Terrain: From the Resale Shop to the Battlefield

The D-03 distillery began life as a patriotic decoration that I found at a resale shop for a couple bucks. Though the scale was wrong (it was roughly 54mm in the box), the piece had a nice shape and good surface detail. I knew it would be a great candidate for conversion

This product was meant to light up, make sound and put on a dazzling fireworks show via a mass of fiberoptics that both explode out of the back of the model. Needless to say, all that was removed.

After taking it apart (nearly everything was connected with screws, luckily) I removed the house from the base and reassembled it. I used some latex plaster to fill the holes left by all the shutters after I removed, and then I then set to detailing it.

Here's what I used for this conversion:

• One-sided corrugated cardboard sheeting
• Plastic toy silo from Target $1 section
• Circular cross-stitch mesh (granny grating) 
• Disposable plastic plate for raised grid texture and D-03 sign
• A few model railroad kit stickers 
• Random plastic toy bits for ladders and AC unit on roof 
• Pegasus Chemical Plant parts for tubes and small tank
• Some polystyrene plastic sheets and strips

I first began by creating more level surfaces to place figures. The sloped roofs on the top and rear of the building were removed and replaced with flat surfaces. I used my Dremel's cutting wheel to cut away several sections of the model.

For the front I replaced the sloped roof with a shallow incline and added a strip of styrene to help keep figures in place.

To bring the whole thing closer to 28mm scale, I took the fence pieces from the front yard, cut them down and used them to turn the porch into a raised loading dock. The remainder of the door and lower windows were covered with corrugated cardboard. A toy silo with the top removed was glued to the side of the building, and a piece of circular cross-stitch grating was glued about an inch from the top to make a concealed firing location.

A plastic dinner plate provided all the raised panels with square details as well as the D-03 sign. Other parts from the original structure also came in handy. I used the original window backings to make a flat surface on the side for attaching the silo, and the shutters make excellent vents as seen here on the roof

The AC unit is a random toy part from a resale shop bin. It's got some of the raised detail from the plastic plate added to cover up a few holes sides. I used a tiny bit cut from a GW tank accessory sprue to suggest that there might be machinery inside, though it's actually empty.

I can't recommend the Chemical Plant kit from Pegasus/Technolog highly enough. It's a gold mine of detail for adding industrial realism to your models. All the pipes on the model, as well as the small tank on the back, are from this kit.

Painting was really easy. 

• Spraypaint the whole thing black, using black gesso to reach where I missed
• Drybrush on main colors (orange, blue, grey, red, yellow, metalic silver, etc) 
• Add a few stickers from a model train kit
• A couple of heavy reddish brown washes
• Drybrush of metalic silver on the edges of some of the siding to suggest that it is made of metal

Jobs in the wasteland are worth fighting for!

So that's it. I'm very pleased with the way this one came out. It was an extremely lucky find and I wish I had another as there's so many different ways you can convert plastic buildings, especially ones with so much good detail already included. As always, comments and questions are appreciated!

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member