I think a big big plus of TTcombat is that they free ship worldwide above 100 pounds. I recently bought almost 10kg of terrain and they set me up with free express DHL shipping to a Continent the otherside of the world across two oceans. You cannot beat that value.
Nice breakdown, though I think it also depends on where you live. Even in the U.S. buying TT Combat stuff (with free shipping and a favorable exchange rate) comes in at, not exaggerating, around 25% of the cost of the GW plastic. So it's not "a little bit of saved money". I agree completely that assembling it can be a pain in the ass - I nearly rage quite after doing several large tables-worth. You can, however, cover an entire 6x4 table. And, TT Combat's other lines - match up directly with it. Meaning you can have slum towns, all form of sci-fi stuff, gothic and non-gothic. Their platforms, shipping containers, pipe sets, etc. It's all modular and works together. Heights/ladders/stairs are all in line with each other. I very much agree it's not as sexy as GW plastic, but it's super modular and robust and when you dump a bunch of scatter terrain around it, makes it blend perfectly fine for all kinds of uses. I frequently run 2-3 levels in my non-Necromunda games.
Totally. I balked at the prices of GW in the US and Oz. It’s not cheap here either but it n comparison… And yes, one of my favourite things about MDF is it’s versatility with other kits from the same company. I may do a follow up video about that but for this one I wanted a “like for like” ZM walls. Great comment! Love it. I learnt something new today. Thanks!
I’m a fan of TTCombat mdf myself. For the price you get some amazing terrain. And since terrain gets better by the number, the ammount of detail, or lach there of, doesn’t really matter. When a board or table looks cohesive and all painted it’s amazing. The laser etched details also handle spray paint very well. If you wanted you could just assemble, spray on a couple of colours, done.
@@CronosVids totally agree. To a point. 🤣 I’d be lying if I said “spraying on a few colours” would satisfy my terrain itch. Now, I don’t want my terrain to overshadow my minis but….😜👍🏼
One option is laser cut your own. Requires access to a laser cutter, but if you can get that there are sure nice free files out there. And ply may as well be free next to the cost of GW.
🤣 welcome to the State of Play. As you watch a few more of my videos you’ll see I designed and laser cut my own entire Modular Necromunda table and supply the files on my Patreon. 👍🏼
I have used Printable Scenery for years. Started with filament, then wanted the quality of resin, and now I'm back to filament - far less toxic and the quality has improved. I do like making original pieces with my laser cutter. It's far more fun/easier to design for than 3D models, too!
Great overview of options. I bought a set of the Deadbolt's Derelict stuff from Death Ray Designs about 3 years ago to stand in as a vault for Fallout gaming. I assembled most of it while watching stuff on YT so the time factor wasn't bad. If you do the bits in batches you will likely develop a workflow that is almost automatic. When the NM/ZM stuff came out I bought a bit of that also (enough to make a large table full)...and then I made a large amount of the "concrete" sections using a hot wire table, and now I have all the options. I may also have a problem but I deny that possibility! Cheers!
I've bought a bunch of the MAD gaming terrain after coming across their stall at Salute earlier this year, mostly their Hab blocks and walkways. It's extremely modular and magnetisable and really good so I can recommend. Haven't bought much of their zone mortalis type stuff (yet anyway). I can't help looking at ZM terrain and with it mostly just being a bunch of walls at the end of the day - thinking I could probably just make my own.
I’m jealous, I just recently started assembling official plus crafting some of my own. I have been searching all the toy isles and thrift stores etc trying to find some cheap pipes. I’ve had some luck, but I have been eyeing those official ones. Great video.
I've been fdm 3d printing a while. Its worth it over time if you want more than one terrain set or have a lot of terrain. From what I've seen the sets you can buy in plastic or mdf tend to be pretty expensive and of course have a limited number of components. If you need a few extra pieces of a certain type, you pretty much gotta buy a whole extra set. Whereas I can just print off more of whatever I need. Its not cost-less of course, the pla cost adds up, sometimes the amount of material used is more than you would expect, like if you're printing detailed floor tiles or roads, those a pretty low profile but still use almost as much pla as a hollow building. The big drawback of 3d printing is if you're printer keep failing prints and you end up wasting plastic on failed prints over and over. For a while I just stopped using my Ender 3 pro because I though it would just never print properly again and it was driving me nuts not being able to get it to work reliably. Turns out, parts wear out and need replacing, parts need cleaning, belts need tightening, upgrades may be needed so its not all sunshine and rainbows.
I haven't gotten into Zone Mortalis proper yet, but I have been toying with the idea of doing a hive terrain set of builds on my channel. But any Scratch build terrain stuff, as you have pointed out always takes sooo much time. I do 3D Resin Print though, lots and lots of bits. One of the unsung/real benefits of Resin Printing, IMO, is printing out a bunch of details and greebles... and then using those in concert with traditional scratch-building.
You should do it. Then we can compare notes! I love scratch building, to a degree, but when the time taken massively exceeds buy, deliver, glue and paint - I usually try to find another solution. I wish more companies would just sell greeble sprues. TTCombat have one but it’s mostly cogs and wheels. Almost as bad as GW’s obsession with skulls!
Actually, given that the one real advantage of MDF terrain for ZM is that the measurements for walls and things is precise I could see building the basic carcase with MDF and then using resin prints to "skin" the bare walls and provide details.
For me the only way I wouldn't have gone the 3D printer route would be if I only needed terrain for 1 single game. I'm glad I spent the extra to get the Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro since I didn't want a second hobby just a printer and it has so far been plug and print right out of the box. Half the terrain I've printed was free downloads, and the other was specific and very affordable to buy the stl's. The only thing then is a little cleanup and the time it takes for the pieces to print. 2 rolls of PLA+ cost less than 1 GW plastic kit, and will print a entire battlefield worth of terrain. Not to mention tokens, measuring sticks for various games, etc that I've printed.
