Sci-Fi shanties (and a product review)

For a long time I've had an idea about creating a futuristic shanty slum. The concept is that cheap, modular, habs are shipped to planets for terra formers, miners ect. After a while, maybe  these clusters of temporary homes become abandon or forgotten due to the economy collapsing, or war or something else equally devastating. People start doing what they need to survive  and a sci fi slum is created. 

I sourced some recycled materials for the main body of the habs. Mainly dairy tubs that are square. For the details I Purchased several different kits in the "do it yourself" section over at Laser Cut Card. Great kits, I highly recommend them, but you'll see that in the pictures. I tried to keep them somewhat the same, i.e. modular, but make them look as he residents have repaired or personalized them over time. 

Some of the card details I made, and some are the "bonus" pieces you get from the Laser Cut Card kits. What do I mean by bonus? 

 These. These are the leftovers when you punch out the doors and windows. When you stack them and combine them with others they make great detail pieces. 

Here are a few more examples from thier door range, and their AC units.

 

Thanks for looking, comments welcome!

Papa Spanky

Hardware and Halloween

Despite not having posted a regular update, I have been pretty busy hobby-wise. Today I present to you the last three buildings for Gray Haven.



 

These are the "Value Hardware and Sporting goods" and "Halloween 24/7". Sorry for the bad pic, lighting was horrible and the flash ruined most of the others.

Anyway, the Hardware store is an Ameritown police station and the Halloween store is a converted Plasticville firehouse.

 

 

The front of the Halloween store with the giant spider decoration and the riot cop and zombie costumes on display. I sculpted the pumpkin for the sign and the foam scrapbook letters were placed crooked intentionally. (honest!)

 

Some of you keen eyes might have noticed the stop sign in the first picture. Here are examples of a few more.

 

I purchase these from Scale Like Industries, you can find them here:

http://stores.ebay.com/scalelikeindustries/

They are really nice signs printed on thin styrene. A few words of caution working with them though:

-Seal them first if you mask them off for any reason. I ruined my first batch of these with a liquid latex mask when I painted the backs of the signs.

-Too much styrene glue will melt/ warp them. This could be good or bad depending on the effect you want to create.

What else? I have corn. Yep corn.

 

These will be combined with pumpkins and hay bails for fall decor around town. I had to spray these with Army Painter desert yellow because they are supposed to be modeled as a live crop.

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/o-scale-corn-stalks-496976/ corn stalks

 http://shop.thearmypainter.com/products.php?ProductGroupId=2  desert paint

 

On the actual playing games side of things I got a lot of games of Zombicide in with some co-workers, played a few games of Operation Flashpoint with the family.

 I picked up three copies of X-wing that were on sale at 60% off and will be posting about that, I will have some examples of my castings I finally did, and will post/talk Deadzone in the next few days, so don't touch  that dial!

Papa Spanky

 

Streetlights, people (oh oh ohhhhh!)

Today I finished up some streetlights for my town. I originally was going to cast my own, but for my own sanity I decided to purchase and modify some of the plasticville ones.

 Heres what I did:
 I clipped off the plastic bases from each pole. After that I used a dremel to smooth down the rough edges left from the base. Once those were done, I went about epoxying magnets into each base of the lights (fortunately they were hollow). After they dried I drilled tiny holes in the sidewalks of the boards at predetermined areas, and glued magnets into those. This was the hardest part as you need to keep the orientation of the magnets correct so the don't accidentally end up repelling each other. A quick rusty wash and a dull coat finish and these were done.

I will cast several of my scratchbuild lightpoles to put on the main drag on the south end of town. I just thought the plasticville ones were more subtle and saved a ton of time!

That covers the streetlights; now for the people. Two more for the population sign.

This gentleman is Danny Ling. A retired army reservist, he has lived in Gray Haven since he was 7 and will defend his home from all threats- foreign, domestic and other worldly.
Another stock Foundry model, I hated this one at first but when the paint went on it really grew on me. 

This guy is Dmitri. Just Dmitri. I thought he might kill me if I asked anything else.
Another stock foundry with some birch seeds on the base. Made em from my own tree! Honestly I had trouble with a back story for him, so that's why his is kinda lame.

There was something else I wanted to show you guys, what was it...

Oh yeah I finished the massive Mysterious East building!

This an import- export business located right next door to the Hydracorp building, and it opened about 3 months after Hydracorp moved in. Coincidence?...

I thought this building/ business would do good to forward many pulp or horror story lines. Practically anything can show up in town from all over the world and now have a plausible reason. Sometime in the future I might do a basement to this building and have it connect to Hydracorp and an underground bunker/lab/facility. This would all be on a separate board of course!

The front office. clear acetate line the windows. 

The rear storage and shipping area. Frosted acetate back here so no one can really see in!

The roof is in two separate pieces, one for the front and one for the back. I made it that way because it was easy to build and now i can use it to hide the storage area from players if needed. 

