Terrain Showcase: The Danger Room, Part 3

In part three of this series, I talk about the final bits of construction on the main board and show you how I scratch-built the consoled for the Danger Room's control center...

 

 

Finishing the Board
 

When we left off, the hex tiles needed a little touch up and all the silver details needed to be painted. Once that was taken care of, it was time to add the concrete barriers and sewer covers. 

 

 

At first, I bade some concrete barriers out of insulation foam. These were cut with a snap-off blade and then the tops and bottoms were glued together and the whole thing coated with a thin layer of construction adhesive. While this would have been fine for a small personal project, they seemed a little fragile for a board that would need to travel and get loaded in and out of shipping crates.

 

 

So, I turned to mu trusty Aves Apoxie Sculpt. It cures rock-hard, so it could stand up to the rigors of travel and play. To get a uniform shape for all the barriers, I made a press mold out of 1.5mm styrene card. The mold consisted of the main body, which was filled with putty, and a cover which fit over top. I squeezed the two parts together, let the putty cure for about half an hour, and then popped out the barrier. Some Chapstick was applied to the insides of the mold to prevent the putty from sticking to it.

 

 

The barriers only needed a little cleanup around the edges, and they fit together perfectly!

 

 

I broke one of the barriers in half to create an opening in the board, and then sprayed them dark grey, and dusted on some lighter grey spray and spattered some off-white to give them a concrete "speckle." The edged were drybrushed with a mix of light grey and off white, and I brushed some darker tire streaks along the bottom.

 

 

The barriers were affixed to the board with construction adhesive, and some sand was glued around the bottom and painted to match the street.

 

 

One final touch was to paint the end of the barrier to appear as though it was fading into the hologram pattern. This was achieved by spraying the end (before it was glued in place, of course) with the same blue spray as the floor tiles, and highlighting the edges with Formula P3 Underbelly Blue and white at the corners.

 

 

Here's the completed 3' x 3' board. In addition to the street lines, I added some parking lines and oil streaks at the top where the Roxxon gas station would go.

 

 

Building the Control Room
 

The Danger Room's control canter needed a row of computer consoles. I built the main structure of the computer terminal out of styrene card, angled to fit into the shape of the room. The top of the terminal tucked under the window frames. Once the size of the terminal was established, I drew out a plan for all of the screens, keyboards, and lights. Then, I set about building all the details out of styrene card and glued everything onto the countertop. On the paper, you can see some of the raised screens which were made out of 0.75mm thick black styrene and 0.5mm white styrene for the frame. I used black and white so the detail and shapes would be easier to read visually as I was building everything.

 

 

To make the keyboards, and rows of buttons, I drew out the pattern on 0.75mm styrene, and then used a sharp scribing tool and a straight edge to trace the pattern and scribe the grooves between the keys. I made a bunch of keyboards in a single row, and then cut them apart.

 

 

The various keyboards, numeric pads, and buttons were then glued in place on the console. When scribing the keys, I made sure to leave a longer shape at the bottom for the space bar, and some double-wide keys at the edges for the "shift" and "enter" keys. By cutting the keypads into different shapes, I was able to create a variety of designs, and even made small rows of buttons near the screens by slicing off a row of three or four keys. The round buttons were made the same way I make rivets– by slicing off bits of round styrene rod.

 

 

I made some raised elements (like the three round monitors at the left) by combining L-strips and flat strips to make raised boxes to glue the details onto. Those round screens were made by making a rounded mound of putty and then pressing a section of styrene tube over it. The supports on the back of the raised screens were made with L-strips and a bit of round rod glued on the corners to look like hinges. 

 

 

I was able to follow the design pretty closely. Working on this computer bank was probably the most fun part of this whole project!

 

 

The rest of the room was detailed by gluing raised panels on the walls and etching panel lines into the floor. The door frames were cut out of thick styrene, with the door seam etched into the wall itself.

 

 

I added raised panels along the bottom of the computer terminal, and built the window frames out of square styrene rod. The windows were constructed so I could slide in a piece of clear styrene for the window pane, and I made the top of the frame removable– It's a length of styrene ladder with a bit of the rungs remaining to serve as pegs to plug into holes in the wall. This allowed the the window "glass" to be removed for photography if it was causing too much glare or reflection.

 

 

The rear wall of the room was a separate piece, attached by magnets. It was also removable so the control room could be photographed from inside, and the wall completed the set if it was photographed from the front, through the windows. Those vents at the bottom of the wall were made from sheet styrene with small ridges, and a rectangular frame cut from thicker styrene.

 

 

Painting the Backdrop and Control Room
 

Backing up with the painting a bit– The walls and floor were sprayed with silver, and then the two-tone spray of Peaceful Blue and French Blue (see part 2).

 

 

The window frames and dark grey details were painted with straight GW The Fang grey and the edges were highlighted with a mix of The Fang and Underbelly Blue.

 

 

As with the hex floor, I used GW Nuln Oil to paint the recesses of the panel lines, and masked off the silver bits to paint them. They were given a base coat of Army Painter Gun Metal, and then I darkened the Gun Metal with a touch of black and stippled the bottom to create a slightly darker transition. The metal was then finished off with a drybrush of Army Painter Shining Silver to brighten the edges.

 

 

The "X" on the door, like the window frames, was painted with The Fang and highlighted with Underbelly Blue, and the bottom each step was painted with The Fang. All of the panel likes were highlighted with Underbelly Blue and white. That was a lot of edge highlighting!

 

 

The interior of the control room was painted the same as the exterior, with the computer console painted separately so I could reach all the details.

 

 

At last the board and backdrop were complete. Everything going forward was a modular, stand-alone component like the buildings, cars, and accessories. Coming up, I'll finish off the Danger Room with its hazards and build some wrecked cars!

 

 

'Til next time!