A Large Expedition Tent WiP (New pics 6 Sept/09!)

[Wirelizard]

I killed a dress shirt a while ago - black ink will do that to a white shirt when a pen leaks in your breast pocket - and now it's being reborn as a a project I've wanted to do for a while - tents for safari & expedition games!

The first tent is a big one - construction is frankly easier than on smaller things - at roughly 4"x3" and filling an entire CD.

Top photo below is before the front wall got glued on; lower picture is after the front wall is in place. The dog is one of Dazed's huge attack dogs, on a Canadian penny base (roughly 18mm across). All my 28mm pulp humans are off with Burgundavia in advance of next week's game...


Flickr Photo page.

The frame is six toothpicks, held onto the CD by small blobs of Milliput epoxy putty, and reinforced after the putty dries with superglue. Heavy thread was wound around the tops of all six posts and glued in place with superglue, then each wall was cut double-height and folded over the thread, with white glue to stiffen it.

It's surprisingly sold once the glue dries - two layers of heavy cotton + glue is quite stiff.

The roof is in place as I write this; it's intended to be removable so it's currently drying with a piece of wax paper between the roof and the rest of the tent. I'll fold and glue the edges of the roof after the main part dries and stiffens.

I'm also planning some much smaller pup tents - probably two on a CD with a campfire and such - and also some smaller expedition tents like this one, except half the footprint.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Looking good so far. Should be great when finished 

[Wirelizard]

Basic construction (ie, cutting, glue & folding!) of the roof is done - it even comes on and off without too much difficulty.

The roof needs cleaning up a bit - trimming in some corners, mostly. I might wind up trimming and partly rebuilding one corner that went a bit awry, but aside from that I'm satisfied.

Painting is going to be mostly a matter of a bit of tan paint, then a white drybrush to pop the textures and highlight the edges a bit. The base needs a bit of greenery and such, and the interior is going to get a few basic bits of furniture. Not sure if the furniture will be glued down or not at this point...

[Operator5]

Looks excellent to me! It's amazing what uses we find for what other people would discard.   

I think I would glue the furniture down. Some people may not like it, but to me, it would make the whole piece easier to deal with.

[gharak]

Looks good,

I tried a simmilar method earlier this year but got sick of making a mess with all the glue and fabric and tryingto get it stiff enough to with stand a bashing.

I eventually built Tent shapes out of mount board and then covered it in fabric for texture.

They don't look as good but are easy to make and very solid.

G

[Wirelizard]

Flickr Photo Page.

Ninty percent done!

The interior has a cot, a small table, a rifle rack, a larger desk/table covered in maps and papers, and a few misc. bundles and such.

The cot bedding is Milliput on a scrap of styrene; the legs of the cot and the rest of the furniture are basswood. The maps are much-reduced versions of real maps, found via Google Image Search and then tweaked. The red tin mug in the middle of the maps is Milliput.

The two hunters outside the tent are Copplestone, inside the tent is one of Pulp Figures' heroines. The really big dog is from Dazed.

The camera, as is frequently the case, is crueller than the eye. The outside of the tent appears much whiter and less blotchy than in these pictures; I'm probably going to hit the outside with another round of heavy drybrushing of white in any case. There's also a bit of landscaping to be done outside the tent still.

I might yet cut the front of the tent into a wider, open door, and use seperate scraps of fabric to model rolled-up doors. We shall see.

[white knight]

Indeed, very well done!