Citadel Terrain & Scenery

Another Saturday without a spotlight. To be honest, I've not been in the mood to spend much time on the interwebz the last week. The level of stupidity over in the Black Templar subforum of BnC is beginning to match that of Warseer and Dakka Dakka. Some of the worst advice I have ever seen. Oddly enough, the stupidity has encouraged me to make further progress on the Victorian Crusade. I've spent the better part of day and half cleaning and pinning Sisters of Battle. Has anyone else noticed that their feet is really ducked up? I digress, it has been too long since my last look at some terrain. The below images and commentary have been taken from the latest What's New Today post, and as usual my thoughts are in purple italics...

Today, the blog has been based around scenery and the potential that if offers the ambitious modeller. Jervis, Kevin and Adi all mentioned scenery when they told us about their Ultimate Gifts, so it seemed like a good time to go out and find some examples of it. Stop the press! A Games Workshop employee is spamming three Land Speeders armed with multi meltas and heavy flamers. To accompany today's battlefield-based content, Adam Troke has written an article about Getting Started With Citadel Terrain, which is a great way to learn more about how to start your scenery collection. Now, off to Rotterdam in the Netherlands where they have a very big tower:

In the depths of Middle-earth a huge tower soars above the ruined city of Osgiliath. At seven stories high it is a monumental building that dwarfs all those around it. It has been built using the Ruins of Osgiliath, of which there are quite a few kits involved - the guys in Games Workshop Rotterdam stopped counting at eight packs. To make sure all the parts fitted together; Robert and his team used a Hobby Saw not to be confused with a jeweller saw, as some are known to do to cut the wall sections to the right size before gluing them in place.

The ruins of Osgiliath have been built onto a Realm of Battle Gameboard, which has been painted to look like water. This was then covered with several thin layers of Water Effect to give the impression that the River Anduin has broken its banks and begun to flood the city. Chopped up pieces of the ruins kit were glued into place before the Water Effect was applied, giving the impression that buildings have sunk or toppled into the river. We did try to get a picture of the table but it seems the water was just too shiny to photograph. If you live in the Rotterdam area, make sure you head in and check it out. Sucks to live in Ozlandus, but at least Games Day will finally return in 2011.

Not to be outdone, the staff in the Nottingham store put on their hard hats and started constructing their own tower - but this time for Warhammer 40,000.

The 'Towers of Terra' are made using parts from pretty much every Warhammer 40,000 building kit. The bottom five floors on the left tower were constructed from the Basilica Administratum and the Sanctum Imperialis kits. The ruined sections of wall that come in the kit were used on the back of the tower to represent the damage rear section of the building. The top three floors are made from the Shrine of the Aquila

The towers are strewn with debris and battle damage, which was created by taking a pair of Plastic Cutters to the wall sections and ripping them to bits. The left-over rubble will be used on the base of the tower. The sandbags give the impression that the tower has been fortified at some point: they were made from Green Stuff using the techniques shown in Imperial Armour Modelling Masterclass Vol.1. Can find an online tutorial over at Santa Cruz Warhammer. Their tutorial was actually featured in the very first Weekly Finds. The heavy weapons that have been left in windows and doorways were taken from the Imperial Guard Cadian Heavy Weapon Squad.

Until official measurements have been made, neither Nottingham nor Rotterdam know who has the tallest building. As a precautionary measure the Nottingham staff decided to build the widest building too - this time a Warhammer Fortress. The picture on the right below it is one of the tables at Warhammer World.

The Warhammer Fortress kit is a massive set in its own right but the guys in the Nottingham Hobby Centre decided that it needed to be bigger - the base is actually both tiles from the Citadel Realm of Battle Gameboard Extension, which means that this piece of scenery is 48 inches wide. The fortress was constructed using two of the Warhammer Fortress kits and a Fortified Manor House and it is the perfect example of how easy it is to customise the scenery kits. It looks totally cool, man.

This table in Warhammer World was constructed by the scenery team and if I'm not mistaken, has already been shown on the blog in the past. Built on a Realm of Battle Gameboard it represents a small hamlet in an Empire province. Scenery is a great extension to your army - imagine creating a fortress for your Bretonnian Knights or a ruined city for your Imperial Guard; maybe even the whole city of Osgiliath for your army of Gondor.

Disclaimer - All images taken from the Games Workshop website without permission, and will be removed if requested.