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 

 

 

 

 

From FrederickC - Western Lumber Camp Buildings and Log Piles for 'What a Cowboy' (25 Points)

 Woohoo! A third submission already. 

Last summer my wife and I spent a week at Wasagaming in Riding Mountain National Park. While dropping into the local Dollar Store to get a jug of water, I happened to spot two dYI log cabins that looked like they had some potential for scenarios of 'What A Cowboy'.

They did need a bit of extra work, as there was a gap under the bottom log onthe sides of the building, an artifact due the the nature of the assembly. This was filled with a piece cut from a chopstick to ensure the wall came all the way down to the ground, 

I also decided that the roof would look better with shingles, rather than just a thin piece of wood. So strips of cardboard shingles were cut ad glued into place. That is as about as fancy as it got. Having assessed what would be needed to actually cut the doors and windows through the logs, I decided that is wasn't worth the effort, I did however cut a base on which to mount the cabins to give greater stability, and to make sure the structure would sit flat on the table.

"I'm in pieces, bits and pieces."

Assembled cabins (still without pases.)

Showing the 'lift off' roof.

 The dimensions for the two cabins/bunk houses/lumber camp office are 5" x 6" x 3.5" 

These were painted with water base latex paint from the 'Oops' section at Home Depot.

Pop Up Roof to show interior

 

 

The final group of items are five log piles which would be handy cover from bullets. Here I painted some doweling different shades of brown, and using a jig, sawed them into standard lengths. They were then glued on a base until I thought it looked like the right height. Eventually I produced 5 log piles, each 1" x 2.25" x 1.75". 

All the bases got a thin layer of sand glued on them, with some sporadic bits of greenery scattered here and there. Once again, what Byron says it's worth. 

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What a great little find Frederick.  I agree they needed something with the roof and the shingles make a big difference and look great.  As a suggestion to fit even more into that really rustic look, you might want to try gluing some flock onto the roof in patches as well, as a lot of old cabins get that moss growth on them and it could look good, but if your thinking of these as a new build then I wouldn't.  

Overall, the colour choices overall are really good as well, the cabins look suitably aged and the logs being different colours look great as well.  I might even be stealing the idea for some of my own western terrain.  Points wise I am going to say about 10 points a building as they are pretty simple, and then a few more points for the logs piles.  I would say about 5, but am going to go to a total of 30 between the buildings and the log piles.  Keep it coming Frederick.

- Byron

From FrederickC - Sci-Fi Command Outpost with Turret (10 Points)

 

Finally, my second piece of the challenge is complete, which is also my first post-op submission.  it consists of a roughly cylindrical base with a dome on one side with radar dishes, an a twin gun turret that can sweep the space through an arc of approximately 127°. This is another structure that I bought from Scotia Grendel that was prepped to last year's challenge but not used.

I originally thought I shouldn't have any problem getting this done, but I have found that the fine motor skills in my painting hand are still a bit rubbish. It felt like it did when I first started painting Airfix ACW infantry with a cheap plastic bristled brush and a tin of Humbrol enamel.

 

eight of the structure is 4 inches with a height, not including radar dishes of 4 inches as well. Points claimed: Whatever Byron says.

 

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Nice to see you painting already Frederick!  This is a nice little terrain piece and choosing it to fit in with stormtroopers makes it look even better, I like the simple colour scheme as it makes it look like it would fit right at home on Hoth.  I am going to guess at a few hours to get something like this done and score it at 10 points.  Keep up the good work Frederick and hopefully the fine motor skills return quickly for you.

- Byron 

From FrederickC - When Life gives you lemons.....

Greetings fellow Challengers.

