Tutorial: Upgraded dollhouse furniture

While browsing ebay one night, I came across some dollhouse furniture scaled 1:50. Super duper cheap stuff, but the scale seems a bit small for 28-30mm models.

I went ahead and ordered some anyway. Logic was that it would be super cheap even if the scale was too off - I could turn it into scrap piles and barricades.

Most of these sets come in sets of 10 pieces, so you'll get a lot of stuff. Just go ahead an search for 'dollhouse furniture 1:50' and you'll get a lot of results. Organize with cheapest first.

Scale turned out to be on the small side, but not bad looking. And considering how most mdf buildings are too small as well, it's really not a problem.

I'll show how I used all the small pieces, to make quick pieces for all the settings I play.

The end result for me is: The 1:50 scale dollhouse stuff is cheap and well worth it. Lots of terrain for minimum work.

For the the painted results and scale comparison check the showcase at the end of this page.

Dinner tables
The pieces are small, so I decided to glue some together. Made two tables and glued four chairs to them.

This dinner table was to big, to glue the chairs just as is. I added a tiny bit of sprue, not visible on the tabletop.

Office space
Made from the tabes, chair and a TV-stand. The TV furniture was too small on its own, it didn't look good. But I had 10 of those pieces. Chop them up and make a little office desk. With my clippers I used a bit of the piece to make a keyboard and mouse.

Sci-fi lab
Also went and added some of the pieces to my Star Saga tables. An easy way to add some screens and small drawers. Again I glued the chairs in place, so they're not all over the place.

Wardrobes and bookshelves
There's some cool wardrobes and bookshelves as well, but they're a bit thin. So I added some old bolts with superglue, add some weight, keep them in place.

Take some cardboard and close up the back of the bookshelves and wardrobes. Superglue it in place and cut out when dry. As I had so many wardrobes, I made some of them into fantasy ones, by adding a few bit box bits. 

Also cut off the top ornament on half, to make them different. 

Decided to use a few bookshelves for my fantasy games. Used some ice cream sticks to add backing to a couple of them. And then I added some bits from the bit box to the top (see them in the bottom)

The collection
 And here's the result of my cheap china furniture buy (without Star Saga pieces). The beds are really bland on their own, flat besides a few sculpted pillows. Made some for dungeon furniture by again adding some bits of ice cream stick and matches.

After painting them, I've added some small pieces of fabric to make blankets.

From way back in the days, I had some resin (or platser?) Got them in a huge box of unfinished terrain projects.

For painting I organized the stuff into different sets. Making a bed, closet, shelves, tables in the same colors. For different houses. Grey, white, black, brown. Made a lot of boring grey pieces, that'll also fit into sci-fi settings as well as modern houses.

Most painting was really basic. Base coat, few metal pieces, army painter quick shade.

Showcase
Here's some close ups of the finished furniture. Really nice results for minimum work and minimum money. Stand by for a lot of in-page linking!

The bookcases are made for Frostgrave and Dungeon Saga. Added a few bits sculpted by Admiral for Zealot Miniatures. If I've learned anything from Hero Quest it's that there's skulls on book of furniture.

After taking photos I got another idea. Add small scrolls and pieces of paper to the shelves. Just take some unbleached baking paper and add it here and there.

The upgraded fantasy wardrobes. Added some shield emblems, a sword and a skull.

The beds with a few matching pieces. Went they beige fabric and made it really messed up with quick shade, this is not for a fancy castle.

The grey pieces will go in office buildings, warhouses and sci-fi settings. I want to build a big modular space station / fallout vault, this is a good start on interior.

But some of these will go into Deadzone tables and Star Saga as well.

For most of the china screens, I've went with a grey as well, turned off screens. Better fitting for modern day zombie apocalypse (though it would be easy to go with a cool green).

Also to add a bit of detail to these, I'm gonna print some small 28mm newspapers and add some tables.

I originally got all the china furniture to get something for my modern houses and terrain. Here's the white set used in a two storey house. Rick and Carl checking it out.

The black set makes a nice little bedroom.

The white dining table sets I made in the same colors as a few 4ground pieces I have. I need to build some flower pots and they'll also make a restaurant. Or fit in most other houses.

I don't mind the chairs and sofas being on the small site. But it wouldn't be too hard to raise them up. Add 1mm of sprue legs underneath, it would do a lot of the overall impression of size.

In my farmhouse their's 4 rooms, and it's the perect example of how small some mdf buildings are. Not much room for any furniture at all. 

Did a few of the old resin pieces in drybrushed metal. Fitting for some administration in my prison.

I went in heavy on the quick shade wash, really wanting a dirty look. As all my games plays out in some kind of war zone or apocalypse. Dropped a few pieces into my This is not a Test terrain, quick way to add some more wasteland flair.

Tutorial: Corrugated Scrap Metal Walls

I found the tool for this build a long time ago. Don't know how I ended up with it, but it was during long hours of searching china shops for useful stuff. And I found a 'toothpaste squezer' - perfect tool! Greenstuff World have since released the exact same item under the name 'corrugator' - but it's a toothpaste squezer and it's half price like that.

Best tool you'll ever find for $3 including shipping.

GSW is an awesome shop however, so it's always a good cause to throw money at them.

