Red Harvest's Relocated Terrain Blog

[red harvest]

The first tabletop is finished. I built a frame for the 2'x4' 1/4" MDF pieces, and then applied floor tiles to the MDF. We discussed this matter in the gaming group, and the consensus was no texturing and no flock on our gaming tables. We're kind of sick of those two surfaces. So I think the floor tiles will work nicely. You've already seen the tiles in previous posts. Since the MDF will float in the frame, I can always flip it over and apply another surface to it. So two tabletops in one Also the frame is in 2 halves, and connected by carriage bolts and wing nuts, so I can easily slide out the MDF if/when needed. So Portability FTW... well almost. It is heavier than XPS. Ah well. I'll sand and stain & finish the frame when the weather is less humid.



My first experiments with the floor tiles did not go so well. The MDF I initially used was the dark brown kind with a slick surface. The tiles did not adhere well to it at all. So I asked for some advice. Anyway, I used the light brown MDF, which has no slick surface, I sprayed a layer of adhesive on the MDF, and then applied the tiles. Then I clamped everything down overnight. So far it seems to have worked. We'll see the table in action this week-end. Here it is again. It actually has a nice 'feel' to it too. And no, I don't care about the "pre-measuring problem".



Thanks for stopping by.

[red harvest]

Our trees are starting to fall apart after about 15 years of use. The flock keeps falling off of them. So I took some of the bases they were on, 1/8"MDF, and used the bases for new foliage. I decided to make them useful as stand-alone pieces-- hence the rocks on the bases (Ballast and potential partial cover to go with the lo-vis) -- and in conjunction with the urban oasis. Only one of the pieces is finished, the one with the red (of course) fruit on it, but no white stone.



They are in various stages of completion. I started them about 1 month ago, but have been away. Basically plastic plants from the local craft store, rocks from...uhm, a source... and the usual paper and glue. You can see where the water will go on the two bases that are nearing completion. Not sure If I will have a fountain effect again. Maybe, maybe not. Wondering about whether to leave the stones white or not. Definitely tiles though.



As a point of reference, the pill bottles in my table mock-up (previous post) represent these pieces, although not to exact sizes, of course. These are much nicer than pill bottles though. See, I have a plan. You'll have to trust me. Things may meander, but y'know, every step in the right direction, no matter how small, is progress. I'll get the table done.

There are two more large bases to be made, so I will have 5 altogether. Then I'll find some other sort of scatter to make (see the pink foam rectangles above). I won't be starting another building until I have finished converting those old castle pieces. More on that soon enough. Thinking something spooky, Halloween themed somehow. Boo!

Thanks for stopping by.

[red harvest]

For the table,there is the matter of the piéce de résistance, a waterfall. Something inspired by this,



Never did get to build it for the NMAI. Had a dead-line. It wasn't playable as an attached-to-base piece. Was a bit burnt out. So, yeah, gonna build the waterfall. Eventually anyway...

Here are a few more photos of the urban oasis. The tiling is done, and the first bit of paint is on.



Thanks for stopping by.

[red harvest]

My little building and its accessories finally made it onto a tournament table*. You can see some photos here http://certs-tabletop.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-week-of-doing-various-stuff.html#more but you'll have to scroll down a bit.

While I was searching about for some additional pieces to fill out the table, I found those obelisks that you saw in the tournament table photos. It occurred to me that that would be a perfect thing for the Bourak table. I was planning to make some large baobab-esque trees to serve as tall and thin cover, but the obelisks fit that role perfectly. I needed a couple of scatter pieces to paint too. So, I built some larger obelisks for the Bourak table. But I do like the old ones as well, so I'll probably build a duplicate set of those two, albeit with a few upgrades and tweaks... lights, hexagons, y'know the routine.



The WIP shots show that lights are going to be a part of it, of course. You can see how much larger I made them, and that I decided on hexagonal shapes. I figure the window areas will be for street lights and maybe the lower window will be some sort of screen or ad holo or something. But that's for later. For now, I need to get them nicely painted, and soon.



For the actual windows, I used the plastic of one of those cheap DVD cases. Y'know the kind-- it breaks easily if you drop it Anyway, score it and snap it out and voila, window. Final shot is to show scale. You can see they are big. And that I made some other obelisks back in the day. Gettting a quasi-forest feel from it, no?

Oh, and I may have begun work on the small Bourak buildings

Thanks for stopping by.

*September 2013

[red harvest]

Painted the Obelisks. Tried for a marble effect, but not so sure I nailed it. Still, pretty colors, and painting with a feather... fun I was going to enter them into the Data Sphere Contest, but y'know, sometimes you have to meet the deadlines in real life first. So I finished too late Anyway, Pix. The bases will match the tabletop, more or less. Eventually I will replace the lower windows with some sort of etched thing or images, so that it looks like a screen. Still looking for the secret to perfect rammed earth effect too.



