Pics for TMP

I was in a couple of discussions on TMP over the last few days, and had promised some pictures, so here they are. My big space/bomber bases in progress:


One of my two "Babylonian towers", also known as "wood boxes" in Michael's craft stores - not really much else to go by, they were in the discount wood stuff aisle, with a bunch of birdhouses. Maybe if you take the pic in and wander around, someone will be able to help you find them.

My plan is to put some sort of top on them - maybe a popsicle stick sort of thing, after painting them with textured paint, or scribing (big) bricks on the side.

Grass Huts Progress

Following some advice on the 3mm Yahoo group, I tried using some Polyfilla to create some grass hut-like texture on my Monopoly building village huts, and here are the results:

These are the regular village huts. I have some round huts I did a while ago from wooden plugs and things, but didn't texture - I think I might need to revisit them now, these look pretty good! Hopefully the turn out ok after sanding a bit and painting.

 
Some of the bigger buildings, and the chieftain's hut from the Montagnard village on stilts. In the background are buildings that will be used for cities and towns in Vietnam.


More from the Montagnard village. I just did the roofs, since from my pictures, it doesn't look like the walls were as obviously grassy, so I'll paint those gray-brown to represent flat wooden walls.

However, now I'm hungry, since all that texturing just makes me think of...

15mm Buildings

Here's a pic of some 15mm buildings I've been working on haphazardly over the last few months. The two small ones are little cardboard boxes bought cheaply from a craft store, with some Polyfilla slapped on (with spaces for doors and windows left). I'll be using them for sci-fi, done up in a desert look or something (maybe rock).

The two bigger ones are foamcore lasercut buildings from Gamecraft Miniatures, which are a cheaper way to get buildings on the table. I put some Polyfilla on these too, to roughen the texture.

While officially for the Middle East, I'm using them for my 15mm India project. I still have some resin ones from JR miniatures to clean up and paint, so these are now on hold, so I can paint everything for India all at once.

More Vietnam

A quick photo of my Vietnam NVA dug-out bunkers (WIP), termite mounds, foxholes, and US sandbagged bunkers. The one US bunker (centre-left) has a rader dish on it (from a Shapeways bits pack), and I'll try some pins for regular radio antennae. Clicking on the pic for a close-up is probably the best way to see things.
 

Istanbul Wannabe WIP

Here are some shots of my first VSF (Aeronef) city, something vaguely Ottoman-ish, or at least eastern Mediterranean. This first shot is after the walls, palace, and a few key buildings around the square went up:

The last two are after some more work - turns out I need a lot more sprue cut-offs than I thought to fill it!

Sensodyne Tragedy!

One day after posting about the usefulness of Sensodyne toothpaste caps for 2 and 3mm terrain, I pick up a few tubes on sale, only to find they've changed the cap!  It's still the same shape and dimensions, but the 6 sets of vertical ribbing around the sides are gone, it's completely smooth.  It might now serve as oil tanks for targets for air gaming, but they aren't neo-classical buildings any more. 

Just used 3 of the old ones on New London, better make my supply last!

6mm Dollar Store Finds & 2mm Cities

Here are some more photos of what I've been up to. First we have four scenic pieces I found in the pet supply section of a Dollar store (Pound store for my UK friends):


Most of these will be for 6mm, but I think the bridge/tower combo might be better as 2mm, or could be used for both. The bit under the bridge is kinda dumb, to lay down a river beneath it will mean the river goes up and down a hump. I'm also thinking I should buy a second Aztec temple and spray paint it a sandy colour to use for 10mm Africa. I may even just do it for this one - since I don't have a single Aztec or Aztec-like fantasy culture in my plans! (well, maybe Warhammer's lizardmen)


Based on an idea I saw on The Miniatures Page, I've started putting together some 6mm sci-fi city buildings from cheap trophy stands available from a local craft superstore (Michael's). I've glued the matching pieces together, I just have to sand them, then glue them together as towers. I noticed last night the craft store has different shapes available now, but I'll wait for their next 25% off everything coupon before I buy more.


