Weekender: Hot Wire Terrain Crafting & 4Ground’s Urban Buildings
December 5, 2015 by lloyd
Join us for an awesome Weekender where we talk about our Boot Camp experience and fun with hot wires! Honestly, it's not as dangerous as it sounds!
Team Yankee Boot Camp
We catch you guys up on everything that happened at the Team Yankee Boot Camp last weekend and what kind of things we got up to.
If you'd like to go and explore through our content from the three days then we have three Live Blog posts which you can check out.
- Team Yankee Boot Camp: Friday
- Team Yankee Boot Camp: Saturday
- Team Yankee Boot Camp: Sunday
- Lloydoslavia Team Yankee Downloads (Backstage Pass Required)
We had a lot of fun and it was fantastic engaging with the community both at the Boot Camp and on the internet throughout.
There are three winners of those awesome Two Player Starter Bundles so listen out for your names!
4Ground 15mm Urbanzone Buildings
4Ground have upscaled their work on Sci-Fi and Modern style buildings with the Urbanzone which would be great for all manner of different theatres of war.
We show them off under the camera and talk about how we'd use them in game. I think you could create a wonderful cityscape with these where the press of the buildings makes for a claustrophobic environment.
We have prize winners for this too who won an Iapygian Starter Set so keep an ear to the ground.
Hot Wire Foam Factory
If you caught the VLOG this week then you'll have seen us testing out the Hot Wire Cutters from Foam Factory. Well, we now bring you our little demonstration on them to Frontstage where we talk about how we might use them.
Plans are to make a big Age Of Sigmar table in the new year which has some awesome floating islands!
We'd love to know what you think of this technique for shaping terrain and if you have any examples of what you've done with the medium post them in the forums.
Prize Claims
If you were one of the lucky ones and grabbed yourself one of the prizes we mentioned then go here to Claim Your Prize.
Join Backstage With A Free Trial To Watch XLBS Tomorrow
We hope you have a wonderful weekend of hobbying and gaming!
See you on Sunday!
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)































Great show guys.. big week ! Absolutely loved the coverage of the Boot Camp..
Happy weekend -glad to see all have recovered from the bootcamp
I want my own Lloydislav-One chopper now!
Happy Weekend!
Good morning.
Justin you shaved it again!
No references to Noodle’s island in Feel Good, Inc?
Big shout!
Nice!
Its not so much the mouthful of beard i hate when i need to trim mine, but the pain of yanking on your top lip is hell.
Is this a new law of BoW, if Justin says beard will stay till at least far off date in calendar, it will be gone in a few days after uttering it?
Of course he could join in Decembeared now….
That there flying rock needs some FLLAAAGGGGSSSS!!!!
@warzan @lloyd @dignity @BoW let me know if you need flags designed and I am happy to help out with them
If you build NY, surely the 7tv paranormal investigators would be ideal candidates for some fun?
Eureka miniatures make German riding Dinosaurs at 28mm!
Ah – a proper weekend complete with WeekEnder!
Regarding your ‘floating islands’ project, for inspiration refer also to English artist, Roger Dean, probably best known for his album cover art for rock bands Yes and Asia, during the 60’s and 70’s. (Controversial legal claim made by him against James Cameron in 2013, thrown out of court in 2014, regarding plagiarism of his work)! Secondly, I didn’t see any advisory regarding the hot wire cutting of expanded polystyrene foam and the dangers of the fumes given off by! If I missed it, then apologies, but felt it should be emphasized. (Probably covered by a COSHH regulation or some such ruling).
Yes, I was going to mention the Roger Dean case too.
It’s so obvious when you look at his art and Avatar together, the rainbow dragons and everything…
At first glance I thought they were holding up a pair of warrens underpants!
My sympathies, Justin. I get exactly the same. Every time I wake up with a tache full of beer or soup, I trim it. I stick with a Little Beard these days.
The still puts me in mind of the Art work of Roger Dean
How bad were the fumes off the hotwire set-up?
The 4ground stuff looks amazing.
The build photo was Mick aka @buggeroff and Andrew aka @brucelea, but don’t worry @dignity there was an awful lot of new faces to remember and you (like Samson) have just lost your power!!!
Those buildings would be perfect for All Quiet on the Martian Front. Have you guys considered a War of the Worlds invasion of New York?
I would totally play that, @davebpg . Did you make your flight? I remember you were rushed. We missed our connection in Newark, but got the next flight back to Florida. 🙂
I had the same idea. It would be great for AQMF.
Justin, I am from germany, believe the guys, The Hoff is a national hero over here… ;P
plus his german concerts paid for most of the Baywatch programs.
Guys, with all these ideas for the 4ground terrain, I think you now have your short list for what to do at Salute. Can’t wait to see what comes 😉
For the floating island board @warzan I’d be tempted to use portals to get between them, maybe throw in a random element where each time you enter a portal it randomly pops you out on one of the islands.