Yeah that’s what I always thought. Makes sense. Learning a new hobby just to continue with the first hobby seemed a little weird to me. I’m still waiting for the worlds first, plug and play resin printer. No learning, no fiddling, no balance the build plate. Just pour and press the print button. 🤣
A really useful video that answered the exact question I was asking myself. I had seriously been looking at TTCombat and I will probably still get some of their terrain kits. But with the time-factor issue you highlighted about building them, I'll probably avoid their zone mortalis ones and stick with GW for now.
@@thestateofplay2023 Of course, since that comment 2 days ago I've watched all the rest of that playlist and found out how I can combine GW and TT Combat so that they work together in seamless harmony, so you've gone even further towards Zone Mortalis perfection!
Have a few bits and pieces from wargame model mods as he's pretty local to me. The leds are pretty bright and you usually paint first and install leds after as there's access from underneath.
Great overveaw of alternatives.... on TT combat stuff. they do sell a sets of addon. parts like consoles and vents that you can use to personlise wall sections, though they only seam to sell these direct and not 3rd party. even with out these sets with some cocktail sticks, wire or spaire card you can do great and easy mods that can look stunning sepaeshaly if you are willing to paint the blocks.
Ah yes. I saw the greebles sprue in my local Troll Trader store. It seemed less vents and mostly cogs and wheels which…well, erm. 🤣 Pirate underhive ahoy, matey! 🤣 Seriously though I love the suggestions here. With luck we can all make the most comprehensive ZM guide on TH-cam!
Hey, I've watched about 10 of your videos so far. I'm really enjoying both the content and your style. Although I'm not specifically looking for Necromunda options, I'm finding your insights applicable for other Warhammer terrain also. Anyway, even though we don't always comment, we're out here enjoying your work. Keep it up!
Seriously thanks man! Yeah I always hope the leap can be made between the concepts and the execution. Can be used across the board, not just Necromunda.
Consider Mantic's terrain crate. It's more hard sci-fi but they sell a bunch of different bits to style your build. It is also completely modular, and one of the 60-80$ kits is enough to build a few smaller structures and some scatter or one big one. They have a few different SKUs to get started with and you could probably use it to spice up some of your existing gw offerings with some terrain bits that are not covered in imperial adornments. Also the sci-fi terrain crate is pre clipped and its snaps together with little plastic clips. It just snaps together and then you can just dab some plastic glue or thin super glue on the join and it should be good to go.
I opted for a mix of Sector Fatalis and Precinct Umbra from The Dragons Rest, along with some rescaled and modded free files from Thingiverse to work with the Dragons Rest stuff. Filament printing does take time, about 2 1/2 - 3 hours per wall section for me, but the printer can run while I am doing other things, the pieces come off of the printer ready for priming, and the layer lines aren't very visible at playing distances. Cost wise. I paid £27 for 1kg of filament, am less than 1/5 of the way through it, and have printed the equivalent of a full box of GW columns and walls, my last roll did the equivalent of 3 sets, plus 2 sets of platforms/stairs.
I bought ttcombat regular necromunda terrain kits a long time ago with the long term goal of customising them to add some details I want to. It was a white box deal thing they do bought with another hefty discount on top so the value was great. More than enough for a huge tables worth. It is a lot of work though but I'll get there one day
More people should think like you about customisation. However, they all might be better advised to not take as long to do it! Those long term goals never seem to hit the net. 🤣🤣🤣
@@thestateofplay2023 oh for sure. I'm adding various pipes and metal plates and such to mine, as well as damaging various parts to make them look fought over for hundreds of years
As I said on your turbocharged painting video I was still slogging through a set of Deadbolt's Derelict, I'm pretty much done with them now after a couple of good hobby sessions. I actually really enjoyed putting together the MDF kits and I did add texture paint to break up all the flatter areas, especially because I knew I was going for a run-down and rusty scheme. I just wanted to point out that timing your purchases can be something to think about too. I picked up the Deadbolt's Derelict terrain during Black Friday sales. Yeah it was still pricey with shipping to the UK, but at the time there weren't as many options and the GW plastics weren't released yet either. There's definitely a lot more choice now. Which has good and bad points, a lot more to choose from, but not necessarily much compatibility between options, so you're still kind of picking a brand and running with it in a lot of ways unless you're gonna be modifying sets to fit. I do still love the GW plastics too and each has their uses. My Deadbolt's Derelict set is going to be used on the old printed tiles for 2D ZM games, Plastics will be used for more modularity/conversions and mostly used in 3D games.
I’d never thought of the Black Friday sales. That’s a great tip! I guess I get so used to GW never having a sale I forget that other companies do. 🤣 I’m one of those that tend to try to modify everything so they work together and become interchangeable. All sci-fi stuff works together, all fantasy, all modern. Mainly because I flip flop between games depending on my mood. 😜
My plan is to mold and cast my gw terrain with homemade polymer clay, and scratch build the old school tiles (n18) stairs and walkways with slotted steel sheets with some xps underneath for bulk on the ground level. The elevated walkways will just be steel that is crimped and folded on the edges for bulk. I'm using the multi piece design you recommend for the walls thanks for that. I'm also casting my pipes some complete some half way. The half way ones I'll put in gutters in the floor to act as guides for where the ground level walkways go. So it will act like the negative version of the old game boards. You asked ahahaha...cheers.
Totally great plan! You’d be surprised how many I people I know who start without one and then end up stuck less than halfway through. To save you time, casting pipes can be a pain to keep straight. So you could cast them around something or just scratch build with tubes, pens, dowel with wire wrapped around them. 👍🏼
I was surprised when I saw TTcombat stuff in the flesh at UKGE last weekend at how good it looked! But yes time to build is a valid factor people tend to forget!
It really does look good when built and painted. Add a few cables, a bit of texture and they’re amazing. But man, you never realise the build time until you start. And by then, you’re already invested and MUST see it through. 😜
Thank you and its always great to hear when people love what we do. If you ever needed some to try or compare, or even if you have a project idea for your channel please let us know, we would be more than happy to help out@@thestateofplay2023
I just got some of the Maze of the Dead tiles and they're pretty good - I ordered them without LEDs as I wanted to use RGB strips for the underlighting, but it was about £28 for a 2x2 board and that includes magnets, so pretty cheap and I put one together in about an hour. Regarding the leds and painting though, you can remove them as they just clip in or you can simply do any spray painting before you install them. Not sure how useful the magnets are with official ZM terrain but definitely considering incorporating some into those DIY columns and walls you made from foam. I have to admit though other than the tiles MDF terrain does seem like a faff when you factor in the time investment. Also on the plus side spotted a random Gallowfall in a shop yesterday so just flogging the kill teams and basically getting a massive pile of boarding actions terrain for free.
You know, I don’t mind faff when what I get at the end looks really cool. Some kits do that. Some don’t. It’s one of those weird situations where you just don’t know until the end. Congrats on finding the elusive Gallowfall. I’ve got an unopened box of Boarding Actions that I’m itching to connect to ZM.
@@thestateofplay2023 Yeah that's the thing I guess, if you enjoy building stuff anyway then it's all valid hobby time. And yeah I'm gonna have to find another half a boarding actions kit now haha so I can do that too.
I love Ttcombat kits and have loads of them. The secret us to wait for the black Friday sale. They sell white box bundles that are a great value. For example, one of the 2022 bundles included Cloud Buster(62£), Slum Blocks (12£), S1 Walkways (18£), S4 Storage Tanks(10£), and some random resin scatter for only 80£. That's 22£ saved on an already super cheap price point.
If I recall, Death Ray Designs has compatibility with their other terrain sets, so you can use the railings, stairways, terminals, etc from their other GW themed terrain with the ZM stuff. Not sure, but I think their Infinity themed terrain is also cross-compatible.
Yes All of Death Ray designs produced are cross compatible at some level.. There older stuff will work with newer items to some degree.. But Bolt hole, Deadbolt Derelict, Killing grounds, Mardyck Hallows, Minescorp, Necropolis, New Ceres, Odinhiem, Strider's Landing and Warp Striders all share connetion points and elements with each other
Bang for buck it is definitely TTcombat. Gives you a lot of space to work with, add little cocktail sticks as pipes, or print off posters. Easy as pie. Whack a bit of textured plasticard from greenstuffworld to the top so it doesnt look like mdf. Thats all being shipped to Japan.
I think the the ZM kits are very cleverly designed and very modular - but what is their biggest advantage is also their biggest disadvantage. It's all right angles and (if you're using the plastic ZM tiles) you have to arrange things in a certain way to get them to stand on the tiles without hacking chunks off the tile, and diagonals are out of the question. And (because they are only drawing from a limited pool of kits), if you look at the terrain people like that Leo chap builds - it all kind of looks the same. I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that the more interesting parts of the Hive aren't the maze of corridors but the Sump and Hab Blocks etc. Personally I'm really not a fan of MDF because you need to do a lot of work to it after you've built the basic model to conceal the fact that it's MDF - so unless you are building a Western Town for What A Cowboy, or a Russian village for Eastern front games where there are a lot of wooden buildings - it's not for me. On the other hand I'm quite tempted by the container stacks that TT Combat make, and Warbases UK do basic carcases of sci-fi / post apocalyptic buildings that are relatively cheap and can be added to with greeblies. One option that you didn't mention (possibly because it's designed to be generic greeblies rather than for ZM) is Maelstrom's Edge - they do two sprues of plastic sci fi doors, windows and greeblies that are quite well designed and can be used with traditional scratch building or tarting up MDF.
Yes! This! Totally know where you’re coming from. You literally quoted what I said in my tiles video! I tend to pepper my table with all manner of things that aren’t square, like the biodomes I made and a bunch off sector mechanicus stuff. Yes, greeble sprues should be more available. TTCombat has one but it’s mostly cogs and wheels.
The MDF stuff is really good. But I agree it never looks like anything but MDF. I copied your concrete walls and they ended up looking far better. They match well with GW walls. Anyway great video Senior The State of Play.
Bonjour je suis français et ici (en France 😅) les tuiles plastiques de GWS ne sont plus disponibles. Ma question est est-ce que la taille et les dimensions des tuiles mdf me permettront de mettre les décors plastiques de games dessus? Sinon super boulot de référencement de ce qui disponible. Merci beaucoup pour le travail.
Bonjour et bienvenue! Veuillez excuser mon français. J'utilise une application de traduction pour répondre à votre question. J'espère que ça va. Les tuiles GW deviennent assez souvent "en rupture de stock" car elles sont très populaires dans le monde entier. Ils finissent par revenir mais l'attente peut être longue. En réponse à votre question, les dalles GW mesurent 12 pouces sur 12 pouces. La plupart des dalles en MDF sont également conçues pour mesurer 12 pouces, donc oui, les ensembles de jeu seront bien placés sur le dessus. Cependant, ils ne s'emboîteront pas comme sur les tuiles GW. Mais, si cela vous convient, n'importe quelle tuile de 12 pouces sur 12 pouces fonctionnera pour créer une table. J'espère que ça aide!
I’m a big fan of the Offical GW Zone Mortalis Terrain, yeah it’s on the pricey side, but the detail is great, both the amount of it and the crispness of said detail, it works well with other GW Terrain, it’s simple to build, I looked at some alternatives, and the cost to amount ratio didn’t seem worth it, or the detail wasn’t there for me, so I went all in with the Official stuff and I’ve never looked back, plus I didn’t glue any of it down, so I can pack it away easily and always change up the layout whenever I want
I think you did the right thing. I love the ZM stuff. I guess the only thing I wanted was more variety and better connections so it was more sturdy. So as you’ve seen, I solved all that with my channel. Now I have the best of all worlds. Thanks for the comment. 👍🏼
@@thestateofplay2023 Yh I know what you mean, I’ve got a lot of columns and doors now, a box set of just single and double wall sections would go down nicely for me
Hmm, without knowing how you want your table to look I can’t guess. You may want one level or you may want 3. I guess it’s a decision for you depending on how dense and high you want your table to be.
