Vampifan's Power Plant

When I was running my old ATZ-BDTZ campaign, there was a scenario called "Blackout," which I ran in two parts. It occurred on Day 21 and if you want to check it out, click on the Page tab above marked "ATZ-BDTZ Bat Reps" and look for the links there. The bulk of the scenario took place in an abandoned power plant and it was in there that Team Vampifan found and recruited the Goth Girl, Rhiannon Marlow. I mention all this because I never got round to reviewing the power plant. Oops, sorry! I should point out from the start that this is a scratch-built building and is totally unique.

I was a big fan of Games Workshop's sci-fi skirmish game, Necromunda. Indeed, I still think it was one of the best games they ever produced. As a consequence, I bought just about every figure that they made for the game and lots of scenery items, including quite a few sprues of their plastic walls. Each wall measured 3" square. Long after my campaign had ended I still had loads of unused plastic walls. What to do with them? I had enough to make a really big building. Eventually, I decided I would use them as the basis for a two-storeyed power plant. The Necromunda walls were used on the front wall, the two side walls and although it isn't obvious, the back wall. The two small side walls of the entrance lobby are made of mounting card. The roof and floor are made of corrugated plastic, which is just like corrugated card but much stronger. I have checked on the GW webstore to see if the walls are still available. Typically, they aren't!

For the floor, I covered up the sides with masking tape to hide the corrugated pattern. Then I coated the exterior part in sand and cat litter, just as I do on the bases of all of my figures. My 28mm scale figure of Vampifan gives you some idea of how big this model is. It measures 9" wide by 15" long by 7.5" tall.

If you look closely at the roof section, you can see the corrugations of the corrugated plastic that I used. I have no idea where you can buy corrugated plastic from. My dad was a stamp collector and whenever he sent away for stamps they would arrive in packages reinforced by this stuff to prevent the stamps from getting creased. I ended up with loads of the stuff. The two lights were recent additions and you may recognise them as being parts of the Warhammer 40,000 set - Basilica Administratum. They are stuck to strips of mounting card, which I used to hide the joint between the Necromunda walls, as they weren't designed to be stuck at right angles to one another. This view shows the four variants of the Necromunda walls that were available - a doorway section, a blank wall piece (front and back are different)  and two types of window designs.

Here is one of the sides of the building. In hindsight, I wish I had added doors where the ground floor openings are. I suppose I could still do it but it would be impossible to make them open and close.

It looks as if the roof does not quite fit onto the top of the walls, but I can assure you, it is a snug fit. I hadn't noticed this until after I'd taken my photos of it. Ho-hum! I have obscured the detail of the Necromunda walls with squares of thin card, to which I have added four smaller squares of thin card on each wall piece. The four large exhaust pipes came from an old Revell Visible V8 Engine model that used to belong to my brother. Unfortunately for my brother, it suffered an accident when it got knocked over and fell to the floor. It smashed into lots of bits, which I confiscated and put in my "bits box" to use on other projects like this one. And before anyone accuses me of knocking it over, I didn't. It was my dad.

Here is the other side of the power plant. Whilst the Necromunda wall tiles do work well and help to give the building a very Gothic feel, typical of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, you do have to question why such a building would have so many ladders leading up to the roof. Logically, it makes no sense. Still, it is not something I dwell upon.

Here is an overhead shot of the interior, showing the big power plant in the centre of the ground floor and the catwalk surrounding it. I always knew that I wanted to add a catwalk as this would enable me to reach inside and place figures on the ground floor without having to remove the upper level. The catwalk is made of mounting card and has had small squares of thin card glued on top of it.

The large control panel in the upper centre of the rear wall came from an Urban War plastic construction set. I have no idea if this set is still on sale but it was a good set for making sci-fi scenery and buildings. I made a few buildings from it to use in my Gangs of Mega City One campaign. Fortunately for me, this particular wall piece measured 3" by 3", making it a perfect fit for my Necromunda wall section. The ladder leading up to the catwalk was scratch-built by me out of thin strips of mounting card. Fiddly to make but very effective once it got painted.

The semi-circular cylinder in between the two ladders was another piece from my bother's smashed V8 engine model.

The various control consoles that you can see dotted around the building came from an old TSR Marvel Superheroes scenario pack. I glued them to boxes I'd made out of mounting card and then stuck them in place.

The actual power plant itself is made up of five parts. Moving from left to right in the photo above are two empty tubes of epoxy resin glued one on top of the other. These lead into an engine block that was originally an accessory part for a 12" action figure of Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man. Who amongst you can remember that particular toy? I'm certainly showing my age here! The engine block/power plant sits on a base made out of mounting card. Finally, is the control console, which I have described above.
I am the first to admit that this model probably bears no resemblance to a real life power plant, but do you know what? I don't care because I think it looks cool and it works fine for my gaming purposes. Surely, that is the most important consideration. Will it get a second outing in my new ATZ-FFO campaign? Who knows? At this moment, I couldn't possibly say, but it would be nice to give it another airing.