A rough layout is made, an end is seen in the far distance...

So with Astro 2014 about 6 to 8 weeks away and a ton of Nid beasties to paint, I am of course obsessed with working on the landing bay. So yeah....

Anyway, I decided to try to rough out the last two parts of the landing bay terrain. I know that there is one more very large structure that will need to be made for this portion so I need to have an idea as to the allowable size of the footprint. I am looking to make a very tall, spindly/gantry-like structure that forms an arch at it's lowest level to allow easier passage for transports and at least some lines of sight for ranged combat from the long table edges..

I also roughed out the lighting system using a pair of different Christmas lighting rigs so the plane elevators will be rung by pulsing lights while the teleporter will have a moving pulsing ground effect light underneath it's edges. I do have video but I shot it with my iphone and my computer is old enough to struggle to play anything from this device. If I can figure out a solution, I will post the video too. I am trying to do the construction in such a way that the lighting systems can be easily removed in case they fail. Since the table needs to be relatively flat when stored a lot of the tall surface detail needs to be removable anyway.

Note that the teleporter will actually be facing 180 degrees from its current facing in the new layout. I felt it balanced the overall look of the board better.

The layout is roughly as follows. Note that while it does not look like much, the planning is always the most excruciating part. Once things take shape, I find the construction tends to zip along (although the constant cutting of cardboard strips does get tedious).

A collection of ammo crates, barrels, and missiles is filling in for the last sixth of the board. The teleporter is going to encroach a bit more onto this piece but I am stuck as to what to place there. An archway and a storage area would work, as would making an elevator designated specifically for transporting ammunition from the lower decks. However I was also considering a smaller version of this idea between the two plane elevators so this aspect is still up in the air. This is the first time I have had a rough idea of what the finished project is going to look like. And the amount of work is still staggering. Still this is going to be a neat board to play on...I hope.