10 Missions for AvP The hunt begins

Michi has (almost) finished a huge task that he was over since September 2022, hence less painted miniatures shown here. The corridors and rooms were lasercut plywood kits from Fantasy Arc, released in a 2014 kickstarter. Michi obtained the first few in a second hand starter set, but that wasn't by far what would be needed to replace the cardboard floor tiles from the AvP boardgame by Prodos. Last summer allowed a deal to receive almost all the rest to match the layouts for the 10 missions in the rulebook. A few sections had to be built from scratch and leftovers and one cross section is still missing, which was regretfully noticed when the pictures were taken. Here come the mission layouts according to the rulebook (complete with starting zone markers, objetive markers and alien spawning markers):

Mission 10

 Mission 9

 

Mission 8

Mission 7

Mission 6

(one crossing section is yet to be built from scratch)

Mission 5

Mission 4

Mission 3

Mission 2

Mission 1

Now let's have a look at the building process:

The kits are from 2014, when they were lasercut from plywood. I don't know the reason why they didn't use MDF for them back then, which would have avoided the visibility of wood grain on the surfaces. Michi sanded them thoroughly, but it still looks like wood regretfully. Actually this is the only flaw. The parts fitted perfectly, were easy to assemble and fun to paint. Michi went for the movie pallet for the corridor walls, but chose rust for the floor grills instead of grey to give it a more run down industrial appearance. The following picture shows a mock-up of four sections, which are artually designed to be 7. Michi glued each two straight sections together to get the grid for the layout. This is important to hold 8 small/6 middle/4 large sized bases (or an equivalent mix) in game. However there are half straights too of which only six are needed in any layout.

There are the typical striped handrails with white plastic rods displaying the light tubes below. 

The lot of kits did not contain enough straight sections for gaming needs, therefore some had to be assembled from leftovers and scratch. These strage cages were build from insect mesh and coffee stirrers:

Some movie related posters were printed, cut and glued here and there...

The stickers add so much to the atmosheric look of Michi's new Hadley's Hope!

A shoot with bright light from above:

All of the sections got magnetised with neodym magnets which align and hold them perfectly when arranged to a layout:

Stacking and enjoying finished pieces to see progress was much of an inspiration to keep on building. Don't forget: This was half of a year of leisure time only spent on this project...

This is what Michi got in the end:

Fantasy Arc did not provide air ducts, which are an important part of the game. As Michi didn't want to spoil a three-dimensional terrain with markers for air ducts, he built a few from cut down and converted Necromunda floor tiles by Games Workshop:

The package contains four 1' square tiles of injection moulded plastic. Michi cut them to pieces and arranged sections which can hold a miniature easily. The shown Predator model is on a 40mm base, although only 30mm bases can pass air ducts in game. This width will give easier access for clumsy fingers and leave more space for models to move around. Yet they are still narrow enough to not be mistaken for standard corridors.

Most air vents (ends of air ducts) were glued at an angle to match the corridor side walls...

A different colour was chosen for the air ducts too to make a difference from corridors. The base coat got a three layer washing of black, chocolate brown and leather brown. Michi decided not to go for chipping, because air ducts are usually not exposed to mechanical wear, althoug rust and dirt will be found of course.

The execution went probably not to perfection, but well enough to make clear where the air ducts are located, as you can see in the mission layouts above.

Imagine you would stand in there with no idea whether some xenomorphs are behind or in front of you or not at all - claustrophobic, huh...?

Michi will now go and build a last crossing section for the corridors from scratch and then this is done!