@@thestateofplay2023 Thank u for your reply, i do want a dense iron labyrinth (zone mortalis), that can become a building, what concerns me is that i will not have use for the doors, i already use enough of them as walls and i already have enough columns, what i really would like to get is just walls, double or single. All zone mortalis scenery is not produced in high volumes, and seem out of print for much time, fomo pushes me to get the second underhive sector (at a 30% discount)...Any thoughts
@@tofathi195 I see. Honestly of all you need is walls I’d recommend just making them yourself from foam or wood. As longs as it’s the correct thickness and length when you paint them, no one will know what they are. If you stick on some pieces in card or plastic you can make them look great.
@@andybillco2424 i guess i will wait when they will produce only walls till then i will improvise, never played necromunda so far only aos,, anyway thanks for your time!
Yeah, they’re designed for the matts that Gamemat make. Sadly nothing really fits on the tiles properly except GW parts. One of the main reasons I’ve skipped the tiles. 😀
Loved finding out about the Mortian options and how they can fill out my table with mission unique expansions, great find! Also very much in love with the pros and cons & various trade off lists that you include in most of your videos. I am just discovering your channel, whilst planning out my budget and build for ZM a board and its been a great help. I wonder if you might consider making two more videos for newbies collecting terrain for Necromunda or Killteam? Perhaps expanding deeper on what best practices someone can keep in mind when designing a semi modular terrain hub? Sort of like a suggestion list of how to best build on a larger collection of terrain combinations that form blocks / nodes using ZM & SM? Knowing how to best design these nods to easily expand onto with gantries, levels, and additional sections of terrain might be very useful for someone slowly collecting terrain pieces over time. This is especially true for anyone looking to glue some stuff together but not make the mistake of creating a node that suffers from expansion blind spots or problematic sizing choices. A newbie trying to design his terrain table will definitely be going through some trail and error. But knowing why certain terrain layouts might work best for future expansion, and even how it can affect gameplay mechanics (Especially a game youre not that experianced with) would be really helpful for someone that isnt sure about how to get the most out of their game or terrain builds. Thanks for the great content mate! My wifes a graphic designer and I do a lot of video editing, the polish you've put into each video and into your channel is outstanding 👏 ❤
Thanks man! Appreciate it. Some good thoughts there. One of the weird quirks you’ll learn with a Necromunda about terrain is you can build anything, in any way. What is good for one gang isn’t good for another as they all have their own traits. So whilst I could say avoid long corridors, some gangs work well in them. Or I could say avoid twists and turns. Some gangs love that. What’s cool is you can just build what you think looks great and the fun is finding out if your gang can survive it. If you follow each video and build to that spec, the entire terrain becomes like Modular Lego. I haven’t come across anything yet that it won’t build. Certainly nothing I’ve wanted to build.
@@thestateofplay2023Ok Thats a relief, were a group thats investing heavily into some various terrain options and we dont want to end up regretting any combos. It makes a huge difference knowing this nugget of gameplay info. Cheers 🙏
@@thestateofplay2023Haha true, I wonder though at that point... would having a proxon be faster and more efficient? Use the olde spackle trickf or concrete etc.
I actually find GWs walls a bit too detailed. While I prefer more detail than MDF usually has I can't stand cluttered models. I can't afford a 3D printer but if I owned one it would most likely be working constantly to make decent terrain.
I guess I just like terrain in all forms. I love little miniature worlds. Good thing with Mdf but s you add to it. It’s harder to take things away on plastic. 😜
@thestateofplay2023 it's how I feel about metal. I love the heft of it. However, removing details can be rough. I love terrain, and it is still an underappreciated part of the game. Mine you I am also old enough that the cardboard sets for Mordheim and Necromunda are still things I love.
This channel should have waaayyyyyy more subscribers. Great stuff.
I think to think of it as the secret channel that grows quietly in dark places - like truffles!🤣🤣
I think a big big plus of TTcombat is that they free ship worldwide above 100 pounds. I recently bought almost 10kg of terrain and they set me up with free express DHL shipping to a Continent the otherside of the world across two oceans. You cannot beat that value.
Yes I very much agree. 👍🏼
Nice breakdown, though I think it also depends on where you live. Even in the U.S. buying TT Combat stuff (with free shipping and a favorable exchange rate) comes in at, not exaggerating, around 25% of the cost of the GW plastic. So it's not "a little bit of saved money". I agree completely that assembling it can be a pain in the ass - I nearly rage quite after doing several large tables-worth.
You can, however, cover an entire 6x4 table. And, TT Combat's other lines - match up directly with it. Meaning you can have slum towns, all form of sci-fi stuff, gothic and non-gothic. Their platforms, shipping containers, pipe sets, etc. It's all modular and works together. Heights/ladders/stairs are all in line with each other.
I very much agree it's not as sexy as GW plastic, but it's super modular and robust and when you dump a bunch of scatter terrain around it, makes it blend perfectly fine for all kinds of uses. I frequently run 2-3 levels in my non-Necromunda games.
Totally. I balked at the prices of GW in the US and Oz. It’s not cheap here either but it n comparison…
And yes, one of my favourite things about MDF is it’s versatility with other kits from the same company. I may do a follow up video about that but for this one I wanted a “like for like” ZM walls.
Great comment! Love it. I learnt something new today. Thanks!
I’m a fan of TTCombat mdf myself. For the price you get some amazing terrain. And since terrain gets better by the number, the ammount of detail, or lach there of, doesn’t really matter. When a board or table looks cohesive and all painted it’s amazing. The laser etched details also handle spray paint very well. If you wanted you could just assemble, spray on a couple of colours, done.
@@CronosVids totally agree. To a point. 🤣 I’d be lying if I said “spraying on a few colours” would satisfy my terrain itch. Now, I don’t want my terrain to overshadow my minis but….😜👍🏼
One option is laser cut your own. Requires access to a laser cutter, but if you can get that there are sure nice free files out there. And ply may as well be free next to the cost of GW.