Thanks for stopping by.

Edit: Did enter them, cuz the dealine was extended. Took 2nd place. Yay.

[red harvest]

Anyway, now that the insanity of September has faded, I've done some work on the smaller buildings. Here are a few WIP images of the first small building for the table. As you can see, things progress well enough. It is significantly smaller, but that was the intention. I opted to build it on top of a hill that I made some years ago. But it is removable. I'll probably build a second base for it, so it can be played w/out the hill. But I like elevation changes. Flat tables are, well, boring.



The overhead shots are next, so you can see inside the building. Yes, that is a Jotums* in the photo on the left, below.

It is not a really a small building, just small relative to the first building. But it has its charms.




The dome was fun to build. I wanted a subtle shape. Nailed it. Although the photos don't show it too well. Lighting is my nemesis. Just a few more details on this one, and it will be ready for painting. I may try to finish 1 or 2 more, or maybe even all three of the remaining small buildings before I start painting. We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by.

*The prize for 2nd place in the contest

[red harvest]

Now about those pesky details...

Since the dome on this building is different from the ones on the first building, I thought a little how to is in order. First, it is an ogive, if you wanted to know the name of the shape-- but I did leave it with a rounded point in lieu of a sharp point. I determined the shape etc, and then cut out the frames for the dome, and glued them onto the base of the dome. See first photo. I also cut out the first 6 panels for the dome.



I then curved the panels by pulling them across a piece of copper pipe while holding the panel against my thumb. This gives the paper a curl, provided you are going with the paper's grain in the first place. If you try this against the paper's grain, you'll get a mess. Flex a piece of cardstock sometime, in different directions. You feel resistance one way, but not the other. Once curled, I glued them over the frame, alternating panels.



Then I cut six more panels and glued them over the remaining spaces, using the top edges of the first panels as the frame. You can see the lines from this in the photo below.



I cut six more panels, this time narrower than the first dozen, and glued them in the spaces betweem the second set of panels, so I could get a uniform surface. I filled the gaps with yellow wood filler ( not just for wood eh? Oh wait paper is from wood so... never mind.) I glued a couple of bands around the base of the dome to hide the uneven edges of the panels, and to create a nice line. Filled any gaps again and sanded/filed the filler smooth.



Next I primed with a very odd color of interior wall paint. Y'know the stuff you get from the "Whoops, we mixed the wrong color" shelf at your DIY. it's really cheap this way, and as primer, color is unimportant as long as it is not black. You can see the paper had a texture too. I can make use of that later. Serendipity.



And here is how it looks on the building.



Thanks for stopping by.

[red harvest]

Here are some photos of the small buildings for the table. You've already seen the first building, but here it is primed. I'll add the details, doors, windows etc, to it later, when all of the small buildings are done.




Here is the second small building. It is really half a building, and meant to be put along a table edge. It is accessible through the back, as seen in the second photo below. Might have to reinforce the floors though. A small sag there is I see.




Here are the first two buidlings together, to give an idea of scale.



Here is my idea for the third building. I am using one of the urban oasis pieces (as yet unfinished) as the roof. I may build an alternate roof too. Clearly, it is still early W.I.P. I do like to write all over those things, eh?






There is one more small building to start, and it'll be a half building too, and have a dome of some sort. I may make another building for the other urban oasis w/out the water. They take up quite a bit of space on the board. So 4-5 small buildings in total.

Thanks for dropping by.

[red harvest]

A quick update. Small building three is primed and ready for the final steps, which I'll get around to doing when all of the smaller buildings are done. Right now there are two more full small buildings and one half building pending.
Here are the pictures showing the steps. I used styrfoam to form the outline of the walls, as an experiment. It produced some interesting effects, but I won't use the stuff again.








And a preview of the next small building.



That's 72 pounds, or 32.66 Kilograms. I build 'em sturdy eh?

Thanks for stopping by.

[red harvest]

Not much work these days what with the holidays and other RL disruptions, and I've been painting minis, well sort of. Here is a WIP of the final small (whole) building. I decided to give this one a raised floor and the garden roof.






As you can see, the walls are 3mm thick. I went back to layering the walls, after trying the foamcore and the styrofoam approaches. I just don't like working with foam.



But here is what a foamcore WIP would be.







I used pins to hold it while the glue cured, and then pulled them out before proceeding. Had to fill the kerfs. Not an elegant way to do things. Foamcore has its uses, but this is not a good one. IMNSHO. This building does support some weight though; I'll give it that.

There will be more coming soon, once I get some stuff painted.

[red harvest]

Yo dawgs, I heard y'all like hexagons...


...y'all know the rest. Lots of pictures.

The Habitat Modules



Top view


The Communications Array


Top view


The Generator


Top view

Oh, and a nice red light inside


The HVAC Units

Top view


The Porta-Potty-- Yes, it even has a crescent moon on the door, like a proper outhouse. Also room for showers. The metal meeples like to clean up after a hard day's shooting



Lights?

Top view


The Group





I need to print some signage for it of course, things like 'danger high voltage' etc. And finish the interiors. bunks, lockers, tables, benches and ladders for when we stack the modules. And a water supply..

I built this for a contest over at dakkadakka.com. The theme was accommodations. Places where our little metal meeples lay their weary heads after a day's labor. I thought of shipping containers, only in hex form. There were a lot of nice entries. I figured the Odalisque was the best mini to showcase the scale

Thanks for stopping by.

[red harvest]

Yay!!! :excited: :woohoo: :excited:

Geduld, what are you talking about Geduld?! I had to wait TWO MONTHS for my new shiny buildings!!!! :ohmy:



EDIT:
Is it anyhow possible to give multiple likes?
I think I have to go make myself a second account...

One like will suffice I was going to spend the winter just painting minis, but found the contest by accident, and really like the idea, so... It'll be a while again before I build anything new...or will it? I haven't been poking around this forum much lately, so I didn't see your previous post until I posted the recent pix.

Amazing, everything in this thread is simply amazing.

Are those hexagon buildings custom-made or are they from some manufacturer?

Scratch built. See below:
[
[
[
[
I posted this and was warned not to crush my contest entry
[
[

Thanks for the compliments all.

This post makes little sense without the quotes. So I kept 'em. Geduld is the German word for patience.

[red harvest]

The HVAC

The generator. Use the plastic from a cheap binder* for 'glass'

The Comm Array... Just paper wrapped around a dowel. The satellite dish is paper and wood filler.


And finally, my new precious:


It is 1" from point to point.

Thanks for stopping by.

*No, it was not "full of women" That's Mitt Romney's Binder.

[red harvest]

Rather than curse the darkness...



So I made these base 'coasters' for the minis I have which will take 55mm bases. Here are a few WIPs



Mmmm, puttin' on the Ritz....



Had to trace out the base extension stuff and then remove material using a hole puch. (Yeah, the hole punch is old. Like from 1979 old. A good hole punch should last 30+ years.)



Here are a few shots of the final product. I did this for the 25mm bases too (the inner base is 20mm, which IMHO is the 'right' size. But you can let your own eyes be the judge.) The coaster adds about 1.4 mm to the height of the mini.



I used blue-tac (the yellow stuff on the 'coaster') to hold the 'coaster' to the base. Works really well. You could also finish the coaster to look like this...



Problem solving in a drama free fashion. Gotta love that

Thanks for stopping by.

This in response to some petulance about the addition of 55mm bases to some miniatures.

[red harvest]

Minimal work done. Ah well. A few bits, just to remind everybody that I'm not dead yet.

I did not like this roof



So I did it over.





With a dome of course. Plenty of more work to be done on it, but I am much happier with the new roof.

And then there is this one


Turns out the hill it is built upon... not so visually appealing anymore. So I started this



I'll add that second building to the terrace later on. In the meantime...




I started the terrace. And of course I'll be adding more details. The terrace has more potential than the hill.

Thanks for stopping by.

[red harvest]

The Bourak table terrain is on the back burner for the time being...

Another terrain building contest. The theme will be obvious from these WIPs, or so I think. The building and the interior are to 28mm scale, BTW. Because I can.

[img=http://i.imgur.com/VbUSwfg.jpg[/img]
[img=http://i.imgur.com/bUsHvYq.jpg[/img]

Of course it's hexagonal. The exterior will be done to match the hab units I did earlier. Eventually I'll have a table of stuff like this If I keep going. Can't say that strikes me as a bad thing.

Oh, and I found some nice floorplans for an adobe style guesthouse. So, I'll build it to 28mm scale. As a side project. For grins. It'll be playable too.




Thanks for stopping by.

[red harvest]

A few WIP shots of the comfort station.

The Outside

The HVAC

The Shower inside


A frosted glass shower door, so all you pervs can watch


And a WIP of the shower area from the adobe guesthouse


See y'all next month. Thanks for stopping by. :hai-there:

[red harvest]

This is the final post from the old forum thread. I won't edit it. I tried to leave with a bit of class.

This will be my last post here, since these forums are going dark soon. I have certainly enjoyed blogging about the terrain projects this past year and a half, and the camaraderie that comes along with it. I thank you all for your comments, compliments and suggestions. You all have made this a very enjoyable experience.

