Watertower B2 - terrain rework

Hello Wanderer, welcome back. Grab a brew and enjoy the view of the Rubbleborg water towers.

Back at Smash n Grab’s Block house in Rubbleborg...

“Grab....”

“Yes Smash” replied Grab wearily. Smash’s constant dumb questions sometimes wore on Grab’s nerves. 

“Where does the ‘Borg get all it’s clean water from? There is no lake or river near here. That big river a couple of miles away is too tox to drink or even wash in. Melts ya skin right off it does”. It wasn’t quite that bad, Smash was prone to over exaggeration. 

“Come with me Smash” Grab stood up and walked out the Blockhouse. Smash looked blankly through his gas mask and followed his friend outside.

“Yer see Smash, they pump it out of a giant underground lake deep underground through big pipes. They then store it some big tanks from the old times above the ground” Grab looked at Smash. Smash stood there dumbly waiting for the next question to form. 

“Water tanks Smash” Grab exclaimed hurriedly before Smash went off on frustrating tangent.

“Big containers that store things - not the old army type tanks!” Grab explained. Grab often wondered if his friend was really that dumb or if he just did it to annoy him. It didn’t help that Smash only took his gas mask off to eat, drink or wipe the inside. He even slept in it. You couldn’t get a visual clue as to what was going through his mind. It was the ultimate in dead pan face. 

“That’s why they built the fort here after the end times. Some Warlord chick called Vali had it built. The fortress fell during the Mutant war, but the mutants of the mutant temple only wanted to kill anyone who wasn’t mutated or didn’t want to join them, see? So they left the fortress and most of the stuff after killing everyone.”

“Damn Muto culties- those guys where nuts, my old Dad tole me all about them” 

“Are nuts Smash, the mutant cultist are still living in the Blasted ruins”

“Crud? Really? Let’s not go there Grab”

“That dump is the last place I ever want to see. Besides I like my insides to stay inside me. Let Trashford and Brittianna deal with those mutant temple psychos.”

“Anyway. Now look over there Smash” said Grab pointing to a large tower.

“See that tower there? That’s where the keep it. Millions of gallons. As much as anyone could ever want”

“Wow - so that’s what that is and why there are guards!”

“If anyone is get in there...it’s not going to be you!”

This bit of terrain is a rework. In fact this is the third refresh it has had during it’s life time. 

Long long ago back in the midsts of time I had several left over pringles tubes after the Christmas holiday. 

The tower in its first life. 

Now as any recycling centre will tell you - Pringles tubes are notoriously difficult to recycle. Something to do with aluminium inner with cardboard outer fused to it. Like many wargamers on the planet I decided to upcycle them into something useful for the table. The Pringles towers are good for hunt the sniper games and the model saw games of EM4’s Combat Zone with corporate teams hunting a fleeing gang. A lone sniper covered their retreat. They got away but the sniper couldn’t keep the troops at bay. Snap fire from a high point took the sniper out. 

Inspired by the grain silos at Seaforth docks down the road from where I live I built the triple tower. The top level was some foam board/foam core. The mesh on top was from a piece of scrap net curtain. The edges was made from cereal packet card. Railings around the platform was built from a wire mesh panel. A 1:50 scale ladder was sourced. The control panel came from a cheap knockoff Lego toy with a steering wheel from a 1:35 truck kit. 1:35 scale kits donated the tool boxes. The base was a scrap of hardboard I had laying about. Kitty litter and sand gave it texture. The whole thing was sprayed with grey car primer. 

Roll on a few years and I decided to add it to my Sci Fi collection. A few pipes made from drinking straws was added. Printed off hazard stripes where added around the hatch. The base got repainted and the towers switched colours to white. Some blue bands and markings where added to match the terrain set I had at the time. To finish it off the towers got some Krom Corporation logos added. Krom Corporation was the fictional corporation I created for the Sci Fi setting. It owned the facility and the Red Lance force (Old Void Viridians) was their military security force (now reworked as Queen Miranda’s body guard and Guardians factions - see recent blog posts).

Roll on a few more years and I was feeling that the tower was looking a little too clean for my tastes. Firstly it helps for me to know what the tower will store. Someone suggested fuel. Sadly to my mind this amount of fuel would be a real hazard. One stray bullet and Booooom! The local warlord will be setting fire to the shooter on a hill top faster than you can say “Guzzoline” for destroying his precious fuel supply. I decided on clean water storage, after all it is probably one of the most important post apocalyptic survival commodities despite what the Mad Max franchise tells us. 

New additional pipe work (inlet from the underground aquifer) was added along with a water pipe, all made from plastic drinking straws. A couple of repair patches where added to the towers. Up top a resin door by Ramshackle Games was added to platform to act as a access panel. After painting the new bits I added some stencilling from a set I bought to use with Mantic’s Deadzone sets. A few washes and then some graffiti was added. My good lady enjoyed helping with his part. The jury is still out for me about using sharpie pens for graffiti. While it is easy and fast it something about it looks not right to me. Maybe I should stick to brushes? The graffiti was followed by a few more washes and runs. 

The base was a little warped. I tried to surgically remove it but it turns out the glue didn’t want to remove without destroying the model. That only left the option of fixing it. I tried a few coats of paint on the bottom which didn’t work. Even a couple of coats of PVA glue didn’t work. Eventually I dampened the base on both sides and clamped it to the work table then left it to dry out. It took the worst out of the warping. 

Smash and Grab beg for a drink.

The whole thing was finished off with some resin water coming out the pipe, some plant life - I put greener plants nearer the water pipe and finally a resin case from Ramshackle games up top as yet more tools.

I intend to use the towers as mainly as a terrain backdrop. It will be handy for snipers too. I can see a town spotter using the towers to keep a eye open for trouble. Hmmm maybe I should have added a siren? 

As a game objective - gangs can attempt to steal the water, hostile factions could try and poison it (namely the Mutant Temple, the Matt Black Cult or Brittianna), local gangs could try and dope it (as a laugh) or maybe destroy it (the kind of stunt Wasteland Loonies groups like the Anarchy All Stars would try to pull off). As well as Rubbleborg it could be water storage for Angel Springs (my Post apoc water sellers) or even used in any major settlement. 

Thanks for looking and stay safe out there.