chaosbunker.de
16Nov/200

Necromunda – Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

While a lot of attention goes towards the new Blood Bowl release, I set up the coverage on the Zone Mortalis terrain range, introduced to support the Necromunda skirmish game.

There were two plastic kits introduced in the beginning, that replaced the massive resin tiles of the same name by Forge World from 2003, the Columns and Walls and the floor tile sets.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

This is a heavy box, that gives you a couple of columns and walls, and even a few gates, to setup upon the tiles (resin, plastic or cardboard) for 65 EUR. Quite the stack of sprues, isn't it? 6 in total, so at quite the decent rate of ~10-11 EUR per sprue for terrain.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

The black-and-white instruction cover not only the assembly of the included pieces, but some assembly ideas for the Zone Mortalis tiles along with combined sets. Unfortunately the thermic plasma conduits shown in the instructions, and quite a neat addition to these sets, is out-of-production (so not only not just available as the floor tiles were for so long, but not even listed / offered anymore).

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

The sprues were produced in China, but the quality is more than convincing. Even for terrain sharp. There's a total of 6 sprues in this kit, the columns sprues is include three times, all the others once. Mould lines are there, but due to the linear / non-organic shapes so easy to clean. All of them are properly packed with bits and pieces, well arranged and layouted, so you can strip the parts from the sprues with minimal risk of damage.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls
Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls
Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

Let us begin with the columns, as they are the most basic and versatile items from the range. I give you a quick warning on these - don't glue everything together right away. Wait for the Zone Mortalis series on here to finish, tinker about with them and see what you like the most. They can be mixed and matched, and as you can see, even have built-in slots for magnets.

Owen Patton, the designer of these kits, covered a lot of interesting ideas for conversion and mixing the kits on twitter.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

For assembly I'd advise to use one of the toppers / lids for stability. But don't glue these in, as you can flip them to stack multiple columns ontop of eachother. And with other sets covering further variations to combine with these, there's another reason to not glue them before you have seen it all and decided what you want to go for. The sprues cover small add-ons, that can be added to the sides, like terminals, tanks or connection pieces for the pipelines (for example thermic plasma conduits). As shown above, that can be made modular using magnets.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

Another thing to point out, these are huge. My first impression - oh only 6 columns? Well these roughly 6 by 6 cm and even dwarf the rather tall new line of Primaris Space Marines.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

The walls are spread across two sprues, with a double section and four single wall sections. The side pieces can be mixed to your liking, and these sprues cover some connector plates for the pipelines as well.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

As with the columns, I'd advise the use of the lids to get a proper angle and more stability while assembling the walls. And once again, as you can turn the lids upside down to stack multiple wall pieces upon eachother, don't glue these in right away.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

These wall sections do have similar connection pieces for the pipe-line system. They can be magnetized as well, so you can apply them to your liking and if necessary.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

As for the final sprue, that one covers the massive security doors / bulkheads. There are two different sizes, one and two panel wide, of each two are included in this kit. For stability purpose I'd suggest that you put the frame inbetween two columns while the glue settles.

These can be removed from the top, but the design suggests that the bulkheads retract to the sides. So I was a bit irrated, that the second pair wasn't designed in a way that would show open doors or bulkheads, or at least two parts. The bulkheads come with small computer terminals, that are added to one of the sides, two are intact, the two others are damaged / broken.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls
Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

The bulkheads fit inbetween columns and wall pieces and are quite massive, as you can see once again in comparison with the Primaris Space Marine.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

And here's the assembled content, including the optional parts for decoration.

Necromunda - Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls

Conclusion
It seriously entertaining to build these and toy around with the variants and setup possibilities. 65 EUR is a benchmark, as mentioned above you end up around 10-11 EUR per sprue. The biggest "risk" of these kits actually is, that you may develope the need of a large to infinite amount of those, to cover all the combinations you can think of.

With that said, you can get a lot further, if you combine it with the other kits, that I'll cover in the coming days. Yet, currently the cheapest option to get your hands on the Zone Mortalis terrain is to buy the Necromunda Dark Uprising kit, as you get multiples of these sprues incl. the accessoires in that set. The already sold out Hive Warzone isn't much of a deal, as you basically get this kit, with the stairs & platforms and a single plasma conduit sprue, at not much of a discount. It would be great if Games Workshop would release another terrain bundle of these sprues, as the demand is there and it be a bit more obliging towards the customer.

Yes, depending on your terrain idea, these can become expensive. Depending on the density of your build, you can easily spend 100 EUR or more on a single 12 by 12 inch tile, and you'd need at least 9 of these for a smaller game of Necromunda (36 by 36 inch). Let alone larger 4 by 6 or 8 ft. setups for Warhammer 40.000 or Horus Heresy. But due to their versatile use across the Warhammer 40.000 (and 30.000) scenarios, these make for great club terrain, and as you don't need them to be glued together, a modular setup for a lot of different games. Space Hulks, boarding actions, hangars and / or the Zone Mortalis underhive.

Other than that, if you need more ideas on what to build with these, Owen Patton not only covered his suggestions on twitter, but on several posts on Warhammer Community as well; Tipps from the Underhive Architect.

Warhammer 40,000 and Necromunda are a brands by Games Workshop.

Posted by Dennis B.

Comments (0) Trackbacks (0)

No comments yet.


Leave a Reply

Trackbacks are disabled.