🤣 welcome to the State of Play. As you watch a few more of my videos you’ll see I designed and laser cut my own entire Modular Necromunda table and supply the files on my Patreon. 👍🏼
I have used Printable Scenery for years. Started with filament, then wanted the quality of resin, and now I'm back to filament - far less toxic and the quality has improved.
I do like making original pieces with my laser cutter. It's far more fun/easier to design for than 3D models, too!
Yeah I haven’t found a resin 3D printer I want to invest time into yet. I like my laser for quick terrain.
Great overview of options. I bought a set of the Deadbolt's Derelict stuff from Death Ray Designs about 3 years ago to stand in as a vault for Fallout gaming. I assembled most of it while watching stuff on YT so the time factor wasn't bad. If you do the bits in batches you will likely develop a workflow that is almost automatic. When the NM/ZM stuff came out I bought a bit of that also (enough to make a large table full)...and then I made a large amount of the "concrete" sections using a hot wire table, and now I have all the options. I may also have a problem but I deny that possibility! Cheers!
🤣🤣 If you have a problem then I need medically committed. I did all the stuff you did and then made videos about it. Man, we’re a right old pair!
I've bought a bunch of the MAD gaming terrain after coming across their stall at Salute earlier this year, mostly their Hab blocks and walkways. It's extremely modular and magnetisable and really good so I can recommend. Haven't bought much of their zone mortalis type stuff (yet anyway). I can't help looking at ZM terrain and with it mostly just being a bunch of walls at the end of the day - thinking I could probably just make my own.
That’s what I did in the end. I’ve a video all about it and have the files available on my Patreon.
I’m jealous, I just recently started assembling official plus crafting some of my own. I have been searching all the toy isles and thrift stores etc trying to find some cheap pipes. I’ve had some luck, but I have been eyeing those official ones. Great video.
The official ones are great but hard to find on their own now. And for the price kids toys pipes get you soooo much more for your money.
I've been fdm 3d printing a while. Its worth it over time if you want more than one terrain set or have a lot of terrain. From what I've seen the sets you can buy in plastic or mdf tend to be pretty expensive and of course have a limited number of components. If you need a few extra pieces of a certain type, you pretty much gotta buy a whole extra set. Whereas I can just print off more of whatever I need. Its not cost-less of course, the pla cost adds up, sometimes the amount of material used is more than you would expect, like if you're printing detailed floor tiles or roads, those a pretty low profile but still use almost as much pla as a hollow building. The big drawback of 3d printing is if you're printer keep failing prints and you end up wasting plastic on failed prints over and over. For a while I just stopped using my Ender 3 pro because I though it would just never print properly again and it was driving me nuts not being able to get it to work reliably. Turns out, parts wear out and need replacing, parts need cleaning, belts need tightening, upgrades may be needed so its not all sunshine and rainbows.
Yeah it’s one of the reasons I’ve avoided 3D printing. It’s far too much of a hobby in itself and I barely have hobby time as it is. 😜
I haven't gotten into Zone Mortalis proper yet, but I have been toying with the idea of doing a hive terrain set of builds on my channel. But any Scratch build terrain stuff, as you have pointed out always takes sooo much time.
I do 3D Resin Print though, lots and lots of bits. One of the unsung/real benefits of Resin Printing, IMO, is printing out a bunch of details and greebles... and then using those in concert with traditional scratch-building.
You should do it. Then we can compare notes!
I love scratch building, to a degree, but when the time taken massively exceeds buy, deliver, glue and paint - I usually try to find another solution.
I wish more companies would just sell greeble sprues. TTCombat have one but it’s mostly cogs and wheels. Almost as bad as GW’s obsession with skulls!
Actually, given that the one real advantage of MDF terrain for ZM is that the measurements for walls and things is precise I could see building the basic carcase with MDF and then using resin prints to "skin" the bare walls and provide details.
@@malcolmrose3361 That….makes total sense.
For me the only way I wouldn't have gone the 3D printer route would be if I only needed terrain for 1 single game. I'm glad I spent the extra to get the Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro since I didn't want a second hobby just a printer and it has so far been plug and print right out of the box. Half the terrain I've printed was free downloads, and the other was specific and very affordable to buy the stl's. The only thing then is a little cleanup and the time it takes for the pieces to print. 2 rolls of PLA+ cost less than 1 GW plastic kit, and will print a entire battlefield worth of terrain. Not to mention tokens, measuring sticks for various games, etc that I've printed.
Yeah that’s what I always thought. Makes sense. Learning a new hobby just to continue with the first hobby seemed a little weird to me.
I’m still waiting for the worlds first, plug and play resin printer. No learning, no fiddling, no balance the build plate. Just pour and press the print button. 🤣
A very good run through on the different ways you can do it, thanks 😊
You’re very welcome Frank.
A really useful video that answered the exact question I was asking myself. I had seriously been looking at TTCombat and I will probably still get some of their terrain kits. But with the time-factor issue you highlighted about building them, I'll probably avoid their zone mortalis ones and stick with GW for now.
Glad I could help out. I wish, when I did this, that there was someone telling me what worked and what didn’t. Would’ve saved so much money!! 😜🤣
@@thestateofplay2023 Of course, since that comment 2 days ago I've watched all the rest of that playlist and found out how I can combine GW and TT Combat so that they work together in seamless harmony, so you've gone even further towards Zone Mortalis perfection!
Have a few bits and pieces from wargame model mods as he's pretty local to me. The leds are pretty bright and you usually paint first and install leds after as there's access from underneath.
Cool! Thanks for the info!
Great overveaw of alternatives....
on TT combat stuff. they do sell a sets of addon. parts like consoles and vents that you can use to personlise wall sections, though they only seam to sell these direct and not 3rd party. even with out these sets with some cocktail sticks, wire or spaire card you can do great and easy mods that can look stunning sepaeshaly if you are willing to paint the blocks.
Ah yes. I saw the greebles sprue in my local Troll Trader store. It seemed less vents and mostly cogs and wheels which…well, erm. 🤣 Pirate underhive ahoy, matey! 🤣
Seriously though I love the suggestions here. With luck we can all make the most comprehensive ZM guide on TH-cam!
