Good Aftenoon all,
Gamers should never clean out their gaming closets, because you never know what might turn up. I just did, and have a few that I'd like to post here with some basic tutorials. You too can create odd post-apocalyptic shacks from common materials.
RICE BOWL SHANTY - started life as a ready rice and chicken meal from Trader Joes. The tougher plastic meal containers make the best "pre-fabricated" shacks so this one found a new life as an upcycle. For most of these, I rattle-can painted them in a very dark brown and oversprayed them lightly with orange to simulate thoroughly rusted-out sheet metal, then gave it a quick pass with flat just to seal it in.
Then I used a natural sponge and dabbed masking fluid (liquid latex) onto areas that would likely show rusting-through and paint chipping. You could use the salt method, or hairspray, or whatever technique you've cooked up for similar effect. Keep in mind that if you're using masking fluid, get your hands on a "Masking Fluid Remover" which is basically a really rough latex rubber erasing block. If you have a latex allergy, then stay away from these, natch.
I sprayed a silver over the rusty brown and dried latex, then once that's dry, used the latex remover to rub off the dabs of masking fluid, revealing the rusty garbage underneath.
Then the usual weathering techniques of edge painting, rusty washes, chalks etc. The corrugated sections are plastic, as you can briefly heat them with a lighter and make the edges all wonky and janky looking. The wood pile is exactly what it is - sticks collected from outside, cut with a garden clipper, stacked and glued with PVA and shoe goo. You'll be using something like shoe goo a lot with these plastic upcycle pre-fabs as PVA won't stick to them and Cyanacrylate super glue doesn't really like them either. Just leave them in the garage overnight to fully "stink out".
The second one is a "Non-Denominational Ritual Space" made from the packing cardboard from a copier toner. It was already the right color, and needed only minimal shading. OH - before I forget - on all of these, cut the "lip" off the edge to make the edge flush with the ground. I used cheapie surgical scissors for this. A few corrugated sheets an some ground texture, and it's pretty much done.
Third was a small auto garage made from a cookie container. Pretty much all of the techniques above were used for this one too, except for the boxes which have a pva-glue-and-water tissue draped over them and painted. This is a really quick and dirty way to make covered boxes as scatter terrain, and is integrated with the building here.
Doing some internet searches will bring you all sort of fun things to print out and use as posted handbills, or you can use your own graphics program to make your own. A few prints and you'll have more than enough for several projects. Many posted on this building as a Job Seeker's wall or "wall of the missing".
Fourth is a small, low, squat little dump made from hamburger patty container. The shape was good and it was a nice thick plastic, so why not? Again the above techniques were used to finish off this little gem. The signs are made from magnet sheet so that they can be changed at will depending on the scenario.
Fifth were a set of scratch-built cargo containers. There are excellent videos on YouTube on how to build these from Foam Board and Corrugated cardboard sheet. Mine have a bit of an extra "pip" to them in that they have embedded magnets on the non-labeled side. A door and windows can be clicked on or removed to make them into shacks, or they can be left plain for general purposes.
NOTE: If you're going to put a label on them, you can print them out on your home printer, then cut out the letters, then rattle-can spray them on. BUT..... and it's a big but..... Use a stiff, almost card-like paper because regular printer paper will just bend and fly away under the pressure of a rattle-can and look like garbage. Slightly harder paper will keep its edges cleaner.
Lastly is the moonshiner's shack, which is actually a legitimate MDF kit by Sarissa Precision (no this is not an ad for them). Normal instructions have you prime or lacquer these first, then paint, but I just painted the wood on because..... it's wood isn't it? Then I washed and drybrushed them normally. I used plastic corrugated sheet to re-do the roof from shingle to metal, then rusted those out the normal way. Lastly, I used my new favorite thing - AK interactive colored pencils - to add some extra lines between and on top of the boards and again, this ain't an ad for them, just letting you know what I did. When doing wood grain use the edge of a saw to scrape a wood grain onto the flattened boards first, then clean it off, then paint it. It'll give you a more weathered look. This also works to turn polystyrene tubes into logs and telephone poles. Just scrape it along and put in those grain lines. Can't miss.
Anyhow, here are the pics. Have fun!
January 12, 2012, 04:02:58 AM
