6mm table,disaster strikes P.5

[Daeothar]

...one farm would easily take up an entire table (and be perfectly flat)...

One table would certainly not cover it, not even in 6mm

Your layout is looking wonderful!

Too bad giant robots and monsters will be duking it out there, destroying the coutryside and everything in it

[Pattus Magnus]

Your observations based on Google maps/ street view make sense, given the mountainous landscape in Japan and the importance of paddy rice as a a crop. Rice paddies on even gentle hillsides need to be terraced, which isn’t very compatible with using large farm machines (compared with wheat-type crops where ploughing across gentle slopes isn’t a problem). Also, wet paddies limit the ground pressure/ size for machines working on them. I traveled a bit in Thailand and spent a year in the Republic of Korea in the ‘90s and the farming machines then were small. In Thailand, they were nicknamed “iron buffaloes” and were really about the size of the animal. The machines would only need a workshop or shed about the size of a garage for a car. Vegetable fields were similarly small.

In Korea I lived close to Seoul, in a relatively flat area (flood plain along the Han River, west of the main city). There were some large buildings on farms in that area - enclosed greenhouses and barns, but nothing like as common as in western Canada.

Actually, even in western Canada landscape matters a lot. In the prairies where I live now, the industrial scale grain farms are dominant and have the format I described in the earlier post. In the mountainous areas to the west, where I used to live, the farming areas are limited to valley bottoms and lower slopes and most farms are much smaller. The small farms are still mechanized, but can’t compete with growing grain on the scale that is possible on the prairies, so farms tend to produce specialized crops, orchards/ vineyards, or feed crops to support cattle (the ranches usually have grazing areas on the mountains as well).

As far as a gaming table is concerned, I think your idea to use clusters of smaller buildings seems quite valid. You could add a few large greenhouses or hydroponic buildings or chicken/ pig barns, too, for variety. Some hills with terraced rice paddies could also add variety, but might not have as much versatility for games set in other regions. Whichever way you decide to go, I have no doubt it will look excellent!

[YPU]

As far as a gaming table is concerned, I think your idea to use clusters of smaller buildings seems quite valid. You could add a few large greenhouses or hydroponic buildings or chicken/ pig barns, too, for variety. Some hills with terraced rice paddies could also add variety, but might not have as much versatility for games set in other regions. Whichever way you decide to go, I have no doubt it will look excellent!

This is a struggle I have continually. I think up all sorts of "specialized" hills, but they would only work for one region, period and scale, while generic hills work everywhere in any scale.

I fully agree with your other observations as well.

[YPU]

Another element I'm pondering is railroads.



I have the actual rail section figured out, but they are very short (to prevent warping) and not that interesting in the big picture. So one way or another I am going to base them, if nothing else to just have larger pieces to make setup faster.

Now one of the options is to put them on embankments. this makes sense realistically and makes for a good LOS blocker to slap down over the entire table. (hills seeing over it is a nice bonus there)

Something like this.



about 8-10mm tall, using foamcore as the main material and 3d printed end caps with magnets and pegs to line them up.
This would also allow room for occasional details like small sheds or control boxes next to the road, wider embankments with parallel roads for sections and low bridges like this:



on the other hand I will need to make railroad crossings to meet up with my roads, and having both on the table at once may become hard to interweave all together.

[jon_1066]

Looking good.  For hills I've used carpet underlay cut to contours with a cloth over the top. It gives you much better more naturalistic looking rolling terrain rather than perfectly flat-hill-flat.  Because all the things going on it are light it doesn't squash down.

I'd love to see a good implementation for 6 mm railways.  I have some MDF ones that are fine enough but there isn't really anything out there that covers all the various bits you'd need (ie level crossings, bridges, embankments, signal boxes, platforms, stations, etc).  As you say the lengths tend to be very short resulting in a very slow set up and forever readjusting as they get knocked.

[YPU]

I'd love to see a good implementation for 6 mm railways. 

This is a single point of uncertainty for me.
Being cheap, I want to use foamcore as my main material, only the track and end sections will be 3d printed (and details like bridges)
but doing this 3d stuff professionally, it would suit me to make the entire thing 3d printable...

[YPU]

I've started experimenting on a fast and simple ride, to get more valleys on the table without needing massive hills and mountains.



humble beginnings I know, I've sanded it now and smeared it in filler, lets see how this turns out when done.

[Pattus Magnus]

I’m looking forward to seeing how these turn out! They should work well for breaking lines of sight, and placing the built elements of the scene in context. Building roads and town sites to avoid outcrops of bedrock just makes sense most of the time.

[YPU]

I’m looking forward to seeing how these turn out! They should work well for breaking lines of sight, and placing the built elements of the scene in context. Building roads and town sites to avoid outcrops of bedrock just makes sense most of the time.

Exactly!

its been going quite fast so far, if I'm not sick of them soon I may also do one or two ones specifically for the edge of the table (so flat back) with a switchback road going over it, and/or a tunnel exiting into my raised expressway. It would need to be a lot taller though, my current raised sections could almost cross over this one.

[YPU]

Small update before I cover this thing up with trees, looks a bit better already I'd say

[jon_1066]

If this is Japan you are aiming for then in my experience pretty much all slopes that couldn't be cultivated seemed to be covered in thick forest or bamboo.  So I would suggest any part of these that isn't rock could be "wooded up" using your folliage of choice.  Since they aren't playable areas as such then just sticking it direct to the slopes should work.

[YPU]

Yes thats exactly what I'm aiming for. Though I think pine is much more common than bamboo, which can be a bit of a cliche when dealing with asia. Either way, I've spent far too much time painting cutting and gluing tiny trees, and then drilling holes and sticking them in the hill to hide all my previous work.




I had hoped to just to the first few rows and then switch to gluing the foliage to the hill itself but its a bit too small for that I think I'll go all the way and finish it all the way I've started.

[Pattus Magnus]

That’s looking very promising! The trees and foliage look quite good on the ridge.

If you want to add a little variety on future ridges, you could include a small temple or shrine near an outcrop or a prominent spot. Traditional religion in Japan has a strong element of veneration of the natural world and working to maintain harmony between human and non-human forces. When Buddhism was introduced, the details of practiced changed but shrines and hermitages in mountains still are part of the picture.

[YPU]

It's so tempting to add details like that, but at the same time I don't want to lock this stuff into a very specific scale or location.

[Pattus Magnus]

Yeah, I completely agree. I try to keep my terrain and scenics as flexible as I can, too. One possibility that I have pondered but not executed yet is to build in a flat spot on the ridge. Maybe about 25mm x 30mm or similar. The flat spot could accommodate a Shinto shrine, a sci-fi air defense installation, a radio tower, or whatever, depending on the game. Could also make a forest piece to fit, for games where the ridge is in wilderness.