This sizable terrain piece should add some pizzazz to my future Necromunda table. Click on photo for larger image.

TheGM: The Gaffer and I have talked about building a Necromunda table for years, and although we’re constantly distracted by other projects, our first Necromunda terrain piece is finally complete.

It’s a pretty nifty aqueduct that transports vital promethium through the city’s underhive.

This isn’t a simple piece of scatter terrain. It consists of a 17-inch-tall distribution tower, topped by a brass done and statue, and it also features a 22-inch length.

Finding the STL

This is Zorpazorp’s latest Kickstarter. I got my aqueduct files from an earlier “Sector Rome” terrain set. Click on image for link.

What sparked this project was stumbling across a Youtube video from  Zorpazorp, a New Zealand-based hobby site that focuses on insanely ambitious terrain projects.

As it happened, the site had  just launched a Kickstarter project for a gothic 40K-style cityscape, and, as I perused that, I stumbled upon a ancient Rome-style set of files that included a promethium tower-and aqueduct model.

I supported the gothic Kickstarter project, but I bought the aqueduct STL files for $3. I loaded them into my club’s Bambu Labs 3D printer, and I soon completed the four-part tower, three aqueducts, and 14 promethium pipe sections.

I had no problems with the prints and, in no time, I was ready to start painting.

A color scheme

A base coat of light gray spray paint gave me the underlying color of my project.

I’ve noted many times that I’m no artist. I have no sense of colors. I usually copy someone else’s color scheme. Quite simply, I’m a paint-by-numbers hobbyist who slaps on the colors and puts my models on the table ASAP.

Still, I tried my best. My thinking was the aqueduct and distribution tower were plascrete (cement). Necromunda terrain can lean to the dark side, so I thought I’d start off with a light tone—provided by a light gray spray paint purchased at my local Home Depot.

I assumed the petroleum system was designed by the Adeptus Mechanicus, so I came up with the idea that the Tech Priests painted the plascrete Martian red. So I grabbed a spray can of Game Workshop’s Mephiston Red.

It’s obvious I really put down a lot of salt before spraying Mephiston Red. Some areas might have looked better if I’d had less “peeling.” Ah, well. Click on photo for larger image.

But I wanted to indicate age—after all, this aqueduct system was built millennia ago—and it really needed to look worn out. So I used the old “salt technique” to weather the red paint.

I started by spritzing the 3D prints with water, sprinkled on salt, and, once the pieces were dried in place, I sprayed on the Mephiston Red.

In some places, I think I was too liberal with the amount of salt I used, but I committed to it.

Once the paint had dried, I brushed away the salt with an old toothbrush.  Now the paint scheme looked ragged. I was ready to paint the details and weather the pieces.

Aqueducts and tower

The aqueduct has a lot of detail, befitting a gothic 40K style with a fixation on death. Click on photo for a larger image.

The 3D-printed sections have some nice details: skulls, half columns, steel plating, etc. I felt it was really important to “jazz up” the project.

To do that, I used a lot of highlights on the details. White for the skulls, gold for the columns, a dull brass for the machinery, and silver for the plasteel plates inside the piers.

In the underhive, of course, everything is filthy, rusted, dingy, and showing the damage of dripping water, chemically polluted air, and the inevitable decay of millennia without proper maintenance.

Weathering was simple enough. I simply thinned a variety of brown and black paints and put a liberal coat of wash all over everything. I also used a variety of orange colors to recreate rust on the metal panels on the aqueducts, and added a touch of yellow with Dirty Down’s Rust Effect.

Upon close inspection, the verdigris didn’t quite work. But I decided to leave it, as the overall effect works fine, and I have miniatures to paint. Click on photo for larger image.

Painting the copper dome and statue atop the distribution tower didn’t quite work out as I’d hoped. After adding a copper base color, I tried a drybrush of a greenish-blue color as the verdigris on the copper. I didn’t like it, so I tried a second coating of a greener color. I did the same with the statue atop the tower.

My opinion: Ehh! The verdigris is too green and covers too much of the brass. It’ll do for now, though. If I find the time, I may repaint it one day.

