"Sourcing Terrain/Buildings for 15mm Cyberpunk Cityscape" Topic

Hi folks!

I'd like ask for a bit of help. I'm planning on building a 2ft x 2ft board for 15mm and I'd like it to be very reminiscent of old cyberpunk and sci-fi anime: Ghost in the Shell, Akira, A.D. Police/Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed, etc. Lots of sprawling, corporate towers and neon signs, that sort of thing.

I plan on building the board with sixteen 6in x 6in tiles, so it's modular and can be changed with different scenarios. I've been trying to source flat textured or pre-detailed tiles for roads, and I need to find a variety of neon signs, billboards, etc. Little accessories to spice it up.

I know Gamecraft Miniatures makes a few wooden skyscrapers for 15mm. Old Crow used to have a nice selection of apartments and habs, but with OC the way it is now…
I'd like to get my hands on a collection of buildings to swap around, but don't want to pay more than I have to – if there are 15mm paper templates that can be glued onto foamboard, that's great!

Any suggestions, tips, etc. would be appreciated!

Impudent mortal has some 15mm buildings or mad mecha guy

You can always down-scale 28mm paper models.

As the billboards in futuristic cities do tend to be on the large size, it might be worth looking at 28mm manufacturers of buildings suitable for Infinity, as I seem to recall that they do neon billboards (laser-cut acrylic).

I was looking at a manufacturer recently and browsing his futuristic stuff…who was it…ah, TTCombat:

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£3.95 GBP each. Hope that helps.

Fat Dragon and Microtactix have some paper city stuff that could be scaled down as Cherno mentioned:
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They may need to be punked up a bit too.

Everything you will find is flat and squarish. Most cyberpunk settings have buildings that are rounded or at least have curves. Also, if you look at Shirow's work you'll see that there are always a lot of platforms/piazza like areas that are bordered by shops and schools and salons, even higher up in the towers. One of the main points of cyberpunk is that "almost everywhere is walkable", and most areas are self contained mini-cities that have connections to other enclaves that create a unified-but-separated fabric, modeling the urban design theories that were predominant (though not employed) in the late 70's and early 80's.

If you have access to the game Satellite Reign, they model this pretty dang well, in isometric view no less.

But if you're wanting honest-to-goodness cyberpunk skyscrapers… there are non out there to be had. I recommend kitbashing laundry detergent jugs, shampoo and conditioner bottles, and household cleaners are they have odd and organic shapes that can be chopped into some pretty cool buildings. I plan on putting out an article on this very subject in January…

These will be available in two weeks time.

thesceneuk.com

Cheers
Mike

You can find in craft shops like Michaels (in North America) these cardboard-ish (I think it's paper mache) boxes (different shapes, including round) that can work for non-rectangular buildings.

The picture in this blog post has two small round/oval ones I am going to use for 15mm sci-fi desert huts, but you could find bigger ones and stack them. The lids give a bit of a battlement look to them.

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Matakashi's tea house has info on building some great futuristic city scapes that might be of interest. Both game craft and brigade have some new buildings with more curves.

I've bought stuff from the below sites for use in 15mm gritty scifi layouts and been very happy with the product.

Brigade's Advanced buildings have some more interesting shapes.
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Also their 'street furniture' would look good in a concrete jungle
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Gamecraft's Future city line is also great, and goes well with the Brigade Advanced buildings.
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Warsenal – primarily for 28mm Infinity, but some of the terrain, especially scatter terrain, work for 15mm: screens, light poles, machinery, neon acrylic panels, etc.
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Also, Crescent Root's pre-painted buildings are *fantastic*. Scattering some neon signs and high-tech elements around the old-world buildings makes for a great alternative setting.
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Buried in Dream Pod 9's site is a nice set of free files for printable buildings they made. I don't recall if they are 10, 12 or 15mm, but they will scale pretty well with any of these and can be rescaled.

I think the 10mm Dropzone Commander buildings have an excellent futuristic art deco look that could be great depending on what your cyberpunk look is. The pre-printed ones are probably a bit too small, but the free files on their website could be scaled up a bit. They also have details such as roof top AC's, balconies and such.

Good luck with the project!

DP9's buildings are here: PDF link and PDF link

looks like they're 1/144 scale, which might work out just fine for regular buildings. Most buildings are freaking hyuuuuge if you just build a scale model of them. Heck, the house I grew up in is about 70 feet by 30 feet, 13"x6" in the 1"=5' scenery scale I like to use.

You can even use roman buildings, after all the one who created the town could be in love with ancient( human?) history. Who can say anything against.
And don't forget futuristic billionaire who could want his own medieval castle.

I've found a few CD 'crates' that I think look pretty futuristic highrise looking. And, you can stack for multi-multi stories. Most are 3-5 stories, each.

Finding the right look, though…

Doug