I have been active over at the DakkaDakka forums, mainly due to the terrain contests, and the ability to exchange banter and C&C with my fellow scratch builders over there. In case any of you are interested, here are the links to my threads on Dakka.

Completed Infinity Stuff and Terrain Blog

And I'll leave with one final image



I need to make better light fixtures and mirrors. I'll figure it out. No worries.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed the ride.
-- Red

Hmm, 40 some odd entries. Makes for interesting viewing to see them in essentially a blog form. everything after this post is new stuff. New as in from July 2014 or later.

[red harvest]

A brief update on the comfort station to get the wagon a-rollin'.

Found a better way to do the mirror. Use a real mirror. Derp, eh?


Things looked like this overhead. Haven't glued anything together yet, so things are not quite in place.


The 'throne' room doors. hinges in 28mm are a bee-yotch.


And a start on the 'accessories"


Going to have sliding doors. like on the hab modules.


Thanks for stopping by the new place. "Siéntate como en tu casa.

[Errhile]

Okay, that's crazy. But in a positive way

[mbdeyes]

I've been in restaurants who's rest rooms didn't look that good.

[leigen_zero]

This is just Brilliant, I'd like to give this a heartfelt and detailed complement, but pure brilliance is all I can muster...

The fact that your infinity table has accurately-scaled khazis is madness, but imagine the battle report when someone opens the toilet door and finds out they really didn't want to pass that WIP check and discover what was in there

[MARC C]

The last two pieces are just incredible! You will soon have enough stuff for half a table?
I'm curious. How much time did it take to construct one of these?

[red harvest]

Thanks guys.

Marc, I built that piece you are seeing, the interior portion, in only a few days ( an hour here, an hour there sort of thing..., but it was a rebuild, so all I had to do was copy it. The actual construction does not take long at all. Maybe 3-4 hours) The massive time sink is figuring out how to make the stuff, like the shower details, in in the proper scale. There are a large number of experiments that failed. I am also a fairly slow worker. And since this is the first time I have done any sort of interior work in, oh, 30 years?, I am re-learning as I go. And bathrooms are probably the most difficult thing to represent because of all the fixed-in-place fixtures in tight spots. Plus the issue of playability. Most of the interior is actually accessible, even with the 25mm bases. But not every inch of every building need be accessible. IMHO.

I suspect that with practice I'll get much faster. In as much as I can work faster in the first place. I think "slowness" is a common motif throughout this thread.

I have found that using the printer to 'paint' for me ( the tiles on the floor and walls) is a very good thing. I will certainly find a way to expand on that. It certainly speeds things up.

This is just Brilliant, I'd like to give this a heartfelt and detailed complement, but pure brilliance is all I can muster...

The fact that your infinity table has accurately-scaled khazis is madness, but imagine the battle report when someone opens the toilet door and finds out they really didn't want to pass that WIP check and discover what was in there

Excellent idea. A perfect place for an objective marker of some sort. People hide stuff in and behind toilets all the time. I hadn't thought of that. The WIP roll may represent summoning the courage to stick your hand... yeah. I'll leave that thought unfinished.

[Arachas]

This thread, like Errhile said, is pure insanity. O_O

[Yashia]

I'm so glad to see you here and even more so to see new awesome things from you!

[Harlekin]

Thanks a lot for resurrecting/continuing your thread here at DS.
Your terrain always is a great inspiration.

[Hydra]

And here is the good part in all this forum migration.
Inspiring and awesome stuff like yours, wrapped up in a couple of pages full if awesomeness! Thanks for that tour! And a pleasure to stop by... As always.

[red harvest]

Not so sure that is all that good Hydra. First, thank you, or Danke (?). Look at the load time for these 2 pages. And the Modquisition found me. It gets worse. They think I'm crazy. No guys, you got it all wrong. I do this to ward off the crazy. Yeah, that's the ticket...

@Yashia--It's all your fault for bringing it up in your thread. Ah well. It's fun, and I can track threads on 2 forums. 3 would be out of the question.

Thanks everyone.

I would have more done, but I blew a big chunk of hobby time following the Icestorm news. I suspect that statement will be greeted with understanding.

the fixture in the center is the real thing that I used for inspiration. Can't paint brushed stainless steel so well, but, I think my seat cover and T.P. dispenser looks the part.


And the sink itself, with a paper towel garbage bin combo fixture.


Getting close to the finish line here. To answer the obvious question: Sewing pins.

Thanks for stopping by.

[Icchan]

Sinks? SINKS! In 28mm scale?! You ARE nuts. The best kind of nuts. An inspiration to us all for raising the bar so high the moon is doing limbo on it...