Ramblings of a frugal wargamer

[dwbullock]

I have little time to play these days -- and when I do manage a game, I get to play with my seven year old daughter.  Sometimes my two year old son helps.  So anything I build has to be tough.  And cheap.  My goal is to make terrain at under $5 a piece, that looks good and withstands pressure.  The terrain also has to be useable.  Super heroes often perch atop an oil tank before pouncing on my villains.

I also know I am a table top painter, at best.  Though I have tried to get better, having read many, many excellent posts on this forum (and others, but mostly this forum).  I'm really trying to forge myself into a terrain builder/converter with a certain style.

This is my most recent acquisition --80 cents. 





One thought I have had:  would a drill bit looking thing work for this?  Any other suggestions on how to finish this?

Thanks,
Dave

[has.been]

Build a platform & steps underneath where the 'drill bit' is pointing & you have a teleport device to another world/dimention or time. If you put that in the middle of your table you can have 'present world (Earth) on one half & whatever you want on the other half e.g.Alien world/ Ancient Rome/Inside a human body (like the film 'Fantastic Voyage,) You get from one to another via the 'Teleport/Micromiser'  Chase the bad guys to all sorts of interesting places/times.

[smokezombie]

What a great find. What was it from?

[dwbullock]

It is a Jakks Pacific Creepy Crawler.  Took a little hunting on the interwebnets to find it.  Originally, would have looked like this:



Never thought about a teleporter.  That's a great idea.  Right now, have taken it apart, removed the bottom portion that held the batteries.  Will need to build up a base, and pretty sure I have a part that will work well for the bottom portion of the device.  Will post as it develops.

Thanks.
Dave

[FramFramson]

Loads of uses for that thing in sci-fi games. Factory/industrial machinery of all sorts, teleporter, stasis cell (with the addition of a chamber), and on and on. Excellent find.

[eilif]

Looks awesome!  That's just the kind of thing I look for in resale shops. I also aim to keep my terrain at a couple bucks each, and it's quite amazing what can be found if you look hard enough.

I think it looks like the top of a very large future oil derrick.


Just a pipe coming down from the point of the press going downward into the ground. The way that derricks work, it doesn't even have to follow the direction that it is pointing.

Sounds like you've already separated the main section from the base and do two separate terrain pieces.  Unless you are doing a mech game where you need 4 stories of blocking, it's probably be better a bit shorter anyway.  The base looks like it would probably be good for some kind of chemical vat perhaps?   If there is anywhere that the toy still has buttons, (like the switch on the front) removing them and putting grating on the inside is also a great touch to add the impression that it has working internals.

Best of luck on this project and as you develop a "terrain style" . If you want to see some more castoff toy terrain, I've recently put a number of projects up at the club's blog. http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com

[dwbullock]

Thanks, all.  Appreciate the ideas and suggestions.  eilif, been keeping an eye on your posts, and quite impressed with your kitbashing.  Looked at a few of those Geotrax bits myself, but they have yet to hit the sweet $5 price point.  Try to keep an eye on that blog of yours, too, for kitbashing inspiration.  Quick question for you -- that mech that you use in the photos, what is it?  Looks more like a toy than a model...

Set this aside on the workbench for a bit.  Still trying to figure out all the necessary pieces.  Did take it off the base, and tried to save it, but the base was trash.  Nothing but a battery container with 4 C batteries still in there.  And a lot of leaked battery acid.  Not useable with the kiddos, and not worth the trouble to clean up.  So while I wait for inspiration and the right bits, knocked this together (pardon the bad picture):



Used two of those Coke bottles that come out at Christmas time that look like ornaments.  Tops are made with 40k bases, and bits of the ubiquitous chemical plant.  Hit it with some paint, and hope to have a better picture of painted product up this afternoon, rain permitting.

Finally -- got a chance to use the phrase ubiquitous in a post.  It is a good day.

