In between my truly amazing projects, I also do a lot that merely evoke an offhand “Ehh, that’s kinda neat, I suppose”. Most aren’t really worth blogging about, but here and there I find one that I can tap out a thousand or so words about as a filler.

Today we’re going to look at one of those.

Quick update: I’ve had a couple requests for the templates I used to make my foamcore buildings, so I quickly cleaned up the files this morning and am offering them here to anyone who wants to walk in the footsteps of madness.

There’s a PDF version for anyone who just wants to make the same buildings I did, and I’ve also uploaded my Illustrator files in case anyone wants to make variations on my building shapes:

Foamcore Construction Templates:

• Spud’s Modular Terrain Templates (PDF Format)
• Spud’s Modular Terrain Templates (Adobe Illustrator format)

Craft Foam Paneling Templates:

• Spud’s Modular Terrain Wall Panels (PDF Format)
• Spud’s Modular Terrain Roof Panels (PDF Format)
• Spud’s Modular Terrain Panels (Adobe Illustrator format)

The templates are a bit sparse on instructions (though I did put a recipe on each floorplan to indicate which walls are needed to make each one), but you can probably get the gist of it if you check out the original article.

UPDATE: I added the templates used for the outer panels as well. My walkthrough for how to cut out and apply those can be found somewhere in this rambling mess.

If anyone does end up making their own buildings from these templates, be sure to send me pictures. 😀

-Spud

Two months ago, I posted drawings for a set of modular Infinity buildings. I took some time off after that to paint my Space Mans, but now I’ve come back to my beloved Space Buildings and gotten them to a point where they’re playable and somewhat bloggable.

For those who need a refresher, here’s basically what I’m building:

The terrain set is designed to represent a series of temporary, pre-fabricated buildings that can be used to represent new colonies or research installations. The buildings use a standardized connector to let pieces be joined together in any number of combinations, ensuring that the terrain doesn’t get stale to play on.

So, let’s see what I’ve knocked together so far. 🙂

At my local store, we recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Most Extreme Annihilation Challenge, our annual 20pt mangled metal tournament that features robots and monsters tearing each other apart amidst the strangest missions I can come up with. During the four-round event, three of the scenarios rotate from year to year– past favourites have included:

• Fight in a giant bowl with a hole in the middle. Models tumble toward the center every time they move unless they find something to hang onto.
• Control a trench that has a massive lava boulder rolling back and forth through it.
• Battle across a lava river spanned only by a rapidly-crumbling bridge.
• Control a zone surrounded by crystal formations that random spew fire, lightning, and ice across the battlefield.

I have a lot of fun coming up with these. 🙂

In the middle of all of this chaos, however, there is always one consistent occurrence. Each year, in the third round, the various teams of homicidal monsters and pitiless robots put on colorful jerseys and enjoy a relaxing round of the world’s most refined sport: GRIND!

I haven’t written a rant in a couple months, so let’s see if I remember how to do that.

I figured that if I’m going to start talking about Infinity, I should probably start with what made me decide to get involved with the game. And it’s probably not what you’d guess.

• It isn’t the game’s setting, even though I find the setting fascinating and a really creative break from the GrimDark and GreyVsGrey universes in so many other games.
• It isn’t the sculpting opportunities, though I do really look forward to trying some full sci-fi sculpts.
• It isn’t the ruleset, even though they could scarcely have come up with rules better-suited to poke my brain’s reward center.
• It isn’t even the minis line, despite the fact that as far as I’m concerned, Corvus Belli is putting out the best gaming minis on the market– the sheer dynamism and detail in their current line is just mind-blowing to Sculptor Spud.

No, those are all awesome things, and they’re all contributing to my current enjoyment of the game. But the first thing that drew me in, and the thing that has consumed by far the largest chunk of my time since my induction over the last two months, comes down to two words:

Space Buildings.

Thunderdome is a format I invented a few years ago to kill time before an event. The details have evolved over time, but in short: 4+ players have an army consisting entirely of three warcasters or warlocks that share a battlegroup, with no other models allowed (eg, no Derelyss, no Goreshade feat, one Coven member with no ball, etc). Each player (we’ve run up to 11 people on one board) spawns at the outside of a ring, and then they run around for an hour killing each other. It’s pretty hilarious. 🙂

We’ve always played it as a casual time-killer, but for this year’s holiday event at my local store, we ran an organized Thunderdome tournament. I’ll post the event rules in a separate post, but for now, let’s take a look at the two boards I put together to support the event, one or both of which will be at Templecon this coming February.