Some concept art illustrations by Adam Taylor for a metal refinery. Big buildings... so very different.
I really like this With the new N4 cover rules, all elevated terrain basically gives you cover to anything below you. So the usual railing are no longer needed from a game play mechanic. I'm probably going to steal this idea because you can do it properly now without having to ensure all the pieces are the right scale to give proper cover.
One thing about the roof of a large industrial complex - the roof lines can be erratic with a myriad of levels that need not conform to neat one, two, and three story separations. That means components can be mixed together like a jigsaw rather than locked in to one large model.
I'd be interested to see a board which is just the roof of one rather large industrial building. Like you say it could have different levels, ladders, plenty of different cover etc.
I'm looking at designing something like this and can use suggestion on what to use for the roof tubing. Ideally I want to laser cut the frames, spray paint the tubes and frames separately then assemble and weather. But I need a decent set of tubing that is spray paint friendly. Can someone make a recommendation on a product I can get at Home Depot that will take spray paint. My back up plan is wooden doweling, but would rather have something flexible I can put in a frame to go around bends. So far my roofing idea is to make the AC units separate from the tubing and slightly elevated. Then have the tubing in modular segments slide under the elevation. It will allow me to make lots of different configurations, and will store easily. I figure a couple circular AC units will allow for forks in the tubing without being forced for make 90 degree turns.
Those blocks look like 8 containers (2*2*2), there are doors at mid level, and the ends show vertical and horizontal lines. So tubes will be noticeable yet not human sized, more like 6-7 mm. It's going to be a bit tricky: small, paintable, flexible and not too stubborn. Metal tube? Examples: https://www.flexible-tubing.com/product/electro-galvanised-flexible-steel-tube-griplock-type/ Smallest is 9 mm OD so slightly oversized (6 mm ID, but we don't care about that), with a bend radius of 25 mm. Buy already colored? Plastic conduits sometimes come in red, orange, blue... but are normally "big", ~15 mm OD or bigger. No or minimal paint needed, for weathering mostly. More laborious: synthetic cord (the one with cloth like surface) wrapped around same or different cord, with flexible glue every now and then. Paint will help keeping the thing assembled. Also "rattail" https://smyckestillbehor.se/en/jewe.../satin-cord/satin-cord-rattail-2mm-orange-5m/ Hmm... or shoe laces... only for short tubes or joins will be obvious. BTW, nice finding in that shop https://smyckestillbehor.se/en/jewe...wire/spun-pewter-wire-040-mm-105-mm-thick-1m/ flexible tiny tubes, to represent plastic conduit at scale.
My two cents: Take a look at this pic. Electrical conduit, 1 cm of outer diameter, flexible. Using acrylate glue you can fix it into position. Cheap and paintable.
Thanks for the feedback. I was looking at plastic hose (used for water) but didn't think spray paint would stick to. But the conduit looks cheap, HW store friendly and paintable. I should be able to hammer out a basic design later this week.
I forgot to add a small trick: insert inside the conduit a wire (a thick one, about 0.3-05 mm) so you can shape the conduit. Otherwise you will be fighting the conduit elasticity every time you bend it.
A frame would like great anyway. It gives the vibe of industrial: Chemical plant pipes These are Plastruct, but I remember that @Usashi used some PVC angles or similar for the same effect (as handrails?).