Nice to see that my floating islands ideas have come up 😉 I think I sent through some sketches @warzan with some ideas for portals and other terrain pieces.
BoW Ben
@dignity what happened? Oh wait, its the bi-annual beard shave… looking smooth Justin, just what the Hoff ordered. 😀
Another great weekender lads! Missed having a weekender last week despite the excellent Team Yankee Bootcamp coverage which was chock-block with regular updates on the action. Enjoyed Giana’s discussions with the players, gameplay demo’s with Anders, period equipment info with Lewis, and the excellent interview with Battlefront’s CEO Mr John Paul Brisigotti.
Foreground’s latest buildings just look plain amazing! The quality of gaming terrain that is becoming available and affordable for many gamers is incredible these days.
The hot wire cutters looked like a lot of fun, although with any melting of polystyrene ventilation is an absolute necessity. Hope you guys aren’t poisoning yourselves, because the gaming community needs you. 😀
The floating Island is looking great already and can’t wait to see the next steps and eventually the finished project – ‘The Broken World Board’ – epic!
Also think I won a Team Yankee Two Player Bundle courtesy of the Beasts of War’s Team Yankee Bootcamp. If my eyes and ears aren’t deceiving me then a big Thank You to the Beasts of War team and Battlefront Studios. Very unexpected. Also congratulations to the two other winners @glitchingout and @yoshi
@warzan If you want dinosaur cavalry and zombies, why not build Chicago and then you can have a 15mm Harry Dresden on Sue 🙂
Nice weekener again! Between this on and the last one, I’ve been wondering – is there a video og the entire Beasts of War stadio? Would sure like some kind of “virtual tour video”.
secondary thought: If you’re using three islands with bridges, use a heavy wire or bent rod as the base for your bridges, and set in at least a third of the way into your island, then you only need one rod to hold up each island as they’ll balance off each other.
Also you could use the hanging rocks caught in vines around your supports to disguise them, or see if you can get a fairly chunky chain spot welded so it’s solid then build a keep/siege tower type thing as the base on each island, that way you don’t have a huge hill to cover a wide base and you’ll be able to use the space under the islands for gameplay as well.
I love to see Bristol Vanguard Mugs @stuisidle had something to do with it I guess 😀 well done mate!
good to see weekender again!
Yes mate. I brought them a little gift from Bristol.
The Urbanzone models are beautiful, but where are the fire escapes?
excellent weekender , its actually great to have a break from kickstarters…lol as good as they are there has been a lot of kickstarter content over recent weeks:-)
those pylons are really nice, but a bitch to build when adding the dangly bits…lol
Well, I bought the age of sigmar box game to give it a go, and i do like some of the models, but I am finding the game itself a bit disappointing, but that is still great looking scenery.
Add in some bridges and suitable scenery and I would play Infinity on it no problem, alien planet being explored, that kind of thing.
Good idea about Infinity. Nomads might finally find some use for their Zero-G abilities.
Justin. Did you enjoy your fur burger?
Great to see the mugs being used. Thanks guys, last weekend was fantastic.
All respect @warzan . . . and all respect to your Nachtwulfen . . . . and they can bring whatever dinosaurs you want . . .
Nachtwulf vs. the United States Marine Corps? In any battle? In any war? On any field?
Bring plenty of body bags . . . for your Nachtwulfen.
No contest. Not against United States Marines. 🙂
@dignity and the Hoff??? Who knew? LOL!! Knight Rider was an awesome show Justin. Loved it as a kid but the shirt…well wow. 🙂
I had the Knight Rider theme as my brother’so ring tone for years! He LOVED that show- as did I. 🙂
The floating island concept is great.
AMATEUR PSYCHOLOGY TIME
I noticed: In the vlog of the hot wire demo It started out as “Lloyd’s project” – he was demonstrating and narrating and directing Justin’s camera work. When Warren came in and sort of took control of the demo, I put myself in Lloyd’s shoes and thought “But this was MY project” and detected a change in Lloyd’s demeanor during the rest of the demo.
I always wanted to do a table with floating islands i remember them having them in storm of magic and the old WFB rule book for epic size games. The other inspiration is Nagrand from WOW with water falls coming out of the islands
Thanks for the review!
The efficiency + saving from wasting less foam (by using a knife) or the techniques described by RubbishInAndRubbishOut on youtube.
That outro was uncalled for. It’s a good thing I had just put down my tea.
Great show again! Laughed so hard at the end 😀
Those hot wire cutters look really nice, it’ll be interesting to follow the plog.
Hahaha, that was a fantastic way to end the show!
Well it seems we have another thing in common with Justin :3 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTidn2dBYbY 😉 Btw, you’ll love New Retro Wave music!
apparently its been the Huangshan mountains that inspired cameron to do the floating rocks in avatar
The 4ground buildings are brilliant love the flying island’s @lloyd
Great show again guys. Nice to see that foamcutters have “leveled up”!
OMG, i thought for minute there that it was an MCU credit scene! And then i was utterly in shock by Justin’s shirt!
