Cheap & Cheerful Star Wars/Sci-Fi Gaming Terrain

[monkeylite]

You can buy it as Instant Mold where "Cool Mini or Not" have heaped on a huge profit or you can buy it as Oyumaru which is quite a bit cheaper. It is exactly the same material.
You can find it on eBay.

Yeah, that Oyumaru is really good stuff. I did a pretty basic tutorial for my simple effort:

http://tewblogger.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/door-molds.html

Not as cool as supercollider's, but I will be stealing his ideas asap.

[blacksoilbill]

This stuff is all sickeningly good! Very clever indeed.

[capthugeca]

Yeah, that Oyumaru is really good stuff. I did a pretty basic tutorial for my simple effort:

http://tewblogger.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/door-molds.html

Interesting.
I hadn't realised you could pour resin into Oyumaru. All the reviews I've read said that the heat given off as the resin cured would ruin the mold.
I assume that you didn't have that problem.

[monkeylite]

Interesting.
I hadn't realised you could pour resin into Oyumaru. All the reviews I've read said that the heat given off as the resin cured would ruin the mold.
I assume that you didn't have that problem.

No, I didn't know that was supposed to be an issue.

Maybe it depends on the resin. I ended up with some clear jewellery-style resin, coz it was the only one in the shop.

[Supercollider]

I took a break from far future style buildings, and had a bash at creating another sci-fi/modern staple - a Shanty Town! (I've always wanted to game Cursed Earth/Hotdog Run/Long Walk Dredd at some point). 

This is what I've come up with so far.



Each building folds flat (inspired by a post I saw here, a few years back).





All the bits fit into a large sandwich bag, for easy storage.





While not strictly Star Wars style terrain, I'll probably mix it in with some adobe buildings I made a few years ago, plus the new stuff I am making, when I want to create a 'fringe' style world.

Serving suggestion:



Cheers!

[manic _miner]

 They look good and neat idea on folding them up too.Getting a nice selection of terrain.

[Constable Bertrand]

They fold flat and look that good 

BRILLIANT!


I agree that Adobe and shanty looks fine together.

"Hover skiffs, move out" in the fringe world colonisation.

Cheers
Matt

[huesped]

WHOAAAAAA
 The whole scenery match incredibly!!
WOW you could do a whole board inspired on Raxus Prime!!!

Congrats again!!!!

[Supercollider]

Thanks for the compliments.  The Shanties were a lot of fun to make, and very quick to throw together.  I'm going to make a few more when I can get my hands on additional corrugated cardboard stocks

Also thanks for the Raxus Prime tip - Never heard of that planet before!  Inspirational background material!

[Grimmnar]

You can buy it as Instant Mold where "Cool Mini or Not" have heaped on a huge profit or you can buy it as Oyumaru which is quite a bit cheaper. It is exactly the same material.
You can find it on eBay.

+1 

[blacksoilbill]

Again, too clever! And they look superb too. This really is a great thread.

[verd]

Man, those buildings are shockingly cool!! 

[sean_68333]

Can you provide us lowly mortals with a tutorial (or at least the basics) on how you put together the folding buildings?

This stuff is fantastic.

[Supercollider]

Here is a quick breakdown of how I put them together, I'll try and do a step by step when I make some more.

First step is to flatten out a sturdy cardboard box - I used one of the small ones I got from mini shipments.

Cut two wall strips from the flattened box - I used the box's 'natural' corners wherever I could, where I wanted my corners (the two corners without the white hinges).  It's reasonably important that the wall strips are measured, and they have 90 degree corners, so they match when assembled. You can also add window holes and other details at this point. You can also make slanted roofs, etc (I've made pitched roofs for other buildings using this method)

For the open corners, cut some thick card hinges to join them up (White, in the pic), fold them, then carefully glue them to the inside of the sturdy box strips (using PVA), making sure everything is lined up.  I did it one corner at a time.  These hinges allow the finished product to fold flatter.  There will be a gap on the outside of the building - which looks fine for shanties.



Then go bonkers with the outside - use PVA to stick card, coffee stirrers, lolly sticks, etc.  Superglue for plastic.  This all adds detail, and importantly, some additional strength to the walls.  You can disguise the gap where your hinges are to some extent - by overhanging stuff on the outside.

I added a removable brace inside each building, so they sit square on the table.  This is just a piece of sturdy cardboard cut to size.



The roof is a single piece of thinner corrugated card, strengthened by lolly sticks on the underside, and detailed on the top. I tried to make it look like loose sheets of metal were being held down by various items (I used stones, plastic cogs and other stuff, elsewhere)





I painted them with an undiluted mix of Burnt Sienna & Black acrylic paint at first, to seal them to some extent, and to provide a dark base coat to shade up from.  This lets you use some washes for rust effects (don't go mad though - you don't really want to soak anything at this point - it might twist or warp).

The building with the balcony used the same method, just took a little more measuring and planning.

Once all is layered, glued, painted and dried, the end result is surprisingly sturdy!

Hope that helps!

[eilif]

More great work.
Thanks for the close up shot and the jewel examples.  I'd previously looked past jewels which I assumed were mostly 6 sided.  I'm definitely going to get a bag of those 4 sided jewels.  Super useful!