimmed and fit in place, and how it looks through the cover:

 

 

Finally, the pieces of the outer shell were glued together and sanded.

 

 

For the 1-inch wall, I had a selection of pipes cut from my larger bases that I planned to use as a column of vertical pipes, with caution stripes around the bottom and top. After fiddling with these pieces for what seemed like an eternity, I eventually settled on a configuration that I was happy with.

 

 

For the base of the column, I glued some segments of the caution stripes around the magnetized square of card. To see how I made these caution stripes, check out Part 1 of this series.

 

 

I trimmed the edgeof the resin base, and extended the pipes with some styrene rods and tubes to create a flat bottom. On one side, I covered the corner with strips of styrene card, and on the other side, I patched up the edge with a strip of styrene punched with rivets. 

 

 

With the added styrene, the part fit snugly into the base.

 

 

For the opposite side, I had a narrower selection of piping, and used a square styrene tube to extend the width and create a connection for the horizontal pipes. (That thick square rod would fit into the extended piece of black styrene, lining up at the corner to create a solid side panel.)

 

 

As with the first piece, I extended the pipes with styrene rod and tubes, and then sandwiched them between a smaller bit of square rod.

 

 

After checking the fit, however, it was a little wide and slightly crooked, so I removed the small square rod and replaced it with a bit of thick plastic strip (the dark grey piece on the left side). 

 

 

The dark plastic strip wasn't flush with the edge of the resin edge, so I added a bit of styrene card to match the thickness. Some pipes were etched into the card with a plastic scribe, and I cut out windows in the sheet of plastic that would cover the side.

 

 

Here's the whole column assembly, minus a few final details.

 

 

Then it was time to address the tops of the walls. I knew I wanted to have some additional pipes or machinery on top of them. I collected the remaining resin bits, and made some sections of pipe that could protrude out of the tops of the walls. These were made by using a heat gun to soften the styrene rod and bending it.

 

 

However, I decided that it was taking too long, and would require too much cutting and gluing to fully detail those pipes (those round cuffs on the right of this image are only a fraction of the number I would need to add them at every corner and connection point on the pipe bends. I abandoned that, and decided to make use of the 40K Galvanic Servohaulers kit that I've been sitting on for years. I was obviously never going to get around to building it, so I decided to use it to finish kitbashing this terrain instead.

 

 

I sliced the crane's enginein half, and the parts were a perfect fit for the wall tops.

 

 

After a bit more cutting, I had these four components that would serve as the wall tops.

 

 

The plastic parts needed a bit of extra styrene detail to cover the gaps and hide some seams. I also had a couple Adeptus Mechanicus weapon bits left over from another kitbash, and used them as extra detail gubbins on top.

 
Here are all four completed wall sections: 

 

 

While assembling everything, I took care to make sure none of the wall detail protruded too much, so the walls could butt together and connect properly to make the various room configurations in the Demon Ship rulebook. 

 

 

The modular walls fit on the board perfectly to create the claustrophobic environment of the Demon Ship, and they are tall enough that I can get in close to take photographs without the tops breaking the illusion. (I'm planning to make backdrop walls as well to help with that.)

 

 

With the walls complete, I can move on to some simple and fun bits like the doors and crates!
 

'Til next time!