Pocoloco goes Astroguestarpolismunda *3 tiles together Jan 6th*

[pocoloco]

“Progress will be slow, journey will be rough but we are heading for the stars!”

The Big D-day, or the big departure day was long gone, a fading tidbit of past in the memory banks of semiconscious computers running almost all the major and minor functions and systems of the starships taking mankind to new, never explored star systems and galaxies. Yet those words, said on the Big D-day were to be found on every CCCP (compact crew conduct protocol) manual of all crew members of Terran star ships, not only to remind them of the arduous tasks ahead but also about their destination. Or rather, destinations, as the Terran Fleet was scattered all around the known and unknown space.

So this is the start of my Astroguestarpolismunda project, depicting the Engine Room 4 of the Terran Star Ship Sampo (see, a Kalevala reference )

I have bought some 1/48 scale Soviet airfield plates by ICM (four boxes actually!).



They have quite a nice surface detail:



I have also some 250mm x 250mm square 2mm thick boards that will be used to form a 1000mm x 1000mm gaming board, giving me plenty of variation for different set-ups:



Combined with the above mentioned air-field plates one piece will look something like this:



Some of the pieces will then later on house different objects, such as the the GIO (Gas-like Ion Outputter) [Micro-Art generator]:



Some scenery pieces are of my own casting efforts:



The cast piece, combined with a real distributor cap (missing plasma coils and extra bits) becomes a crucial part of the engine room scenery:



And of course there will be ship's crew as well, here some members of STERN-4 (Security Team Engine Room 4) are shown, just for the scale:



I am also making few 250mm x 500mm pieces, example the GIO above needs a bigger base so minis can go around it and I can add computer terminals etc next to it. And of course there will be structural walls, piping along the floors etc to add character to single boards.

Besides the security team there will be the maintenance crew (mainly brilliant Astropolis minis), GIO team (Astropolis and FW so far), pirates (classic GW), squats (classic GW) etc etc.

Colourwise:
- floors will be either dirty grey (the airfield plates) or rusty/worn metal (plasticard)
- machinery will be worn/faded light blue
- robots/maintenance vehicles will be worn/faded yellow
- GIO team will wear orange
- maintenance crew will wear light blue
- security team will wear either classic RT greys or then white

Anyhow, that's the plan... but progress will be slow and journey will be rough I plan to make (all) terrain ready, then paint it and then it's time to concentrate on minis. And if I have time and patience I can make also corridors and use the terrain pieces not only as one combined board but also in a more dungeon crawl of way.

Good ideas about different scifi related terrain pieces such as computer consoles etc and other suggestions are more than welcome.

[Predatorpt]

Good luck with this project. You sold me the idea as soon as you mentioned those 1/48 airfield plates! Never heard of them before and they really look like the part, that's a genius idea.

[Mason]

I am liking this idea, mate.
Plenty of promise, I shall be watching most eagerly.
 

[OSHIROmodels]

Oho 

One to watch. The fluff sounds interesting 

cheers

James

[Juan]

Good luck with this fantastic project!

[rumacara]

Go for it Antti.
Looking forward to see this develop.

[pocoloco]

Thank you gents, encouragement much needed

@predatorp: I found the plates by accident, first idea was to use them for a modern project to make a piece of airfield but then came up with the idea to use them for sci-fi boards.

@mason: Cheers Paul, I think I need to order some BBM goodies for this as the new year starts 

@jimbibbly: Thanks. Fluff will be greatly inspired by the Astropolis range but will incorporate my own ideas too, hopefully Maybe need to buy clear bases for the minis in the near future, I think Oshiro has those in the offering? Also are you able to laser up similar sized plates as those airfield plates with your wizardry? For a price, of course.

@Juan: Luck is needed indeed, time I have plenty

@rumacara: Cheers Rui. It will be a slow and long trek across the stars

So some more thoughts about the terrain. If possible, I will incorporate LEDs here and there, for example GIO is screaming a LED strip to me, placed along the top ridge, to hide the seam of two parts and make it more generator-like, I hope.

Also some terrain pieces will be from GW. I will try to hide some of the skulls but some will remain. I guess those are remnants from the era called Remoissance which followed the era of Ultra Gothiqueism. Back then the Terran fleet was just scattered, first hostile aliens were met and it seemed all hope for the humanity's future was lost. Thus many turned into emos, wearing black and heavy make-up, listening to melancholic music and placing skulls everywhere

Xmas holidays have started and even if I have plenty of free-time, I will be away from my hobby desk for a while, so I will most likely do some test pieces painting wise during the holidays and start working 100% when back.

Here's another crew, squats.

Squat = Short, QUarrelling Alien Trader/Thief (according to Terran Official Dictionary)

[tomrommel1]

A really nice project you started there !!!

[pocoloco]

Thanks tomrommel1

Here's a test piece. As stated earlier, all vehicles and semi-transient service units (=robots) will be (dirty) yellow. Here's one paint in progress, checking out a crate (it's still PIP as well).



I think with my limited painting skills that yellow will have to do. Still need to colour the other parts and try to paint few lenses for optics to it. Also planning to cut it legs and make it a hover version

More test paints to follow...

[Argonor]

I shall certainly be watching this with great interest!

You're off to a cracking start, and the project promises lots of entertainment! 

[Suber]

  This is absolutely great, I'll be keeping an eye on this...

[tomrommel1]

this is getting better and better

[Mr Papafakis]

This project has a lot going for it Pocoloco! I like your use of the Dizzy cap too, fits in very well.

[pocoloco]

@argonor: thanks, it seems that I have a problem with this all, I keep on coming up with too many things to build for this and have barely started! I hope to keep you all entertained though

@suber: hopefully I can keep up with the expectations...   

@tomrommel: many thanks!

@optimus: dizzy cap aka Plasma/Gas-like Ion Starter will get some TLC after New Years when I'm back at my hobby desk, hope to show progress shot of that soon after that.

Test painting continues:

[OSHIROmodels]

Love the 'bot' 

@jimbibbly: Thanks. Fluff will be greatly inspired by the Astropolis range but will incorporate my own ideas too, hopefully Maybe need to buy clear bases for the minis in the near future, I think Oshiro has those in the offering? Also are you able to laser up similar sized plates as those airfield plates with your wizardry? For a price, of course.

Yup, petty much anything you fancy, drop me an email though as it's easier to keep track of then pm's.

cheers

James