Space, My New 28mm Frontier (Jan. 12: pics recovered & 2 pics of final project)

[War In 15MM]

Thanks dinohunterpoa.  It's really a shame that Monolith Designs is not readily available.  I am just very lucky that I live near Brookhurst Hobbies, and they still have some Monolith tucked away in dark places in their storerooms, and once in awhile a box or two of them turns up.  To have located 10 of the Monolith Sci-Fi buildings just as I was starting this project was a real find.  I'm now working on some Snapdragon structures for my spaceport that I lucked upon at Brookhurst... once again a great terrain line that is no longer available.

[dinohunterpoa]

Looking forward to see the Cantina! 

[War In 15MM]

Me too!

[War In 15MM]

One of the first things that caught my attention when I began collecting items for this collection was the AT-43 medical unit.  I loved the double-wide shipping container hospital and the sexy nurses.  I was fortunate to find a second shipping container hospital sold separately.  In addition to the AT-43 pieces I have included two medical droids from Wizards of the Coast.  Finding Wizards of the Coast’s Star Wars collection has been a wonderful benefit to this collection both in terms of the great variety of figures available and because I have been able to pick most of them up at very reasonable, often very cheap prices.

[dinohunterpoa]

Me too!

Those nurses are great! 

So it seems that we're going to see some kind of medical bay, very nice idea! 

 

[War In 15MM]

The spaceport will have a small military base and the med unit will be part of that... at least that is the plan.

[dwbullock]

First, I believe you should start a small account where forum members can send you money to buy them random cool stuff at the swap meet.  I hit every yard sale, flea market, peddler's mall, and thrift store, and never can I find a haul as good as you!

Second, you do realize those AT43 medical containers are eBay gold, right?  Last time I saw one of those actually sell, it could have brought you enough to finance the rest of your purchases for the collection.

As always, enjoying the build.

[War In 15MM]

Dave, my swap meet is a treasure.  Most of the community college weekend swap meets have become outdoor dollar stores rather than places where people sell discarded junk which is to say treasure.  I hope the character of my swap meet never changes... each weekend is an adventure with a pot of gold in the form of broken or discarded toys always possible.  I didn't realize that the AT-43 medical containers had become so valuable.  I love the ones I have and realized when I found them years ago that they were special items.  Thanks for the kind words and for taking the time to write.  Richard

[War In 15MM]

I’ve been painting a variety of pieces this week.  Two of the items purchased at the swap meet several years ago for a dollar or two were initially intended to be taken apart and used as scrap parts placed around a repair unit or scrap yard.  But as I’ve been painting more and more bikes, I got the urge to see if I could use the racers as vehicles instead of parts.  They offered several problems.  The smaller one lacked any significant hard point to use as a support post to lift it off the ground.  The large one is heavy, very difficult to take apart, and was a problem if I was going to remove the wheels and lift it on a post.  In the end I decided to leave the wheels on both and use them for the support… not perfect, but I think it worked out okay.  They are also much smaller than 28mm and so the figures that came in them had to be removed and replaced with Wizards of the Coast Star Wars figures that could be made to look like they belong in these racers (sorry about not knowing the technical names).  In the end I think they came out pretty good.  The skiff was also a dollar or two find at the swap meet and except for reattaching the helmsman’s arm and rebasing, all I had to do with it was give it a new paint job.  The Space Needle is a souvenir purchase during a 2015 visit to Seattle.  It was originally a large dual purpose container/big cup and/or bank.  It is about 16 inches tall.  I filled the coin slot with putty, sanded off the words Seattle and Space Needle, attached a cap and pointy thing to the top to cover the straw hole, and gave it a new paint job.

[Suber]

Wow, given the raw materials, these are excellent!!

[eilif]

More Brilliant work!

The first podracer pod looks a bit small (maybe tack another chunk on the bottom?) but the other one is spot-on.  The space needle is really cool.  Technically it's probably a bit small, but it's so tall, that by the time you've looked all the way up, it looks perfect. 

The skiff is really cool to. I've got a partly broken 3.75" action figure version that I might have to do up for 28mm.

[War In 15MM]

Suber and eilif, thanks to both of you for writing.  Glad you enjoyed the pieces.  eilif, you are right about both the needle and the pod.  In terms of adding a chunk to the bottom of the smaller pod, if the right chunk comes along I'm may just give it a try, but my goal with these things is to fill the streets with activity and with about 30 vehicles plus creatures moving up and down the spaceports streets I think the pod will probably give me what I need from it as it is, but I'll keep my eyes open for an appropriate chunk... the swap meet is good for things like that.  Richard

[eilif]

Good point.
If the pod is street filler, I'd just put it in there and leave it be.

I'm gearing up for a similar addition to my sci-fi city. I want to add some every-day street detail so I've been grabbing various resale shop toy cars that have a sci-fi/futuristic look and are aproximately 28mm.  It's proved more difficult than I thought to find good civilian vehicles, but I've got about 10 so far. When I get near 20 I'll paint them all in one frenzy and populate them around my city layout.

I don't think I'll ever get around to painting alot of civilians themselves, but it's not unreasonable to think that they've all gone into hiding when the battlemechs show up!

[War In 15MM]

Essential to the look I want for my spaceport community is a varied population, ranges in technology, and racial and cultural differences in the population.  A key element of that community will be an open air market with lots of market stalls trafficking in food, weapons, droids, etc.  At my local swap meet several years ago I came upon what I now know to be an Action Fleet Star Wars’ market place.  Over the years I have picked up several of these playsets at the swap meet (all broken) for a dollar or two each.  The great thing about the ones I’ve bought is they all had their little market stalls.  The pictures I am providing here of the playset in its original state are ones I took off eBay, not pictures of the ones I purchased at the swap meet.  The ones on eBay appear to be complete and are expensive.  For the last couple days I have been taking the playsets apart and putting together my own market stalls using pieces from the Action Fleet sets.  Since the Action Fleet market stalls tend to be a little low for 28mm figures, I have been setting them on new bases made from Legos covered with JTT plastic.  Four of the stalls sets I have finished thus far are food oriented.  Two of the stalls are for weapons sales.  Those last two are composed of Lego bases, an Action Fleet stall hood, Reaper future weapons, a Heroclix flying wing, and an awning covered stall that I picked up as a broken toy at the swap meet some time in the past.  I still have a few more stalls to complete.  Those will probably be droid and technology related.  I’m having fun!

[Dr Mathias]

Those are neat, I wasn't aware of that set.