Hey, I've watched about 10 of your videos so far. I'm really enjoying both the content and your style. Although I'm not specifically looking for Necromunda options, I'm finding your insights applicable for other Warhammer terrain also. Anyway, even though we don't always comment, we're out here enjoying your work. Keep it up!
Seriously thanks man! Yeah I always hope the leap can be made between the concepts and the execution. Can be used across the board, not just Necromunda.
Haha love the pauses and facial expressions 😂 great content buddy thank you!
Well, we can’t take this hobby too seriously. We paint little weird models and stick them in tiny, miniature buildings. 🤣🤣
Consider Mantic's terrain crate. It's more hard sci-fi but they sell a bunch of different bits to style your build. It is also completely modular, and one of the 60-80$ kits is enough to build a few smaller structures and some scatter or one big one. They have a few different SKUs to get started with and you could probably use it to spice up some of your existing gw offerings with some terrain bits that are not covered in imperial adornments. Also the sci-fi terrain crate is pre clipped and its snaps together with little plastic clips. It just snaps together and then you can just dab some plastic glue or thin super glue on the join and it should be good to go.
I got one a while back but loads of the parts were warped. So they didn’t fit together well. Might have just been a dodgy batch but it put me off. 😩
I opted for a mix of Sector Fatalis and Precinct Umbra from The Dragons Rest, along with some rescaled and modded free files from Thingiverse to work with the Dragons Rest stuff.
Filament printing does take time, about 2 1/2 - 3 hours per wall section for me, but the printer can run while I am doing other things, the pieces come off of the printer ready for priming, and the layer lines aren't very visible at playing distances.
Cost wise. I paid £27 for 1kg of filament, am less than 1/5 of the way through it, and have printed the equivalent of a full box of GW columns and walls, my last roll did the equivalent of 3 sets, plus 2 sets of platforms/stairs.
I think you got the balance exactly right. Time, money, mix and match. Brilliant! 👍🏼
Also, remember that Sector Fatalis comes with stairs, pipes, , railings, working doors, etc
I really like what you've been putting out. Thanks, keep up the good work.
Thanks James!!
I bought ttcombat regular necromunda terrain kits a long time ago with the long term goal of customising them to add some details I want to.
It was a white box deal thing they do bought with another hefty discount on top so the value was great. More than enough for a huge tables worth. It is a lot of work though but I'll get there one day
More people should think like you about customisation. However, they all
might be better advised to not take as long to do it! Those long term goals never seem to hit the net. 🤣🤣🤣
@@thestateofplay2023 oh for sure.
I'm adding various pipes and metal plates and such to mine, as well as damaging various parts to make them look fought over for hundreds of years
@@LuckGod84 sounds like a great plan! If you put it on Instagram, let me know!
Me watching this auto-play while I am literally right now gluing Warp Strider columns together. 🎉
Happy gluing! I’ll see you NEXT Wednesday when it’s all assembled and dry. 🤣🤣
As I said on your turbocharged painting video I was still slogging through a set of Deadbolt's Derelict, I'm pretty much done with them now after a couple of good hobby sessions. I actually really enjoyed putting together the MDF kits and I did add texture paint to break up all the flatter areas, especially because I knew I was going for a run-down and rusty scheme.
I just wanted to point out that timing your purchases can be something to think about too. I picked up the Deadbolt's Derelict terrain during Black Friday sales. Yeah it was still pricey with shipping to the UK, but at the time there weren't as many options and the GW plastics weren't released yet either.
There's definitely a lot more choice now. Which has good and bad points, a lot more to choose from, but not necessarily much compatibility between options, so you're still kind of picking a brand and running with it in a lot of ways unless you're gonna be modifying sets to fit.
I do still love the GW plastics too and each has their uses. My Deadbolt's Derelict set is going to be used on the old printed tiles for 2D ZM games, Plastics will be used for more modularity/conversions and mostly used in 3D games.
I’d never thought of the Black Friday sales. That’s a great tip! I guess I get so used to GW never having a sale I forget that other companies do. 🤣
I’m one of those that tend to try to modify everything so they work together and become interchangeable. All sci-fi stuff works together, all fantasy, all modern. Mainly because I flip flop between games depending on my mood. 😜
My plan is to mold and cast my gw terrain with homemade polymer clay, and scratch build the old school tiles (n18) stairs and walkways with slotted steel sheets with some xps underneath for bulk on the ground level. The elevated walkways will just be steel that is crimped and folded on the edges for bulk.
I'm using the multi piece design you recommend for the walls thanks for that. I'm also casting my pipes some complete some half way. The half way ones I'll put in gutters in the floor to act as guides for where the ground level walkways go. So it will act like the negative version of the old game boards.
You asked ahahaha...cheers.
Totally great plan! You’d be surprised how many I people I know who start without one and then end up stuck less than halfway through. To save you time, casting pipes can be a pain to keep straight. So you could cast them around something or just scratch build with tubes, pens, dowel with wire wrapped around them. 👍🏼
@@thestateofplay2023 yes I plan to fill the voids in the casts with tinfoil so they have bulk and support while baking.
@@garyjenson1326 You know exactly what you’re doing! I salute you!
@@thestateofplay2023 oh I don't know about that, but I'll keep trying until I do. There just toys anyway.😀
I was surprised when I saw TTcombat stuff in the flesh at UKGE last weekend at how good it looked! But yes time to build is a valid factor people tend to forget!
It really does look good when built and painted. Add a few cables, a bit of texture and they’re amazing. But man, you never realise the build time until you start. And by then, you’re already invested and MUST see it through. 😜
Thank you for the great review and a very informative video :-)
😳😳 😳 wow! Thanks for watching. I absolutely love your stuff! I hope I did it justice!
