Rackham Dirz Sewer Scene, Display Shelf

This display is being built to house all of the 'Alchemists of Dirz' figures from Rackham which I have collected over the years since around 2001.

Design

Rather than a single display that fitted shelf-to-shelf, I wanted something that was a little more modular and could be reconfigured or rebuilt differently if I wanted. Since the standard Ikea Billy bookcase is 80cm wide, with a 76cm shelf width (and 26cm deep), I needed a number of modular tiles that would fit easily.

A tile size of 12cm x 12cm fits neatly in two rows of six, giving a total of twelve tiles on display, with enough room for a 1cm gap around all of the edges.

• 1x Straight (damaged) sewer channel
• 1x Straight sewer channel
• 1x Large sewer drain pit
• 1x 90 degree corner sewer channel
• 2x Flat sewer floor
• 1x Flat sewer floor with puddles
• 2x Raised platform tiles
• 1x 3-way sewer junction channel
• 2x 90 degree corner (damaged) sewer channel

All of the tiles with sewer channels will have the channel placed at the centre point of the tile, and the channel itself will be a consistent 30mm wide. The raised platform tiles will be at normal height (i.e. 3 tiles tall) + 80mm of additional foam, with ladders, pipes etc up the side; they will be built with sewer channel 'grills' on each of the 4 sides, so that they can be matched up with any number of sewer channels if needed.

Materials:

• 12cm x 12cm x 1cm XPS foam tiles (cut from a larger sheet)
• Several 12cm terrain rollers (one for floor texture, one for walls)
• Hot glue to fix tiles together

Individual tile stacks cut out. Each tile will be 3 layers thick; one for the base, another layer for resin/pits/holes, and the top layer for the sewer floor itself. The raised platform tiles will then have another solid foam structure mounted on top. On the right are the two texture terrain rollers; the more rectangular one was used for the pavement, the rounder profile is used for the sewer walls and uprights:

The first tile cut and glued, and the first three tiles next to each other:

These tiles have all had the edges of the sewer channel rounded over (just pressing your thumb on the edge compresses the foam nicely) to make it look a bit more realistic:

Mockup of most of the sewer tiles in place, most of them still need the edge profiles cleaning up:

All of the tiles now with smoothed edges with 240 grit sandpaper making them fit a little better and making the visible edges neater:

Several of the raised platform tiles started, plus a couple of extra columns which I can use to suspend walkways/bridges from. These are just XPS foam blocks with the terrain texture roller applied:

Starting to add details in the form of steam/water pipes, plus a couple of the Rackham Dirz miniatures for scale:

Gluing rubble and coarse sand to the sewer channels, more so with the damaged tiles, to hide the bare foam sides/bottom. These will still get painted of course.

More details added to the platforms - railings from bent brass wire and stop valves from some small rubber grommets that look a little like a wheel from a distance:

Sealing the foam with a coat of watered down black paint and PVA glue:

Starting with a base coat of light grey….

… and applying weathering and a dirty brown/black wash:

Testing out the finish - still needs some light drybrushing to bring out the details and brighten things up a bit:

Weathering effects added to pipework and stone, added some 3d printed wooden bridge accessories which I painted and a little flock/grass around the edge of sewer:

Pouring the resin for the sewer channel. This is a two-part (2:1 mix) clear resin with a few drops of Vallejo inks added (7-8 dark green + 5-6 sepia/brown):

Unfortunately the results, when cured, were a bit hit-and-miss. Around 2/3 of the tiles set perfectly, with minimal bubbles and shrinkage, but several of them had nasty bubbles and 'frothing' around the edge of the resin. I decided to apply some thick, water effect gels to the surface of the resin to hide some of the more unsightly bubbles - this will be the next step, but the resin as it cured is shown below: