Rocky Outcropping

In an effort to increase my scatter terrain collection to help cut down LoS for games I set out to build some new pieces.  This is the first of the pieces I completed for use in a Tomorrow's War game.


Materials:

Old CD
Rocks
Styrofoam
Flocking
Caulk
White glue
Hot glue
Paint


Basic layout.  White foam sealed and primed glued to the base with hot glue with a few rocks to make it more interesting.



Base built up a little with caulk to make it less smooth.  Then flocking applied; sand in some places and a tea mix in others.

After another black primer to cover everything, the base green color is added to the grassy areas.

Grey base color added to rocks, and then areas are highlighted via dry brush with a lighter color.

Finally some browns are applied to show some extra dirt around the base and some moss glued in place for bushes.

Morning Coffee, or is it?

I drink a fair bit of coffee.  Much of it is from coffee shops.  I throw a lot of cups away.  I have seen a few ideas using the "java jacket" sleeve as corrugated steel for shanty's etc.  but I wanted more.

I have had this idea rolling around in my head for a post for a couple of days before I finally got around to building it.

Goal: Create a sci-fi building (15mm) using only a coffee cup from a coffee house, plus glue and paint.

Materials:
Coffee cup
White glue
Hot glue
Texture paint(optional)
Knife and/or scissors
Ruler

Step 1: Get a coffee cup.  Drink coffee.  Clean cup.

Step 1 cont: These are the basic parts we have to work with.

Step 2:  Measure an equal distance down and cut out a segment.  NOTE:  If you make it a single floor and measure with a miniatire the top roof of the building is NOT the bottom of the cup.  I had a small issue with this.

Step 3: Cut out plastic from cup.  I had intended on using this cut out plastic for something, but I never did.

Step 4: Use the plastic ring as a base and test fit the cardboard.  This will probably only work well if your building is as about as tall as mine.

Step 5: Using exta cardboard add details and a door

Step 6: Because of the height of the building, I need an insert ring to attach it to the plastic building base so the door is not covered.

The building with the cardboard detail and riser ring for insert into base.

Step 7: Assemble building and add last bits of detailing: A ladded to allow men to get to the door and a hatch giving access to the roof.

Step 8: Use hot glue to glue the two pieces together.  I glued inside and out.  The outside will look aproximately like a VERY heavy weld line.  Gluing from the inside is probably good enough though.

Step 9: Using texture paint add further detail and fill in small spaces.  This can be used to simulate weld lines.  At this scale these will technically be huge unless you are way better at this than I am.

 

Building painted with it's base colors

Base colors plus some weathering.

Slightly different angle.

Pond

I started work on this pond last year sometime,  I sadly did not take photos of the piece prior to the base paint and sand, even though it sat on my bench like that for about a year.  Pretty simple process, watched a few videos here and there on ponds etc.

Basic piece based on a CD.  Formed with silicone and paper.  Middle covered in paper to hide hole and the hot glued in place.  Basic rocks glued in place and everything given a base color as well as some white glue to add on some sand for texture.

Same piece but has now had diluted white glue spread across the initial sand to seal everything in place.

Extra flocking added (tea) to a few areas to represent a few grassy areas around the pond.

Grassy areas have color added as well as a white dry brush across the rocks.

Added some tall marsh grass as well as a bit of flocking around the edge of the pond.

Envirotex water.  Added a drop of blue and green paint and poured it into place.  Spread it around with a crappy brush to fill the corners.

Updates

Things have been pretty quiet on the miniature front.  Painted up 5 standard troopers for the desert troopers.  I also did some more work on a piece of terrain I am working on; a pond based on a CD. 

Ruleset wise I haven't done very much.  Poked and prodded a few things.  Decided to change from order wheels to order chits, but I am still not 100% happy with the game mechanics, so I am mulling them over still.

In other news I ordered a few new battlesuits for the desert guys and nearly have a concept for a flyer in my brain.  Might be time to sketch that out a little.

AAANNNDDD

Even more unpainted metal is heading my way as my first miniature kickstarter I supported is headed my way from Loud Ninja.  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/485545784/the-yandrassi-invasion-new-15mm-scifi-alien-force

We shall see how I like them as I am not typically an alien guy, but it might make a cool auxillary force.

Battleship: Beginnings.

I'm working to build a basic fleet.  My first scratchbuilt fleet.  My first fleet.  The previous post showed the work in progress on a cruiser and frigate.

I started working on a battleship last night which uses some small hollow construction techniques.  I got to a fairly rough shape last night and left it to dry so I could work on the filing and shaping with all of the pieces dry.

I will add another post as I continue with it.

70mm Battleship

Full Thrust: Revisited

Back when I got into miniatures one of the scratch building searches led me to a facebook group called, "Full Thrust: THE Tactical Starship Combat Rules".  Back then I was looking for ideas on scratch building for a set of rules I was working on.  A simple set that I could use to show people spaceship combat without teaching Starfleet Battles.

I had briefly looked at Full Thrust and got to the "WRITE YOUR ORDERS" phase and had visions of Engage thrusters at 50%, Come to a heading of 310 mark 15 etc etc. and because of this I moved away from it and continued down my rules path.

