Two posts in one day! I have been busy…
About two weeks ago over the Xmas break my good friend Aaron of Forlorn Hope fame and I were having a bromantic night in watching Myth Busters and cutting out the seemingly endless sprues of the four Imperial Sectors I brought. The sprues would eventually be for the scenery stage of the Forge World Realm of Battle Cityscape boards I was at that time painting.
As we were watching Myth Busters we noticed a massive toy crane in the back ground of their office. Aaron suggest that it would be cool to have a crane on one of the boards. I did too, so I started looking online for something similar and eventually found one that looked cool, so a few days ago I found myself in Toys r Us with a toy crane under my arm. They were having a 25% off sale at the time and it was only $35! So how could I resist. The thought of having a massive Adeptus Mechanics crane on one of the boards was too tempting and the scale of what was on offer seemed to suit perfectly for the heroic 28mm scale of 40k.
So heres what I ended up getting from Toys r Us for $35!. Thats me playing with it when I got it home btw.
This is what I ended up doing to it, and where it’ll go on my board. As you can see I’ve shortened it, and “grim darked” it up quite a bit.
Another detail shot of its base and first level gantry. I’m really happy with this piece. Its very big but I think it’ll add a good sense of scale and perspective to the rest of the boards once its put into context with them around it.
Lots of bits of details added, most of it from the Titan kits I’ve made over the last year, plus some from the Imperial Sector buildings and a little brass etched pieces
So that I can store it, I’ve kept the mast and crane separate pieces. Its just a push fit with a simple male/female fitting
Some random junk on an industrial pallet. I made the tarp by soaking some thin cardboard in some water with PVA glue in it, I then shaped it over the crates etc and let it set.
Another angle of the pallet. I kinda like the simplicity of this piece. It looks cool.
Here are my work in progress shots. Again, your feedback would be nice on whether or not I should include these.
Ok, thats it for this post.
I’m thrilled with this piece. It’s turned out much better than I could have ever imagined. The paint job I have in mind for it is going to be pretty awesome too… So hold fast for that one.
Thanks for dropping in
John
The Painting Bunkerc y 
Brilliant originality, don’t think I have ever seen a crane added before. In one go it gives some stark height to the boards appearance, which is fantastic. I guess the only danger would be the risk of the horizontal boom being in the way during play and getting knocked.
Personally, l think that’s a risk worth taking in order to have a really visually engaging battle environment.
I agree about the palette, it’s a lovely piece. What makes it work is the tarpaulin over the top of the containers breaking up the hard lines and symmetry.
Great work as always.
Hey Carl, great to hear from you! The crane is a bit of a fluke I think. I’ve never seen one either and I think I got lucky with the scale similarities. I agree with you about the risk of bumping the boom, but your right, the reward is worth it. I did try and mitigate it to an extent by putting in a massive base for the crane, and although its not evident, there is quite a lot of ballast in the large dark plastic box on the back of the boom. Where you’d see concrete slabs positioned on a regular crane. This also helps keep it stable. Glad you like the work thus far. John
Toy shops are fantastic for scenery and vehicles that can fit in with 40k (or be made to fit with little work). Good work on the crane, can’t wait to see it painted up. The pallet is also really good, I prefer your method of thin cardboard rather than tissue paper, it looks better than most tarpaulin modelled onto scenery. Keep it up!