Tutorial: Shipping Container

Shipping containers are some awesome terrain pieces and can be used for a number of games. I first decided to make some shipping container for Deadzone, to have some cheap line of sight blockers.

But this little piece of terrain is also perfect for The Walking Dead and in my games of Scrappers.

The shipping container is fast to build and really cheap. 

Materials: 

• Floorboard insulation foam
• Glue: Plastic, super and woodglue.
• Plastic sprue
• Hobby knife
• Ruler

Step 1:
Deadzone is played in a 3'' cube system, so I build most of my terrain to fit that. Cut out 4 pieces of 6'' sprue and 8 pieces of 3'' sprue. Glue two retangles.

Step 2:
Use the remaining pieces of sprue to make a box. I use a dap of superglue to build box shape. Then drowned it in plastic glue, as it'll make the plastic melt together.

Step 3:
The insulation foam is a great material. It's cheap, easy to cut an looks like curogated metal plates. You'll get 12 square metres for 15 EUR. Cut out four 3''x6'' pieces and two 3''x3'' pieces. Makes sure the pieces fit right into a frame. Here you'll have to work fairly quick. Add superglue to the frame and insert the foam. The glue will partly melt the foam, so try to be quick.

I've actually found that the limited melting of the foam, add a nice corroded look to it.

Step 4:
Add strength to the container be adding wood- or PVA glue to the inside. This will also hide any small holes made from uneven cuts in the foam and sprue.

Step 5: 
With you hobby knife make some angled cuts in the foam on the end, to make it look like doors in the container.
Voila. Done simple shipping container. Anything from here is extra detailing.

Step 6:
Add further details. I've gone with a lock in each end made from round sprue and some reinforcerment on the side made from plastic strip.

Step 7:
Base coat it. I use Army Painter base coat spray and it'll currode the foam a bit. I don't find that it's too much, but it does add extra texture to the build. For stone terrain (houses, walls, cobble stone floor) the corrusion is actually really nice.

Step 8:
Paint up the rest. I've done a simply rust effect with two different browns and a steel colour.

All done:
This thing will fit into a lot of different games. There's some cheap mdf shipping containers out there, TTCombat will sell you three for less than 10£. But I like building stuff myself, like that it fits perfectly into the Deadzone cube system and that it has cost nothing but time.

 

Tutorial: Sci-Fi bases

Back when I started making models for Mantics Deadzone, I decided to make some textured bases.

A good base will make a bad model look good, and a good model even better. I'll be using these bases for model in Deadzone, Scrappers and Necromunda/Inq28.

Tools and materials:

• Miliput (the yellow one)
• Play-Doh
• Model bases
• Greenstuff World Rolling Pin - Factory Floor in this case
• Hobby knife
• Random scrap: chain, lollipop tube, gears, glue lids etc.

Step 1:
Mixing miliput and play-doh is a neat little trick. It'll save you a bunch of money on putty and the miliput is easier to work with, when using pinrolls.

For bases and terrain features I make a 50:50 mix of the two putties. It'll still cure and harden without a problem. For bulk sculpting (like the core of a miniatures body) I mix it 75:25 - for more strength.

Scratch up your base with your hobby knife, it'll make the putty stick better.

Step 2:
Make sure you use plenty of putty on the base. It's easy to cut away the excess putty after you've used the rolling pin.

Step 3:
The rolling pin is used best if you wet it before use. I wet my hands and rub the rolling pin. It might take a few tries to get right. The putty will soak the water if you use too much, and then it'll get hard to work with. When I have to much wet putty, I mix it with some dry and use it on a large base.

When you rolled some texture into the putty, add whatever details you like to them. Just stick some chain, pipes, lids, gears, wire or whatever you like into the putty.You can secure them later with a dap of super glue, but the putty will properly hold them just fine.

Step 4:
A quick paint job later. I use army painter quick shade on all my models and also give the bases a heavy brush of varnish. A few pools won't be a problem, it'll just look like oil spills.

I've gone with a black base coat. Dark grey floor with a light grey drybrush. Added details in yelloe/black and metal.

Step 5:
And the finished base, with a big monster on it. 

A couple hours of work
What can be achieved in only a couple hours of work.  This load of bases where made with a couple of episodes of Firefly in the background. There's rougly half a pack of miliput used for all the bases shown here - with a 50:50 play-doh mix.

Another session (used orange play-doh this time). 2,5 hours of work, including breaks and clean up to make the following bases. Used just under half a pack of miliput.

A note of caution
I figured out recently, that's there's one drawback on mixing play-doh. Play-doh is made from maize and it can grow mold. I've have my bases out in the shed over the winter, not air tide. It's very damp and wet. When I took my bases in after a couple of month they had mold on them. It was no problem washing it off, and they still look good painted up.

Perhaps they won't grow mold after sealing with quick shade varnish and matt spray varnish. I'll have to make an experiment at some point. But better keep your models in a dry environment.

Warpath Universe: Plague

Finished up my Deadzone Plague models. A very nice faction. These have all been done as part of the Pledge, Paint or Pay challenge for March. Very happy to finish a complete faction at a time, getting stuff ready for the table. I really like working like this, make an entire project game finished at a time.

Check out the Plague Page here.

Pledge, Paint or Pay!

Years ago my friends and I started a facebook group called "malerhjerner og drukkenbolde" - translates to ''painter brains and drunks". Malerhjerne being 'chronic solvent induced encephalopathy'.

Every month we would pledge how many miniatures we would paint and if we failed our pledge, we owed a case of beer to a pool. That way, when we got together, there would always be somebody bringing the beer. Unfortunately the group didn't really stay alive and so I've started a new group on facebook - and it's for everybody.

Pledge, Paint or Pay!

"The point of the group is simple, every month:
- We pledge which miniatures or projects we'll paint.
- We announce the 'fee' we'll pay if failing.
- We share pictures of our succes (and cool miniatures) or the payment for failing.

Every month a new thread is pinned at the top of the facebook page. This thread is for posting your pledge as a comment and your fee - should you fail. 

We all have piles of grey plastic, half painted lead and other eternity projects. This group is for motivation, for helping getting more stuff done faster.

Any miniatures and game systems are good. We all paint to our own skill level."

The entire point is to get more stuff painted, help encourage other hobbyist in there work and make some personal challenges. The 'fee' is anything the pledger want to do. And we've had some pretty cool ones made. Here's a few examples:

• I'll do all the dishes for a week
• I'll donate 10£ to a charity
• I'll bake cake for my gaming group
• I'll paint a miniature for a succesfull pledger
• I can't buy new miniatures before I succed a pledge

 Why don't you come join the group?
 

A single blog

A combined blog in one place

For years I've been blogging on different forum about miniatures. A lot of the blogging have been copy paste work for Chaos Dwarfs Online, Powerfist.dk, Lead Adventure, Beasts of War etc.

I've been thinking, for some time, to make a single blog. To get more exposure, to link to one place. It'll be easier to search for old projects on something that looks like a website.

I'm no tech guru, so this free blogspot seems to do the trick neatly. 

The plan is to make sites, for the different game systems I play (collect more than playing actually) and a hobby sections for terrain etc.

This page will contain:

• Fantasy
• Frostgrave, Dungeon Saga, Heroquest
• Sci-Fi
• Deadzone, Scrappers, Star Saga
• Post Apocalypse
• Devil's Run, Auto Kill, The Walking Dead
• Terrain