Games Day 2009 Mega-Board

The Games Day Mega-Board of 2009 has to be one of my all times favourite. In part because it is so huge. But also because we got a chance to watch it get slowly built up over the months on What's New Today. Below are three of those posts by Andy with my own thoughts in purple italics...

The first of three posts. It shows the scale of this project. It doesn't show you the other elements of the board which can be seen further down.

The city has expanded a lot over the last few weeks and there's still room for further expansion. Click on the image for a closer look at the city wall that's made from dozens of Bastions. A very expensive way to build fortified walls. In saying that this is an amazing project and I'm sure these guys have free access to all Games Workshop kits.

This gate section, made from the Shrine of the Aquila set, is still a work-in-progress but is a brilliant great example of how you can modify a piece a terrain for another use.

This walkway between these two buildings has been made using the walls from the Sanctum Imperialis set, and helps to make the city feel more functional. My biggest problem with this city, and it is highlighted very well in this picture, is the over-use of the same wall pieces. The city could do with some more diversity. Some blown out windows or half demolished building as a result of orbital bombardment. Could fill in some of the lower windows with planks and sand bags. 

The team added a bridge to the dried up river bed and added banks to the river using the plastic Modular Gaming Hill. There is a post where the team show how they made the dried river bed. Unfortunately I've been unable to find it. Edit - I've found the post. Click on the image for a closer look at the bridge.

Second post showing the progress.

This 'mega-bastion' was made using many Bastion kits and incorporates a Skyshield Landing Pad. Rather than hand-paint all of the heavy bolters, Ray devised a 'mask' that would allow him to spray-paint them. Click on the image link to see it in action.

A second mega-bastion, this is yet another example of how flexible the Warhammer 40,000 scenery kits are. Click on the image for a look at how the team used the floor section from the modular movement tray set to give their mega-bastions stability. The use of the modular kits as internal support would break the bank and make a project like this unfeasible. But the guys over at Warhammer World have no need to worry about that... they are advertising.

The river section is now finished and ready for painting. Look below Click on the image for a top-down-view.

Made from a couple of Shrine of the Aquila sets, the city gates have been mounted on hinges and can be opened or closed. Click the image to see the gates closed.

This is post number three. For this year's UK Games Day, Ray Dranfield and the Warhammer World scenery team have been building their largest board yet. And over the last month or so we've been keeping you updated with their progress. Well, with only three days to go the team have been working around the clock and have now finished assembling the 13 boards that make up their mega-board, which should just about leave them enough time to get it painted...

All of the craters and ruined vehicles added to the board have been edged with filler. This helps create the impression that they are actually embedded into the ground rather than sitting on top of it. While the filler is still wet, Ray sprays it with water and brushes it smooth, which saves him from having to sand it smooth later.

Up until now we've mostly featured pictures of the city sections of the board. Here you can see several of the boards that will make up the outlying areas. Each of the board sections has been designed to not only fit together into a unified whole, but also to be usable as 6'x4' gaming boards in their own right.

The city gates are now completely assembled and have been glued in place. All of the paving has been made using the floor sections from the Modular Movement Tray set. Notice how the edges of the paved areas have been made with the edging from the Modular Movement Tray set.

Another of the boards that will border the city, this desert area is where the bulk of the Ultramarines army will begin the game. The Drop Pods were glued in place before the board was textured, which is why the door sections have been taped-up until the sand has been painted. Notice the fallen Space Marines scattered around the craters.

When texturing a board with sand, Ray first paints PVA onto the areas wants to texture and then pours sand over the glue. He then pats the sand down to ensure it sticks, and leaves it to dry overnight. Click on the image to see the board after the excess sand has been tipped off.

This giant cathedral has been predominantly built using Shrines of the Aquila and Basilica Administratums. The roof has been made from the floor sections of the Modular Movement Tray set and held in place by bits of plastic frame. Below is another view of the Shrine. It shows how it has been built up on it's own base... I imagine we will see this recycled into future projects.

After the slow build up of the images all I can find is the two pictures in this What's New Today blog post. Unfortunately can't find anything further via the interwebz...