From FrederickC - Terrain - A Potpourri of Terrain from recylcled packing material (100 Points)

This will be my final post for AHPC XVIIII. With a mix of post-0p recovery and a bout of secondary infection that had me back in hospital again, my output this year has not been up to my usual standard. I had to beg the doctors to let me go so that I could finish off these final projects in time for the deadline.

So I present a collection a terrain pieces made exclusively for reused packing material, be it plastic, styrofoam, or wood. I often look at things that people throw out, and I see a potential bunker, Sci-Fi power plant, or some other terrain that could spice up the tabletop with a unique feature. So here we go.

 A) Vintage Garage x 1

This started as a small crate that came with a couple of jars of fancy fruit spread or marmalade. While not really useful as a crate, it had some potential as the framework for a vintage garage or shed. I built up the roof with blue styrofoam and filled in any gaps with spackle, before adding the final layer to the roof made of single corrugated cardboard to give it the look of corrugated sheet metal. The walls were painted light grey followed by a dry brush of white. The roof was painted gunmetal followed by a dry brush of silver. The final stage was some rusty browns and some vintage garage signs.

The measurements are 4" x 5" x 6.5"  

 

The original wooden crate still visible prior to painting.

 

 

Spackle makes a great filler of gaps, and sands easily when dry.

Some vintage Automotive signs

 

 

 

B) Improvised barricades x 3

 

These started out as some plastic bits  to which single corrugated cardboard was added along with various lengths of plastic rod or tubing. The final addition was some sandbags made from epoxy putty. When I use two-part epoxy putty I invariably mix up more than I need, so any left over material gets made into sandbags, which always find a use for terrain or some add-on for a vehicle. To give that material more strength, it got a coat of "Modpodge" sealer.The individual pieces measure  3" x 1" They were painted in the same manner as the garage roof with different shades of gunmetal and steel.

 

 

 

C) Normandy Beach Bunkers x 5

 

These are made from styrofoam packing material that was trimmed down using my Proxxon hotwire cutter, pieces of blue sytrofoam cut to size with the Proxxon, metal doors made using pieces of plastic card from used up dining cards.  The bunkers measure 5.5." x 3.5" x 2". The 'concrete was painted medium grey with light great dry brushed on after, and the plastic card door painted gunmetal great. They will make a usefull addtion to the beach defenses  during Operation Overlord. 

 

"Flat Pack Bunkers from Ikea

                  

Assembly complete

     

  

Ready to resist the Allied landings

d) Sci-Fi Industrial units x 3 

The last of my 'structures from garbage' is a set of three Sci-Fi pumping stations, power generators, refineries, or hatever you need for the scenario.  All three started with the same dimentions of 2" x 2.5" x 12" but some of the add-ons have increased the length by 2" or the highest point to 4". They all started out as the cover from a Brother laser printer cartridge that was puilt up on a base of a 2" x 2" X12" block of Blue EPS styrofoam insulation, and then plastic straws, various tubes, plastic card panels, etc, etc, were added to get something that could appear in the engine room of a spaceship, or the generator powering a planetary shield, or whatever is needed for the scenario of 'Galactic Heroes' or some other choice of SciFi Skirmish rules. In the end I didn't use all the bits that you see in the photos, but you can get I good idea of how my thought processes work when looking at packaging, and deciding how it can be repurposed to create something unique on the tabletop.

 

The white domes are from the seal you pull from the plastic spout of a milk or juice carton, after the pull tab has been carefully sliced away to leave a usefull rounded dome. In the end I didn't use everything shown in the picture. 

 

 

 

I don't remember where the red 'tower' came from, but it added an interesting feature to the final structure.

 

 

So the total number of structures is 3 barricades, 3 industrial/power units, 1 garage, and 5 'Normandy' bunkers.
 

 Cheers,

Frederick C 

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Hi Frederick, I like the rough and ready nature you got with the stucco/spackle mixture on the garage and all painted up it certainly looks like an old shop (or a new shop in a 3rd world country). I am going to go with 10 points and another 9 for the barricades (3 a piece).

The WW2 bunkers certainly look the part and remind me of the old 80's / 90's GW painting and terrain guides that constantly showed  how to make terrain from stuff laying around the house and packing pieces.  While certainly large, they are relatively simple to paint up as concrete and I am going to go with just under 10 points a piece and award 40 points for the 5 of them.

Lastly the power units.  These are more great examples of turning junk into terrain and are quite large, but also very basic paint jobs essentially being black and silver drybrushing.  I am going to again go with about 10 points per simply due to the size.  If there were points for building them, you would end up with more as there is a bunch of cool ideas there.

That should give a total of 99 points, but I will round it off to 100 points and congrats on getting a lot more terrain done this challenge. 

- Byron