The rear loading area. 

Those following along will remember this building was made from storage crates, like the Hydracorp one was. It was a bit more persnickety having difficult cuts for the L shape. 

 For my parting shot I give you Gray Haven in its unfinished glory. I added a few things that might become permanent for the shot. 

Don't stop believin'   

Papa Spanky

Girls night out... at the post office

V and Tia are a couple of Hip- Hop dancers who live in Gray Haven. They are saving money to move to New York, but in the meantime they post weekly dance instructional videos on their YouTube channel. Their Stamina and agility really paid off when they had to stake a 200 year old vampire outside of a Thortons on I-80 one night on a return trip from Chicago.

I took quite a bit of time working on these two, I especially like the way V's sunglasses and MARPAT BDUs turned out. (my first attempt at both) Both girls are modeled with thongs peeking out, so I had to paint them. 

Sammie Mattews loves fashion, shopping and social media. So when zombies invaded her favorite mall, she accessorized a black SMG and an oversized bag (for extra magazines and lip gloss) and went about her business.

ShooterSam@twitter 

#Zomapocsales OMG Aero is offering 50 off to anyone who helps clear out the z's from the store security gate. I hope they still have that pink top in my size!

I painted this one based off my daughters request for a model with purple hair. A yellow dress then seemed the best choice for balance. all three of these girls are from Copplestone Castings "Babes With Guns" set.

And now the post office:

As promised- finished shots. There is glass in the windows and doors (plastic sheet actually) but you cant really tell in these pics. The interior was detailed with post office posters I found on the web and boxes from Tommyguns paper terrain. The floor is patterned scrapbook paper. 

Thanks for looking, Q and C welcomed!

Papa Spanky

Drains, sewers and dumpsters

A while back I mentioned I was going to sculpt and cast my own sewers and drains. I even sculpted some and cast a few drains. Well, I wasn't really happy with the casts and the sewer covers were just too big. So I used the few cast drains I had and set about scratch building something new everything.

This is the drain. its simple four pieces of wire glued to plastic card and cut into the street and curb.

Here is the sewer cover. This is a small plastic button used to cover screw holes in furniture. I drilled holes and inscribed circles to add some detail.

a few more shot for your viewing pleasure.

Now this will get cast somehow, sometime. Its an empty dumpster with lids. I want to make a few and model them either full, empty, lids open or closed, with zombies in them, etc.

 
Thats all for now, Q&C welcomed as always!

Papa Spanky

10,000 Page view party!

I hit 10k in page views and to celebrate, I thought I would share some update pics with everyone. (OK really I didn't have anything else to share...)

I'm close to being finished with two more 2'x4' boards. I haven't put in the sewer covers or drains as they aren't cast yet, and I may re-sculpt them anyway. Here's the three all together...

...and with the buildings I've either finished or am working on.

The two buildings in the middle are the Police and Fire Departments.

A closer shot of where the strip mall in its location, and the unfinished decorative median in the street.

Lastly, I re-did the grassy knoll to make it more suitable for the fall seasoned theme this board will have.

Thanks for looking 10,000 times!!!
Papa Spanky

The Easter Bunny came early...

Three different packages came today, from different suppliers. I love it when that happens. The bag is from Demo's Laser Cut Designs, a four pack of shop fronts. I will write up a review on them in the near future.

that is all,
Papa Spanky

Streets of Gray Haven- 1st board section

I got a little more work done on my town of Gray Haven in the last few days. This is the first board section; right now three are planned. The base is a 2'x 4' Homasote board. I bought a bunch of it a long time ago when it was dirt cheap. Now that its considered a trendy green material, the cost has risen to the lofty heights of all things green. Bah.
I used 5/16th" rolled cork to make the sidewalks. I experimented a bit with the best way to put in the crack lines.  I tried cutting out individual blocks and giving the edges a slight bevel, vs cutting in the groove with a wood burner. The wood burner is easier, but the individual blocks has the best look. I'm still undecided on which I will use in the other boards.

The roads are drywall compound smoothed over the Homasote in the areas where the roads go. Curbs are thin strips of cork with one edge rounded.

Stormtroopers keep watch on a traffic stop. These guys will end up as part of my Monster Hunters International squad in the future.

In these pictures you can see how the buildings fit into their locations and the bases fit nicely against the sidewalk. I will make other "scenery" that will use the same footprint so I can change out buildings, add ruins etc. to keep these boards as universal as possible. I painted and weathered some before I realized I had forgotten drains and sewers.

A test placement of the sewer and post.

  To remedy that, I made some to be cast and installed at a later time. I guess its good I have construction barriers planned then! Also starring in these pictures is my homemade street light. I'm going to cast the base, I just haven't decided if I should just cast the whole thing or not. It still needs some work, anyhow.

Go build something,
Papa Spanky