GrimDarkTerrain – Imperial Palace Ruins

What a journey GrimDarkTerrain has taken. Back in 2019 I stumbled upon an instagram post, and now 4 years later there is a full range of STL files to choose from. The entire range was designed with Adeptus Titanicus in mind, and we had multiple buildings in use during our Battle for Uulda campaign weekend.

But with the release of Legions Imperialis, the releases of September, October and December 2023 are very interesting and deserve a closer look. Especially after we pointed out, what we need for a start.

GrimDarkTerrain has various ranges, the Imperial Palace is really self explaining, with Aeolus for air fields, Ares for fortifications, Argos for bunkers and turrets, Mytelene for fortresses, Olympus Mons for Mechanicum terrain and Pyraeus for supply and infrastructure.

The files are provided pre-supported and unsupported, so you can use what ever you prefer. I went with the pre-supported files and filled a couple of print plates of my Anycubic Mono 4K, using Chitubox. The small 6 inch screen may not be ideal for printing terrain, but even then I was able to produce quite a lot of items over one week.

As mentioned above, I used my Anycubic Mono 4K, that I bought last year. No modifications (but you can find some ideas on what you might need with UncleJessy on YouTube) besides having the FEP coated with presto PTFE-Spray and I used the regular Grey Color 405nm Resin by Anycubic. Slicing is done in Photon Workshop and I used the following settings, that work for me (depending on your temperature, printer, humidity, FEP etc. those might need to be re-adjusted for you):

Layer Thickness (mm): 0.025
Normal Exposure: 2.000 s
Off Time: 0.500 s
Bottom Exposure Time: 40.000 s
Bottom Layers: 8
Z Lift Distance (mm): 6.00
Z Lift Speed (mm/s): 1.00
Z Retract Speed (mm/s): 6.00

I clean the printed parts in IPA with the help of a wash and cure station. Around 5 minutes per run and clip the pieces in hot water before curing. A few days of printing gave me the haul below.

How does the GrimDarkTerrain tile system work? It uses a certain system of standard height that is compatible with the Civitas Imperialis range. With the Civitas Imperialis range, the walls are available in three sized, low, medium and high and two different wides, single and double.

GrimDarkTerrain started a category designation with his printable STL files. The number upfront for the width of either one or two, L, M and H for the height low, medium and high, along with CBT for Civitas Building Tile. A regular one width, medium height wall tile would be 1MCBT. Certain wall types even have stl files with 2DHBCT, which means it is double wide and twice the height of a H-piece. This comes in handy larger builds.

With the Imperial Palace range, there is an addition to the design. Most of the tiles are either 1MCBT or 2MCBT, so medium height, but cover a pillar on the outside wall that tapers the higher it goes, with a bold design for the ground level, a smaller pillar for the first floor and a design very close to the wall from the second floor up. Of course, you can use any of the upper levels as a base level for your building. This is just aesthetics, but even picked up for the ruined parts.

In addition the range covers parts that can be used as panels for the corners, these do once again come in different designs for the different levels, as well as various options for pre-designed ruins.

The use of these is very flexible, as you can build small corners to create a frame for your terrain areas, or larger L and U-shaped ruins , that provide cover for infantry and most vehicles. With enough space to place bases inside them.

But of course, you can even create larger buildings, intact or as ruins, and if you only glue the levels, even make them modular / remove for example top level or roofs once the building is damaged or destroyed. And it is very tempting to go for large buildings, but you should plan that or cut them into modules, so you can re-arrange them, spread them across the table, place them together for a  large building or multiple smaller and medium sized ones.

Bronco has painted up some of his prints, to show how they would look like in a light paint job. Really amazing to see, how quickly these come together and are painted. Especially with the weathering you can quickly bring the bright cities of the Ultramar Sectors down to a state beyond the betrayal at Calth.

Similar to our plans with the Civitas Imperialis range, we are going to provide you with "STC" (Standard Template Constructs) in addition to the ones GrimDarkTerrain already provides. We will cover some of the suggestions from our last article, with ruins and intact buildings of various sizes.

Conclusion

The monthly packages are either available via the subscription for around 14 EUR per month or as individual packages at around 38 EUR, and provide good value. With them coming pre-supported and GDT covering test prints of what they publish, this makes them very low hassle.

And these are so much more than just "homages" of what Games Workshop offers. They share the measurements of the Imperialis tiles, to be compatible like lego bricks, but the GrimDarkTerrain series covers civilian buildings and industrial facilities, turrets, defenses and so much more. This gives you the option to recreate the terrain you need or want to build, may it be the Schism of Mars, the Betrayal at Calth, the Burning of Prospero or the Siege of Terra. And all that with a red-line through all the designs, and only limited to the amount of resin you want to put through your 3d printer.

In case you don't have access to a 3d printer yourself, GrimDarkTerrain has various licensed partners, who sell the printed pieces, for example MegaSonicPunch.

The files were provided by GrimDarkTerrain.