Scratchbuilt Shanty Town

[Rob_bresnen]

Good work. Very impressive stuff.

[warlord frod]

Thanks for the scale reference picture. Now I have to find me some   

[Grimmnar]

Hey Germy,

Though i like the thought process and use of materials but i has to ask. Why not try this with even cheaper materials? I mean thick cardboard or foamboard for two quick examples. Did i miss the explanation of this or was it more of the idea hit in the store and you had to run with it? :-)

Grimm

[Germy]

It was seeing the potential and running with it. Not only was the cost a driver for this but the fact that I was not changing the dimensions of the foam pieces.
I wanted to keep everything simple. I have designed and built lots of paper/card buildings but found they work better as a glued together construction. Unlike foam
when card bends or gets crushed it is hard to recover, especially if the pieces are designed to slot together. You also need to think about textures, with foam it was easy to
score and mark the surface to create different textures.

Personally I don't like using foamboard for many of the reasons given above. You also have to do something about the exposed edges of foam board. I'd use it more for something attached
to a base that I then cover (at least in part) with putty/clay for the textured parts.

I like doing projects like this because it demonstrates how easy and cost effective it is to fill your table with terrain.

If I don't include the cost of the paint used (as that has been used across many projects) each building worked out at just over 14p each.
And was one of the fastest terrain projects I have done. Probably took 3 to 4 hours of work to produce 16 buildings.

[Sangennaru]

I did have them as one piece originally as you can see here

But you don't really get corrugated sheets that shape so I cut them in half. I did keep the cardboard backing on one side to maintain a bit of strength to them.

Of course a single piece isn't realistic, but you should cut them, then glue them to form the roofs. This way you can even add more small details on the whole roof (antennas?), or broken roofs. I did something using my resin stuff a couple of years ago: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=46266.0
Of course, that's not as cheap and sturdy for wargaming...

Personally I don't like using foamboard for many of the reasons given above. You also have to do something about the exposed edges of foam board. I'd use it more for something attached
to a base that I then cover (at least in part) with putty/clay for the textured parts.

For the exposed edges, there's a simple solution, that actually is a GREAT help to quick assemble the foamboard without waiting ages too.
You can see some details here: http://www.thelazyforger.com/updates/the-making-of-the-deck-house-part-1-the-foam-structure/ Or.. well in many other sites around. This way not only you hide the exposed part, but the corner junction is super-effective with the glue, and everything sticks together in no time!

...now you made me want to do some foamboard stuff.

cheers
Jack

[eilif]

Have to say I like this much more than foamboard. The ability to quickly texture/roughen and not having to worry about covering the edges is very nice.

Though to be fair, since I started using converted toys for most of my structures I've pretty much stopped scratchbuilding walls from any flat materials (card, plasticard, hardboard, foamboard, balsa, etc…).  I've gotten spoiled on the pre-greebled surfaces of kitbashed toys. I do use alot of single-sided corrugated cardboard for various things though.

[Germy]

Of course a single piece isn't realistic, but you should cut them, then glue them to form the roofs. This way you can even add more small details on the whole roof (antennas?), or broken roofs.

I see what you mean but for the roof sheets I left the card backing on the underside to provide some strength, sticking the two halves together would work better if I'd also exposed the corrugation on the underside as well. As it is any overlap would not sit proud enough.

For the exposed edges, there's a simple solution, that actually is a GREAT help to quick assemble the foamboard without waiting ages too.
This way not only you hide the exposed part, but the corner junction is super-effective with the glue, and everything sticks together in no time!

That foamboard stuff looks great but it comes back to my previous point about this not being a 'glued together' terrain piece. 

[Sangennaru]

I see what you mean but for the roof sheets I left the card backing on the underside to provide some strength, sticking the two halves together would work better if I'd also exposed the corrugation on the underside as well. As it is any overlap would not sit proud enough.

well, you can just glue a carboard below the two... it would look exactely like having the two pieces as they are now, but you can store them without caring about finding teh good combinations each time.

That foamboard stuff looks great but it comes back to my previous point about this not being a 'glued together' terrain piece. 

good point.

Cheers
Jack

[Germy]

Shanty Town went down well at the club.





Have at least two club members now trying the foam building idea. 

[Gutbukkit]

I love this idea. Very simple yet perfectly executed. Going to see if my local store has these dominoes in stock before I start work.

[pocoloco]

Amazing idea and execution! 

Will you be turning the town into a city soon?

[Germy]

Amazing idea and execution! 

Will you be turning the town into a city soon?

Would be very easy to add more buildings. Might have a try at some non shanty looking ones using the same technique. Although need to come up with a way of doing a smarter looking roof. Probably something in card. Unless I discover something else in the pound shop 

[The_Beast]

Will you be turning the town into a city soon?

Looking at my CD baskets for high rises, and parts bins for shanty market stalls, I realized I'd have trouble working out the transitional space. Will be watching closely!

Somebody else was complaining that dollar store CD crates are getting hard to find. I went looking, and he's right. DAMN MP3! 

Doug

[Cacique Caribe]

Germy, did you ever expand the shantytown further?  If so, what else did you add to it?

I still can't get over how brilliant your idea is.

[Germy]

Germy, did you ever expand the shantytown further?  If so, what else did you add to it?

I still can't get over how brilliant your idea is.

Haven't added anything to the shanty town. However the it is being used gor my clubs game st shows during 2017 so i may revisit this for some extra bits.