Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Trashy town tutorial

My trashy buildings were easy to make, and other than waiting on paint to dry, didn't take very long to finish. And other than the cost of paint and glue, which I already had, it didn't cost me a cent. For those who are interested, I have some step-by-step photos of each building and a little commentary after the jump:

STEP 1: Glue various greeblies to make it look less like packaging and more like a building.

STEP 2: Spray paint with a single color.
STEP 3: Drybrush silver and wash black, picking out details as desired.
I detailed my buildings with HeroClix stands, extra bases from other miniatures, and caps from plastic beverage bottles and other grocery packaging.
I also use disposable razor packaging, parts from contact lens storage containers, and even a disassembled light-up display from a junk mail promotion.
The black wash really toned down the look of these structures, even after the silver drybrushing.
I also combined packaging, using the plastic from old battery packs, as well as bits of sprues and whatever else I found laying around.
I also sprayed the inside top of the main piece so if the blue paint didn't get down all the way beneath the razor container (note the openings on the top and sides) it would show as opaque.
Again, the wash really helped tie everything together to make this look more like an actual structure.
On my largest piece, i decided to have transparent windows. Instead of using tape to mask the areas I wanted to keep unpainted, I attached magnets to each side.
The top of the HeroClix dial makes a nice airlock at this scale, and I used another part of the Clix base on the roof.
After spraying, the "windows" had a little bit of paint on them, but I could see that happening with sloppy contractors anyway.
All-in-all, this was a fun, cheap, quick, and (importantly) easy way to come up with some sci-fi gaming terrain.

3 comments:

Timmy Crabcakes said...

Cool tutorial!
I've got a few boxes full of random bits for terrain. It's important to keep it all in actual storage bins in the craft room... vs. garbage bags and cardboard boxes sitting on the couch in the living room. That way I don't look like I'm a hoarder. No one likes a hoarder...

Marc said...

The good old Heroclix base - so many uses!

Hey, Miniature Market has the doors from Zombicide Invader on clearance - 11 sci-fi doors and frames for $5:

https://www.miniaturemarket.com/cmnzcs007.html

Desert Scribe said...

Thanks, y'all! It's definitely not hoarding--I don't care what it looks like :D