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Get To Da Thunderhawk! Forge World’s Mars Pattern Landing Pad
September 10, 2016 by brennon
Building on those Realm Of Battle tabletops out there that folks are building for Warhammer 40,000 the folks at Forge World have put together a Mars Pattern Imperialis Landing Pad which will work as a neat focal point for your battles.
The obvious focus for something like this is a last stand kind of scenario. You could have a unit of Space Marines or Astra Militarum having to try and hold the landing pad against waves of enemies as another part of the army with an important HQ element to it fights their way towards it.
Maybe this becomes the important element for a Kill Team game instead where one side is trying to plant explosives around the landing pad to take down a ship on it while the other is trying to stop them.
I'm a big fan of last stands and desperate moments of bravery in tabletop games so I reckon I'm going to go with the former idea. It's certainly a big robust piece of terrain.
What do you think of it?
"You could have a unit of Space Marines or Astra Militarum having to try and hold the landing pad against waves of enemies as another part of the army with an important HQ element to it fights their way towards it..."
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No doubt someone will be buying this for armies on parade…
Is it just me, or does the top down view look like its emblazoned with the Chaos star?
Just you
Please report to your nearest Inquisitor for re-education
No its there! Chaos gods have tainted Mars, as it has so many other planets in the Imperium. Good eye on you!
nice.
Looks really cool.
Um… how hard would it be to make that… for like, 1/10th of the price?
Do tell us more. Even if you didn’t factor an hourly wage into the cost of making one I imagine it wouldn’t come in at under £8.
I think he meant making one yourself, so hourly wage wouldn’t come into it (other than the fact you can do it cheaper because you don’t have to pay for an hourly wage). £8 is probably still optimistic, but it can be done for a lot cheaper than FW are asking, but it misses the point that some people don’t have the time to put into scratch building one and it’s probably those people who are going to buy it as those who do have the time have probably already scratch built one/have plans to scratch build one.
Also, unless you’re really skilled it won’t look *quite* as nice as the FW one.
IMO It’d be fairly difficult to make one anywhere near as nice as that for much less money than it costs, even for someone with skills. Unless you have hoarded a lot and already have most of the materials it would set you back a fortune in textured styrene sheets, styrene sections etc. Obviously if you are a wizard with styrofoam and cereal boxes you may get it done for next to nothing (other than your own time).
By all means, prove me wrong and build one. I would be very interested to see this kind of build, particularly if it can be done for very little money. I personally think £80 per 2×2 table section for a beautifully made table isn’t bad. Your mileage may vary.
Unless you are building it mostly for the fun or challenge, you should always factor in an hourly rate IMO if you could be earning money during the time it takes to build it. For some people that is not an option but for most it usually is. This goes doubly for anyone building terrain purely to save money over buying. Obviously for most people there is usually a balance to be struck between cost and time.
Except you would be building it for fun and would be doing it during your free time, not instead of working. Unless all you do is work and sleep with zero free time you’re not going to be working on this instead of earning money, so you can factor in a wage.
And someone who isn’t a wiz could probably make one serviceable for a lot less and if they have the time could probably get a good look out of it. Yes it would take some time, but it could be done.
Ok, yes, I will concede. Given infinite “free” time, most folk (whether a “wizard” or not) can probably make a “serviceable” landing pad for not a lot of money if they so choose. We could argue this topic forever by looking at different viewpoints on the matter but we’re getting away from the actual question at hand.
How hard would it be to build one like the Forgeworld one for £8?
But the point is not to make an exact duplicate but something that serves the same function.
http://www.diy.com/departments/hardboard-sheet-th3mm-w1220mm-l2440mm/27586_BQ.prd
http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/a4-card-70-pack-red-white-and-blue/601402-1000
Okay that’s just under 11 quid rather than £8, but I’m sure if you shop around you could find it for cheaper. The first link should give you enough wood to make the base board and build the block that is the landing pad while the second will give you enough card to make the panels. I haven’t factored glue and tools in because I’m assuming you’ll already have those (and if you don’t the cost will be absorbed by the other projects you’ll use them on – in fact the same could go for the card as there’s no way you’ll use 70 sheets just on this, so that’ll bring it down closer to £8 for a start).
How difficult would it be? Not that difficult I’d wager, it’d just be rather tedious measuring and cutting out the card panels (and really tedious if you want to make rivets, either by blobs of glue, cutting up card, or whatever.
Ultimately it comes down to whether you have the drive to put time and energy into making it.
Your argument could be applied to prepaints, saying that because you’ll never get as good a paint job as the ‘eavy Metal team there’s no point in buying minis you need to paint. Or saying because you’ll never be as good a sculptor as the Perry twins that there’s no point in using green stuff to add to minis.
If you don’t want to or can’t put the time and effort in, then good for you, there’s nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with someone who does want to/can do that from pointing out that it is possible to achieve something similar.
“the point is not to make an exact duplicate”
“how hard would it be to make that… for like, 1/10th of the price?”
It seems that is exactly the point I was answering.
Polystyrene sheets run about $12 for a 1/2″ 2’by 8′ sheet, and the 1″ thick stuff goes for about $16 a sheet. Let’s call it $4.00 for the thicker 2′ by 2′ polystyrene piece. The rest of the barriers around the perimeter are simple geometric shapes that could be cut out of the same material. I always keep a big box of smaller pieces from previous projects for just this sort of contingency. I use a band saw to get straight cuts, but you can also cut the material with a serrated knife and a square, and sand it smooth.
