Forward Base, Habitat 5

As I indicated in my last post, I have started work on a massive Sci-Fi terrain project. essentially it is all based on the Forward Base Kickstarter from Antenocities Workshop. Now as usual with me, I went a little bit over the top here and went for everything, so there is a fair bit of work for me to do.

Before I get started, let me say a few words here. First of all, the models as they come out of the box are already great. They have lots of detail into the MDF and if you went with the extra resin parts they are even better. So essentially you could build them straight out of the box and get a real nice set of buildings. Now that being said, with all the extra detail, I felt it would just have been a waste not to go the extra mile paint the resin, pick out the details and accent the MDF a little more. This last part was actually made pretty easy, since I had gone with the pristine version of the buildings. Which meant the MDF is covered with a protective film / tape before cutting to prevent the paint from being burned. Now if you removed that film selectively and airbrushed those sections carefully, you could use it as a mask. For me this worked out like a charm and I am glad I did do so. But with all the extra detailing, I am still unsure, whether to weather the buildings or not. For now, I think I am going to finish them all first and make a decision, after I see how they look as set.

Now before I go on to the model itself, there is one more thing I need to mention. At the pledge level that I went for, I had the option to choose custom logos for my buildings. All I had to do was provide vector graphics for my custom logos. Now in my youthful ignorance (if you can call it that way at my age) I told myself “this cannot be that hard”! Well it turned out it was and I surrendered after about half a logo. At this time Angus, a very fine Scottish gentlemen, came to my rescue and drew me the logos. I have to say, I am really, really indebted to him. Without his selfless help, these buildings would not be the one-off pieces they are  and after having finished the first two, I am so happy they are!

So off we go. I decided to start with Habitat 5, aka the TAG hangar. Why? Well this is one of the habitats for which there are assembly instructions and I want to get a feel for the general idea behind the buildings, before I tackle those without instructions. And this seemed like a pretty straightforward building in the first place.

Antenocities Workshop Forward Base Habitat 5

As you can see this is a front view. The ramps can actually fold up infront of the bay doors and I have kept the parts for the bay doors loose, so I can depict them either closed or open as needed. As you can see there is a lot of resin pieces on this one. With most of the exterior resin parts (for all buildings) I decided to go with dark colours like Gunmetal Black and Panzer Grey. The buildings are all very light-colored and I chose the dark colors to create some contrast here and break up the looks. The ramps are actually a fine example of the airbrushing in combination with the masking tape. The ramp pieces were delivered in yellow. So I removed those sections I wanted in black and airbrushed them. Easy as that.

Antenocities Workshop Forward Base Habitat 5

Now this is the top down look. Again all the red and yellow sections were airbrushed again. All the rest was done using a brush. On this one I decided to try how the text boxes on the hazard areas would look in red. But I have to say, I am not too happy with that, as I feel it looks too heavy, so this will not be duplicated on the other buildings. The logo you can see on the upper roof is one of those that Angus did for me. When I pledged for this Kickstarter I had planned to use these for Warzone and that one is the logo of the Imperial cooperation (and I am very happy that Prodos Games allowed me to use it, as long as it was only used on my models). But from the very beginning, I wanted to make sure, that these logos gave me extra mileage, in case I chose to play Infinity or to sell these off one day. Now the logos from the Adriadna faction in Infinity is based on variations of British and French rondels, just like the Imperial logo. No big surprise there, as I understand Infinity was created by some Warzone fans when the 2nd Edition of Warzone went belly up. With that in mind, I felt I could always claim, that this was the logo of some sub-unit within Adriadna. Unfortunately it can not be seen too well on this photo, but with so many more buildings, you will see it soon.

Antenocities Workshop Forward Base Habitat 5

Antenocities Workshop Forward Base Habitat 5

With the removable roofs, it is now time to take a look inside. Now in this case, the floors were a little harder to paint. Antenocities made the decision not to cover the floors of the habitats with the protective mask, saying that these would get dirty in real life anyway and could do with some stains. And in general they are right. And they do look good with a little staining. But I would have much preferred to airbrush these piece and this way I had to paint them with a normal brush, which took about an afternoon.

Health and Safety would probably rant about the upper level having no railings. I am still a bit undecided here. I can understand why there are none. It is easier to move figures on the lower floor when your hands to not get entangled in the railings and as I understand it, the upper floor is essentially a workspace to work on the upper parts for the TAGs, but it still feels like something is missing. So I might still end up building one of my own in the future.

Antenocities Workshop Forward Base Habitat 5

Antenocities Workshop Forward Base Habitat 5

A look inside through the open bay doors and I think it gives a very good idea of the size and lines of sight inside this baby. Again, all the gun metal lockers and grilles cut into the MDF were airbrushed.

Antenocities Workshop Forward Base Habitat 5

Rear view, giving a nice view of the custom logos Angus did here. At first I was a bit undecided, since on this habitat, the logos is much larger than on the other ones, but once finished, it looks fitting on this large wall. There are actually resin fans that go over the round grills here, but I have to admit, I liked the looks of the grills so much once airbrushed, I did not want to glue them on. So I will rather keep them for some other building or even another project. The space above the mini will receive two holo screens. For some reason I put them in the box with the parts for habitat 4 and could not find them when assembling this one.

I think this shots also shows the clear acrylic doors and windows as well as the acrylic rods in the light fixtures quite well. And I really like them all. The light fixtures actually glow a little im the sunlight and having clear doors and windows that actually allow you to draw line of sight is great.

Antenocities Workshop Forward Base Habitat 5

And a view of the side. Again giving a nice impression of the acrylic parts. All the little details like the metal bolts were painted on using a brush. There are lots of little ports and connectors on the lower surface, which is a bit of a shame, since one can hardly make them out with the panels angled inwards.

The grill right above the door, does not come with the kit though. I had fitted the resin part that belongs there on the inside of the building and since there were marks on the outside here (the MDF also has imitations of the resin parts layered in for those who buy them without the resin) I needed something to cover that up. And this one did the job nicely.

Antenocities Workshop Forward Base Habitat 5

And I am going to leave you with this last shot of the other side, this time with the bay doors closed.