Made these for use in all my sci-fi and post-apoc games. To be walls for Alexandria and Woodbury in The Walking Dead or in Last Days. As part of the Wasteland in Scrappers and This is not a Test. And they are 3'' compatible with Deadzone. Also fitting for Ash Wastes in Necromunda or Killteam (man there's a lot of cool games).

As always go to the bottom for showcase photos.

Materials

• Thick card or mdf for bases
• Cardboard, plastic card, foil trays for 'metal plates'
• Superglue (lots!)
• Hot glue gun
• Sprue (lots!)
• Popsickle sticks

Step 1: Bases
Cut out a bunch of bases for the walls. I've made sure mine are 3'' compatible for a Deadzone grid. Made then 1,5'' wide, so they will stay in place and not fall over. I've used thick 3mm cardboard for the bases.

Step 2: Sprue and hot glue
Cut a lot of poles from old sprue. Shave off small bits, to make the poles a bit uneven. Also try and find some with an angled piece, saving glue connections later.

Using the hotglue gun (and I find it's much better than super glue) attack them to the bases. A lot of them, more than you think.

Step 3: Walkways
Prepar the walkways, glue some sprue to the angled pieces.

Step 3: Corrugated plates
Take out you toothpaste squeezer and make a bunch of metal. I used different thickness of cardboard and aluminium bbq trays. Thought was to get different textures on the finished walls, but it doesn't show well. Cardboard is easier to glue however.

Step 4: Glue... All over your fingers
I use super cheap super glue from china. I buy 100 tubes at a time, it's good for projects like this. Start from the bottom and just mix match plates and work towards the top. Make sure to have the lines go both horizontal and vertical.

Step 5: Strengthen it
I took some sprue and added to the front and the back of the walls. It adds some more strenth to the build and is a good soak point for wash and quickshade. I've also build a couple of ladders from sprue.

Step 6: The gate
Originally I planned to make a magnetized gate. So I glued on two old rusty nails. But after doing this I found that the gate for my prison does the job well enough.

Painting and Basing
I base coated the walls with a cheap grey rattle can and the 'floors' with a cheap brown. . Then I picked out a few plates on each section in a different color (using the same three colors on all). Another bunch on each section and all sprue was painted with a mix of 'rust'. Using a wet palette I add various metal colors, giving lots of different nuances.

The dirt was painted with cheap brown acryllics and drybrushed with grey.

The walls were all given a heavy layer of army Painter Strong Tone. Mixed some different grass types for the bases and ended with a couple layers of mat varnish.

Showcase
And here's the nice finished result.

The original idea for these walls were to be used in The Walking Dead as part of Woodbury and Alexandria. With my farm and prison, I'm set for the first 180 comics or so.

The builds were done in the 3" system to fit neatly into games of Deadzone and my other industrial terrain..

And here's the walls set up on a 3'x4' mat. Taking a lot of space, making a Wasteland map for This is not a Test or Scrappers.

TWD: Sibling Rivalry

After her first game of The Walking Dead yesterday, my youngest daughter asked for another game today. This time her older (11 years) brother was in on a fight. He haven't played the game before either.

Like earlier, the kids just got some models that they liked. We then found some equipment for them. Both teams ended up around 250 pts.

My daughter chose Abraham (with m4 assault rifle), Curtis (with machete), Bruce (hammer and gun) and Shiva.

My son took Billy (with a rifle), Tyreese (with a big axe), Harold (bat) and Ezekiel (gun and knife).

We played on a 2'x2' with a brick house in the middle. We place 10 supply counter on the board, with 2 on each floor of the house. Looking through a window would spawn a blue dice walkers inside. Getting to the stairs would spawn a blue dice walkers on the first floor.

Both my kids took a very silent and sneaky route. They didn't fire guns and didn't go for attacking each other. They spend a lot of time 'holding their nerve' and only failed 1 time in 8 rolls. ... How come they don't live like this in real life I don't know.

Both kids took a very solid group approach, staying close, sneaking, ganging up on single walkers.

Two walkers spawned on the ground floor of the old hardware store. It would take an action to open the door.

Both groups was at the front door at the same time and it finally came to some ugly confrontations. Tyreese took it upon himself to fight Shiva in a cluster of survivors. Despite Tyreese having backup and the best odds, Shiva scratch him bad. With a ! and sharp claws he was hurt badly.

He took revenge the turn after where Billy took aim and killed Shiva with a single well placed shot.

Being in front with supply gathered my son rushed into the store, to grab the supplies there - getting way in front. Tyreese and Harold are both good in combat and made short work of the walkers inside.

Abraham (and my daughter angry over the loss of Shiva) went inside and unloaded three rounds of shooting at Harold. Multiple Shots (2) and Assault turned him dead (but he wasn't hit in the head).

The battle ended in a big fight inside the building. After the fighting became both kids stopped lowering the Threat Tracker and it quickly gained. Tyreese ended Abraham with a swing of the axe. Bruce killed Ezekiel.

When the threat tracker hit 18, both groups had lost two survivors. My daughter had lost Abraham and Shiva. My son had lost Ezekiel and Harold. My daughter got off with three supply tokens over my sons two. Curtis had avoided combat and sneaked around the house to get some unclaimed loot.

A very nice game with my kids. They enjoy it. While driving to the beach later, we talked about possible scenarios. PvP and PvE. Lots of different ideas.

We're gonna play some more TWD this summer break I'm certain.