Building a huge Warhammer 40K Manufactorum

I managed to find some spare time to invest in finishing this long project. I started out airbrushing the entire building with consecutive layers of Shadow Grey, Fortress Grey, Skull White. I like Shadow Grey and think the combination has the right concrete look to it. After this job I airbrushed a rather astonishing amount of wash around burned out and bomb-shelled windows and other features (and where fancy took me). All I can say is long live Vallejo for supplying these huge barrels of wash (black and sepia for those keeping score).

Making a cargo elevator platform

Another day, another bit of hard labor on the Manufactorum. I made a little inset today to put behind the door as a raised factory floor. The PVA glue is still a bit wet on this pick, but it will dry up nicely I expect. Also featured on this picture is the grounded and beveled base of the building.

Making concrete walls for Warhammer 40K buildings

Today was very productive. I started out getting Gesso, a few new spackle knifes (I forgot to clean the old ones, may the emperor forgive me). I started out by applying a straight layer of filler over the brushed on layer (which is a lot easier that applying filler straight to foamboard). This was the result:

Experimenting with Warhammer 40K concrete

So work is steadily progressing on this building and with a bit of luck I might actually start painting it around Wednesday. Anyway here goes the next bit.

I put in the rear wall section here (on the left side):

Building the walls of the manufactorum

So I have been cutting and pasting another number of hours to get ahead with the manufactorum and got to the first hurdle. Turns out that no matter how much time you (well I) spend in Sketchup reality has a way of catching up. As I was cutting away at the walkway (on the cutting mat here):

Cutting foamboard for a manufactorum

Today I worked out how to cut the building from 5mm foamboard using some printouts and I adapted the doorway to fit in a leftover 'eagle door' from the Sanctum Imperialis kit. I also cut the major parts and glued what I could. Now to wait for the glue to dry. Here is a short update on the first step including one showing a space marine (to give an indication of the rather massive scale):

Using Sketchup to design a manufactorum

I really like the manufactorum on page 27 of Cities of Death so I'm going to try to build one to use as a centerpiece.

As it is always hard to see the back of a building on a 2D photo (har har) I've started this project on the computer using Google Sketchup. This way I can make a basic plan for cutting my foamboard (it is exact to the millimeter and I have used 5mm and 3mm foamboard as my building blocks, the little perons at the front is scaled to Astartes height). Also it gives me a chance to consider if the building will work on the tabletop. I am still in doubt to be honest, it is rather high so climbing it during a battle will cost allmost the entire battle. On the other hand it will block line of sight and if succesful it will look great. It will also give me a chance to use a lot of pvc piping I have lying around after a major home renovation project. So there we go.