Infinity Terrain: The Fifth Element Table

The Fifth Element Table

 

 

         The future is not super flashy, clean, organized, and beautiful. Realistically if you look at any place that civilization has been for extended periods of time you will notice that we, humans, do a wonderful job of turning everything into a midden heap. I feel like the world, or at least the cities, will be vast expanses of concrete and steel. Gangs and thugs will rule the ally ways and dark depths of the societal bowels. Tagging their terf with graffiti and defending it with force. Rich gangsters and corrupt politicians will live lavishly in penthouse apartments while the working man scrapes away an exsistance to make do for his family. The lower levels of the cities are covered in smog and filth therefore have been given over to the gangs and the poor. Living conditions are rough and working conditions rougher. The rich are so out of touch with this world, up in their penthouse suites, that they only catch glances of it on occasion. This is because the corporations and religious factions take care of things before they get out of hand. They have unique highly trained men and women that do their dirty work. This dark sketchy terrain is the home of the special operators. Thugs are hardly cause for second glance, gangs know better than to get in their way, and the few honest folk in these parts are already used to just keeping their darn head down. The only friction these elite warriors face is form rival factions. Other operators that have trained to their level conduct business just as well as them in these dim man made canyons. Stealing information, sabotaging factories and warehouses, uploading viruses into servers, all to feed the agenda of their political or corporate backers. 

      If you, like myself, are more a fan of sicence fiction like Firefly, Blade Runner, and The Fifth Element then you agree with my portrayal of the future. When I first read the fluff of infinity my mind immediately placed the characters into the scene I just described. I have noticed, by looking at others terrain and minis, that for some people this is not what they imagine when they think of humans, test tube warriors, dog soldiers, and aliens dukeing it out. For some people they imagine the utopian space station of Elysium or the graceful planet of Naboo. Needless to say when it comes to the hobby side of things you need to do what makes you happy. For me that meant creating a table that placed me inside of my favorite movies. 

 

So I bring forth "The Fifth Element" table. When creating this terrain I was actually making the first set of terrain for a new shop that opened up just down the road from me (literally 4 minute drive how cool!). I wanted to help the shop get off of its feet and attract people to the table top scene. One sure fire way to draw people in is with cool looking stuff! I also do not have an extravagant amount of money to spend on MDF buildings and whatnot, though it sure does look great. Scouring the web I found several people had been using Foamcore with great results. Post like this sweet foamcore tutorial from the Wayward Warcor were instrumental in figuring out the basics. With a solid understanding of the direction I wanted to go in I grabbed my trusty pencil and started sketching out my ideas.

 

I have thrown a few examples of what my sketches/schematics look like. Normally my drawings start as just drawings and end up with numbers as I figure out what pieces I need to cut out. In my local store we do not have very much room so I tried to make all of my terrain stackable and a lot of it nesting dolls into itself. If you are interested in trying to use any of these schematics contact me and I will send them to you. I am going to pull one out in particular for this tutorial. 

 

 

This is one of my fairly basic rectangle buildings with a ledge on it to provide cover. Once I have sketched out my plans I transfer it onto my foamcore all at once this way I can plan out the use of my foam as best as possible this will save you from having too much wasted left overs. 

 

 

There will still be some left over but you can reduce the amount of waste with a little planing. Make sure you keep all of your left over pieces at least any of a usable size. You will use it later when making scatter terrain. Next we cut out our pieces. I am not going into depth with how to cut foam. General rules though are; measure twice cut once, cut three times (once through each layer) and use a sharpe blade. 

 

 

Make sure you cut out all details at this time such as Windows and architectural designs. It is much harder to do once the building is put together. 

 

 

I use rabbit joints for all of my structures to the max extent possible. This serves to protect the foam and adds structural integrity. Pluse it just gives off a cleaner look...because I am concerned if my dark dirty streets looks clean... I think you get the point though.

 

 

I made a neat rabbit joint tool, that I learned about on the internet somewhere, that is just two scrap pieces together to give me the width of the foam. I like to use a block sander to level the joint. You can also use it to level out any uneven cuts you made on the walls and ledges. This tool can be found really cheap at any hardware store and it is typically used to sand drywall. 

