This year I've entered each of the Necromunda Terrain Builder Quarterly competitions. The last competition for the year is "Sump Fishing":
From the official site:
Down the Abyss, deeper still than Rust Town & the Delta-7 Badzones rises the sump sea. There among the shanties & hideouts, the brave hunt sump spiders in the deepest waters & the enterprising net blind sump fish from the slime. Men barter & trade for food from tackle shops that may or may not also deal in black market weapons, depending on who you ask. Up the rivers of sludge & in long-abandoned tanks of waste liquid & forgotten pools of toxic goo, brave adventurers try to catch mutant fish worth a small fortune, or just a meal.
I like the idea a lot, and I can see myself leveraging the various boards I've recently built. There aren't a lot of hard and fast rules in these competitions, and it seems that the judges (joe public) value size and breadth of vision over focus and detail. I'll just have to see how this goes, some of my ideas are already taking shape, and I am sure after I've made a start, the build will evolve itself. Let me share where I've gotten to...
Basic Dock
I have got an abundance of paddle pop sticks (I think they're called Ice Lollies in the UK?) thanks to a crafting project with my kids from a few years back. With some judicious snapping, hacking and bashing they're readily crafted into basic shapes. Here's a few pics:
 |
| To be honest, they look rather attractive in different colours! |
 |
After bashing and gluing, it's a simple case of spraying them black
then dry brushing them with my white craft paint. |
 |
After that, I tried my hand at some variants. This one had a
removable piece - why? Because. |
 |
I used some old printer parts combined with the sticks -
together they worked quite nicely, adding a bit of variety. |
 |
| With a few of the bits together, the concept is beginning to take form. |
That gives you a bit of an idea as to the build's direction: lots of walkways raised above the slump. The corks are consistent enough to use as pilings, and their texture works as well.
I'm trying to keep the monotones throughout - I find it really makes the miniatures pop when playing. Of course, there are opportunities to apply a spot or two of colour and detail, but the last thing I want to do is steal the stage from my miniatures.
Getting more creative...
After making some progress with my sticks, I started thinking about what could be done to add to the effect. I was scrolling through the Necromunda facebook group and someone mentioned rope bridges. Lightbulb time!
 |
A found a whole bale of this wire (maybe 1-inch squares?) during
hard rubbish last year. I knew it would come in handy. |
 |
| A bit of craft glue on the underside and Bobs Your Uncle. |
 |
| Here you go - a suspension bridge ton the left and a bridge with railings on the right. |
Well, that was coming along very well. But I was now bored. I wanted to make something else.
Printer Parts...
Every now and then other people learn the secret that old desk printers are a fantastic source of modelling materials. I picked one up off the side of the road a while back and spent an enjoyable afternoon gutting it for bits. Occasionally, typically around spring cleaning time, I am tempted to throw the bits out into the trash, but the shapes are just too good to give up on. And here's an example of what can be readily smashed (or dare I say melted) together:
 |
I've no idea exactly which printer parts these are. They were
cut into three bits and glued together in around 20-minutes. |
 |
Following the gluing, I fired up my, well, flame gun and melted
the bugger - I got some fascinating wavey patterns near the front. |
 |
| After some love and attention, it started looking the business. |
 |
Look at this lovely hole of corruption - getting that bubbling
effect takes a bit of practice, but I'm really getting the hang of it now. |
 |
| How foul is that? Yuck!! |
 |
This gives you a sense of scale - it's not particularly prominent as it's
intended to integrate with my other pieces. |
So what's next? I've to some more printer bits that I think could be used to make some more dock-things. I've also decided that if I am going to have a dock, really need a bigger water/sludge sea type terrain tile(s) - so there's a bit of experimenting to be had there as well. A few fishing shacks would go down well, but I'm unsure just how to approach them just yet. Finally, I'd like to make a barge or similar - a rotten hulk, half-sunken into the sludge - now that would be great. Ah so many ideas, such little time!
