Hi! After trying to craft a table from scratch for about a year, I finally realized I am a dad, and time and creativity will not an available resource for some time yet. And thus, I bought 5 kg of mdf kits from blotz. Couldn't find any reviews, but the kits are great, and I really like their simple designs. A good match for spray cans and a sponge! Edit: thanks Jherazob!
So I finally finished the buildings! Still need some vegetation and cars. maaaybe a bridge or two, but I kinda like the ladders.
It's great, I really like it! Simple painting and also effective - congratulations :) As a Haqqislam player I feel the atmosphere of that city - nice work :) Could you maybe make a photo of those buildings on a playing table? And are the external stairs wide enough to fit S2 minis - they look a bit narrow. PozdRawiam / Greetings P.S. I've gone into different scheme for my board (even though my minis have desert/rock bases) - my playing table is an industrial shipyard. Still I think that maybe someday I'll make myself a similar simple, true Haqq-stylized table :) But that's in the future - since I've also became a dad few months ago and now my free time is also a bit limited ;) :D
Thanks! I will make a table with them and post it, I just need to get some new boards for a full 4x4 board. And yes, the stairs are too shallow for miniatures, about 14mm, that's my only problem with the models. But seeing as there are only 3 of them and they are 3" long, I am going to just count them as ladders in game. Especially with the new "squeeze through" gaps rules for code1, it will be fine, and if not it will be a house rule that anyone can use them. Congratulations! I have a son coming in September as well, so I had to rush through this to get it done in time. Needed a table to get some games in even if I cant leave the house.
Here it is on a mat with some minis for scale. I like it, but it needs more scatter. Some cars and things. And in the far far future, I want to make an objective room with a two story bazaar around it. And a few pictures for mood
Some more updates! Since the buildings are done I need to add some life to the scenery. I made some potted plants (20) and I'm testing out this concept for a clothesline. I'm happy with it, it certainly makes the world seem more lived in. I also made some plants for the greenhouse. And another one
So I thought I needed a centerpiece building, something that blocked some long lines of sight and tied the city together. I searched far and wide on the internet for an mdf building that would match the relatively simple design of the rest of the table, but all I could find was low small or smallish buildings. So I started designing my own building. What I am going for is a multilevel bazaar, with an 8x8" objective room in the basement. First I am designing it in blender. The plan is to finish the rough design here, and then draw it accurately in a vector program.
It looks nice! My only complain: it looks like a really generic arabic-like building, with no traces of scifiness. Maybe you can add some small details (AC units, cables, strange pipes) to give it a more proper vibe. Also, you can use the ubiquitous SW moisture vaporators. And the table would double for other games. You have plenty of designs in Thingiverse and the 3D printing should be relatively cheap. And some inspiration: And more of that in this blog, The Ottoman
Thanks! I will try to add some sci fi element, but as I am planning to cut it it mdf, I don't think cables and pipes will be to easy. I might try to get some wires and tubes into the texture on the mdf, but will have to see how that looks when I get to that stage. 3d printing is cheaper yea, but I want it to be mdf to match the rest of the table, + it's lightweight and sturdy. I might try to 3d print details to add to it later, like fans and tanks. Or maybe just steal your kinderegg tank and add a couple of those :D
Just use wires, tubes, threads or any cheap rod. Need short straight span? Toothpick or skewer, done. And so on.
Please, do not do that. The details will look literally plain. The problem with MDF is the flatness. Those details should add volume to the building, but not if they are textured into the MDF. So... Amen to that. What you can use for this purpose is known, but scattered in a thousand threads. Somebody should start a thread with the topic "Where I find my cheap bits for scenery". My two cents: Any wire (electrical or not) with a certain thickness can be used. For example, old single-wire telephone cable is wonderful. You can stretch it, bend, etc. to get the shape you need. Useful for wires, small pipes, electrical conduits, handrails... Tubes: soda straws, those sticks used on candies... that's plastic and can be used without problems. Also, the plastic tubes used to shape shoes. Boxes: take a look at the labels used for clothing. Most of them consist on a loop with thread and a small plastic piece. That plastic piece sometimes can be used. Also, gut any discarded electronic equipment (routers, switches, anything with a green board) and check if the board has small chips that you can remove cutting the pins. Also, most people has a ton of unused phone cables. Remove the connectors and use them (RJ9 connectors). The same with ethernet cables (RJ45 connectors), though not so common. Lego/Megablocks pieces: used for grills, boxes, etc. Small parts from toys (Kinder toys, for example). The plastic caps used to protect the connectors of VGA and HDMI cables. The plastic caps used for razor blades. Bits that electricians leave behind when installing the electrical network on a house. Just open the locker where you store the junk and examine each piece, checking if you can break it apart with a screwdriver and use the pieces or cut small bits. Of course, you can use commercial PS or ABS tubes, rods and so, or brass tubing. I will try to post some example pics later.
Ok, a couple of pics. I admit that I enjoy a lot going through the pics scenery modifications posted by people to see if I can identify the bits, so this is like spoiling the last episode of your favourite series: The base comes from a double wall power plug. Some GW bits and a couple of Antenocities boxes, but the rest are mostly bits of sprues shaped with heat, two caps of razor blades glued side by side, the power connector of a discarded PC board, in the middle a plaster wall plug and some Lego pieces. More razor blade caps of different shapes; the black roof is from an old discarded bluetooth hands free system; the two big boxes are phone microfilters for ADSL, caped with two Lego pieces, more plastic sprue... in the wall you can see one of those chips used as electric box. And lots of PS rods and cards. Most of the railing is commercial, but check the 'machinery': those two shiny boxes are USB connectors from a discarded box; the green piece is an optical fiber connector; the blck box above the grills, a bit from a clothing label. In the middle, that grey piece is a broken wall piece for ethernet connections. Another way to add volume to the MDF surface: I had some old 3.5 inches floppies; plastic case cut, sanded and glued, with the open right side concealed with a plastic rod. Once painted it should look like a raised section of the wall. And finally: the pipe is an electric wire, single copper wire, about 0.5 mm width. The black box again from a clothing label, posing as joint box. Not very visible, but where the 'pipe' ends, in the outside, there are two discarded transparent LEDs posing as traffic lights. On the mat, topo left, you see a split for phone lines (I have a ton of those) that you can use as AC unit or so, and those yellow blurs in the top are discarded drip irrigators caps (the damn things are prone to break when installing the system). And that's all. Check the pics on this Flickr album for more ideas.
I love MacGyvered terrain! If you want to see terrain from scraps builds taken to the extreme, there's many fantastic channels (The legend DM Scotty, Wyloch and others of the DMs Guild, and many others i don't recall now), but i've been perusing this one and this other one lately, specially since the videos are very short, sweet and to the point, and they're both mad geniuses when it comes to upcycling bits to terrain.
With the first post I was thinking "other than the plastic loop with funny ends, only card or plasticish 'cloth', what labels are those?". Now I think I know what you mean as source for boxes... antitheft devices? That or you better explain what you mean.
