The Iron Dream Tournament IV - the biggest and best-known WarEngine tournament in the world - will be held in August, with the sponsorship of some of the most renowned sculptors and manufacturers in the industry: Olley's Armies, ERM Miniatures, Hasslefree Miniatures, Obelisk Miniatures and The ShockForce Warehouse.
This year's theme - Ghosts of Negromundheim - was obviously inspired by John Carpenter's B-movie Ghosts of Mars. So naturally, we thought that the only possible conclusion to the tournament would be a special scenario involving a group of desperate heroes running for their lives towards a train while trying to escape the filthy hordes of mutant zombies chanting "Agnagneuh la cébé." A new page of the history of Negromundheim was about to be written!
The Background
Before the great cataclysm, Negromundheim was a rich and prosperous planet. At the heart of this prosperity was a very rare metal called negromnium, used to build faster-than-light spacecraft and as an exceptionally valuable source of energy; as such, it was heavily exploited by the Imperium of Man. A railroad was built, designed by the best Space Dwarf engineers, to convoy negromnium ore from the southern deserts to the northern cities. The train, simply known as "The Express," was fast and reliable - entirely automated, sustained and protected by a powerful electromagneticomagic field, and able to reach speeds of up to 650 mph. Its mission was so vital to the economic activity of the planet that there was even a saying:
NOTHING MUST STOP THE EXPRESS!
Then came the Cataclysm. No longer used, the train fell into oblivion. The railroad is now known as the Veh-Deh-Merd Express, as it crosses the ash wastes surrounding the Capital of Evil.
The Scenario
So, here we are. We still haven't defined exactly what the special rules of the scenario will be, but we have a clear idea of what we want for the game: a handful of lost heroes, rampaging mutant zombies, a railroad crossing the tabletop, and a train.
Now, I just had to build the train!
What I needed:
- 1mm-thick plasticard (flat)
- 1mm-thick Evergreen plasticard, textured with small squares (useful for small details and rivets)
- Thin metal screen
- Sheet balsa wood
- Cardboard
- Plastic glue (for model kits), PVA glue, superglue
- "Model kit cement" (Tamiya), a grey putty used to fill gaps and holes
- Sandpaper
- Ruler, set square, modelling knife, scissors
Building the Express
First, I cut out the basic shapes of the train: sides, top, floor - simple rectangles of flat plasticard. It may be useful to make simple sketches of what you have in mind first, but I didn't really need to, personally.
One important thing (even if it seems obvious): when you cut the various parts, don't forget to take into account the thickness of the card! For instance, the width of the cars is 50mm. The thickness of the card is 1mm. The front and rear sides of the car will need to have a width of 48mm to fit correctly.
Then I glued the various parts together to form the basic shape of the train wagons:
At this stage, I had a pretty good vision of what the model would look like when finished.
I then used the Tamiya "cement" to fill the gaps between the glued pieces. Over the course of the build, I'll be using it to get a regular, tight finish on pieces like the ramming prow.
When the cement was dry and hard (it is rather fast, but leave it for 24-to-48 hours to be sure), I sanded it to get a clean, flat finish.