Interestingly enough, the statue wasn’t the only option for the top of the dome. The STL files come with one or two weapons variations. I liked the anti-air gun, as it would be useful if the aqueduct was put on a surface battle.

But, as this is a Necromunda project, I figured that anti-air guns really made no sense deep within the underhive. If I ever decide to use the aqueduct in a typical 40K game, I might print out a gun for the fun of it.

I may have gone a bit overboard with the rust and grime, but it is, after all, the underhive of Necromunda.

The piping

Not much to say here. I painted the pipes with a can of Games Workshop’s Leadbelcher spray paint. To break up the bland silver, I painted the support parts of the pipes with a very light brass, with a few parts standing out with a dark brass. It was a nice contrast.

It was too pristine, of course, so I started using my paints to indicate rust, corrosion, and grime. I may have gone a bit overboard on that, but what the heck. It gets the point across: this aqueduct system is a mess.

It’s always fun to see players discover a little “surprise” in the terrain in which they’re fighting. I decided on a gun shop because I had plenty of bitz to stock the shelves and walls. I think the broken archway stuck between the piers also is a nice touch.

A little whimsy

I felt I needed to do something more to catch a player’s eye, so I came up with a story for one of the aqueduct sections. Two arches collapsed after centuries of neglect, the entire system was abandoned, and an enterprising underhive citizen decided to open up a shop between two of the piers holding up the structure.

To represent this on the model, I took a hammer to the arches, breaking them off. One broken piece was intact, so I glued it between two piers, suggesting it fell and jammed between two piers. In breaking the model, there were areas revealing the honeycombed interior of the 3D print, and I hid these flaws with sand and grout.

Between two piers, I decided to add a impoverished store. I used corrugated plastic to create a wall for the back of the shop, covering the open gap between two piers. In the front, I added a small shop counter, a roof, and a sign: “Gun Shop”.

I chose a gun shop because I had plenty of extra bitz. So I lined the back wall of the shop with some “granny grating,” a plastic mesh used for needlepoint and crafting. Painted silver, it looked like the kind of metal mesh used in stores for hanging products on hooks.

I glued on a variety of weaponry on the mesh, and put a few products on the front counter. Bingo! Something for people to notice and go “ooh”.

Nice terrain piece

I don’t know if I have the energy to paint more of these detailed aqueducts and box off a corner of my future Necromunda table. But it would look great.

I like this place for several reasons; One is that it is unusual. I like aqueducts, and I’ve never seen anything like this on a Necromunda table. It’s got a lot of nice detail, too.

It also goes a long way to filling my first version of a Necromunda table. The piece is 22 inches long, and the tower is six inches wide.  If you assume a few inches on each side before you place another terrain piece down, this initial project will take up about 336 square inches—and that’s nearly 15 percent of a 4-foot-by-4-foot table.

That’s a good start. I only need a half-dozen pieces that size, along with some scatter terrain, to have a full table.

Finally, I think the table offers some interesting options from a tactical perspective. The piece is tall, blocking line of sight. But the arches keep the piece from being a solid wall. You can shoot through the arches, and gunmen can use the aqueduct’s piers as cover while they fire through.

All of this means that players have some tactical flexibility with the aqueducts. They can’t climb it, but you can use it to hinder lines of fire or defend from the piers and turn it into a defensive position.

What next?

I own a lot of resin shanties, so I’m thinking of a multi-level beehive of shanties, perhaps circling around a massive pylon (PVC pipe) that supports the roof of the underhive.

I also have some weird Victorian-style brick factories that, with a little tweaking, would make a fantastic, ultra-gothic-but-40K-weird building.

My personal favorite idea is a small dock section using some 3D-printed concrete piers. I can built a  barges out of half of a shipping craft, and give it a roof by using one of the canopies in the old Necromunda market set. Let’s remind people about the “sump” in the lower levels.

It may be awhile, though, before I start project #2. I’ve 30 miniatures primed and ready to paint, two tanks ready for winter camouflage, and four platoons of Valhallan infantry to base.

But I hope to get the next project going sometime this fall. Fingers crossed!

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our hobby adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.