“Underground Entrance Hatch” Scratchbuilt Scenery

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A very simple piece of scratchbuilt scenery today – one I built many years ago but never quite finished to my satisfaction, that also got broken in the interim. It’s been sitting in a box of stuff to get around to restoring and fixing up for a few years now, and so with Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge being a thing right now I decided to bring it inside (skipping past The Tray) and spent really not all that much time getting it to the point where I’d be happy to place it on the table again.

As far as what was needed/worked on – the ladder had broken, so that needed gluing back together, a bit of a repaint of the dirt, some weathering powders, the tufts and all of the rust. I also repainted the sludge coming out of the pipe with a mix of Black Templar Contrast Paint and Water Effects for a nice glossy oily muck look, replacing the luminous yellow-green that had been there originally. The base is made from thin MDF with putty over the top buiult up around a little square hatch made from foam core. The ladder is just made from a length of square modelling plastic clipped and glued together with the rungs, and the hatch is simply some layered card. A little cat litter for rubble/stones and a bit of aluminium tube for the pipe.

A Necromunda model provides a size reference for us here. I originally built it for both Necromunda and 40k, but I could see it being usable in any sci-fi or post-apoc game, or even various games set anywhere from WWII to moden settingt o near future as well, through to the aforementioend Sci-Fi and Post-Apoc games. I always like a nice, versatile bit of terrain!

26 thoughts on ““Underground Entrance Hatch” Scratchbuilt Scenery”

  1. Excellent scratch built piece of scenery, the new weathering looks very realistic ( I do hope it was fresh cat litter you used ! LOL) Another fine submission to the scenery challenge, your putting me to shame at the moment, as I haven’t even finished 1 yet

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    • The dense rust is just a drybrush of Citadel’s Ryza Rust. Should be a doddle for you if you grab the same paint. I do know what you mean though, since I had the same reaciton after seeing it on some of Wudugast’s terrain…

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  5. I really like that. I am very into any post-apocalyptic stuff and I would be all over any game that could Do That Right… if only I could ever find such a game. This fits right into my world image of ash and grey and abandoned places.

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      • That’s a good question, and I’m not at all sure that I really know the answer. I suspect that this is because one of things I love most in the post-apocalyptic setting is the feeling of emptiness and desolation, and that isn’t really consistent with a game that has to have a bunch of protagonists close enough together to have a meaningful interaction. I’ve looked at Eden, TINAT, Necromunda, Dark Age and probably some others but somehow for me there is always something not quite right.

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      • I think that’s a good point – and one that’s not easily replicated (in gaming, at least) outside of videogame settings. Even games like the modern Fallouts – for all their flaws – do capture that “Lone Wanderer” feel pretty well, as it’s just yourself (and maybe a companion) wandering and running into perhaps some dogs, or a mutated beast, or a raider/mutant camp. More of a single or 2-player RPG sort of sertting, really.
        I know that Kuribo was getting into the official Fallout minis game, which I think has solo rules and a “lone wanderer” type of setting. I wonder if that might be worth looking into?

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  10. I really like this. A clever piece of terrain that works in many settings, well executed! I think the small gaps in the hatch panels add a certain touch of realism. Working in an industrial setting, I’ve seen my fair share of old cover panels that don’t quite fit the way they’re supposed to, or actually have huge gaps.

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    • Thank you! The funny thing is I think I only built it because we needed it for some of our Necro games. These days you’d just use a pre-bought hatch from the Ryza Ruins sets or something like that! Positives and negatives, I guess.
      Thanks for the validation on the gaps as well. I’ve not had much experience around industrial settings, but it does fit in with the many old sheds I’ve spent time in at least! 😉

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  12. This is top-notch terrain work and is very inspiring. To me, it looks like something you could see in Fallout. Maybe a bunker that the raiders commandeered? It could be a cool objective for someone fleeing to get to as well. Scratch built terrain generally ends up looking the best and I think this piece is a good example of why that is true.

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