Thank you and its always great to hear when people love what we do. If you ever needed some to try or compare, or even if you have a project idea for your channel please let us know, we would be more than happy to help out@@thestateofplay2023
I just got some of the Maze of the Dead tiles and they're pretty good - I ordered them without LEDs as I wanted to use RGB strips for the underlighting, but it was about £28 for a 2x2 board and that includes magnets, so pretty cheap and I put one together in about an hour. Regarding the leds and painting though, you can remove them as they just clip in or you can simply do any spray painting before you install them.
Not sure how useful the magnets are with official ZM terrain but definitely considering incorporating some into those DIY columns and walls you made from foam. I have to admit though other than the tiles MDF terrain does seem like a faff when you factor in the time investment.
Also on the plus side spotted a random Gallowfall in a shop yesterday so just flogging the kill teams and basically getting a massive pile of boarding actions terrain for free.
You know, I don’t mind faff when what I get at the end looks really cool. Some kits do that. Some don’t. It’s one of those weird situations where you just don’t know until the end.
Congrats on finding the elusive Gallowfall. I’ve got an unopened box of Boarding Actions that I’m itching to connect to ZM.
@@thestateofplay2023 Yeah that's the thing I guess, if you enjoy building stuff anyway then it's all valid hobby time.
And yeah I'm gonna have to find another half a boarding actions kit now haha so I can do that too.
I love Ttcombat kits and have loads of them. The secret us to wait for the black Friday sale. They sell white box bundles that are a great value. For example, one of the 2022 bundles included Cloud Buster(62£), Slum Blocks (12£), S1 Walkways (18£), S4 Storage Tanks(10£), and some random resin scatter for only 80£. That's 22£ saved on an already super cheap price point.
Also, the little Xs on the top of ttcombat hive columns can be removed. I glued mine together but not into the columns and just insert them if needed.
You’re not the first to mention Black Friday. I’d literally never thought terrain companies did Black Friday, so I never looked!! Thanks!
Yeah, I tried that on mine but it was loose. Well, some were, and some weren’t. So I just glued them all. 🫣
If I recall, Death Ray Designs has compatibility with their other terrain sets, so you can use the railings, stairways, terminals, etc from their other GW themed terrain with the ZM stuff. Not sure, but I think their Infinity themed terrain is also cross-compatible.
I think you’re right as the warstrider stuff appears to connect! Good shout!
Yes All of Death Ray designs produced are cross compatible at some level.. There older stuff will work with newer items to some degree.. But Bolt hole, Deadbolt Derelict, Killing grounds, Mardyck Hallows, Minescorp, Necropolis, New Ceres, Odinhiem, Strider's Landing and Warp Striders all share connetion points and elements with each other
@@josephmarkese8563 thanks for that! 👍🏼
Bang for buck it is definitely TTcombat. Gives you a lot of space to work with, add little cocktail sticks as pipes, or print off posters. Easy as pie. Whack a bit of textured plasticard from greenstuffworld to the top so it doesnt look like mdf. Thats all being shipped to Japan.
You are totally correct on all counts!!
Which video of yours do you go into more detail on the Plasma Pipes please?
It’s this one:
HOW TO Build Modular Necromunda Zone Mortalis Columns & Walls!
th-cam.com/video/N-6k1YJkOTg/w-d-xo.html
I think the the ZM kits are very cleverly designed and very modular - but what is their biggest advantage is also their biggest disadvantage. It's all right angles and (if you're using the plastic ZM tiles) you have to arrange things in a certain way to get them to stand on the tiles without hacking chunks off the tile, and diagonals are out of the question. And (because they are only drawing from a limited pool of kits), if you look at the terrain people like that Leo chap builds - it all kind of looks the same. I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that the more interesting parts of the Hive aren't the maze of corridors but the Sump and Hab Blocks etc.
Personally I'm really not a fan of MDF because you need to do a lot of work to it after you've built the basic model to conceal the fact that it's MDF - so unless you are building a Western Town for What A Cowboy, or a Russian village for Eastern front games where there are a lot of wooden buildings - it's not for me. On the other hand I'm quite tempted by the container stacks that TT Combat make, and Warbases UK do basic carcases of sci-fi / post apocalyptic buildings that are relatively cheap and can be added to with greeblies.
One option that you didn't mention (possibly because it's designed to be generic greeblies rather than for ZM) is Maelstrom's Edge - they do two sprues of plastic sci fi doors, windows and greeblies that are quite well designed and can be used with traditional scratch building or tarting up MDF.
Yes! This! Totally know where you’re coming from. You literally quoted what I said in my tiles video!
I tend to pepper my table with all manner of things that aren’t square, like the biodomes I made and a bunch off sector mechanicus stuff.
Yes, greeble sprues should be more available. TTCombat has one but it’s mostly cogs and wheels.
The MDF stuff is really good. But I agree it never looks like anything but MDF. I copied your concrete walls and they ended up looking far better. They match well with GW walls.
Anyway great video Senior The State of Play.
Cheers fella! Always a pleasure but that holiday is rubbing off. You’ll be swapping the beers for Sangria next!
@@thestateofplay2023 I'll take anything that tastes better than beer 🤮.
@@teessidetyrants1989 and I thought it was just me that didn’t like beer. 🤣
@@thestateofplay2023 there's more of us than you think. But we just have to hide our dislike, or Big Beer will be after us 🤣
Bonjour je suis français et ici (en France 😅) les tuiles plastiques de GWS ne sont plus disponibles. Ma question est est-ce que la taille et les dimensions des tuiles mdf me permettront de mettre les décors plastiques de games dessus?
Sinon super boulot de référencement de ce qui disponible. Merci beaucoup pour le travail.
Bonjour et bienvenue!
Veuillez excuser mon français. J'utilise une application de traduction pour répondre à votre question. J'espère que ça va.
Les tuiles GW deviennent assez souvent "en rupture de stock" car elles sont très populaires dans le monde entier. Ils finissent par revenir mais l'attente peut être longue.