For the flying islands, if I may offer some design ideas, I would put the rod hole all the way through the foam and use a tee-nut [ http://www.mcmaster.com/#94122a100/=1042j8t ] mounted onto a piece of birch plywood [ http://www.woodcraft.com/category/su114-18/plywood.aspx ] . The plywood then acts as the playing surface.
This will give better support to the terrain and take all of the structural stresses off the foam.
While it isn’t wargaming scale, i’ve been making “floating island” type terrain as well for my SF film project : http://www.beastsofwar.com/groups/painting/forum/topic/eldritch-abomination-puppets-and-props/
i’ve been using expanding foam and a glue gun for mine, but I want mine to have a more organic “living” look.
I’d be so worried about having models just tip off one of those floating rocks. Looks awesome though. As much as I like, no love, the Loch Death board, I don’t think it looks high fantasy enough for the new Age of Sigmar. These islands certainly fit the bill though!
@warzan If you want nazis with dinosaurs, Eureka has a decent set to start from in their pulpitations 28mm range
The floating island reminds me of the Dragonla
The floating island reminds me of the Dragonlance flying citadels.
*jammie dances*
Thanks guys!
Cheers
Good show guys. Team Yankee was the best weekend I had all year. And that’s saying something.
Great show chaps and I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the shout out about the flag designs, they were fun t do but equal share should go to commodorerob
good show as always guys :), always makes my weekend when i come back home from working away all week and watching the BoW content :).
So getting those wire cutters!!!!! I’m building desert terrain atm for my F.A.T mat and as warren said it will be ideal for those large Mesa’s.
That sigmar board is gonna look so awesome!!
Might try it but as a fractured moon or something for sci fi gaming.
Nice episode gents.
I use piano wire in my hotwire cutter (I’m not sure if you could with yours) It’s relatively cheap and a holds the shapes that you bend into them quite well.
good show,
The 4ground stuff looks outstanding as usual. I will have to get some of those towers as you make a great point about updating terrain by adding a tower or two.
I like what you are doing with the floating terrain and foam cutting as well. Nice to see actual product demos along with shout outs.
Nice weekender. Cool to see some of the Team Yankee stuf. I didn’t have the time to follow the bootcamp. Like also the new 4Ground buildings. 4Ground makes MDF into gold. I love all their stuff. And the Wire Cutter is also very handy. Maybe I will start some new scenery projects for malifaux. A skirmish game in a very fantasy setting gives so much opportunities for modelling terrain.
@justin. Re the Hoff T-shirt – is that your way of coming out of the closet?!
You do realize that the amount of slaggins you will receive in the wake of the whole T-Shirt thing will make all the slaggins you got in the past pale into insignificance. My god man – talk about handing the other lads a big stick to beat you with for the indefinite future!
If only Batman was smaller scale. These 4Ground buildings look so Gotham for me.
On another note, the floating island looks awesome! 🙂
Thanks for publishing this. I was thinking of giving this ago after reading this month’s issue of Wargames Illustrated. I am currently building some rural KOW scenery and was considering what else it could be used for.
4Ground buildings look amazing as always, but there is something not quite right with the scale. The small version is clearly exactly half of the big version, so if the small is 10mm the big must be 20mm or if the big is 15mm the small must be 7.5mm!
Assuming you didn’t state the scale of the big buildings incorrectly, one possible explanation is that they are aiming for specific games in each range and those games are nominally 10 and 15mm, but not quite comparable in how they calculate it. Any insight on the mystery greatly appreciated!
That shattered world table looks amazing
Great episode- for other ideas for floating rocks maybe look at World of warcraft and there floating city called “Dalaran” – some nice images of it on google.
Was watching this on the living room TV at the weekend and the girlfriend walks through the room, stops, turns to me and says in a scared voice “I don’t like it”.
“What?” I ask.
“Justin without the beard” she replies, and walks off. Needless to say I was laughing, but agreed. Bring back the fuzz!
Floating islands…. you’re living the dream! I’ve wanted to create something similar to that ever since I saw the first Spyro the Dragon games on PS1.
Great Weekender.
The floating island project sounds like a winner.
The heated wire tools look cool and effective.
Wish list for 2016
Battle reports – Infinity, Bolt Action, 40K
An article on Warhammer Total War (just because of the link to our hobby and it comes out next year)
Keep the Kickstarter reviews and unboxings coming.
Warlord Games have promised some cool plastics this coming year, so would love to see plenty of continued focus on bolt action in 2016.
Would love to see Warren continue his journey into keeping things simple and getting scenery, soldiers and ideas onto the table top rather than previously feeling tied to a higher standard, reducing time to play.
A closer look at Saga. I’m a new fan. I bought the rules, like the simplicity and have found Gripping Beast Vikings to be fun to piece together and paint. I love the fact that there is no complicated army building points calculations. The Gripping Beast dark ages warriors set (on my Christmas list) can pass as levies for almost any faction and it’s a cheap way to vary your battles and add variety to forces without breaking the bank.