Ever since I began browsing the wondrous terrain creations over at the Post-Apoc Forums, I've wanted to try my hand at building my very own shanty building. It wasn't until recently that I managed to assemble the critical mass of raw materials to embark upon this effort. A bits order to Ramshackle Games gave me a goodly pile of doors, junk, machinery and smokestacks. To that I added a big pile of leftover Deadzone plastic pieces and scrap plasticard given to me by Josh. Then last weekend, I started building.
I went with a fairly simple design to start with: a two story compound with an overhanging balcony. I basically glued two low, square cardboard boxes atop each other, then wallpapered the structure with a hodgepodge of plasticard, balsa strips, Deadzone bits, Ramshackle bits and other assorted pieces of junk. Here is what I came up with.
It's pretty big! Probably 12 inches by 10 inches. It can definitely work as the centerpiece of any shantytown. I added some gravel, rubble and other junk to the base, then started painting. In the past, this is where my terrain seems to fall down on the job. No matter how hard I try, I always seem to make the colors too dark and muted. That's fine for rubble and ruins, but for this piece I wanted to make it a little more visually interesting. So I took a page from Voark's impressive shantytown called Tull's Resolve, and went with a rusty basecoat followed by some dabs of brighter color, then more rust and dust.
Here's the final product.
I painted up a few pieces of scatter terrain specific for this shanty compound, to create a little bit of cover for the large flat roof areas. There will be sandbags for the topmost roof (near the hatch) an at least one metal barricade on the first level roof.
And just for fun, I used the leftover bits to whip together this small outbuilding. Maybe it's a shed, or a jail, or even the entrance to a subterranean bunker?
Check out the pic at the top of this post for a look at the larger compound with 28mm miniatures for scale. Can't wait to get 'em all on the battlefield together!
-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member
5 comments:
Great looking buildings. The little one could be a outhouse! I am happy that the Post Apoc Forums inspired you.
Looks great! I've just got one question, that corrugated plasti-card you've used, is it an "off the shelf" product or a repurposed material?
Really enjoy seeing your terrain, food for thought :)
Lovely. The blue pops without taking from the shabbiness.
The corrugated plastic card is in fact a commercial product. It's sold in big sheets just like other styles of hobby card. This particular sheet I begged off a friend to use for this project.
This is a wonderful building, I hope I can replicate this on the piece of land I have to construct a house. I just disagree with the paint, I believe paint can be a little more electrifying.
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