Cheap & Cheerful Star Wars/Sci-Fi Gaming Terrain

[horridperson]

This thread is awesome  !  Your attention to detail spins rubbish into scenery gold!

[JamesFlowers]

guttering and Maelstrom Edge building accessories.

[Mauled]

What a brilliant thread. I'm trying to get some fantasy skirmish/dungeon crawler type models done, but tempted by sci-fi with Rogue Stars coming out. This kind of stuff would fit perfectly!

[Elk101]

Very nice find. Unfortunately it seems to just be a US promotion as UK eBay highlights with the postage rates. Great idea though.

[Hupp n at em]

Wow, the inspiration to be taken from this thread is an armful, at least... great work!

[Supercollider]

Finally finding some hobby time after a busy Summer, planning to finish off a few more things for a decent sci-fi table.

I got a cheap entry level 3D printer earlier in the year, mainly to see what all the fuss is about, and to learn the ropes. 

I've printed out a few things, but these are the first I have painted and finished - I re-purposed some sci-fi barriers (From Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2626696 ) to make some 'holo' type signs.  I scaled them up slightly to match the width of the signs.



I undercoated the prints with plastidip, which evened out some of the layer lines.  The signs themselves are made with thick baseball/trading card protectors (trimmed to fit), with some acetate print outs inside them.  All signs are removable/changeable.  I think I'm going to make some broken versions, for when folks shoot/throw each other through them.

Time to finish off a few more things!

[rumacara]

Lovely thread.
Full of good ideas.
Keep it coming.

[eilif]

I undercoated the prints with plastidip, which evened out some of the layer lines.

This is incredibly clever.  Some folks will be disappointed by a loss of detail but I can think of alot of situations where it's worthwhile to sacrifice a bit of surface detail in exchange for a smoother painting surface.

[Supercollider]

Been making steady progress with the cheap sci-fi terrain over the past couple of months. 

I finished and weathered the catwalks, stairs and ramps made from recycled coat hanging brackets and basewood. Can see them here in a Super Mission Force game featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy Vs the Universal Church of Truth (Headed by Adam warlock) on a floating space platform.  The guardians lost a very close tussle.

The Painted walls made from Jenga/kid's blocks have served to be very versatile addition to my terrain collection. I made walls, crates and other configurations.  They're holding up the platforms, making walls, LOS blockers, etc.




A couple of (BAD) WIP pics - Simply made.  Layered card over the basewood, prior to painting.  The coat hanger brackets were tidied up with files then superglued to the wood.  I used hammerite as undercoat, then did a salt effect directly over that.





Also used here in a Star Wars game on a desert planet, set in the age of the Old Republic.  Been using a mash-up of Super Mission Force and Void Pirates for rules, plays fast and great!



Here's a speeder I 3D printed - I tested out a mismatched panel look to give it weather-beaten appearance.



The Clix have been repainted - when the vibrant neon tones of the female figure's original paint job are covered she make a decent Jedi padawan figure.

[Mason]

Brilliant, especially those hanger brackets!
 

I have just started embarking on my own sci-fi terrain so I shall be going back through your thread to steal all of your ideas now....
 

[Supercollider]

I've been inspired to create a modest Trek setup for gaming, after seeing some of the latest minis painted, elsewhere on up on this forum (which I don't own... yet!) and watching Star Trek: Discovery (Which is decent).

To keep this setting manageable I plan to do a 'small ship lost in a distant galactic quadrant' with a handful (5-10) starfleet crew types, and an ongoing plot to get back home (or similar).  Maybe in one of the 'runabout' ships that featured in DS9/TNG - I've been playing with the proportions of that model, to create something that looks right on the table, but isn't a huge thing I have to store.

I'm also going to print out some small 1200? scale ships to depict the situation in space, as required. To complement the ships I'll also be making some modular bridge/corridor tiles and associated doodads (warp cores, doors, control panels, etc.) so my crew can get into scrapes aboard Klingon, Romulan, and other ships.

Onto progress so far... I've got some WOTC bendy Trek figs, though I haven't got around to painting them yet (debating whether to just get the Modiphius ones).  I plan to paint them in TNG livery.

I also 3D printed a Type 6 shuttle, and after much wet and dry sanding  I got around to painting it and blocking in the main color areas.   

After filing/sanding and undercoating with a hammerite like product - a quick once-over with fine grit paper smooths out the finish, afterwards.



Blocked in with main colors - I'm usually not bad at weathering stuff, but I'm a bit stumped with this one.  Most vehicles in the TV shows are shown in spottlessly maintained and pristine condition, so it kind of suits.  Any suggestions?



I've also been thinking about getting some inkjet printer decals, rather than doing the numbers and lines by hand/stencil.  Anyone got any experience or recommendations with those products?



Thanks for looking.

[twrchtrwyth]

That shuttle is very nice. Great work.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice job.

[Mason]

That is a nice addition to your collection.
 

I look forward to seeing what you do regarding the weathering, as I would be tempted to really dirty it up but I understand why you are not so keen on that idea.
 

[Westfalia Chris]

The shuttle looks great. I agree that weathering might be a bit too much and isn't really in line with classic Trek (i.e. DS9 and before), but if you are going to print decals anyway, you could consider doing some panel lines in the same go.

The main issue, in my experience, with inkjet-printed decals, is that you have to be extremely careful with cutting them out since it's commonly a single foil. Apart from that, I've had good results in the past, making sure to follow the instructions - i.e. print in high resolution, let dry for a couple of days in a dust-free environment, then coat in a durable varnish, and apply over a coat of satin varnish.

I suspect the last part might be very important in this case since the surface seems to still be a bit rough (it looks great in the pics, mind, but applying decals to a pitted surface is notoriously tricky).

In any case, I'd suggest using a slightly darker grey to shade the steps and where components meet (as a pin-wash, applied sparingly)? The silver metallic areas might pop a bit more against the cream body.