My 3-D Maps

[Battery Hen]

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd post a thread to show you some pics of the 3-D map that I've constructed :

http://uk.photos.yahoo.com/bc/batteryhen1974/lst?.dir=/Heroclix+Mods

I basically made a base showing a river running through a town. I then made foamboard buildings and covered them in dolls house paper to give me the brick detail. Then using the computer game 'Freedom Force', I used the JPegs that are in the game for the window / door / sign details.

Lastly, extra detailing was made like the bridge / trees / ladders etc. with whatever I could buy or lay my hands on. It been a long work in progress, but the best thing about it is the fact that although the buildings are pretty generic in space (i.e. cubes) they can be swapped around to make almost building arrangement I want. Hopefully the pictures above illustrate that.

I'd love to know what you think.

PS the last shot - shows the Harrogate Heroes team, which are my own personal mods. I, BatteryHen, am of course the leader of this group and am standing in the forefront in the Red & White costume.

[flipstar]

blooming nice job mate! You near leeds on a wednesday night? If so travelling man (leeds) do a games night please come along and show us up! :)

[Destro]

I like the building's! terrific job! these inspire me to give this a try myself! what figures did you use to convert into your own characters? I've done a few myself and made some characters of my friends who play the game with us all the time...it's always an instant hit to see a hero clix of yourself out there on the game board fighting the worlds worst super villians!

[Battery Hen]

The characters that make up the Harrogate Heroes are :

Battery Hen (Me) - Powers Electricity. Shown in the last picture in the Red & White. This was a mod / repaint using an intergang agent's body, Avalanches arms, Nightwings head and modeling clay to flesh it out.

FeatherLad (My Brother Alex) - Powers Flight, Electric Feather bombs. The Character flying in Green. This was basically a repaint of Clayface III without his cape, then stuck to a flying base.

TryptaLou (My Brother Louis) - Powers Strength and Fire Breath. The character in blue. The was a re-paint of a Hydra Operative with the arms and head repositioned. I also added half grains of rice to the back for the spikes that he has.

The Mongoose (Friend Bari) - Powers Fighting Skills and Sharp claws. The character in brown. This was a repaint of Blue Beetle with repositioning of the arms and losing the gun. I added ears and claws to the costume using wire.

Cat-o-line (Friend Caroline) - Powers Fighting Skills and Bomb throwing. The character in Pink. This was a mod made from parts of Black Cat and Sydney Savage (Indy). Grains of rice were used for the ears.

Polar Star (Friend Stefania) - Powers controls Winter weather. The character in black and blue with blonde hair. This was a mod made from the white Queen, removing the cape, cutting the hair, adding a jacket, hotpants and higher boots with clay. Head and arms were also repositioned.

I used the dial generator (found on another thread here) to give them dials to match their powers. They also have the Harrogate Heroes team ability which is the same as the Fantastic Four. I've only used them a couple of times as Bari & Louis who play with me tend to object as they keep getting beat!

[Jack Squat]

Some of the nicest 3D work I've seen yet. You've given me a few new ideas for my own 3D board. Great job, thanks for posting.

[Grifter]

Very impressive stuff! I keep meaning to try to finish my 3D terrain but I'm never able to sustain my momentum. It would take me 18 months to do as much as you've done here :)

So what's this dolls house paper you used? I've never heard of it, but it makes sense that it would be the best option. Also, the trees looks like the perfect size - were they for model railroads originally? Great idea using the freedom force images for signs and overlays - it adds a great extra level of detail.

Great work!!

[Battery Hen]

The paper I used to cover the foamboard was paper that you can buy from Arts and Crafts shops (in the UK anyway) when you're making Dolls houses. Most of it's a wallpaper reconstruction, but they do brick wall effect too - which is what i've used.

[Blaze890]

I have freedom force and was wondering what folder you got those Jpegs from.

Thanks

[bizarrome]

What did you use to make the game grid for the ground, water, and rooftops?? Also, where did you get the ladders?? I am working on a design of the tri-city are of Metropolis, Gotham City, and New York that also includes a working O scale train and slot car streets and highways.....:rolleyes:

[sepinsnosaj]

I have the freedom force game but I cannot find the jpgs. What folder or file are they in?

Thanks
Jason Snipes

[Battery Hen]

Thanks to Grifter who reminded me how I must of done this as having got Freedom Force when it first came out, and then downloading / creating mods since, I was not entirely sure how I had the files on my PC or how they were unlocked. However if you use winzip to open the art.ff file, and extract all the tga files you should be able to edit them into a usable format using a program such as Paint Shop Pro.

The location I have them stored in is :

C:/Program Files/Irrational Games/Data /Art/Library/area_specific/textures

If you can't find them on your PC under this location (C being your hard drive), try visiting www.fxforce.com for the maps section - you can download some textures there or www.freedommods.com for again some additions that will have textures included in them.

Hope this helps

BH

[sepinsnosaj]

Thanks for your help. I have not made a custom board yet but here is my start at buildings.


Yahoo Photo Gallery
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/sepinsnosaj

Jason Snipes

[Blaze890]

Thanks alot!!!