En réponse à votre question, les dalles GW mesurent 12 pouces sur 12 pouces. La plupart des dalles en MDF sont également conçues pour mesurer 12 pouces, donc oui, les ensembles de jeu seront bien placés sur le dessus. Cependant, ils ne s'emboîteront pas comme sur les tuiles GW. Mais, si cela vous convient, n'importe quelle tuile de 12 pouces sur 12 pouces fonctionnera pour créer une table.
J'espère que ça aide!
@@thestateofplay2023 oui merci de m'avoir répondu
fantastic buddy
I’m a big fan of the Offical GW Zone Mortalis Terrain, yeah it’s on the pricey side, but the detail is great, both the amount of it and the crispness of said detail, it works well with other GW Terrain, it’s simple to build, I looked at some alternatives, and the cost to amount ratio didn’t seem worth it, or the detail wasn’t there for me, so I went all in with the Official stuff and I’ve never looked back, plus I didn’t glue any of it down, so I can pack it away easily and always change up the layout whenever I want
I think you did the right thing. I love the ZM stuff. I guess the only thing I wanted was more variety and better connections so it was more sturdy. So as you’ve seen, I solved all that with my channel. Now I have the best of all worlds. Thanks for the comment. 👍🏼
@@thestateofplay2023 Yh I know what you mean, I’ve got a lot of columns and doors now, a box set of just single and double wall sections would go down nicely for me
Hello and thanks, i wonder if i should get another underhive sector i for my 4x4, i already have one and 8 more walls and tiles.
Hmm, without knowing how you want your table to look I can’t guess. You may want one level or you may want 3. I guess it’s a decision for you depending on how dense and high you want your table to be.
@@thestateofplay2023 Thank u for your reply, i do want a dense iron labyrinth (zone mortalis), that can become a building, what concerns me is that i will not have use for the doors, i already use enough of them as walls and i already have enough columns, what i really would like to get is just walls, double or single. All zone mortalis scenery is not produced in high volumes, and seem out of print for much time, fomo pushes me to get the second underhive sector (at a 30% discount)...Any thoughts
@@tofathi195 I see. Honestly of all you need is walls I’d recommend just making them yourself from foam or wood. As longs as it’s the correct thickness and length when you paint them, no one will know what they are. If you stick on some pieces in card or plastic you can make them look great.
@@andybillco2424 i guess i will wait when they will produce only walls till then i will improvise, never played necromunda so far only aos,, anyway thanks for your time!
@@tofathi195 you could pick up a set of just walls from 4tk.co.uk from MAD terrain The Complex. Not sure what country you’re in though.
Iv got the hive walls from game mat eu but on the mortalis tiles the columns being flat don’t sit “flush” on the mortalis tile
And are very heavy all together in a carry bag. Plus the cost lol
Yeah, they’re designed for the matts that Gamemat make. Sadly nothing really fits on the tiles properly except GW parts. One of the main reasons I’ve skipped the tiles. 😀
Loved finding out about the Mortian options and how they can fill out my table with mission unique expansions, great find!
Also very much in love with the pros and cons & various trade off lists that you include in most of your videos. I am just discovering your channel, whilst planning out my budget and build for ZM a board and its been a great help.
I wonder if you might consider making two more videos for newbies collecting terrain for Necromunda or Killteam?
Perhaps expanding deeper on what best practices someone can keep in mind when designing a semi modular terrain hub?
Sort of like a suggestion list of how to best build on a larger collection of terrain combinations that form blocks / nodes using ZM & SM?
Knowing how to best design these nods to easily expand onto with gantries, levels, and additional sections of terrain might be very useful for someone slowly collecting terrain pieces over time. This is especially true for anyone looking to glue some stuff together but not make the mistake of creating a node that suffers from expansion blind spots or problematic sizing choices.
A newbie trying to design his terrain table will definitely be going through some trail and error. But knowing why certain terrain layouts might work best for future expansion, and even how it can affect gameplay mechanics (Especially a game youre not that experianced with) would be really helpful for someone that isnt sure about how to get the most out of their game or terrain builds.
Thanks for the great content mate! My wifes a graphic designer and I do a lot of video editing, the polish you've put into each video and into your channel is outstanding 👏 ❤
Thanks man! Appreciate it.
Some good thoughts there. One of the weird quirks you’ll learn with a Necromunda about terrain is you can build anything, in any way. What is good for one gang isn’t good for another as they all have their own traits. So whilst I could say avoid long corridors, some gangs work well in them. Or I could say avoid twists and turns. Some gangs love that.
What’s cool is you can just build what you think looks great and the fun is finding out if your gang can survive it.
If you follow each video and build to that spec, the entire terrain becomes like Modular Lego. I haven’t come across anything yet that it won’t build. Certainly nothing I’ve wanted to build.
@@thestateofplay2023Ok Thats a relief, were a group thats investing heavily into some various terrain options and we dont want to end up regretting any combos. It makes a huge difference knowing this nugget of gameplay info. Cheers 🙏
I am... very torn on these tbh. The MDF is neat adn I like it enables a lot of people to play with more varied terrain but it just looks so... MDF.
Well, that’s what paint and greebles are for. Bit of texture, a few plastic tubes, some electrical wire, slap on some leftover sprue bits. Done!
@@thestateofplay2023Haha true, I wonder though at that point... would having a proxon be faster and more efficient? Use the olde spackle trickf or concrete etc.
I actually find GWs walls a bit too detailed. While I prefer more detail than MDF usually has I can't stand cluttered models. I can't afford a 3D printer but if I owned one it would most likely be working constantly to make decent terrain.
I guess I just like terrain in all forms. I love little miniature worlds. Good thing with Mdf but s you add to it. It’s harder to take things away on plastic. 😜
@thestateofplay2023 it's how I feel about metal. I love the heft of it. However, removing details can be rough. I love terrain, and it is still an underappreciated part of the game. Mine you I am also old enough that the cardboard sets for Mordheim and Necromunda are still things I love.
Every Little War just closed their web store and say they aren't taking orders any more. In the US anyway.
Oh! That’s a shame. I hate it when good terrain companies close up!
Woot Death Ray Designs!!
Always credit where it’s due!! 😀