Terrain: Walls (pt 2)

or, "Mr. Gorbachev, put up this wall!"

The RM crew has been a bit busy lately, doing life stuffs, so I felt now would be a good time for a quick update on the progress on my cheapo walls.


Rather than leave well enough alone, I went ahead and added some extra detail. Keeping with the theme of "cheap" and "easy to obtain materials", I went with staples and plastic self-adhesive "gemstones". The staples became ladder rungs, and the gems became (or rather, will become, once painted) light fixtures. The 78 piece pack of gems cost just over a buck fifty at the local craft store, and the staples cost $34 each and were hand crafted in Poland and imported via the Russian Mafia. Not. Do yourself a favor- when you gather the staples, just shoot them out of the stapler one at a time into a bag or folded sheet of paper or something like that. Don't take the block of staples home to pry apart by hand later.


I used Rustoleum 2x Satin Fossil spray paint as both primer and base coat for these wall sections. Eventually I'll go over them again with an air-brushed coat of off-white, detail painting for the lights, and maybe some graffiti.


Though the walls aren't yet finished, I'm already starting on my next terrain project- modular office/apartment blocks constructed from postcards, rubber cement, old coffee grounds, toothpicks, and green peas soaked in water.

Yu Jing Tutorialoject Terrain

This week, we'll learn how to make Plutonium out of common household items. No, wait... that's from UHF.

This week, we'll look at the progress I've made on an idea that has been bouncing around my noggin for a while now: cheap Infinity walls. Look- we all know that when it comes down to it our tabletop wargaming hobby is all about cost vs. time. Most hobbies do. In other words, do you have the money to buy what you can't spend the time to build, or do you have enough time to build what you can't afford. Or something in between. It's an odd sort of balancing act. In my case, I probably could afford to buy a lot of the aftermarket parts for models and wargaming projects (dear God, somebody please stop me...), but sometimes I just want to brush up on my scratchbuilding skills. Or, as my long time friends would say, I'm a cheap bastard. Whatever.

Anyway, this is the latest attempt to mass-produce some terrain for a gaming system I play. This time I think I may have hit upon success. These wall segments are loseley based on a type of resin wall section available from a European source, which shall remain nameless (but will get my business for other stuffs soon enough). I like how their product looks, but I don't really want to spend the equivalent of $24 per foot. My solution? Here are the basics:


Materials:
Primed Pine Case Moulding $1.14/ft
Vinyl Electrical Tape (3/4in x 60ft) $1
Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Filler $2
Gray Spray Paint $5
Gorilla Glue $5
Elmer's Wood Glue $5
Sandpaper $1

Tools:
Plastic Miter Box $5
Fine tooth Miter Saw $10

The process is simple. Measure out lengths of moulding about 13" long and Gorilla glue together pairs back to back. Make sure they're securely clamped together. Wait at least 3 hours. Cut the lengths of moulding down to 4" segments (or whatever you prefer). If you want to get fancy, you can make 45 degree cuts and create corner pieces. Once you've cut the lenghts to size, fill any seams with the wood filler. When that's dry, sand it down smooth and clean up the wall segments with a damp cloth to remove dust. Take the vinyl tape and add vertical relief details. I doubled up the tape on mine to increase the height of the relief. Final step is to paint the walls with gray spray paint as primer.


Before I paint these sections, I'm going to add a bit of extra detail- maybe some piping or lamps. The next set I build will try to emulate force-field walls and holo-displays. Those elements will add to the cost and complexity, but I'm game.