Yep, well, it’s not the world’s most exciting terrain piece, but it’s something with solid use, both in terms of gameplay as well as making table setups look a bit more …right. As you can see, they’re quite good for practical use. Those Escher models are also the old-school metals, so as long as the figures can balance towards the middle of their bases, they should be right due to the design of the stairs allowing for bases to “nest” underneath them.
It’s a simple combination of two “triangle” pieces, as well as two “stair” pieces, glued side-by-side to make the staircase a little wider and more accessible to 32mm and 40mm bases. It was a bit of an trial piece to see if I should do more of the same type of thing
Here it is alongside the Mantic Terrain Crate Bunker I completed a couple of months ago. Because of the fairly small footprint, it can also be placed on top of other pieces to connect them to even higher levels, which I think will become more useful as I complete more pieces of scenery. I’m not sure how many more of the staircase pieces I have, and as I said, this did take two of them. So… Whattaya think? Should I put together another couple of these, or should I save the parts for more permanently integrated terrain pieces?
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Nice work on something that you can use for multiple games. I guess my recommendations would depend on whether you were going for a scenario creation where a big piece is important, or going for a piece that was fungible enough for multiple uses in multiple games. Both are legit. In my experience, anytime you get the tabletop some verticality, its a winner. As in this piece!
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Yeah, I’m really just knocking together things in the hope that they look good and can be useful for gaming at this point, rather than building things for specific use. Well, aside from integrating with on another.
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Looking good mate – I’d probably build more the same if I were you, and then design any big pieces of terrain with gaps to place the staircase whole rather than permanently fit them… does that make sense? 🙄
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It does.. though an integrated set would be able to go in without the side supports for a very different look. I might just have to go out there and clip off all the stairs I can find from my Mantic terrain tubs. If I can do (if I’m lucky) three or (unlikely) more sets, then I’ll build two more of these and leave the other parts for integrated ones. If I can only find two.. I’ll figure it out then.
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I know what you mean about mundane subject matter for terrain as I recently painted a ladder for Goblin Town but this looks like a handy piece of kit and the way you’ve painted up is fantastic. The weathering is really nicely done.
Also, big thanks for the link to our mutual Kiwi friend 😉 I’ll be doing some reading in the near future thanks to you!
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Thanks mate – I’ve got a couple of posts where much of the content is piles of the ladders from the Uruk-Hai sets, so I know where you’re coming from. Thanks for the kind words on the stairs here as well. I want it to fit in nicely enough with the rest of the Mantic terrain, as well as – hopefully – also with the Citadel stuff, old and new..
And enjoy the reading. It’s choice, bro!
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Ooh, those are some good minis and would be perfect for a game of Helm’s Deep! I’ll have to go back and find that post and take a look. I think your new stairs will fit really well with everything you’ve been working on and should make for an incredible board!
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Yeah, a bloody lot of them, too!
https://azazelx.com/2016/04/18/small-scenics-uruk-hai-siege-ladders-and-an-old-unknown-grave/
https://azazelx.com/2017/06/07/small-scenics-uruk-hai-siege-bombs-and-ladders/
Not to mention the other Siege stuff I have painted
https://azazelx.com/2018/06/05/small-scenics-wizkids-keg-barrels-and-uruk-hai-siege-bombs/
https://azazelx.com/2014/04/21/warhammer-fantasy-siege-accessories-fantasy-scenery/
Now I just need to finally get a Mighty Fortress or Warhammer Fortress built and painted. After having them boxed for roughly forever, it’s been my summer plan for the past two years, but life keeps happening to torpedo that plan and now it’s horrible, wet, cold winter for the next few months…
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Very nice, even though you might think they are just steps! I’d do some more of I were you. Good thinking with the spacing and step sizes to let you place the minis on them! 🙂
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Thanks John. It’s a good kit with those steps already laid out – maybe I’ll do a WIP breakdown as I build the next one(s). Credit to Mantic for a good design. All I did aside from painting was widen them by gluing two together – and they’re designed in a way that doing so is super easy anyway!
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Hard to say what you should do as I am not familiar with the gaming side of things. What I would say is terrain might be boring but I’m sure any game would be a lesser experience without it.
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Not so much that terrain itself is boring (cause I don’t see it that way) but a set of stairs is probably on the low level of the excite-o-meter. 😉
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Well, you could say that they’re a step up to a higher level of the meter 😉
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A set of stairs that you can actually place minis on at any point up the staircase is pretty exciting to me. I’ve had quite a number of frustrating experiences over the years with having to remember that certain Models were halfway up or down a staircase or ladder. That’s a really cool terrain option to have!
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I’ll have to see what bits and pieces the Mantic Kits come with so I can work out if it’s feasable ot create a little “landing” before the steps go up another level… I know your pain on the “halfway up a ladder” problem from many games of Necro in the dim, dark past..
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I’ve been thinking since I first got the kits about something that could hook into the ladders on the Sector Mechanicus Terrain and hold a Model at any given height. Never got around to more than conceptual speculation, tho.
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For ladders, you’d need a little caddy that could hold a figure while hooking onto the ladder. These stairs only work because they’re designed to let the base go prety far under the next stair – which is why most miniature staurs don’t.
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Yeah, I was thinking a little platform or basket or something, but still bigger than the bases I wanted to be able to use it, and then some way to hook it on to those ladders solidly enough.
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Yep, a sort of Z (ish) shaped piece with a hook on top and a tiny little railing on the bottom platform for stability/prevent sliding. I think the practical solution there is going to be 3d printing. A pretty basic design is all that’s needed (though people could get funky with Aquilas and such) and then find it on Thingiverse. There are quite a few people over there making 40k-ish designs. Surely some of them would do requests and look into gaming aids…
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Looks good- I’d keep it seperate for extra versatility.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Cheers Pete. I’m definately going to need to go out and look throught he sprues – and clip off as many stairs as I can find!
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