I was recently contacted by fellow painter, and longtime friend, JP, who was wondering if something was going on, given that we were already near the end of January, and I only had a single post to my name. So if you will indulge me, I will bring you quickly up to speed with what has been happening with me over the past month and a half.  This is not a plea for any kind of sympathy, perhaps in a ploy to get more points (or is it? 😉). When I took my basic infantryman's course so many decades ago, my platoon sergeant correctly informed us that,"if anyone was looking for 'sympathy', could find it in the pages of the dictionary, somewhere between 'shit' and 'syphilis'." And what do you know? There it was. (Those sergeants know everything. 🤣)

 Anyway, just prior to Christmas I experienced a few motor control issues and a fainting spell that were serious enough to need to be investigated further. The end result was that while sometimes life gives you lemons, on other occasions, it's a brain tumour.  But no worries.  After an initial visit to my GP, I was quickly processed with CT and MRI scans, and admitted for surgery. The main tumour was removed after a seven hour operation, and sent off for a biopsy. I had immediate improvement to motor function once it stopped pressing on my brain. Improvement was so rapid that I was  released home after only 3 days post-op. By the end of this week I should have the results, and a plan will be in place for a program of chemo- and/or radiation therapy to deal with the second one that was unfortunately less accessible.  And then we will move forward from there. 

 

Titanium staples that will come out on Thursday.  

I have now been home from the hospital for just over a week, and am feeling much better, although a little tired now and then due to the frequent visits from friends and family who have been kind enough to visit, chat, bring food, etc. Thank you, one and all . I have several projects that are already in the works. (more Terrain - sorry, Byron. 😢, which I will putter at as time and energy permits, until the clock runs out. However far I get, will be how far I get.  

First day back - no need for cane or walker now.

 

The only down side at the moment is that I could kill for a pint of English brown ale, but until further notice it's, 'no booze for youse.' 🍺

 I am sending a big shout-out to the local Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, but most importantly to my lovely wife, Cathy, who has become my PA, 'night nurse', and 'Lord High Everything Else'. 💖💖

  

Cheers, 

FrederickC

From Frederick C - Ranging Shots - SciFi Medical Station, and Scatter Terrain (20 points)

Following the end of AHPC XV I thought I would work on the various terrain pojects that I had prepped or that challenge. I did complete some Middle Earth/Osgiliath ruins, but after that things came to a crashing halt. In the run up to AHPC XVI, I had a hard time making any progress on prepping any new figures for the challenge. When registration opened up in Nvember I saw a lot of comments from past participants saying that they had lost their 'mojo', and they would not be participating this year. I confess that I could strongly relate to those feelings, but I thought that unless I had he push from the challenge, I would get nothing done. I have dropped my point target to half of what I have achieved in past years, and at the moment I feel I may be hard pressed to achieve that. So no opening salvo this year. Just some ranging shots to see how my terrain projects might fare in order to  decide if it's worth continuing with the leftover projects from last year that got shelved. 

For my first submission for this year's challenge I present some pieces of SCi-Fi terrain from ScotiaGrendel. long with some 35mm Figures for size comparison only

Scotia Grendal Sci-Fi Scatter terrain with a meter stick in the foreground 

 

Six Sci-Fi shipping crates L 25mm x W 20mm x H 20mm 

Sci-Fi Shipping crates

 

Ammo and Fuel cache L 100mmxW50mm x H 30mm

Fuel/Ammo cache view 1

Fuel/Ammo ccache view 2

Diagnostic station L 74 x W 33 x H 40

Diagnostic station and medical bed View 1

   

Medical bed L60 x  W 25mm x H 20

 

Diagnostic station and medical bed view 2

Row of Cryochambers LL110mm x W 30mm x H 40mm

Cryochambers row & single
 

Single cryochamber L15mm x W 30mm x H 40 mm 

cryochambers View 2

 

Cryochamber controls

Row of Cloning/Bacta tanks L62mm x W25mm x H 40mm

Bacta/Cloning tanks view 1

Bacta/Cloning tanks View 2

 

Single Cloning/Bacta tank  L 30mm x W 25mm x H 40mm

 

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Thanks for the entry Frederick, I really like a lot of these pieces and while all fairly simple, they will add a ton of cool factor to a table!  I can see them being used in a ton of different skirmish games to spice up the table a bit.  The colours chosen keep them usable for so many different things.

As for points I am going to count each of the 3 major elements (vats, cryochambers, and medical station) as the equivalent of painting a 28mm figure, and then the same for the boxes and barrels together, so 20 points are being awarded to you for some great little items. Awesome work Frederick, keep it coming!

 

-Byron