15mm wargaming diverted me to ground combat, and away from the navies of space, but I was recently looking about the Full Thrust group and I decided to read the Full Thrust Light.  "Wow, these are SIMPLE"  Long story short, probably as simple as what I had developed, for the most part anyhow.  FTL would be a SIMPLE game to get people to learn and infact I hear it us often used at conventions.

Ok.  So I played a few solo engaements with my Silent Death minis from EM4, but wanted to get back into scratch building ships. 

I was directed to Starship Combat news for scale ideas and used it to determine the scale for my scratch buils to be around the same size as GZG spaceships.  While I was on SCN I went through their foums and came across their scratch build forum.  Some of it is ok, some it basic, but one user stands out as a scratch builder over there.  His handle is "Toaster"

SCN FORUM: http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/index.php
OMEGA Class: http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2581
HYPERION: http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2659
SULACO: http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=7081
MORE: http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2612
CLONE WARS: http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=6546
 NARN: http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=5308

GENERAL: http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2635

MORE IDEAS:
http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=10080
http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=8017

Using his ideas I have begun scratch building my first fleet.

Basic plasticard cutouts

Gluing into a body

Initial tests.

Additional details and a few Silent Death escorts.

Ships need engines but now a Cruiser and a Frigate.

Blockade Buster - Grav Tank: Part 2

Blockade Buster - Custom Turret

Oil based clay
Polymer clay
Small sticks
Scultping tools
X-acto knife
Super glue
2 part casting resin

Part 1 of this segment detailed how I took a Matchbox Blockade Buster and converted it into a Grav Tank.  Well I mostly converted it.  It was still in need of a turret.

How would I get a turret?  Buy it?  Design it in a 3D app and print it?

What to do.

Then I remembered a blog I came across last year.  It showed a gamer making custom starships.  His method was to take a basic shape, press it into clay and then detail it.  Once the mold was finished he would cast it in a 2 part resin.


So using this idea of impression casting with clay I thought it might work to build a turret fairly fast.

The first steps involved taking a polymer clay and creating a basic shape.

1. Roll clay out to approximate thickness for turret.

2. Cut edges off to make basic shape.

3. Add forward slanting armor by cutting away the clay.

4. Finalize your basic turret shape.

5. Final turret shape.

6. Size test on the grav tank.

The other tool we will need to complete this is a set of texture stamps.  These can be made from polymer clay as well and are used to texture the inside of the impression mold.

1. Lay out clay and create textures	2. Cut textures into stamp sizes
3. Bake according to instructions	4. Glue onto sticks.

Once we have the basic shape and a set of texturing tools, we are ready to start creating the mold.

1. Get a ball of oil based clay.	2. roll out clay and press shape into it.	3. Remove object (This can be tricky).
4. Use stamps to texture mold.	5. Mix casting resin and pour into mold.	6. Let cure and pull from mold.

These photos are my first attempt.  I feel I did not press the texturing tools in deep enough and got a lack luster turret.  The above photo is primed with a black wash.  I recast the turret and was much happier.

Full view of tank. Turret is primed, washed and dry brushed.

Closer view of the turret is primed, washed and dry brushed.

The tank needs painting, and I may use a different turret, but this shows how you can simply create a fairly cool sci-fi tank for 15mm wargames for not very much money.

Blockade Buster - Grav Tank: Part 1

 Blockade Buster Conversion

1 Blockade Buster

1 piece heavy plasticard

1 stir stick

2 part putty

Small washers

Misc other bits

Super glue

1 X-acto knife

1 drill

Matchbox toys are quite often pretty close in scale to 15mm and they make some cool models at this size if you can find them.  I am a fan of their Stryker model for instance, but can't find more than the one I bought originally.  They do however have a very inexpensive and simple IFV/AA type vehicle.  The Blockade Buster.  It runs at about the $1 mark depending where you are.  I get mine for $1.34 CAD from Walmart.

The parts of the blockade buster.

The vehicle has a plastic turret, metal upper body and plastic lower body.  It is held together with rivets, so to start this conversion the first step is to drill out the rivets and disassemble the model.
This leaves us with the tanks components.  You will notice that the upper metal body does not include the back.  The metal body is open at the back.  It will need to be sealed to make a new vehicle.

Back of the lower body has the entire back of the vehicle

We can either take what we need from the plastic body or make something new.  I opted to remove from the plastic body and glue into place.

Back panel cut free to close the back of the metal tank body

And glued into the main tank body

Here you can see the wood added to the back of the tank to even up the edges (and back)

Once this is done it well become apparent that the metal body needs to be evened out as it is not level all the way back.  I used small pieces of wood stir sticks to accomplish this.

Bottom view with axle mounts, wooden body and rivets

 I used the metal wheel axles in my design but he metal rivets proved to be in the way.  I had to cut these off flush with the base of the tank.










Once I had this completed I took a heavy piece of plasticard and drilled holes to make slots that I could pass the wheel mounts through.  I then used a 2 part putty to add a grave plate mounting bracket.  Basically a long rectangle with a 45 degree cut. along it's length.

Once at this stage I also used putty to try and seal the major gaps.  Once it cured I went in with sand paper to try and smooth out and reshape some areas.

The grav rails are some more heavy plasticard glued to the underside mounting plates.  Once they were glued in place I added some small washers for detail and gave everything a quick prime to see how it looked.

 Moving forward in the next part I will address how I will add the turret and get the model to a pre-painted stage.