15mm Sci Fi - Zealots (28 Feb)

[Idle Doodler]

I've been messing around with boxes and scrap gathered from a nearby hardware-focused charity shop, ultimately hoping to overcome an inability to complete more than a handful of terrain pieces for any one particular project. I'm finding 15mm a lot more accessible for terrain making.

Alas, my trusty old glue gun gave up the ghost partway through one building. Rather than discard it into a landfill, however, I tackled it with a screwdriver and played around with the shapes. A new reincarnation became obvious, so with a new glue gun in hand I put this together:



The only additions are a bit of scrap foamcore for the base and some circuit board from a defunct mouse as the controls - everything else came from the glue gun (including cable and plug).

It's a bit scruffy, and I've nothing to hand to make it easier to sand down the interior any further, so it will do duty as a rusty old single-occupant spaceship, perhaps a commuter vessel or the ride of small-town bounty hunter.

[zrunelord]

Looking good & it has promise.
Indeed building something for the smaller scales ( 15/10/6mm ) is way much better than building for 28mm,
Especially space where to store the finished models.

Z

[War Monkey]

Oh, that looks great! You can build from there. I can see a ship in the making from that.

Here are some ideas these were just built from foamboard, chipboard and cereal box cardboard.





CookAndrewB has some great examples too.

[CookAndrewB]

I think that came out well. I have to admit that I'm always quite impressed when someone can look at some rubbish and immediately see the potential in it. I've collected interesting bits for years and still struggle to put it all together in some cohesive package.

[Idle Doodler]

I'm just a hoarder. My envy is reserved for all of you who can chop up abstract shapes and make them look like wall panels!

I might need to access the creative hivemind here. I've commandeered some old keyboards from work and have taken them apart. The casings look good for making platforms and the like, but I'm wondering what to do with all these keys:



I wondered about wall panels, though they're quite deep for such a purpose, and might need some sprucing up to avoid all looking a bit samey. Here's a dry run:



I've got a couple of those wooden artist boxes which could fit a full playing board in each side, so I'm looking for things no more than 2cm in height. The keys are short enough, although their depth will take up quite a bit of space inside.

Any ideas for what to do with four keyboards' worth of keys?

I also picked up these recently:







(These are after two rounds of cleaning - lots of ingrained 'history'!)

I'm sure these could be useful, though I'm torn between using them as is for gaming boards, with perhaps a matching gateway cut into the sides of each to allow for a bit of modularity and some textures and greebles added, or cutting them up and spreading them around different projects. Some parts are too narrow to for 15mm gameplay, but there's plenty of cover, corners and multi-levels. Unfortunately, lots of the areas are a bit too deep to fit in the art box, otherwise they would have been perfect.

[manic _miner]

 I think the trays would look good with a few bits and pieces added to them.Maybe some bridges and such to help give more playability.

 The round type buttons would help to add some detail to the terrain too.Some of the keys could also work as crates.You have plenty to make some good sized stacks for cover.

[War Monkey]

I'm just a hoarder. My envy is reserved for all of you who can chop up abstract shapes and make them look like wall panels!

I recommend try drawing these panels then cut them apart the put them in place with a bit of a gap between them. Or you can make lite cuts and use a fine ball point pen and retrace those fine cuts, the cuts, cut the fiber and the pen helps push those cut fibers down.



The nice thing is you can draw these up to any size you want, and you can practice on scrap so if it turns out as a mess then you can add it to junk pile for your scrapyard for every good spaceport need a scrapyard. Just make the junk piles in "L" shapes "T" shapes "I" shapes and squared off "C" shapes. This will give you the ability to layout junk piles in different ways, you could even play out battles on a junk world like the movie "Soldier" with Kurt Russell.

[zrunelord]

We are ALL hoarders
I have some 4 keyboards waiting to be used.

Main problem with keys is they are slanted or curved.
You can use them for the feet ( glued in 2's , 3's or 4's) then sticking struts to the top part. The good thing is that a lot of kb's are made from polystyrene ( i.e. like sprue ) so can easily be cut & glued.

They can be also be used as turrets. Even as cargo ( glued back to back), as windows if you saw the tops off ( though this is fiddly).

Even as flooring if you heat them up & flattening them when soft.

Look also at the reverse detail, sometimes the back of moulded plastic is even better.

I think the main issue here is that you need tools to work with & to hold items whilst working.
And WM has given you great panel line tips ( which reminds I still have to make or buy micro chisels )

For e.g. search for tools on my blog. Sorry for some reason
I can't post link from my mob at the moment !!!!

Z

[Idle Doodler]

The round type buttons would help to add some detail to the terrain too.Some of the keys could also work as crates.You have plenty to make some good sized stacks for cover.

Main problem with keys is they are slanted or curved.
You can use them for the feet ( glued in 2's , 3's or 4's) then sticking struts to the top part. The good thing is that a lot of kb's are made from polystyrene ( i.e. like sprue ) so can easily be cut & glued.

They can be also be used as turrets. Even as cargo ( glued back to back), as windows if you saw the tops off ( though this is fiddly).

Even as flooring if you heat them up & flattening them when soft.

Look also at the reverse detail, sometimes the back of moulded plastic is even better.

Yeah, I've had to lay aside the idea of using as wall panels for the time being, so they're currently awaiting gluing to become futuristicy crates (where engineering has evidently evolved to the point where warped decagons are the go-to shape for mass transport!). I've gutted the undersides of some to see how feasible it might be, but I don't think it would be worth the investment on a larger scale.

I recommend try drawing these panels then cut them apart the put them in place with a bit of a gap between them. Or you can make lite cuts and use a fine ball point pen and retrace those fine cuts, the cuts, cut the fiber and the pen helps push those cut fibers down.

Thank you - these are very helpful!

[SpaceCudet]

I'm just a hoarder. My envy is reserved for all of you who can chop up abstract shapes and make them look like wall panels!

Adam Savage recently did a video on You Tube on paneling models: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiZPuE0wBE8

[zrunelord]

Thanks for the vid link.
Always a pleasure to watch Adam working. If I might add, the second best alternative to polystyrene is card. Cheap or free, comes in various thicknesses, easily cut/bent & glued. Most of my builds are made out of it so I have proved this. The downside is that it soaks water like a sponge but it can easily be sealed.
What I will stress is what Adam states, you need tools, whether homemade or bought, tools are half the job.

Z

[has.been]

I would use the keys for 'crates' glue them open side
to open side, then glue groups onto a thin base as
clumps of crates. You can then deploy clumps together,
or leave gaps for figures to move through.

As to the Yellow trays. Make walkways to go over the
areas too narrow to put figures in. It will add an other
level to the scenery. Also worth drilling holes either side
of those narrow 'canyons' then pushing tubes (defunct
biro inners for example) or 'cables' (defunct electrical
wiring for example) through. It will provide more
interest.
Good look with this.

[CookAndrewB]

I like the idea of keys as crates. Like a different version of the old pop bottle cap crates. If they don't turn out all that splendid, you can always drape them with tissue to make them tarp covered! Tarp fixes everything, and it makes you wonder who might be under there. Doesn't even matter what the shape is then.

[Idle Doodler]

They're not too bad as far as crates go. Certainly good enough to hide behind and break line of sight.

[has.been]

Now base them in 'clumps' & you have a useful
terrain resource.