Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The Display Board


Finally I've had a chance to put together a few photos of my Armies on Parade display board.

Initially I had the idea for a bridge and triumphal arch when I saw the excellent artwork spread in the 40K rulebook of the approach to a temple on Terra. The scale/scope of the architecture was simply mind-blowing. I wanted to grab a little bit of that feeling and squeeze it into a 2' x 2' area.

I didn't take many photos during the construction process, and those that I did take were with my phone, so the quality isn't quite the same as my usual shots. I hope you enjoy them.


This was roughly 40% of the way through the construction. Each element had been designed by me and then rendered and cut on my friend Thomas' laser cutter. To reduce costs, the bulk of the structure was built out of MDF, and then clad in 1mm sheet styrene (plasticard).



Areas requiring precise detailing, such as the deck of the bridge, were etched from acrylic, which deals much better with the heat of the laser than sheet styrene can.


Additional detailing, like resin sheeting of grating texture and strips of plasticard, were carefully added to increase texture and depth in the final piece, essential for something this big.


Curves underneath the edges of the lower arches required careful filling (with expanding foam) and then cutting, filling, and sanding. Thomas looks on above, as the expanding foam amuses us both during a late night construction session.


Curious about the overall height, I asked my two little treasures to stand beside the display : )






The eagles on each side can be removed and replaced with any other design I might like to come up with. And the arch is a separate piece, so it could become and excellent objective for an Apocalypse game. Versatility (as much as possible) was always in the back of my mind.



And here the Bridge Guard stand tall, performing their task.

Cheers
Dave

24 comments:

  1. Absolutely outstanding work, Dave - that is both amazing and inspirational!

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  2. Wow. Thank You for sharing. The display board and the army are amazing!

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  3. great job Dave. love the sculpts of the watchers!

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  4. Wow!!! Dave What a presentation. Your display board are superb.


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  5. Nicely done, Dave! Impressive as usual. I like the fact you made it modular so it can be dually used for gaming. It's nice to have things you can re-use rather then just display.

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  6. Hi.

    This is awesome.

    That's all I have to say.

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  7. WOW.

    As already said.

    Awesome. Thank you for sharing the work-in-progress.

    Tony

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  8. Only just noticed that you can comment on this blog. Phenominal work on the army and the epic scaling of the display just brings it (further) into 40k.

    As an admech converter myself (cerebralerebus on ammobunker) your endless ideas are a source of great inspiration - you seem to have really captured the john blanche feel to the mechanicus: a true fusion of flesh and metal.

    I hope your admech does not end with this armies on parade competition.

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  9. Out of control Dave. Out of control...

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  10. A fantastic work, full of dedication and hours. It is a luxury to be able to see it with so much detail. A great greeting.

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  11. seeing this, i feel sorry about not building an entry for AOP this year.

    just awesome.

    harald

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  12. just WOW!!!

    now get back to painting Napoleonic!

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  13. Love your stuff,great modeling resource. I hadn't encountered your blog until I started looking for outlets to tell about our Kickstarter Project.

    Trying not to spam, but I am trying to spread the word. We have a project to produce pinup miniatures based on the art of Andrew Bawidamann and would love to have you let your readers know. Check it out if you like what you see, tell your readers and know we are thankful for the help. Contact us and I can send a full press kit with a release and some handy dandy graphics. Thanks! -Torin

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/710406053/hangar-18-pinups-modern-pinup-miniatures-bawidaman

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  14. Hey Dave, that is just awesome. Very 40k, very Imperium. Its not often you see cool 40k terrain like that anymore, everything is usually the premade stuff from GW. Reminds me of back in the day when all of the terrain they featured in White Dwarf was custom made awesome stuff.

    Looking forward to seeing this in person at Games Day.

    Tyler M.

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  15. Superb work Dave, I think that has to be the biggest piece of terrain I have seen on an area of just 2ft square.
    Cheers,
    Pat.

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  16. Well don't really know what to say, the scale, the imagination, the execution - impressive. And this is quite possible the most insane collection of miniatures ever!

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  17. Very good work, your board parade is very successful. This is certainly more interesting than a showcase or shelf to expose these figurines.
    Good continuation

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