Eldar webway portal terrain project

[-Tom-]

Hello all,

Just thought I'd post up about the webway portal I've been wanting to make. I've seen a few floating around, including some for sale on ebay that look like they're made of foam or styrene, but nothing that had the 'squee factor' for me due to either lacking size (I just couldn't picture it producing a big enough warp opening to fit through 'large' models), or having lumpy bits where hands had wandered while cutting foam. So, knowing someone with a laser cutter I decided to go that route.




The plan was to have 3 pylons, able to be placed at a variable distance from a centre platform. I wanted them to curve, yet also remain quite 'vertical' for the sake of imagining them 'cupping' a really big (titan sized) webway opening.

This could turn into a long project, as I want to add LED lighting too, but I'm making it up a bit as I go along... at least I should be able to add some photos of some first bits cut shortly.



EDIT - Highly inconveniently, work has popped up and sent me half way around the world. I do have some bits cut, but company computers won't let me upload photos of them. Bah :/

[-Tom-]

Right, finally an update for this thread.

One of the pylons as per the designs in first post, with a farseer laying next to it for size comparison. You can just see the 5mm thick perspex behind the mdf too.




And, top down view of the 'centre plate'.




Then with a swirly sphere added, sitting in the bit that was cut out for it on the centre plate to be a 'webway portal' itself

[-Tom-]

And, now the problem with being away working before I'd even managed to post up that update, is that I sat and mulled over those photos and decided that I had to work out how I was going to get the lighting done... trying out some things, discounting them because I didn't like the look of it. Eventually deciding that the problem with the shape was that I just couldn't figure out where I actually wanted the light to come out.

So, I went back to the drawing board. The general concept was staying largely the same, but the pieces needed tweaking. Now the plan is to have each pylon made up of 5 layers. 3mm thick MDF in the middle, which is really just a strip around the perimeter of the shape, hollowed out, meaning I can fill it with LEDs and take the wiring out of the bottom.

Either side of that will fit a 5mm bit of the laser cut translucent acrylic. Because it's not totally clear it'll have a hazy glow to it rather than point lighting. The larger bit of cut mdf that matched the shape/size of the acrylic is now done away with and the smaller layer of mdf is now much more intricate.




The paint for the intricate bit is on order, hopefully arriving in the next couple of days (I want to do it that sort of pearlescent metallic white that you see on some Audis/BMWs but took me a while to find somewhere selling that colour). Hopefully should be able to start sticking it together so it will stand upright, and start getting some electrics into it.

[nova lazzara]

hello it won't be for a while yet but eventally for my scenary project i will need a web way like yourself now i'll be living in the USA by then so i would apresiate you sending me any specs i can give to someone to make me one, if you don't want to because its your desgin then thats faair enough

[-Tom-]

hello it won't be for a while yet but eventally for my scenary project i will need a web way like yourself now i'll be living in the USA by then so i would apresiate you sending me any specs i can give to someone to make me one, if you don't want to because its your desgin then thats faair enough

Nova,

I had a friend make them for me, his ebay store is [url]http://stores.ebay.co.uk/War-Games-Tournaments[/url] - (he does lots of Necromunda terrain, and city fight ruined buildings too). He does have plenty of customers from the US so I expect he'd be able to ship some out. He'd looked at doing a variant that is just mdf, rather than the perspex sandwich I have but it doesn't look like he's photographed it to list yet.

[-Tom-]

Update

The first pylon, and central baseplate, are built and painted. 2 more pylons to go, and some wiring to get the LEDs enclosed between the acrylic sheets to light up.




Oh, and a shot with the pylon standing upright as all the other shots have been more side-on.

[Thaldin]

I like the design, as a life long Eldar player.. it feels right... I think for color I might have gone more "Wraithbone", but the paint job itself is really clean and looks nice.

[-Tom-]

(Double post due to terrible airport Wifi... 2nd post of the 2 was the one with the edit.)

[-Tom-]

I like the design, as a life long Eldar player.. it feels right... I think for color I might have gone more "Wraithbone", but the paint job itself is really clean and looks nice.

Thanks, and I think your thoughts are what I started with.

As the design developed, I wanted it to look not quite 'modern' Eldar - the thought in my head being that the pylons have been there for over 20,000 years, pre-dating the fall. As such, I didn't mind that the scalloped out bits on the back edge slightly more resembled some Dark Eldar detailing, and that the golden sides are maybe a bit more towards the 'elven' than 'space elf' end of the scale.


Also, coming from a science background, the sciencey part of me wants to 'rationalise' the space-magic. To my mind, wraithbone is the pinnacle of materials technology, utilising a sort of nano-technology / micro-biotech. I suppose, imagine you have the technology to make not just nano-bots, but nano-bots with organic components. They have the programming to build custom materials on a large scale but by putting specific atoms of elements in at certain places, can replicate themselves if needed, and will remain within the material to repair it, or continue to grow it - in that sense, the material is "living".

See, I went to CERN when they were just finishing building the ATLAS detector for the LHC. They had these 'glass' rods sitting around waiting to be inserted. Totally see through, optical clarity, 20cm long, 4x4cm cross section. Really really heavy. Because, they weren't glass. They were metal. They were a Lead Tungstate alloy - the fact they were so dense meant that they would very quickly slow down particles passing through them, and the transparency meant that light could get out. Now, WE have that sort of technology right now. Whatever the Eldar have, has to beat the living p*ss out of that. Wraithbone could be coloured, it could be transparent. It could be used for canopies on tanks, where they are "grown" / built from atoms to form a single crystal with no weak points. It could make shuriken ammo that is a single large molecule, with superheavy element atoms encased at the core to give it mass, and something like carbon atoms at the edge in a diamond structure arrangement to make it hard.

But, yeah, I do appreciate that I'm trying to rationalise a universe with a black hole in it that is spewing out magic.

[Thaldin]

ha! No need to rationalize, it's your terrain, in the end as long as you like it.. it's good =)