Church like Basing/scenery for a gaming board and SM?

[Lord Commander Erus]

I'm getting ready to start my chapter next month, as most of you know. Now my question here is this: I've never bothered much on basing beyond basics. I've learned a lot reading your guys stuff, but for this force i'd like to do something i've never done or head about.

I'd like to know some advice how to base my guys in a sort of ruined church bit. I will be making a gaming board for the game room in my new apartment as well, and plan on making it a sort of entrenched monastery (parts of it shelled, etc..) with trenching and turrets on the monastery side (this will be edge to edge, on the opposite side of the usual deployment zones so no one has an insane advantage) with some craters, etc.. On the far extreme edge I wanted some sort of natural terrain, like forestry or mountains.

What i'm asking here is for you brilliant people to help point me, or tell me, how I would model terrain of the above type, suggestions for bases, bits from GW or FW that might work good for a Chapel/Fortress Monastery of Space Marines. How would one go about beginning to make a game board, carve trenches, make craters, etc..

Where can I get some good gun emplacements/pillboxes, or how to make them. I'd also like most of this except the trenches to be modular, where it can be lifted off the board and swapped out for other terrain. Ideally, the terrain itself might be divided into 4's so the board can be completely swapped. A ruined road/path might look cool too. And how to make cliffs/rocks, trees, or even scratch build a ruined monastery.

[Templar Mikeel]

I'd like to know some advice how to base my guys in a sort of ruined church bit.

Use small bits of Foamcore. Make floors or small, short pieces of ruined wall. Use ground up sprue and sand and paint it the same color as the ruined church.

What i'm asking here is for you brilliant people to help point me, or tell me, how I would model terrain of the above type, suggestions for bases, bits from GW or FW that might work good for a Chapel/Fortress Monastery of Space Marines. How would one go about beginning to make a game board, carve trenches, make craters, etc..

For the Church/Monastery I suggest using the Gothic ruins that used to come will all the big GW sets. You can also use 1/2 inch think foamcoare and/or the GW CoD sprues, but specifically the Basilica Administratum and certain bits from the Sanctum Imperialis. I don't know of any FW pieces though.
For the craters, carve the crater shape out of any old insulation foam, cover it with sand, rubble and anything else that fits in with the board. If I can get a picture up of my solitary crater, you'll see what I mean.

Where can I get some good gun emplacements/pillboxes, or how to make them. I'd also like most of this except the trenches to be modular, where it can be lifted off the board and swapped out for other terrain. Ideally, the terrain itself might be divided into 4's so the board can be completely swapped. A ruined road/path might look cool too. And how to make cliffs/rocks, trees, or even scratch build a ruined monastery.

Pillboxes. You can go the ridiculously expensive way and buy FW, or you can easily build your own. Just use 1/4 inch think Foamcore, and weapons from the IG heavy weapons team, or a sponson weapon from any Imperial tank. The Baneblade twin-linked heavy bolter would look especially cool.

[Lord Commander Erus]

Originally Posted by Templar Mikeel

Use small bits of Foamcore. Make floors or small, short pieces of ruined wall. Use ground up sprue and sand and paint it the same color as the ruined church.


For the Church/Monastery I suggest using the Gothic ruins that used to come will all the big GW sets. You can also use 1/2 inch think foamcoare and/or the GW CoD sprues, but specifically the Basilica Administratum and certain bits from the Sanctum Imperialis. I don't know of any FW pieces though.
For the craters, carve the crater shape out of any old insulation foam, cover it with sand, rubble and anything else that fits in with the board. If I can get a picture up of my solitary crater, you'll see what I mean.


Pillboxes. You can go the ridiculously expensive way and buy FW, or you can easily build your own. Just use 1/4 inch think Foamcore, and weapons from the IG heavy weapons team, or a sponson weapon from any Imperial tank. The Baneblade twin-linked heavy bolter would look especially cool.

Good ideas. The pill box bit especially. Pics will help greatly, as I am definitely a visual learner.

[Templar Mikeel]

Ok, I'll see what I can do.

[hairyyahoo]

Originally Posted by Lord Commander Erus

Good ideas. The pill box bit especially. Pics will help greatly, as I am definitely a visual learner.

in the BBB there's a guide on making a foamcore bunker. take this, change from rectangle to a hexagon, make the sides shorter and viola, a pill box!

[Mart007]

We are at the correct time of year for this suggestion: But you can get tacky cheap xmas tree dcorations that you could use for small intricate church details, paint over them with thin Poly filla and paint as you would any stonework. I dont mean the round borbal things, but you can get ones that look like little spires and such like.

[Ides]

I do believe FW do trenches, tank traps, mines and defense platforms, so you could use those...

other than that, use bits of sprue cut to look like stone, wrecked stained glass windows, broken statues...