"New to 15mm looking for ideas for spaceship actions" Topic

I'm new to 15mm, only been a spaceship player. My son and I are starting to play Stargrunt 2, and were looking to do some battles onboard spaceships – boarding actions basically.

I'm looking for ideas as to how to create/purchase terrain to simulate a decent-sized ship. Not sure if modular terrain or building my own is going to work better. Not interested in spending a heap of money, but I am willing to buy a reasonable amount of items to help this project along.

So I'm looking for both ideas/links to stuff I can buy, and pictures of stuff other people have done that might inspire me. What have you all got?

Thanks

I would head over to Wargames Vault and look at print and play. You can then get at least the basic shell with just paper, ink and cardboard. Add in some scatter bits, greebles, and computer consoles and you're set…

look for Traveller deck plans.

For really cheap – and to see if this is something you want to sink time/money into:
Get some graph paper, 1/2 inch squares
Tape some sheets together to fill your table
Draw in your floor plan
Board and battle!

You can download a template and print your own graph paper:
link

No, it won't look pretty.
Yes, it's quick and cheap.

Oh, and there's terrain you can build on a Lazy Susan. The videos below show D&D style floors, but you can easily make them more starship-ish. Designed more for story based games, players describe their movement/actions, battles take place on the table.

Circular table for traditional games:
YouTube link

Circular table for zoned combat (close, medium, long):
YouTube link

Try a Google search for "Space Hulk floor tiles" – there are plenty of images/downloads of the original 2D tiles available, plus ideas on how to produce your own 3D or 2.5D tiles.

Battlesystems make some good cardboard terrain you just clip together.

It is really a questions of which way you want to go.

Here is a not too old TMP link about it:
TMP link

Another, older one:
TMP link

Easy way: just a map of the corridors and rooms of the ship.
Easy to draw if you like, lots of printable plans, to pre-printed ship plans.

Floor tiles: like above, but cut apart to allow for reshuffle.
here are some nice basic ones for free to print:
link

The next step up id the 2.5D (two and a half dimensions) with low walls around edge, like half the height of figures.
The classic is to build your own out of corrugated cardboard (shipping boxes). But you will find 3D printable and some for sale pre-made.

If you search for "15mm space corridor" you will find a number of products. full 3D, gives a very cool look, but some pain in moving figures.

With a color printer and a 3D printer there is no stopping you.

There is a product called plastic canvas that makes nice floor grating. Other odd-bits can make nice details. Combine this with foamcore board, printed details, you can make some nice things.

This is a good example of what can be built. (OK it is a steam ship, but still):

I found some more interesting things:

More of an inspiration gallery then anything else:
From a laser-cut wood kit and cast details:

More details here:
link

This is for Necromunda, a city based dark Sci/Fi, but still.
Corrugated cardboard, blocks of foam, and printouts, some painting:

From this site:
link

This is for 28mm (32mm) Space Hulk, but the ideas still hold. Foamcore, model parts, toy robot kit parts:

And this, from Lego blocks, plastic sheet, model parts:

From this site, with a detailed How-To:
link

I think that there are printable wall textures out there that you can glue to foamcore, or what have you. More for "on the cheap" than anything.

Pickup the the PDFs of the Traveller games Snapshot and Azhanti High Lightning for deckplans and scenarios. There's also FASA ACS-04 (Adventure Class Ships, volume 4), Aslan Mercenary Cruisers. Good mid-sized deck plans and a pair of interesting scenarios.

And don't miss this:
TMP link

So far, I'm thinking of printing out some PDF-based free stuff I found on the Net and gluing it to foamboard, and making modules with walls. I envision the modules being right next to each other, with the walls being right up against each other, unlike the Space Hulk/40K type map tiles which form more of tunnels and chambers, not tightly packed rooms.

I even looked at the maps from a game we have for my son (Zombicide Invader), but they are scaled more for 36mm+ figures, and they are of ground bases, not spaceship interiors. Even if I scanned them somehow and scaled them down, not quite right for what I want.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a 3d printer, so some really neat items aren't really accessible to me.

Thanks for the good ideas so far, and keep them coming. :)

I've looked into this too, and deckplans are a good, basic option, though we minis gamers generally want more. Some can also be horrendously expensive.

There are some other posts here on TMP as well with ideas and reference photos. Just do a search for them.

Some people now, with 3D printers, are even doing full spacecraft/spaceships with interiors.

I like the Lego idea, but when looking at those in Walmart, the options seem a bit limited. Perhaps the many specialist shapes can be purchased direct from Lego, or on-line, but I'm unaware of much of what is now available, sadly.

