Kitbashing and recycling packaging for sci-fi terrain

Merry Christmas everyone, with a bit of time off I’ve finally finished these three buildings that I started earlier in the year.

All the techniques are carried over from the previous pieces bar the one with the resin pour. For that one after finishing everything else I then mixed up some clear resin and added a tiny amount of green pigment (for use with resins also containing a bit of metallic/sparkle effect) and poured it into the walled off area. That’s it, no tricky processes, just mix and pour in and leave it alone to cure.

I’ve also been using my new airbrush to coat the models with Heavy Chipping Medium from AK. I did try this stuff using a brush but it doesn’t work, especially when you paint on the colour layer on top. The Chipping Medium just gets dragged around and activated by the brush and mixes with the colour paint as you go and kind of spoils the effect later on. So you do need to use an airbrush to get the whole process to work properly.

Its a pain cleaning the airbrush between colours (as I wanted to use a random selection to get the Shanty town look) but what I found was if you start with the lighter colours like white and yellow then move to the stronger colours, you don’t need to clean out the air brush each time. Just chuck in the red and spray away then move onto a dark blue etc etc.

I’ve more of these models started so hopefully there will be more to come in the New Year. All the best!

This one is going to be a place where the owner produces “nutritious slime” as a crop. It’s listed as a Holestead in the Necromunda tables, so I’ve gone for a bunded surrounding wall built up at the site of the slime coming out from the ground. That will give me something to pour resin into at a future date after painting. The owner has then built his shelter / Processing setup right on top of the slime where he can protect it and sit out on the front porch and maybe give the slime a stir from time to time.

Something I’ve found useful for getting items glued together are a pair of machinist’s blocks. They are nice and weighty, and of course come with good square sides. They help keep items together at right angles and you can get your hands free to do some glueing etc.

This one has turned into a Workshop for the Shanty Town. A piece from one of the Sector Mechanicus sets makes for a nice chimney / exhaust… using those parts sparingly across a number of models helps spread their cost and gives a hint of GW’s universe to the overall look.

I’m happy with the workbench that emerges from the building, those bits all just fell together nicely and suggest things being produced inside and sliding outside onto the bench for further processing…

So this one has turned into what looks to be some sort of communication station or a comms relay for the Shanty Town.

Just wanted to post a WIP showing the finished kitbash and the various bits visible and then the model primed.

More base shapes constructed this weekend. Here’s where I’ve gotten to, looks like nine dwellings so far. Plenty still to do to these, need to finish their structures, add roofs where needed and then start detailing with bits.

I’m trying to capture a few of the Territories listed in the Shanty Town Table such as; Gambling Den, Nutrient Vats, Shanty Guilder, Friendly Doc, Drinking Hole and maybe a Water Still. I’ll see how I go.

I can already sense the dilemma of whether to base them collectively or to keep them independent so they can be arranged freely.

Currently one of them looks like a cheap bedside lamp, that will hopefully transform from being a Cotton Buds container clad in plasticard into a Water Still of some sort but needs a lot of work.

I do recommend the styrene sheets (various thicknesses) as a building material. Very useful and easy to work with. Also recommend the corrugated card sheets for crafting that are ideal as a wall cladding. Foam board also very handy as a wall when coupled with a Glue Gun.

I heard Warren and the guys sounding very unimpressed with battery powered glue guns this weekend. I just want to say that my Bosch GluePen is great. It uses the 7mm glue sticks and is rechargeable, and has hardly any “warm up” time at all. Turn it on and a few moments later it’s ready to use. Maybe this is different to the ones they were using, I think they had actual replaceable batteries in theirs which could explain the poor performance.

Getting back to the styrene though, you can see in those images that I was able to cut a round door shape into the sheet and “flex & snap” (TM) the piece out leaving a nice clean space for the door to glue into.

Here are the Shanty dwellings so far, mid construction. As you can see they are generally a mixture of styrene sheets, bits box bits and what will be increasing amounts of corrugated cardboard. I’ve ordered some specific card stock for that which will hopefully look better in terms of scale opposed to ripping up old boxes.

This model tank part is looking like a useful roof for a dwelling. My aim is to not have a Shanty town that looks like modern day… it needs to have some sci-fi to it. And I think some odd shaped structures will help a lot. Certainly no wooden parts for my Ash Wastes where natural wood would be a long lost commodity.

I do recommend getting some styrene sheets though, as a building material it is great to work with. Easy to cut and snap apart, then easy to glue and stick together.

Next on the Shanty Town Territory Table that I fancy having a go at is the “Shanty” itself… Just starting with some rough shapes and forms for small buildings. They are all going to be quite small, stacked up in a precarious fashion and clad in corrugated metal sheets. Have tried delaminating some cardboard to get at the corrugated surface within, the scale might be a bit off for 28mm though. One thing I found that worked well was to strip away the top layer and then to use a thinned down white glue to smooth away all the little bits left behind. That leaves you with some better pieces to work with, but I’ll need to see how it looks scale wise. Alternatively I could source some proper model corrugated sheets in plastic or card. Will mix it all in though. I think that variety is key here!

Well the third piece of the set is complete. So it turns out that the first piece I made should be called a Water Purifier, which according to the rules, can be used in conjunction with the now ready Windtrap.

The Windtrap collects the water from the air and then the water can later be run through the purifier for greater profit. If your gang owns both pieces of territory!

Income for the Windtrap is 30 creds, plus another 2D6x10 if combined with the Purifier. Quite a little money making venture for those ash wastes gangs. Worth fighting over no doubt.