Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: Mako on November 26, 2019, 04:30:00 AM
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I've been collecting bits and pieces, anytime I see something that looks promising, in order to come up with a spacecraft interior that can be used for gaming.
Not sure if I'm going to go with just 15mm (probably the best scale for this), and/or if I can also use the bits for 25mm - 28mm, and even perhaps the larger 32mm figs. We'll see. It'd be great if the parts could be used for all, or at least the main hull pieces, swapping out interior bits when/where needed, for use with the larger minis.
To start though, I think I'm going to go with 15mm, since there are so many nice figures out there, and they're very economical.
For the hull pieces, I'm going to go with clean, carry out pizza boxes of different sizes, just to make life easy. Don't know if I'll remove the lids permanently, or keep them attached for storage, and to keep the dust out. I like the latter idea, but they might get in the way. Perhaps a combo approach, where I make them removable, but they can be reattached with magnets, as needed.
They're cheap/free (if you ask nicely), robust, and offer a variety of sizes and in some cases, even shaped. One of our local places has the two top corners clipped for some reason, which makes them look a bit more streamlined (clipping the corners gives them six sides, instead of four to the box). I was thinking about using a smaller pizza box for the bridge, and larger ones for the main hull, and/or engine room sections.
Last night though, I got a to-go container from Taco Bell, for their Nachos Bell Grande, and it's a nice, black, oval shape with a clear lid (don't know if I'll keep/add the lid, but it is an option). So, a new, more streamlined bridge for the small scout vessel has been found, accidentally, as well.
The oval bridge will be "mated" to the small, streamlined pizza box, to create a nice looking, two-section craft, suitable for exploration, and short-range operations.
Sorry, no pics yet, but I'll work on that.
Need to start coming up with an interior layout, and some flooring to make the sections look interesting.
Looks like the oval bridge could also be connected to the hull with a short, square, or rectangular neck section too, if you desire a different look. The rear of the oval could also be easily cut off square too, if a more flush fit with the "hull" (pizza box) is desired, instead.
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I will be following with interest. The pizza box idea is very interesting. It certainly gives a large pre-shaped exterior set of walls. Lots you could do on the interior after that. Can't wait to see what you come up with!
Also, if you use a mix of Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, I think you need to name it the USNS Yum! lol
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I will be following this as well.
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Not very inspiring without at least some basic pics, I suppose, so here are a few showing the basic components of the bridge and hull.
The floor of the plastic, oval Nachos box from Taco Bell is 7.5" long x 5" wide x 1" deep (without the clear plastic lid - adding that doubles the depth). The overall size is slightly bigger, but the dimensions given are the usable, interior floor size.
The inner dimensions of the Round Table Boxes are as follows:
Personal Pizza Box = 7.25" x 7.25" x 1.5"
Small Pizza Box = 10" x 10" x 1.5"
Medium Pizza Box = 12.5" x 12.5" x 1.5"
Large Pizza Box = ? x ? x 1.5" (haven't collected one of these yet, but think it's about 15" x 15", or 16" x 16" in size)
Pics shown with minis are from GZG, and are their 15mm (actually about 18mm tall now) UNSC Hardsuits, which are a must buy for any "Space Marines" type unit equipped with body armor/power armor you may choose to field. They're going to be my "go to" troops for any hostile boarding actions, and/or for any squad complement on spacecraft traveling the far reaches of contested space, where pirates, mercenaries, or worse my possibly be encountered.
Given the height of the walls for these, I'm definitely going to go with removable/swap-able, interior decks for both 15mm/18mm, and 25mm/28mm minis, since they're tall enough to permit that. That will be a nice bonus for this project. Also, I've decided to add in "interior" wall sections, where needed, so that I can make the lids removable, and will keep those only for transport/storage, in order to keep dust out. I think I'll use mini-magnets, or magnetic sheeting to attach and secure those as needed, since that's pretty simple to do.
Nachos Container Bridge and Personal Pizza Box Hull:
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A larger, multi-box design, using a Small Pizza Box, Personal Box, and the Nachos Bridge section.
Silver bits are the 15mm GZG UNSC troops - two standing (circular bases), and one lying prone (elongated base).
The smaller Personal Box at the rear is where the engine room is located on this design.
As you can see, the beauty of these is also that you can just add in more sections as desired, for a bigger or longer vessel. The boxes can be butted up to one another as shown, or you can add in some smaller sections in between, in order to make a hull spine that they are attached to.
My personal preference would be for square pizza boxes, when attaching multiples of those in a series, for a more pleasing, and functional look. May need to hit up some other local pizza stores for those, soon.
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Side view from above, showing 15mm GZG troops and a Small Pizza Box.
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Nachos Container bridge section with 15mm GZG troops shown for size.
