Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Martian Insulae

Like many pieces of terrain these days, my Martian insulae (old style apartment buildings) start off life as packaging material. In this case, I got hold of several of these pieces from the IT guy at my school - maybe five or six of them total. Each will eventually become a block of row-houses.
Same packaging, spray painted. I used three colors in successive layers, then went back and lightly 'dusted' with the lower colors to keep the sort of mottled look I was going for. I like the texture of the packaging as well - actually, it was as important as the interesting shape when I saw it laying there, discarded, looking for a way to be recycled. Man, I feel the urge to hug a tree or something...

One of the nooks and crannies between the humps looked (to me at least) just like a walkway between upper levels. So I put in two doors and a railing. Of course, they need painting still, but you get the idea.
In this last shot (again, not a great picture), you can see the ground level entries for two homes, plus chimneys (the mushroom-looking things) and windows for upper stories. The windows need painting, of course, and the doors are waiting on a trip to the store to purchase framing pieces for around them.


So far, I think they look pretty good. Thanks to a brief discussion with my friend Eli, I have some ideas for rooftop patios or gardens as well, with lattice gratings, maybe awnings. Let me know what you think, and I will keep you posted as I continue work on this little project.