Add in some foam core pieces (1/4″ poster thick poster board with paper on both sides). It’s a $1.00 a sheet here, and you’d never use more than a quarter of it. If you peel the paper you’re left with a pitted tarmac texture (if you want to use that texture for the entire surface, call it .50 cents). Some sand could add to the effect. We have a driveway full, and a quarry nearby with forty-foot piles of fine silica.
As for grates and such, about $2.00 worth of Technolog Terraformer panels would do the job. Snap buttons, which I have jars of (from garage sales) are quite useful for adding to things to make them look like they have some sort of technical function. Finally, rivets are easy enough to make and apply. I have a 1/16 hole punch that I use on plasticard (the big ‘For Sale’ signs that cost $1.00). Don’t need much of it. Also, wall filler here and there to smooth the joints. Cost for rivets, sand, wall filler, wood glue: negligible.
Why would I factor in a wage to do a hobby I love? Are you calculating a wage when you paint models? Unlikely. I also didn’t factor in the cost of paint, as both need to be painted. But while I’m on the topic, I use Decoart acrylics for everything: $1.00 for four oz., and make my own washes for terrain using watered paint and dish soap.
So where does that leave us for cost? $4.00 for polystyrene, let’s be generous and call it $1.00 for foamcore, maybe $2.00 worth of terraformer panels (I can’t remember the exact ones offhand, but I have piles on sprues). I’ll even go $1.00 on plasticard. I come up with $8.00.
I could probably build it on a weekend: one day for building, and then paint it the next day when everything has dried and set.
@lunchbox: erm, no. @cpauls1‘s comment reads to me that what you’re getting for the price can essentially be done for cheaper, not that he expects to make a 100% perfect carbon copy that you can only tell isn’t the real thing by cutting it in half.
And as he says, you don’t pay yourself a wage to build/paint your minis, so why would you do so when building terrain? Factoring in a wage should only happen when someone else is paying you to do it.
So your point pretty much applies to any terrain.
I could make a reasonably shite approximation of any of Tabletop World’s terrain from £5 worth of materials in a weekend too (ok, maybe not the castle. That might take a week). Cut some styrofoam to shape, draw some blocks with a pen, add £1 worth of balsa and some cereal box shingles and I’m done. Easy. What’s your point?
And yes, I do actually factor in a wage when I paint models. If I could find someone who can paint to the same standard and charge less than I can earn in the same time, I would gladly pay them.
Why don’t you sculpt all your own miniatures? Surely given all your free time you can make a reasonable approximation of them from miliput.
Admittedly though, yes, sometimes wage is not an issue and doing something just for the fun of it outweighs the cost.
The landing pad is not a complex piece of terrain, as the Tabletop World castle is. It would be easy to make a close approximation that didn’t look like ‘shite’, for a tenth of the price, as I said. You asked for an explanation, and I gave you one.
If you’d like help with the process, feel free to ask. I probably have less free time than most (full time work and Masters), but I always try and make time for building. It’s as much a part of the hobby as painting.
And I do make my own figures from Milliput if I can’t find a specific model someone needs, one that conforms to their character.
Maybe a good hobby lab challenge for Lloyd? 2’x2′ Landing pad for £8.
Ok, I will concede your point.
So in answer to your question: how hard would it be to make that… for like, 1/10th of the price?
So long as you live somewhere where you can buy materials for next to nothing, have a band saw, have most of the materials already and don’t cound the waste (not everyone has $2 worth of technolog panels so would need to buy a full kit. Same for Polystyrene sheets, rivets, foamcore, filler, craft paint etc), someone who has been making terrain for many years can make a reasonable landing pad for 1/10th of the price.
Let me see if I can chase down some things for you, the Technolog panels in particular. I remember the sprues being $2.00 each. If you want to build your own pad, I’ll find them. Let me know.
I costed the materials based on someone who has at least built some terrain, and I can’t imagine the cost of materials being much different in terms of geographical location. These are common materials, ubiquitous to the hobby, so I went on the assumption that everyone would have polystyrene on hand… my mistake.
If you have to go out and buy it, as I said, 1/2″ (looks about right looking at the panel) is about $12.00 a sheet. After cutting out your 2′ by 2′ panel you will have 3/4 of a sheet left for another project… less if you cut out the barricades of course, but you will easily have half a sheet remaining for you next endeavour. I’m sure you own a serrated knife, and perhaps sand paper? If you don’t have a square you can make one, or just use the corners of your foam core board; they’re 90 degrees. You don’t need a band saw.
Foam core and plasti-card will cost you $1.00 each, as mentioned (you will have at least half a sheet of each left for your next project). I bought a 50 lb. bag of wall filler five years ago for $5.99, and I’m only a quarter way through it. Would a one-pound box of the stuff really set you back more than $2.00 or so? If you base your mini’s you will have PVA glue.
For some things you may have to be creative… which is kinda the point. If you want a textured diamond pattern across the whole pad you will need to press some screen i.e. screen door stuff into the polystyrene (actually, foam core will take it better), or find a scrap and simply glue it down. I got a 6′ roll of the metal stuff for nothing from a friend, and also use it for barbed wire. Otherwise you can glue down sculptor’s mesh, or make an impression with it. It’s $1.00 a sheet, and easily big enough for a 2′ by 2′ panel.
I get $18 CAD for materials ($19 if you buy sculptor’s mesh), or just over 10 pounds… so 1/8th the cost for a newb whose never built any terrain. I stand corrected. 🙂
Might I add that you will have enough material left for another project, or a second landing pad, which would be a faster build. In that case you would spend $9.00 CAD. If you’re concerned with wages you could sell the second one and recoup the cost for your materials, so how much would it really cost? As I said, I’ll help you build one if you wish.