Terra Block Gaming System

[Chris Abbey]

This is a project that I have been working on for quite a time now. The idea is to have a relatively cheap system, pre-painted, quick to put together and usable for a wide range of genres including pulp gaming, modern skirmish, fantasy and sci-fi.

The components all come pre-painted on both sides, slate grey for floors and granite grey for walls. They are made from 3mm Medite. The pieces in photo are all from starter set, which assembles in just under 25 minutes!

Full details at http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/Terra-Blocks

[Cherno]

Looks good, I wonder how painting and accessorizing them can do.

[FramFramson]

Been thinking about something like this for "interior" games. Normally I like nice scenery, but for building interiors you really have to have something more modular and flexible. This is one sort of project where no-frills low cost really wins out over nice high quality.

[Chris Abbey]

Glad you like it. We have aimed to make the basics available first at a good price. The starter set in photograph covers 300mm x 300mm and costs £25, for a painted kit. If you take a look at photos on web site their are some very detailed pieces which we have not released yet, like window pieces, glazed with Perspex with sills, frames and glazing bars on both sides. You can't get much more like a real window than that.

Over the coming months, we have a very long list of extra pieces that we are going to release.

We are also going to set up a customer request system, so if you have a great idea for a new piece that we do not make, we will put it on site as a customer requested product. If you can get 10 people to commit to buying it we will get it designed and made straight away.

[d phipps]

Good looking set, Chris. We could use something like that for our Vice Alley campaign.

THANKS for sharing.

[FramFramson]

Offhand, I think an easy element to add would be wooden floors (parquet or floorboards or both) and walls with simple wainscotting (or wainscotting as a simple add-on). That would be good for any period from the late Tudor era through to Pulp and even modern gaming.

EDIT: One idea is to have double-sided floors. Slabs/Tiles (as shown above) on one side, floorboards on the other.

[Chris Abbey]

Glad you like it! Vice Alley is certainly one of the games that I am looking forward to playing on my set! Can't wait to get my hands on a copy as I have a good collection of Gangsters and Feds painted up just waiting for a good set of rules to get them out onto the table.

Excuse the non Pulp figures in photo, but this was unfortunately the only shot that I have taken that shows window section. I have just added some new photos to Terra-Block gallery at http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/Terra-Blocks/Terra-Block-Gallery

[Momotaro]

My first thought was - "hmm, bit plain" but the idea has grown on me incredibly quickly and I actually admire the idea more now FOR keeping it plain.  I could see a simple colour pairing combo (brown floor/white walls, but other spring to mind) being an effective interior, for example.

Nice one, and very well priced!

[Emir of Askaristan]

Burning a stone pattern into the face would make this suitable for modular dungeons too....wouldn't it?

[Chris Abbey]

Keeping it plain has been a conscious design decision for two reasons, firstly plain grey walls can be used with a little imagination to represent dungeons, sewers, starship interiors, temples, warehouses, offices, apartments etc. Secondly we wanted to be able to offer a very cost effective starter set. With this design we can make a 300mm x 300mm set for £25, and a 300mm x 600mm set for £45. This is because the pricing of a laser cut product needs to be based on the cutting time.

However, we see this as a strategic range which will get new items added on a weekly basis and we are planning to put a mechanism in place where customers can request a piece, then when 10 customers have committed to buying we will get it made.

The next pieces to become available will be wooden floorboard floor tiles, stone texture walls and corners, double doors and single doors in different styles which will all open and a piece with 15mm scale doors and windows.

[Elk101]

Do you do custom builds? I have a series of modular scifi units CADed up with the intent of seeing how much it would be to get them laser cut. I always figured it would be too expensive so I resigned myself to making them out of foamboard.

[Chris Abbey]

Yes, we can do custom builds.

Send me an email at chris_abbey@btinternet 'dot' com

We would need drawings in a format we can work with, ideally Correl Draw or HPGL, but their are other formats we can import.

Cheers,

Chris

[Samulus]

Great idea -  I've been waiting about 2 years for someone to do this. I was going to make a set myself but it was a lot of effort with only basic tools...

Personally I would strategically place magnets at different points on the walls and create a range of flavour pieces with fairly bland walls and floors. That way you could swap in specifics i.e. light fittings, signs/paintings, consoles/terminals, wood panelling etc to flavour the setting towards something specific.

First request -  do a bank vault piece with a big door like this: http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/images/EQ1.jpg

Thanks for putting this on the market. I'm in!

[Chris Abbey]

I have just added the system for dealing with customer requests for new 'Terra-Block' pieces to our web site.

The idea is that in a similar way to Wargames Factory and Eureka, you can request a new piece to be made as part of the Terra-Block range, do a bit of lobbying around your gaming mates to see if any one else would like it. When we get 10 pre-ordered, we will get it made and shipped out to you.

The form for requesting new pieces is available from : http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/Terra-Blocks

Looking forward to making some of your requests!

[Chris Abbey]

I've had a number of emails asking for some photos of miniatures other than 28mm in action on Terra-Block terrain. I've added some shots of both 15mm and 20mm miniatures in action on our photo gallery.

http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/Terra-Blocks/Terra-Block-Gallery