Working in 6mm...

My sons have discovered BattleTech. So now, amongst all the other projects, I also need to build some 6mm scale sci-fi buildings.

Luckily, I have a ton of little plastic bits. I have already made a hospital/clinic building using the molded blister packaging from one of my youngers son's insulin pump pods. Two more pod packages with some sheet styrene and a large number of bits attached are being turned into an industrial complex. Comes with a mini-nuke power plant and even some defensive turrets. even considering some kind of security fencing. I bet a bit of screen fabric and some small plastic rod uprights would do the trick. I have thin gauge wire I could do in loops for the top razor wire... Speaking of, I guess I need to do some concertina wire and minefields as well, since I will be using infantry, artillery, VTOLs and vehicles as well as the Mechs. Combined arms, baby!

Another intersting plastic container will likely become the control tower for an airstrip setup. I already have a piece of PVC cut in half to make a pair of Quonset hut style hangars. I was originally going to paint them aluminum, and even masked one up and sprayed it, but now I think a nice camo pattern would be better for the hangars themselves. Or at least plain concrete. Or whatever they use in 3050.

I am tempted by some lovely resin terrain out there. I think the 28mm scale Armorcast mini-nuke plant would be brilliant for a city-sized power station. For now, I have to settle for scratch built stuff, though.

Final thought for tonight is this: thank God for Dremel. I got one at Christmas time, finally, and I absolutley love it. Now I really want a small table top bandsaw for cutting hardboard to shape faster and easier than the jigsaw does.

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.

Handwavium Crystals

Ahh... the fabled handwavium crystals of Mars... such beauty and power...

How do I make some?

Basically, the handwavium crystals are nothing but pink foamboard insulation glued to a thin (1/16" or 1.5mm) plywood base, painted and flocked. I made them in a way that is essentially scale-neutral, like most landforms. In 25/28mm, they are big rocks. In 15mm, they are huge crystals.

Anyway, step-by-step (and yes, I should have taken photos. It was late and I wasn't thinking about the blog. Sorry.):

1. Make the crystals. I took some scrap pieces of foamboard, and cut them into basically crystalline looking shapes, making sure I kept at least one side as flat as possible. I used a hotwire foam cutter to cut the foam. To make the thicker crystal, I glued two pieces of foam together after cutting them into shape.
2. Make the bases. I took bits of scrap plywood from my River project, and cut them into irregular shapes with a hand-held fret saw. If you had a thin blade for a small bandsaw, that would work brilliantly as well, but I don't have a bandsaw yet.
3. Glue the foam to the plywood using Tacky Glue (a thickened PVA, like Elmer's White Glue, available at craft stores in the US). Let that dry.
4. Paint the plywood base. I painted mine with Burnt Sienna craft paints, as they are destined for Mars' red soil. You may want to try a different color for other planetary surfaces.
5. Paint the crystals. I chose green shades, to stand out better against the reddish soil of Mars. Again, you may choose your own colors. I painted the whole crystal in Vallejo Deep Green, then painted ridges and edges in Vallejo Intermediate Green, and finally did a thin line of Vallejo Light Green along the edges and drybrushed a bit in the center of the facets for a light effect.
6. Flock the base. Last, I painted some thinned down PVA glue on the bases and covered the bases with the reddish-brown sand I am using for Martian terrain. At this point, I also added a few small details around the crystals, like gravel and undergrowth.

I am going to use a similar technique, but different colors and shapes, for some "unobtainite ore" on Venus soon. I'll post photos when I am done.

If you want to see more photos, check the photobucket link in the margin for wargames terrain.