[eilif]

Thanks, all.  Appreciate the ideas and suggestions.  eilif, been keeping an eye on your posts, and quite impressed with your kitbashing.  Looked at a few of those Geotrax bits myself, but they have yet to hit the sweet $5 price point.  Try to keep an eye on that blog of yours, too, for kitbashing inspiration.  Quick question for you -- that mech that you use in the photos, what is it?  Looks more like a toy than a model.

Liking the new chem-tanks!  Pegasus power plant really are some of the most usefull bits out there.

Thanks for the kind words, I definitely agree with you about the "$5 price point"  That's kind of what I aim for.  As for the mech, it's a die cast and plastic toy/model Mad Cat from Joyride. It's pretty close to 28mm scale. Joyride released a batch of 4 mechs at the time of the Mechwarrior Clix game.  Pretty nice mechs, but they have some quirks.  They're called 1/56 scale, but they actually range from 1/56 to around 1/72 and the pilot figures look to be about 1/87.  The paintjobs vary from tabletop-ready to toy'ish and there were also 2 or 3 different paint variants.   I've got 3 of the 4 mechs. You can see them and all the other robotech, battletech, robogear and other mechs  I've been collecting here:
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2014/07/robotech-battletech-and-mechwarrior.html

[dwbullock]

Had a chance to get paint on a few pieces, and the sun cooperated for some quick phone pics.  Thought I would share.  Always welcome to advice or criticism.

A word on my painting -- I am somewhat embarrassed to post photos of my painted projects.  This forum has some incredible talent, and mine is table top quality, at best.  I have often painted industrial terrain with quick drybrushes, with rusted metal and dirty washes.  I am trying something different with these pieces.  Wondered if in the grim dark future of tomorrow, do people simply allow everything to rust to pieces rather than slap some paint on it?  Industries would try to keep stuff up a bit, wouldn't they?  So think of these as a bit 'newer' or 'well-maintained.'

Finally, I have a very minor hand tremor.  Not that noticeable, usually, but keeps me from painting a straight line.  You have been warned

My daughter picked out the colors.  She also decided they all belonged to 'STAR labs' and so will need to add some signage.

The oil tanks from above.  Was a serious pain in the butt to paint.  Sprayed white -- wiped off the coke bottles.  Sprayed different type of primer, this time black.  Didn't stick again.  Roughed it up with sandpaper, didn't stick.  Tried to slap on some gesso.  Didn't stick.  Finally had to bust out the 99 cent can of black spray paint from waaaaaay back on the shelf.  Made it a bit too thick, but just wanted the things primed.

[dwbullock]

Some time ago, put this up and asked for suggestions for painting.



Was suggested I try to paint it up like a commercial piece of machinery.  Building on the oil tanks light gray and 'warning stripes,' we came up with this:








PS -- hrm, nothing like giant photos to make you spot the paint problems.  Might need to touch up some of those warning stripes -- even my shaky hand should be able to make sure the black is, well, more black.

[dwbullock]

And finally....

Bought this from Goodwill for 50 cents.  Was busted up. 



Google-fu told me it was a a 'Sonic Speeders' from Jakks Pacific (same company that made that creepy crawler thing above -- need to keep an eye out for things from that company!).  Took it apart, and shocked that there really wasn't anything to it.  Did get a little 'tank' type thing that will find use somewhere.

The handles were removed, with little short PVC pipes added for 'smoke stacks.'  Quick grating covered up holes on each side.  And plasticard was cut to cover the hole in the front.  Rivets were added with puff paint.  Tried to make the stacks look 'dirty' but not happy with the stacks at all.  Don't like the 'dirt' as applied, and notice now they don't completely match up (gaps!).








Would love feedback.  Thanks.

[marianas_gamer]

Very nice industrial terrain. Good painting!  You have nothing to be embarassed about at all I particularly like the "well maintained tanks". It was worth the hassle with the priming.
LB

[zizi666]

Neat stuff! Love the paintjobs.  

[carlos13th]

Great use of stuff I never would have considered.

[Eric the Shed]

awesome....