Cheap & Cheerful Star Wars/Sci-Fi Gaming Terrain

[Supercollider]

Quick update - found a little time this week to throw a couple more objectives/walls together.

Made from a tofu carton thing, containing two portions (sixty portions!)



This is what it looked like prior to painting - very simple to make.  I trimmed the flange at the bottom to make it look neater on the table, then filled in the recess at the top with a bit of styrene and a couple of green stuff gribblies.  Then glued a control panel on it and covered the embossed recycling logo with some more greenstuff (as it was too messy to remove it).



An added bonus is that its sides are the same angle as the yoghurt carton storage tanks I made earlier, so you can create a nice seamless barrier if you need one.



Cheers!

[Andym]

Wow! That is sooo brilliant! Simple, yet extremely effective! I think your paint job makes it really work!

[Finn]

Amazing what you have done.
I have  used yoghurt pots and mushroom containers for scenery in the past, but its always looked a bit naff.
The greeblie panels and recessed lighting effects have really brought it to life. Consider both ideas stolen.

[Supercollider]

Cheers, chaps. glad you like!

I'm trying to keep things really simple at the mo', as I don't have much time to make stuff.  I've got a few mushroom punnets I might have a go at next

[OSHIROmodels]

A good addition, the painting really makes it work 

cheers

James

[LCpl McDoom]

There's several items here that have inspired me to consider doing some scratchbuilding. Outstanding work, well done. And those fold-away shanties are really clever.

[Supercollider]

Having entered the build it contest, with plans to make a sci-fi cargo carrier, I realised I have no suitable sci-fi type cargo.  While we can't start the main build yet, we can make a start on props, right?

I had a bash of making some crates/barrels from what I had in the bits box.  Here they are almost finished (I want to to a bit more weathering, and add some decal style stuff to some of them).



Here's a quick how to - I collected the lids from soup/milk, primarily because they had a recess in the top, and relatively interesting side details. Snip the internal tabs down with some nail clippers (makes it easier to line up the side). Then use hot glue on one side then leave them inverted while they cool, so the glue drips to the lid on the other side.  Next use a load of circle punches to make various sized discs, and some crafty scissors to cut the top section in two, in an interesting way - I tried to make them more versatile by having a crate type opening on one end, and a barrel style top on the other, so you can mix them up when using them on the table.  Finally, glue everything on with a glue stick (strong enough to hold until the paint/PVA mix, applied next, makes sure they won't move).



It took about an hour and a half to do all these.



Then I painted them in a 50/50 mix of dark grey paint and PVA, gave them a thorough drybrushing of lighter grey and or white, then washed with various base colours.  I've just tried some powders/pencils on a few, which will be the final step after I paint some decals on.

Now I need to make some square ones! 

[pocoloco]

Excellent idea and perfect execution! 

Consider it nicked! 

[Mason]

You have done a cracking job on those crates, sir.
 

[Andym]

Brill idea!

[Ramshackle_Curtis]

This thread is awesome, thanks for sharing!

[James Holloway]

That really takes the bottle-top barrel to the next level. Clearly I need to be on the lookout for whatever kind of soup you eat!

[blacksoilbill]

Those are very clever!

[Supercollider]

Thanks all!  I think these crates could also be made into passable wheels for a space rover type vehicle, using a different cut/layering pattern in the recess.

I also discovered that there is a brand of coconut water (best hangover sure!) that has similar tops, but they are a bit larger (23mm recess, compared to 19mm in the smaller ones).  They would make even better wheels). So it looks like I'll have to find an excuse to buy some of that! *cracks open a beer*

[OSHIROmodels]

Brill 

cheers

James