I think I'll lay in a foam-core floor, and will probably glue in a printed paper, or cardstock floor over top of that, in order to make it look better. A metal grid floor would also work here, for a more utilitarian look, where access to critical bridge electronics and power conduits is required - that can be created using wire or plastic mesh, or "granny grating" available in craft stores. In the case of the latter, I'd probably leave the plastic black, and paint the mesh grating silver or aluminum for contrast.
I'm considering a couple of designs for this section.
For the first, I think the bridge will be in the front half, or two-thirds of the container, and be a single room. For the rear, crew quarters will be located in this area, perhaps on either side of a corridor, and will contain bunk beds, lockers, and probably a dresser and shower section.
For the second one, I'm thinking about having the entire oval be the bridge and crew ops area, and then have the crew quarters in the front half of the pizza box hull, instead.
The bridge, and/or other hull sections will be connected to one another using some sort of magnets, so they don't detach during game play.
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Looks like your off to a great start, can't wait to see more.
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promissing Start
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Greeble that up and I'll bet it will be more than satisfactory for an epic adventure! Nice of the Round Table to give you some freebie boxes! The other thing you could do is stack boxes on top of each other for multiple levels. That is something which can be difficult if you are scratch building each deck, but easier now that you have a dimensional building unit (pizza box). Need the crew to get to deck 3C to defend against a boarding party? Now you can build transit tubes and fight in 3D!
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Thanks for some of the suggestions and feedback. I appreciate them.
I especially like the multi-level idea, though with some of the smaller ships I may stick to just one level, at least for the bridge section. Might go with 2 - 3 levels for the rear hull and engine room though, since that has some interesting possibilities.
I think I'm definitely going to go with some sort of removable deck pieces, at least at first, unless/until I get more bridge and hull components.
Playing around with them just a little demonstrates very quickly that they'll need to be weighted down, magnetized (to keep them removable), or eventually glued in place, since moving any figures around quickly causes even the one terrain piece I have partially completed to move and/or fall over. It's the tactical view-screen for the front of the bridge, which turned out pretty neat, even with just some basic work. I'll want to have the ability to swap this out too, as needed, in order to show maneuvers by nearby spacecraft.
Thinking perhaps maybe a thin magnetized sheet for the hull deck, and/or a metal one. Those will be coated with the colored deck prints, and then sealed for protection. Then, the view-screen, chairs, tactical work stations/desks, etc., can be added in too, and should remain in place reasonably well, hopefully, even if bumped.
I need to find something to make a short passageway/airlock for the bridge to hull section. Thinking a small, square, or rectangular box-like structure might work, and I can perhaps notch it, so it fits snugly over the join between the bridge and hull section.
Not sure what to do about the walls/workstations yet. Thought about just printing some images out on cardstock, and that will work, but I'm liking the black plastic hull interior, so we'll see. Might sacrifice another food container to get a curved, one, or two-piece, countertop, but don't know if that will be wide enough or not. I guess I could always make one out of styrene and/or card and then paint it black, too.
I hope to re-double my efforts in the next week, in order to at least get a few chairs made, and perhaps some control stations too. I've got some ideas and stuff for the engine room too.
Anyway, here are some images of what I'm talking about, along with a couple of 32mm Star Trek figs for scale, and since they show up better in the pics than the smaller, 15mm ones.
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I'd say the blue decking is definitely Federation standard. Might want to change that if I can, but this was one of the few textures I have access to in my current version of a Word processing program.
It works okay for now, until I have more time to come up with something I like better.
Starfleet Red Shirt facing off against a Romulan with a Disruptor Pistol. Should be interesting to see if the "Red Shirt" luck holds true in my universe as well.
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Here's a shot of another deck texture. Not sure I like it, since the hexes are too big, and the lines between them a bit too bold in the larger size.
I've found a new one which I like better, so may swap it out instead, but at least here you can see how different the bridge can look with just a single, minor change.
Orange would probably be better for a Klingon vessel, so need to find some of those for another test shot, when time permits.
Anyone else played around with adding in chairs, desks, computers, etc., etc., onto their deck plans, and attempting to secure them into place, so they don't go flying off across the room during game play, and character movement?
If so, how are you dealing with that?
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Nice start! 8)
I'm in a bit of a Star Trek frenzy at the moment too, so this is relevant to my interests :D
The hex floor immediately reminded me of a holodeck (even though I believe those actually had blue squares?) for obvious reasons, but I agree that the lines are too heavy. Nice, but heavy.
Those miniatures are WotC clickies sans base I presume?
And as far as fixating furniture to the floor, how about a thin metal sheet beneath the floor layer, and magnetized furniture?
