From concept to combat

Here we see an experiment in progress... from the Evil Genius of Burn In Designs, Mr. Lathan!

He is working on a combat train that is not just a line of sight blocking monolith, but a living piece of terrain.

The design has already gone numerous modifications.  When you are attempting to make something so 'interactive', you need to constantly adjust from your original plan.

There is that critical balance between how something looks, and how playable it can be.

Does it offer multiple gun ports, can you move around on it, etc.

Even more important, what happens inside!  This complicates things even more, as you must deal with bases and base widths, miniature height, and so on.

Having the ability to place the figures inside like this is even more important for the typical skirmish games of the day, which tend to make use of every scrap of terrain, unlike other systems where it's more of an afterthought.

These next few shots will give you the best sense of scale.

Just getting this many figures to fit easily can take a surprising number of redesigns.  When you look at my terrain pieces, you see tons of these adjustments.  Usually you have to make things bigger and bulkier than you would like, as the base size takes over.

Depending on how you approach the painting of this piece, it can be steampunk or sci-fi.  This is also not the easiest thing to balance...

There are plenty of firing ports, but also some ways to actually see and shoot the folks inside.  This does not happen with a fully enclosed kind of vehicle.

This is just one of a number of cars which are under construction.  The roof is getting some extra attention, and I think that this car has even become the caboose. :-)

So, stay tuned and check out Burn In Designs for all kinds of amazing gaming and terrain pieces!!!