One of the best aspects of my Mordheim terrain is the Foundations and Rivers, which add tremendous depth and character to what would otherwise be very flat layouts for cities.  I wanted to capture that feel in my urban 40K terrain, giving Imperial cities a more imposing and vertical character.

Here you can see the effect of combining the river and platform pieces.  The platforms elevate the buildings above the rivers, making the rivers appear to be sunken below ground level even though the entire setup is on top of a flat table.  A variety of bridges can be seen here, including the industrial bridge on the left, a modular plastic kit that is hard to find (though I got mine from the War Store).  These bridges have ramps on the ends, further elevating the bridge over the shorter river pieces below them, allowing models to walk above the water, yet below the bridge.  Multi-level terrain goodness!

I also made three free-standing bridges to go with the platforms, like the one in the foreground above.  They're made of plywood with wooden supports, and detailed with plastic railings made from modular shelving units and bits from the Cities of Death building sprues.  The top surface was detailed with cross stitch grating, perforated plastic grating (cut off of some drywall corner protectors), cardboard, and rivets punched out of a plastic cup with a 1/16" hole punch.   These solid bridges can be used with or without river pieces by adding a  square of sheet plastic below,  painted to match the riverbeds.

The foundations are made out of plywood, with wooden boards around the edges, glued and screwed into place.  I used popsicle sticks to add edges around the top, and coated the top surface with Concrete Patch for some texture.  The sides of the foundations (when you can see them) are detailed with vinyl brick pattern and strips of cardboard and surfaced with concrete patch again.  I carefully made the river sections in lengths that match the sides of the foundations, so it would be easy to set up layouts like the one above.  Here's two more shots of the rivers and foundations to check out:  PICTURE 1 PICTURE 2

In this shot you can see the Docks terrain made for Mordheim fits in pretty well with the gothic industrial feel of the 40K universe.  Also of note are the chainlink fences in the foreground.  These were made by cutting out diagonal strips of cross-stitch grating so the holes were a diamond pattern instead of square.  Then by using plastic corner brackets on the inside and outside of each corner, it was possible to sandwich the grating in there, making a strong connection.  All the fence pieces are corners of varying lengths, so the fences would stand up on their own for easy setup.  End pieces from Necromunda bulkheads were used to trim the ends of the fences, and the longer sides were also detailed with coffee stir sticks representing vertical posts (again, the fencing sandwiched between two strips).  These were detailed with rivets of course, lending a suitably Gothic look to the fences.

In addition to just re-using my Mordheim river pieces, I also made some more modern concrete style pieces, and T-intersections that allow them to match up with the shorter Mordheim style river sections.  I got some beveled door trim that had a nice angle to it, and glued it on its edge to pieces of sheet plastic to form sloped walls.  Before gluing them on, I used a Moto-Tool to cut some expansion grooves into it so it looked more like poured concrete (you could also use a hand saw or metal file).  Plastic ladders and grates from a  Chemical Plant kit were added to these walls, and the bed was detailed with parts from toy and model cars and playsets, as well as some small pebbles and sand.  I painted the concrete with tan, grey and white drybrushes, and the riverbed was primed black and painted dark green and brown before applying a coat of instant water.

To ensure models could get up and down the foundations in a fast and believable manner, I made several modular stairway pieces that matched the height of the foundations.   Another shot of the stairs...   Stairs were made by sandwiching strips of wood trim together, with diagonal wood railings added to the sides.  Some sidings were detailed with popsicle stick handrails glued to the top surfaces.  Straight sections were made with blocks of wood detailed with railings from the Cities of Death building sprues, cross-stitch grating, and supports made from electric fence insulators.  By making corner pieces out of blocks of wood and railings, it is possible to turn the stairs to face into the platforms, or even wind up multiple levels as seen here.

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