Mordheim - Proof of Concept/Initial Build

 So with most of the terrain printed or sourced, I ventured down to my local DIY store and purchased myself three 1200mm x 600m sheets of 9mm plywood (that's 4ft by 2ft in old money). The rationale was that they would be easier to transport and store than a single 6ft by 4ft board). It also allowed for some modularity if required.

I also purchased a 8' x 4' sheet of 2" polystyrene so that I could build the levels of the board in a lightweight way. My thinking was that a 2" level change best replicated what was required for 25/28mm figures.

My next step was to set everything up on a table and see how it looked.

I got out my store of printed and purchased (mostly Tabletop World) buildings and set them out in an approximation of what I wanted to achieve. 

Mordheim - Building Blocks (Cobblestone Wallpaper)

Having the necessary building blocks for my table is absolutely critical for me. I wanted a cobblestone base for my table and investigated all the different ways of going about achieving it.

I could go done the green stuff/modelling clay route but felt that would be prohibitive both in time and cost. Similarly, 3D printing or purchasing cobblestone streets was going to get old very quickly. Searching on YouTube Geek Gaming showed different methodologies for achieving what I wanted but all were very time consuming. 

My 6' x 4' board taking shape after all the cobbled areas were laid down. Total time to do so....<2 hours

My solution was in the Lybbans Minatures video. Fredrik had found and used an embossed wallpaper. I had used wallpaper in the past but had not kept the details. Importantly, he provided enough details for me to track down my own source.

In the photo above, you can get an idea of the texture of the paper - ideal both in form/size for a medieval town. As a bonus, Fredrik had already roadtested it and I knew it was fit for purpose. It could be stuck to polystyrene, it could be easily cut and shaped and it took primer.

The wallpaper is an Italian-made product called "Seriano". It appears to be manufactured by Belgravia Decor and the particular pattern is "Pietra". I have copied the labels so there is a record for others who may have an interest.

Mordheim - Enter the Print Farm

One of the things you learn with a project like this is that good things take time. You can see a wonderful plan - Lybbanns Miniatures Youtube - then you can see all sorts of fantastic terrain pieces to print, access the stls (please support creators) but being ready to build doesn't happen overnight.

The printing  of all the steps, walls, roads, ruins, buildings etc takes an enormous amount of time. Like a real long time. I purchased my printer in mid-July and I have been printing non-stop since then. By calculation, the printer has been utilised 80% of the intervening time since of switched it on. That is 19-20 hours per day for 70+ days. This is something worth thinking about when you plan your project. While the printing has taken 13+ kgs of PLA, it is the time to print that is your real constraint. When I built my 40k board purchasing GW kits was expensive but they were available in 1-2 days.

So get used to running a printing pipeline! This is the reason I am so please with my Creality machine. It has been a joy with little to no downtime. The issues I've had were related to filament replacement (solved by Youtube search), bed adhesion (solved by adding brim/raft where necessary/keeping the bed clean/using hairspray for very tall prints). Youtube, Google and the Creality CR-6 Facebook Group solved all my issues - fast and effectively. No real downtime...production keeps running.

Here is a list of some of the STL File creators that I have used. Again Lybbans did a lot of the work but there are a few I found myself:

 https://www.infinitedimensions.ca/ - Wightwood Abbey - walls, ruins, buildings

https://www.printablescenery.com/ - Medieval scenery, ships, buildings

https://gumroad.com/ministages - Roads 

https://www.3dlayeredscenery.com/product/leichheim-latepledge/ - Leichheim - Medieval City

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-dark-realms-arkenfel-bridge-2-ruins-136279 - Dark Realms (particularly Arkenfel) - Buildings, bridges, towers, ruins

Here is a selection of buildings/terrain I have printed and which is is now incorporated in my build: 

Mordheim Board - The Inspiration and the Tools

My inspiration for building a Mordheim city board was the video by Fredrik Lybeck of Lybbans Miniatures. Here is that video.

 What was great from my point of view was that Fredrik had largely done all the planning for me. I shamelessly stole his concept, structural plan, materials etc. He also had provided links to the various items he had printed.

This really short-circuited the whole process for me. Armed with all his planning work, I acquired the necessary stls and fired up my one-machine print farm.

In the previous post I indicated that my new 3D FDM printer, a Creality CR-6 SE, had proved to be a "unicorn". What did I mean by that? Well from Day One I started printing successfully and have suffered virtually no failed prints or problems.

3D printing can be its own hobby and.....well, I didn't want another hobby....just a source of terrain pieces. I had previously had a Wanhao i-3 (purchased in 2016) and while it had served me okay for two years, it was a hobby in itself and eventually the effort to produce terrain outweighed its utility.

Not so with the Creality. The key feature for me is its auto bed-levelling. With the wanhao I was constantly struggling with the levelling of the print bed, manually adjusting corners, sliding in sheets of paper to measure the gap between bed and extruder etc. The Creality did all this for me and it really has been plug in and print.....exactly the type of 3D hobby I want.

I've have sourced PLA from a local supplier and started printing. Two and a half months and 13kgs of PLA later I've the necessary skeleton for my board.

Phoenix Rises - Mordheim

 After six months off the blog, the phoenix has risen again (or perhaps something stirs in the crypt)!

In March I went to Adepticon. It was a real refresh for me. After 2+ years of being locked down in New Zealand, it was a chance to get out and see the real world - outside our hermit kingdom. 

I had become very disenchanted with the bloat of 40k, the constant release of supplements, additional rules etc. all in a game that due to its underlying scoring structure was increasingly "same-y". Most of the content creators that I was following had turned into full-time shills for GW, pushing whatever was that week's release.

Adepticon changed a lot for me. Firstly, I got to go to the biggest tabletop miniatures convention in the world for the first time since 2019. There was a chance to mix with enthused hobbyists, visit vendor halls, eat burgers and drink margaritas. I didn't realise how much I had missed it! Secondly, I attended hobby classes again. Over the 4 days of the event I packed in 24 hours of classes - mostly airbrushing - but also some specific brush work classes on skin and faces. Thirdly, I got to see Golden Daemon. It was absolutely phenomenal and I was blown away by how talented people were.

When I arrived back in New Zealand late April I was enthused to get into the hobby again. What I needed was a project.

Over the previous 12 months I had been selling off my 22+ tables of 40k terrain. I had built up my own stock of terrain, mats and boards and post the 2021 Fields of Blood NZ Grand Tournament I no longer needed them. My previous project had been to build a 10' x 4' 40k Citifight board using SWM Urban Street tiles and GW Sector Imperialus buildings and I felt that 40 square feet would satisfy any future itch. This freed up a lot of space and while going through my "stuff" I found the Mordheim rulebook and a load of figures.

So I settled on my next project. Build a 6' x 4' Mordheim city board. I had a lot of Tabletop World buildings I could use but needed the right "base" on which to use them.

The first thing I did was search the Google and Youtube for possible examples and found myself a great set of videos by Fredrick Lybeck of Lybbans Miniatures. He had built a city board that was exactly what I aspired to......so out I went and bought a new tool.

The Creality CR-6 SE. Funded by Kickstarter in 2020. Problems ironed out by the community. Supported by a wonderful Facebook group. I didn't know it but I had found a "unicorn". Mid-July, I started printing and I haven't stopped since. In that time I have had less than a handful of failed prints and it has been running 24/7.