I'm also working on some 2mm cities to use either as representational scenics for Aeronef (based on CDs) or as edge-of-the-table pieces for Land Ironclads, Kull, Imaro, and my 18th/19th century historical projects. The latter aren't meant to be fought on, rather as the obejctive behind a defender.  I'm basing them on 2 12"x6" flooring tiles, and they're meant to be a bit closer to true 2mm scale than those on the CDs, which will be more like 0.5mm.

For the CD-cities, I'm doing several for my take on Victorian Venus (basically Space 1889's Mars), Ottoman-esque, and a generally European city or two (should work for North America as well). I may do an Aeronef NY, but bigger and on a tile, using my mini Statue of Liberty. For the bigger 2mm cities, I'm doing a bigger version of a Venuvian city, Victorian Mars (Wells' idea of Mars), a general European one, 18th century India, Valusia (Kull), one of the Giant-Kings' cities (also Kull), and an African-esque city (Imaro).

Then as a special project, I'm doing a "New London", aka Sky City, for Aeronef. Here are some early shots of the basics. Each CD is supported on a heavy bolt, glued to the cap of a toothpaste tube (Sensodyne makes great caps for 2mm scenics), which in turn is glued to the centre of the CD. The three CD's were then joined with popsicle/craft sticks underneath, which will be painted as monstrous girders.


One CD will be the industrical area, one the rich/administrative area with parks and the like, and the other the main city. I have anchors planned, as well as bridges, a telegraph line cable, aeronef docking and repair stations, factories, skyscrapers, etc.

In my universe, it will roam the Atlantic, as sort of a floating place of business for the British Empire (also a backup capital, if the Germans/French/Russians/Turks invade England!).  To defend itself, I'll be picking up some British turrets from Brigade this summer.

3mm Vietnam Terrain

I'm not quite sure where the last two months have gone since my last post here, but I have been pretty productive at some 2-3mm terrain-building projects over the last while. I finally have some photos though, so I'm going to spread these out over a few days, starting with some 3mm Vietnam pieces.

Some concertina wire rolls, waiting to be primed, with a demo project of 3 rubber trees, which I'll eventually expand into a whole plantation. Also in the picture, the metal thing on the wood thing, is a 3mm pagoda!

The concertina wire is the same sink scrubber thingy I used way back for my 2mm African village's bush fence. The rubber trees are little pompoms with a small pin inserted, based on some wooden craft sticks. After this trial, I started putting a bit of glue where the pin meets the pompom on the underside of what will eventually be the tree's foliage (basically, where the pin is sticking out). This was to make the whole thing more secure when I attached it to the base. The pagoda is a "finding" from a craft store, in the DIY jewellry section, plus a wooden plug.

In the background are some ex-Monopoly houses and hotels being modified into Vietnamese rectangular huts and city buildings.


These are some foxholes and dirt bunkers for Vietnam. The bunkers are meant more for the VC and NVA, the foxholes for the US. The bunkers will eventually be based and have tree trunks and foliage put around them. All are made of Sculpey. Not pictured, but I made some sandbagged bunkers out of Sculpey too, they aren't pretty, but will do for attacks on US bases. My last Sculpey project was some giant termite mounds, which sometimes factored in as ground cover in Vietnam.


Some Picoarmor ex-Monopoly houses on staples for a Montagnard village. I've since added some texturing to the bases. Oddly enough the pictures I have show the villages to generally be on dusty plains, not water, but that may just be when the photos were taken and the fields were flooded at other times.


These proto-bamboo stands have been taking the longest time, first cutting the bases, then texturing the sides, then sticking in a billion pins.


Another shot of my eventual bamboo forest. Next up are some Dollar store finds and scratchbuilt 2mm city pieces.