 

 

Once all rabbit joints are made you can start putting your building together. I use push pins that I found in my wife's sowing box to hold the building together while the glue dries. For glue you can use hot glue, or white glue. I prefer white glue also called PVA glue. I really like the brand Tacky Glue. It is cheap, fast setting and very strong.

 

 

Next cut out details like doors, lights, ladders, ext... Then glue them into position. I used plasticard for this building but cereal boxes also work very well.

 

 

At this time your terrain is good enough to play with. You can start having some fun with all of your hard work. It is also easier for the next part if you build up a collection and do them all at once. 

 

 

Next you are ready to seal the exposed foam edges so that your spray paint does not melt the foam. If you are planning to use an air brush or hand painting it then you can skip this step. I do caution you when hand painting that if you use heavy layers of paint you can warp the building when the paint dries. Use a 50/50 mix of water and glue. I actually like Elmers glue (normal school glue) better for this. Use an old paint brush and just add a thin layer to all of the edges. I was dreading this step before doing it but it actually was not very bad at all I knocked out 10 buildings in about 15 minutes. 

 

 

Once complete you can spray paint your buildings. I suggest two or three light coats as opposed to one heavy coat. This will help to prevent warping and dripping. I just dusted the building from about 2 feet away the way you would properly prime a mini. 

 

 

I know I changed buildings on you but I forgot to take pictures of the one we were working on. I was going for a mix matched look of a futuristic ghetto so I used different color paints to enhance this effect. I chose colors that were not earth tones to help with the city feel as well. If you wanted a cleaner touch on your structures you could paint them all the same color, maybe white! Also if I was creating a compound of sorts such as a military base or industrial yard I would paint them all the same color. 

 

 

You can stop here if you want but I wanted to give my table a little more personality and really create the feeling of the dirty lived in world in my brain. So I decided that I was going to add graffiti and posters to the exteriors of my structures. I used deviant art and searched up things like graffiti, scifi propaganda, scifi advertisement, and scifi posters. Use your imagination and think about what kind of signs you might see in the area you are basing your terrain. 

 

 

Cut them out and get them ready for placement. I started with the bigger posters and advertisements and then moved to the smaller ones, lastly I added the graffiti. I used a 75% glue 25% water solution for application. I covered the whole back with glue, applying it with and old brush. Every once in a while I would have an end pull up on me just use your brush or finger to add a little more glue then stick it back down. You do not have to worry about being perfect because the glue dries clear. 

 

 

Now we really have a unique buildings that are all different but somehow feel like they belong together. Taking a little extra time an adding details like signs and posters will take your terrain to the next level. 

 

 

Buildings are complete so the table is done right? Unfortunately no... You could certainly play with what you have right now but your table would feel empty and almost like you are just running through a maze. You need some scatter terrain! Cover to hide behind, line of sight blockers, ways to get on top of the buildings. I am not going to cover how to make scatter terrain. You should at this point have quite a bit of foam left over, so use that to make anything your heart desires. What I did was set my table up and decided on pieces that I lacked such as stairs and ladders. I was also missing that lived in feel so I made trash bins and a taco shack. I made some fences that could be used to close fire lanes and add diversity. 

 

 

Use things you find around the house. Tubes and receipt rolls, mesh, random piping and random mechanical bits. One cool thing I found on the Internet was bottle cap barrels. You take two, glue them together with hot glue and line up the groves. Then stack them together on a base and boom! You have scatter!

 

 

I still need to get one of those fancy giant mouse pads (gaming mat) to tie my table together but I am really happy with how everything turned out! The Fifth Element table looks really cool and has already been the recipient of compliments from gamers and non gamers alike! I archived my goal of making it storage friendly and eye catching!

 

 

As the you can see I added cool ladders, stairs and walkways that can clip onto the ledges this allows for a 3 dimensional table where there are multiple avenues of approach and several ways to accomplish each mission. For this entire table I spent about $50 and that is including supplies. The price only goes down once you already have paint, glue and knifes. 

Create the world that you see your miniatures in! Make cool stuff that excites you because it will excite and draw others into the game. If you enjoy what you are playing with it will make you try harder to become good. For me when I play on The Fifth Element table I feel like it's my home and take it personally when others come stomping on my terf.

 

You are only limited by your imagination! -Chad-