With that freedom force CD i am well on my way to a high quality 3d map.

Yours was fantastic.

Thanks again.

-Blaze

[sepinsnosaj]

My url did not work so here is the one that does

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sepinsnosaj/album?.tok=bcwUhTABh1_80ZER&.dir=/3D+Heroclix+Buildings&.src=ph

[chi_madnes]

those building look great sepinsnosaj, where did you get the textures ???

[sepinsnosaj]

Thanks to Battery Hen I found them in my old copy of Freedom Force. You have to enlarge them a little bit with photoshop or any other image program to get them to be the right size for the figures. Make sure you look at Battery Hen's photos too. He came up with the idea first. If you do not have the game you can download the demo version and get a few of the textures from it.

I'm sure this is stating the obvious but don't forget that the figures themselves are 1/48 scale (O SCALE in Model Trains). Each quarter inch is one foot. For example Abomination is about 1 5/8 inchs tall so that would be 7 1/2 feet in quarter (O) scale. This comes in handy when you don't want to buy/make object for your figures. I found a great set of stuff for my city scene at a train store.

Jason Snipes

[Battery Hen]

Thanks for the recognition Jason, your models look great. I'm planning some additions and hopefully will redo the base board. At the moment I'm using Cardboard but I think I may invest in some thin plywood - something a bit sturdier. - I guess I'll only have time to start it after the Christmas crazyness has past.

Looked at a model store today at train set add-ons. We have Horby here in the UK - is that a brand you have? The models seemed a bit small. Working on the premise that a train is at least 3 people wide (although more commonly 5 people) - the translation of model train to heroclix is more 1 : 1.

Still I did see a cool suspension bridge that I immediately thought I could do an excellent mod from!!! - The £30 price tag kinda put me off though.:ermm:

[sepinsnosaj]

Battery Hen,
When I first went to the model train store too look I thought the O scale trains were a little small. Bit then I realized that I took the HULK with me as my model as well as Doc Samson. These are huge O scale people. I took the Con artist and Destiny next time as a more accurate model. I will post a few more pictures of some of the O Scale accessories that I have found and Use. I even found a Phone Booth (US Style not the cool red UK types) that the more Normal Sized HK people can fit inside. The Lionel O scale accessories are a good Size.

Here are a few links I found that has some good stuff. The first one is in the UK.

http://www.aztexweb.biz/langley/acatalog/index.htm - O Scale 1/43

http://www.discounttrainsonline.com/o-gauge-o27-scale.html

http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Scenery&scale=O&manu=&item=&keywords=&instock=Q&split=300&Submit=Search - The JL Innovative Design barrels are cool. So are the MDK K-Line crates and stuff.

I have attached a PDF version of an 1/48 scale ruler. I find it helps me see how big things are. You will need to remove the .zip extension to open it.

[sepinsnosaj]

I have updated my Photo Gallery to show some of the O Scale accessories I have bought.

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sepinsnosaj/album?.tok=bcwUhTABh1_80ZER&.dir=/3D+Heroclix+Buildings&.src=ph

Jason

[Cell]

So the buildings are made out of foamboard? i want to start making a 3D map but i am sort of lost...

[Nightraider]

So do you use 1 artshop or search for what you need.
Did you buy the foamboard in the art shop as well ?

[Gator]

Here's the map I built using foamboard for the base and buildings. I buil this about a year ago using Heroix' site as a guide. He had great stuff but alas his site was taken down (never found out why). Anyway, the doll's house paper is a great idea. I've been itching to make a 36x36 3-D map so maybe this will get me kickstarted

Here is the linkGator's 3-D City (http://home.comcast.net/~wanderson35/heroclix.htm)

[FoxInStocks]

Wow. All of these 3-d arenas look great. I guess I better start on mine. I'm inspired! :)

[King Hyperion]

Good job. Hey you should make the H.Q. 4 the world's greatest comic book.The JLA is hot (plasticman mail box) all you need is amazo for the hot fight scene.:cool:

[spidergirl1]

Yeah all of those are very good work! very nice job! :)

[clix]

You guys all did great jobs. Keep up the good work.

[BatmanNTulsa]

very cool 3d very cool the best i have ever seen..........

[myown]

I've worked on something similar but not as good as yours. 10 across the board well done, well done. truely a work of art.

[drexxonn]

Sweeeet


All Hail The BOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Azrael0626]

Hey, great map. Where did you get the graphics for the buildings?

[Battery Hen]

Further to my previous posts, I've redone the base of the Maps, so that they form different layouts. Hopefully the photographs illustrate this :

http://uk.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/batteryhen1974/my_photos

Access the March 04 file.

The first 6 shots show the 3 boards in the various ways that the fit together to make sense (i.e river flows into river and not road etc). The last 2 shots show the buildings from before with the figures etc. as per a game senario. I've made a new frontage to one of the buildings I had before - It now is the Diamond Theatre.

What do you think?

[bizarrome]

Nice Job!!!

[Noman]

Those are realy exellent.

Well done.

We use 3D battlefield style terrain on a 3x normal sized grided board, which looks good and plays well, but those 3d buildings are the business.