Foamcore, cardboard, paper, styrene, or balsa/basswood also seem like decent options, especially if you then cover those with printed/paper facades of what you want.

Clean pizza boxes also seem to be decent options for craft interiors, and you can array multiple sizes and shapes to create your vessels, e.g. small bridge, larger hull/storage holds, engineering section, etc..

Finally, those little plastic trays from McDonald's and Taco Bell, with or without their transparent covers, can be used for bridge sections and other areas too. The McD's ones have a textured bottom, which if painted aluminum and the divets left black, could look like a metallic grate flooring. The McD's is a slightly rounded rectangle, and the T.B. ones are ovals.

Add in walls, furniture, view screens, etc., as desired.

I will also point out that the "M" for McD's, on the clear cover, if retained, can also represent a "W" for the Weyland Corporation, before they merged with Yutani, or after they parted ways.

I've used MS Word to make bridge viewscreens ala Star Trek, and printed them on paper, or card. You can create starfields for that, or even insert images of planets, stars, spacecraft, spaceships, etc., on those too, and swap out as/when desired/needed.

I'm planning to use the McD's and Taco Bell "bridges" for my games in 15mm/18mm – 25mm/28mm – 32mm/34mm figs, along with the pizza boxes too.

I've printed up my own floor and wall designs, doors, etc., as well, for adding to the walls and corridors.

As mentioned, granny grating can be used for flooring too, and comes in various sizes of openings, so you can vary the texture as needed.

A couple other thoughts.

For smaller vessels, narrow corridors are realistic, but make it very hard to reach in to move or position the figs appropriately, if designed at full height. Perhaps half-height corridors would be better.

Also, generally, I like to give the players more tactical movement options, so the single corridor up the middle, and/or the wide open cargo bay for the majority of the interior is right out in my book, since it is just plain boring. Perhaps very practical and realist, but boring.

The open cargo bay gives you some better options, since perhaps you can add in cargo to hide behind and add several avenues of attack, or paths to defend.

If there is only single corridor up the middle, then perhaps a two-deck option should be a consideration, or a single upper deck with aisleway, and a full-length cargo bay beneath.

Ideally, I'd like to do a magnetic walled option, with perhaps a steel plate deck, so that walls and corridors can be re-arranged as desired, for multiple game use.

I inquired about how the walls/corridors were designed on the Titanica, but never received a reply that I can recall, last I checked.

Mine is easy, fast and cheap but it works IMHO. It's printed paper for the floor and spray painted blocks of wood for walls:

And also adding some lego pieces

Finally, old Space Hulk tiles are great for 15mm bases:

Cheers,

Battle Systems is the way to go…
link
np printing, cutting gluing or looking for just the right part.
This could pass for the insides of a space ship, space station or town. Build it anyway you want, play, take it apart and put it back in the box.

Russ

I made a 28mm one for infinity but the concepts should scale to 15mm. link

Robert

Toaster, that is one impressive ship you designed there. :) I'm not sure whether to do mine with all those large open spaces and areas you can't enter, or make it more crowded like a regular warship/passenger liner, with tighter spaces and more doors/access hatches.

Definitely I'm going to mount the figures on larger bases (to avoid massive overcrowding that I see my son do with the tiny washers I had been using), and make the corridors/rooms a bit larger so I have an easier time moving the figures around.

I'm not sure exactly what scale to make my stuff; while the minins are nominally 15mm, the New Israeli troops seem to be a couple mm taller, and the Crusties are closer to 18-19mm. Not sure if making the terrain strictly 15mm will be ideal, but I don't want things to look weird using 28mm terrain either.

I'm probably going to have to print out some 28mm terrain and make a test module, seeing how things look. I do really like the idea that one guy did, using Lego pieces for the foundation of his modules, with round pegs to hold the modules together. But I suspect my son would not be happy with me if I commandeered his Legos for the task (I'd have to order the actual production run of parts from Brick Links ).

If you are going for a tight-packed ship, I would recommend making walls shorter than they should be, makes it easier to move the minis around while still giving the impression of walls.

See this at about 11 minutes: YouTube link

Stryderg, that is a good idea. I really wanted walls for the sides of rooms and corridors, and while full height would probably look cooler, I can see where one would want to not have to struggle as much handling the minis. Thanks.

For a wargame, I guess walls are good.

I always hated walled terrain when playing a TTRPG, because you have to stand up to see figure placement. Up and down, up and down….ugh

As an after thought:

I cam across this laser cut wood assembly system:
link

This is GCmini

Looks like geared toward Space Opera