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For the furniture, I'd simply mount them on their own bases, as in the picture below. You can move them around, set up in different configurations, etc.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/42/15049-041219154904.jpeg)
The only other option I would suggest is to simply glue in place. For this ship I glued all of the controls/furniture in place. If you don't think the particular piece needs to be changed up too much, then I'd say this is a perfectly good way to go. For bridges you could end up simply building 2-3 deck plans and purpose build each in a different style? Federation, Klingon, Romulan. Then all of your different deck texture options might be needed to mix it up.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/42/15049-281019184351.jpeg)
Magnets and such sound neat until you start to fiddle with it, IMO. It adds cost and frustration where I don't think you need any. Magnetizing a fancy WH40k model might make sense if it is pricey, but magnetizing a pizza box? Dude, get more pizza boxes and build away! Glue stuff in until your heart's content and if you don't like it toss it away and start over. That's my thought on the matter.
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Yea, good points on the pizza boxes. Should be able to get lots of those.
Have to spend a little cash for the Taco Bell containers though.
I am thinking about tacking down, either permanently, or semi-permanently, workstations/desks, and other large objects (command chair, perhaps). Might make sense to do that with the bridge's tactical view-screen too.
For smaller chairs, may leave those loose, since they might get knocked over, or used by characters in a melee, so I can see a rationale for those getting knocked about.
Found another great, pre-formed, bridge and/or hull section. This one comes ready-made with small divets already molded into the plastic, for a nice textural look. Looks quite a bit like the blue deck shown above, but completely molded in black plastic, like the Taco Bell container too.
Will post a few pics tomorrow, once I've had a chance to clean it up.
I'll be using the McDonald's, Big Breakfast, plastic food container for a more rectangular shaped deck. It comes with a clear plastic container lid, so might also make a nice hydronponics room, or other similar one where you want sunlight to hit it. Just need to cut away, or cover up the big "M" in the middle of the clear plastic lid for that one.
Not sure, but with the lid on, it might still be possible to use this with 15mm/18mm tall, and smaller figures, low plants, etc., for a nice visual effect. Of course that will have to be removed in order to permit access to the minis.
You can probably use it completely black, as is, or drybrush silver/aluminum, or other metallic colors, and leave the divets black, for effect.
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The cost of buying Taco Bell is paid in the bathroom lol
I think your plan sounds like a good one. Nothing left to do but start playing around with it. Also, remember that spraying the cardboard boxes will make them "fuzzy." If (when) you are going to paint them up you will be better off doing it by hand.
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Good point on painting the cardboard. May just need to apply paper "skins" to it instead, then.
Here are some pics of the McDonald's Breakfast Tray. I notice the pattern on the bottom isn't consistent on this one, so will need to check others to see if this is just a fluke, or if they're all that way. Not a huge deal, but the divets would be nicer if they were consistent across the bottom.
I guess if not, that can always be covered up by furniture, or other things, if desired.
The dimensions of the usable floor interior are: 8.75" x 5.75", and the bottom black tray sides are about 5/8" high. The clear lid that goes over top easily clears a 32mm tall figure, and the clearance is about 1.75" from tray floor to the bottom of the lid.
This hydroponics section is a little small, for 32mm figs, but is still usable as you'll see, especially if you connect a series of them together in some way, to represent different sections of a much larger hydroponics area. You could also add in a small beach, some water, and some sunbathers too, if desired - might do that for my SHADO/UFO game(s), since who doesn't want to see Moonbase girls in bikinis, on the beach?
I think these hydroponics sections would be superb for 15mm/18mm troops, since they'd be a bit larger and more impressive with them inside.
Also, I've had a possible re-think on getting rid of the clear top "M" logo. I'm going to claim it is really a "W" for the Weyland Corporation, before their merger with Yutani, which formed the far more infamous "Weyland Yutani Corporation".
At least until I can come up with some other "M" names too.
Without further ado, here's a pic of the McD's Big Breakfast Tray, with a pair of 32mm Star Trek Clix figs, sans their overly large clicky bases. They look a lot more impressive in the photos than the much smaller, 15mm/18mm figures, for demo purposes.
Now, to make some hydroponics lab terrain, and some 25mm - 32mm furniture and chairs. Need to start filling up these hull sections, stat.
On the plus side, at least I have a head start on the 15mm/18mm stuff, since I've come up with some chairs, G-Accel. Couches, tables, etc.. Just need to paint up some of the smaller minis, when time permits.
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Side above view, and view with clear lid on top too, showing the large "Weyland" logo.
Apologies for the bright white flash, but it's dark outside, and in the house. Hopefully, it doesn't detract too much.
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I think I'd be tempted to just cover the whole M and turn it into an overhead air handling/irrigation system (really, just greeblies on the outside as I can't see a reason to try and do any work on the downward facing portion of terrain). Plus, the "bubble" may look more attached to the ship if it has some elements that draw the ship design in, beyond the floors. It might be interesting to mount this piece inside the pizza box, with a cutout on the box lid so that when the box is closed the bubble feels like it rests inside the ship as well as projecting out. Then you could also potentially cut the ends off to create doorways. Just a design thought. If multiple McBreakfast platters fit inside a pizza box then you could have a series of bubble gardens, which would also be pretty cool.