(Steps back in awe...)

LoL

All the Best

Noman

[Battery Hen]

Have you got any pictures from the boards you play on Noman?

ps I've updated my link with some additional pictures.

BH

[Thunderclese]

One thing I've wondered:

Do you count the trees as blocking, or hindering terrain, now?

[Battery Hen]

Strictly speaking I suppose now they are blocking in terms of placing a figure on the same square they occupy - but we always play that they are hindering in terms of ranged attacks.

[algrim]

Incredible job!

So when can i come over and play? :p

[bizarrome]

Where did you get the ladders?? I am working on a design of the tri-city are of Metropolis, Gotham City, and New York that also includes working O scale trains (3) an electric trolly car, and a slot car motor speedway. The ladders are perfect. Tell me where you got them or how you made them.

Currently I am working on Metropolis Airport. I have a small hanger and am working on a couple of small single engine plane models and I also have a control tower building. I plan to put in a main runway and have a large commercail passenger plan that sits on the runway.

I spent the last week in Dallas and I bought an apartment building for New York where Peter Parker lives and the Hanger and control tower buildings. A 2-story station building that I plan to use for Gotham Station an pedestrian overpass that the shop owner opened up and we measured to make sure clix figures could use, and a package of city pieces with Trash cans, Fire Hydrants, mail boxes (exactly the same size as the one that came in the outdoor adventure pack), and Telephone Booths. I am so excited about building this and combining my interests of Slot cars, models, trains, and Heroclix....

But I still would like to know about the ladders.... Thanks.... :classic:

[Battery Hen]

I made the ladders myself. I used matches cut to size and painted black / silver. The down rails are cooks matches (the long ones) and I superglued them together.

I found that although they were fiddley to make, the effect was worth it.

BH

[bizarrome]

WOW!! That is so cool !! Now why didn't I think of that?? I appreciate you sharing your creations with us!! I currently am working on how I am going to do my metropolis layout on paper. I have decided on the following list of buildings/locations:

1. Metropolis Museum
2. Daily Planet Building
3. Galaxy Communications Bldg./WGBS News Offices
4. S.T.A.R. Labs
5. Hall of Justice
6. Mall Of Metropolis
7. Metropolis Motor Speedway (Not a building but has structures)
8. Metropolis Airport
9. Lexcorp
10. Metropolis General Hospital
11. Metropolis Bus Depot
12. Freddy Freeman's Newsstand
13. Don's Diner (named after the one in Superman II)
14. Big Belly Buster Burger

I have some street names like: June and 38th, Byrne Blvd, Schaffenburg Lane, Swan Street and Ordway Road.

I also am going to create several buildings that are partials where there will be access to the inside for indoor adventures as well: Metropolis Museum, the Daily Planet Building, S.T.A.R. Labs, the Hall of Justice, and the Mall Of Metropolis. I just bought a book on building these strutures when I was in Dallas. I will share my progress as it unfolds if you all wish to see it. I just bought my wife a digital camara for her Birthday and I am sure she would let me use it.

Anyway, thanks again for the tip on the ladders I really do apprecaite it !! Now back to my planning......:classic:

[fee_weasel]

BH,

How did you make your new board sections? Did you paint or glue your different colored sections on? Also, how long did it take to come up with a design that fit into all those combinations?

fw

[Battery Hen]

bizarrome,

Your plans for Metropolis sound cool - Can't wait to see them when you've done it. I'm tempted to make more buildings, but storage space is becoming a bit of an issue for me. I guess I could always mod one of the existing buildings I've got. I was wanting to make either a Train station or a gas station.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

FW

It was a process of making a 12 x 24 square grid on sheets of MDF. The idea would be that you could join 2 together to make a 24 x 24 square board. I made 3 so that I could have different combinations, and worked out where the roads could end on each board so they matched up with the others.

Unfortunately it tends to be that we now play on a 24 x 36 square board so all 3 are used. It works quite well though when you're playing 4 player games.

BH

[bizarrome]

I think a Gas station would be cool. I have a Gas Station Robbery senario that I downloaded, so I think the Gas Station would be awsome !!!!

[Ashlar38]

Great buildings!

What I've done, is to use O-scale model train buildings - I have 5 buildings from the K-Line set available here (pics):

http://www.wholesaletrains.com/OProducts2.asp?Scale=O&Item=MDKSCENE

I then lined the flat roofs into squares using a pencil and voila!

Some of the very nice things about these buildings is that that are plastic and travel well, they snap together so that that makes them good for taking apart for travel (they lie flat!), and they're CHEAP!

I bought my 4 x 3-story buildings, which come already coloured, for $16CDN each (about $12US).

I also bought a 2.5 foot long, cardboard 3D Space shuttle at my local aerospace museum giftshop, drew lines onto it etc..

I highly recommend the K-Line buildings..O-Scale

Ash

[Ashlar38]

BTW: MY 'bought' 3D buildings are for those of us without your talent only!

Nicely done!

Ash

[bizarrome]

Thanks for the website Ashlar38. It will come in handy !!:cheeky: