YPU's 6mm Scenery

[YPU]

You should be pleased with them, that coastline looks amazing! It fits right in with the other elements, too, and really sets the scene.

Thanks! Yes while modular I do tend to design my scenery pieces specifically to work with what I already have.
That being said, I'm thinking these would work with my generic desert set as well.



The base mat has been given a patchy and dusty paint job since those pictures, but you get the idea.

And that brings me to my current big question, do I add any foliage to those edges? It would make them blend with the grass table much better, but desert shores don't have that much foliage I think? (salt water and all that). Just in general I'm not 100% sure about the edge of the piece overall. Full on dunes may be fitting, but that would cut off that edge of the board from LOS entirely which would be silly, yet I'm feeling the desire to add something to make the transition less abrupt somehow... Suggestions very welcome! (or am I fretting over something nobody else is even noticing here?)

[YPU]

Bit of a sidequest, I'm sure you all saw that coming.

Some of you will remember the urban "blocks" I've been making, two of them feature in the completed pics on the previous page. But I had 3 of them finished before... Until my first test module shattered. I experimented with ways to cut CD's for the bases, and sheet metal shears. Made a nice straight cut, but in retrospect introduced a lot of stress in the material which made that first piece break in the end. New ones are cut with a jewelers saw, my golden hammer tool. And the new ones are standardized shape that should allow for nice non gridlike layouts. The old one had a more irregular shape and I couldnt copy the layout of the old one onto a new standardized one. (it was a very good layout IMHO, kinda sad about that) but this left me with 4 fully painted buildings ready to use. And I had some test models from 2d6 feudal Japanese scenery half painted doing nothing. So we end up here, a juxtaposition of old and new, traditional and concrete... With a sprinkling of trash bags.

[Andy in Germany]

Excellent work, and it gives a strong feel of small town Japan with the juxtaposition of old and new. I like the tatty concrete and the wires hanging from window to window on the block of flats and the strange shape with apparently random bits of roof, too.

[YPU]

Excellent work, and it gives a strong feel of small town Japan with the juxtaposition of old and new. I like the tatty concrete and the wires hanging from window to window on the block of flats and the strange shape with apparently random bits of roof, too.

Thanks! After a lot of digital tourism by the medium of google maps I also found it was surprisingly common in the big cities as well, though only in the old city centers or the "suburbs" with a ring of absence between the two. (from my uneducated observations anyway.)

I should give credit where due, the modern building is from The Lazy Forger, sculpted by Feo's miniworld, who really manages to capture that look you describe perfectly. Its still blocky, but its profile is much more complex than the rectangles most wargaming buildings default to. So many details to paint on them though. 

[anevilgiraffe]

That looks great. Straight out of Japan.

[Andym]

That looks fantastic! I’d love to see a few of them on a table together, maybe make slightly lower-rise ones for the outskirts?

[YPU]

That looks fantastic! I’d love to see a few of them on a table together, maybe make slightly lower-rise ones for the outskirts?

Thanks! Yes the two currently finished blocks are more residential areas with open parking spots to put models as well. And I have a couple of denser taller modules waiting to be finished painting (so many windows...)

[Andy in Germany]

That looks fantastic! I’d love to see a few of them on a table together, maybe make slightly lower-rise ones for the outskirts?

Remarkably, that is what the "outskirts" look like. Very rural areas are lower, but blocks of four and five floors are normal in suburbia and even semi-rural areas of Japan. This threw me when I first went to Beautiful Wife's local town.

[Andy in Germany]

Thanks! Yes the two currently finished blocks are more residential areas with open parking spots to put models as well. And I have a couple of denser taller modules waiting to be finished painting (so many windows...)

Looking at several blocks, I think the alternating yellow kerbstones is more of a central Asian feature than Japanese; I've seen them very occasionally, but they're the exception rather than the rule: Yellow dropped curbs are common, as are yellow ridged tiles for the visually impaired. (Not infrequently, these tiles lead into a later addition to the street, like a lamppost or a hole).

An example of the exception in Beautiful Wife's home city of Ise: notice generally unpainted kerbstones elsewhere:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ezAMhJq6QQrJDdv26

[YPU]

Aye they are a bit out of place depending on the area, I went with them because most major urban roads in Tokyo have them, setting the side streets on some of the tiles apart from the "big" roads between them, like here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7152031,139.7591421,231m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEwNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

I keep meaning to do a side or 2 without the markings and a small strip of acetate with parked cards along the curb to mix it up.


And also, maybe the real reason, it is the fastest way to give the curbs some visual detail that I can easily repeat as needed.  That said, they also kinda stand in for the missing road markings between the modules. I'm still debating if I want to make some big flat areas with road markings with set spots for the urban modules, but the size of my material and the blocks + a ~30mmwide road between them to actually fit models during play... and it doesn't really work out as I want sadly. So for now those big urban roads go unmarked, and I'm hoping the yellow curbs distract from that a bit. 

[Andy in Germany]

Interesting stuff there. Looking at those, I'm wondering if they're more common than I thought, and I missed them.

The logic of how you are using them also makes a lot of sense on a TT game; as you say, defining roads is a bit of a problem, especially when they're as big as some of the urban streets in Japan...

[YPU]

I know I've mentioned a bunch of ideas I had for stuff to add to this project... I absolutely need a river mouth to match the sea for one... But I got side tracked, but tracks. I've been trying to make some 6mm railroad tracks I like for ages, and finally settled on this.




Slightly raised embankment, about 7mm tall total. Enough to provide cover to 6mm figures (who are almost always taller than 6, and on bases to boot) but shouldnt block LoS. Since the prototype for much of this scenery is near future japan I originally wanted to do a single track, something quite common there compared to most other places in my experience. But in the end I realized that by making them double tracks, units can stands on top of the embankment nicely thus allowing the tracks to function as a pathway trough say swamps or other rough terrain. This all came about when I realized that yeah I can print pretty low good looking tracks, but they look a bit 'slapped down randomly" on the table and also don't do anything in play!



Like this, cute but a lot of work to set up, and zero effect in play.


These new sections are going to comply to a 12cm side to side hex grid, to match the rivers and channels from before. And thus the hex grid we used for ]a giant memoir 44 game (pics and link on p1). m44 has plenty of other scenarios, some actually using railroads as an element so if we ever get round to those I'll have scenery ready.




The end caps use two 2x1mm disc magnets and have aligning slots and wedges, which seem to work quite well so far.

Now to paint all those sleepers though  I remember hating it on those individual pieces before, doubt I'll enjoy it more here.

[YPU]

All that above has plenty of knock on effects of course. I actually designed and prototyped a single track short span bridge to cross the channels.



But that now needs to become double track... And if I'm sticking to a hex grid it won't aproach the channels at a right angle. So do I make it wider so a 60 degree angle channel can fit under it, or do I make it curve to approach at the right angle before it meets up with the grid again etc?

Looking at ref images, train track crosses stuff at weird angles all the time... But stretching and widening turns this minor bridge into a major construction that doesn't fit my mental image of picturesque rural rails... So maybe I integrate a custom channel piece instead... And on and on my mind churns. 

[Pattus Magnus]

The joys of design decisions! Since they?re going to be printed, then finished up with usual modeling techniques, is there a down side to doing both? Aside from design time, of course. That way you would have options for different layouts.

In any case, the tracks look amazing! I was looking for something like this a couple years ago and couldn?t find anything as good. I like your choice of putting the track on a raised bed, too. It makes a subtle tactical feature for games.

[Smokeyrone]

Best river build I've ever seem!


Train tracks look great, but z scale track could be easier?