Modern/SciFi urban/industrial base scatter suggestions

[lawnor 25928xp 0]

@blinky465 here are the sizes of base inserts, assuming I can remember how to read callipers still.  As you can see they are not very deep so perhaps some resin can be saved off the bottom of the inserts to be printed?  I don’t know if they have any dead space under them.  They do look like they need some depth.

 

30mm base with a 23mm gap

40mm base with a 31mm gap

50mm base with a 40mm gap

[sundancer 42933xp 1]

Those measurements…. the bases stack nearly perfectly XD

[lawnor 25928xp 1]

Almost.  There is some wiggle room.  The 40 in the 50 has minimal but there is more between the 30 and 40mm.  It was kinda satisfying and makes me want a 60mm and a 70mm too.

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

I love that @sundancer finds this so satisfying. Almost like there’s a link between being German and appreciating great engineering 😉

 

[sundancer 42933xp 2]

What’s not to love and like when things add up correctly…

[somegeezer 18431xp 1]

+1 for Zinge. Lovely bits and bobs.

[blinky465 17028xp 3]

This was my first ever attempt at printing flat onto the build plate. I was surprised it worked at all (I angle and support almost everything, but may be less dogmatic about it now). A few did fail and a couple look a bit over/under-exposed, but they should be ok. It was also using up the last dribbles in the tank before changing from abs-like to AnyCubic standard (hence the change in colour – the paler, “blue-y” ones are abs, the “greyer” ones printed using standard) so wasn’t expecting so many to turn out so well!

I may have gone a bit too far slicing them down to make them thin enough for the lipped bases, but I guess the only way we’ll know for sure is when @lawnor posts some photos – they’re in the post already 😉

[lawnor 25928xp 0]

@blinky465  The look great, and that was a much faster turnaround than I expected.  If they poke out the top of my bases its not a big issue.  I’d take a little height to gain a little depth and three dimensionality anyway.  The minis aren’t turning up until August at the earliest but I can see me taking some of those for a painting test drive much sooner (Especially if Reichbusters wants to continue its World Tour rather than arrive).  Let me know what I owe you and I’ll paypal you right away.

Talking with you about this and seeing that stuff like this is out there for free to print is kinda pushing me towards getting a 3d printer more than before.  The realities of lack of space at home and financial concerns are still in my way, but this whittles down the whole “I’ve got too many minis to paint to benefit” argument with the counter of “I can make cool bases and extras for those minis”.  My situation is in flux though so perhaps by the end of the year I might cave, especially if these are as cool and professional as they look.

Thank you once again.  This has been really cool of you to do this for me.

[lawnor 25928xp 1]

I assume I should still wash 3D printed stuff with warm soapy water, the same as anything else I plan on painting?

[seldon9 12954xp 0]

Great finish on those bases blinky! Now where’s the best spot for some LEDs?

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

@lawnor – if we were at a gaming cafe, I wouldn’t think twice about buying you a coffee. The total cost of producing some base toppers (which came from a bit of left over resin after all) is less than a bite of one of those individually wrapped biscuits they put on the saucer. Printed flat on the base plate, they probably took less than half an hour – even my soya latte would still be warm in the time they took to print!

@seldon9 – I’ve started getting pre-soldered 0603 LEDs of ebay for about £3.50 for ten. Compared to solder-your-own, it’s still pretty pricey. I’ve billions of 1206 SMT ones (small, but large enough for most people to solder). And bagfuls of those 3mm round ones (the ones with one leg longer than the other). PM me your details and let me know what colours you need (honestly, I’ve more than a lifetime’s worth of LEDs – it’d be good to offload a few).

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

@lawnor – assemble them and paint them up. I can print and send you more (I won a few litres of resin with Titan Forge – second place, not overall winner – and am looking for stuff to print!). In fact, I’ll probably be printing quite a few more “toppers” and getting some of those lipped bases myself – I prefer sci-fi to fantasy but my basing technique is still stuck in the days of “glue-on-some-sand-and-add-some-tufts”. Let’s see what they look like!

[lawnor 25928xp 0]

I’ll be back here with my results once they are painted.  I’m already distracted thinking about where to put hazard lines, what colour to prime, how many different iron paints can I use on one base, can I rust all the tiles on a base but leave one rust free like its been replaced, and can I get a glow beneath that grating and how (Paint before so its clean, or paint after so it comes up the side of the grating).

I think for the most part a large chunk of 2020 will be taken up by me painting Reichbusters which already comes with textured bases so I don’t think I’ll need any more any time soon, but if I do I’ll bear you in mind and if I do you’ll have to let me give you something for it all then.  It’s one thing to offer, it’s quite another to take orders.  Although I do appreciate the desire to experiment even when you don’t need the results.  Thank you once again.

[oriskany 60771xp 3]

Just an idea, I’ve found one of the fastest scatter terrain ideas to make a table took “modern” instead of say historical is to add chain link fence.  Depending on your scale, you can use autobody repair mesh for 28mm (as seen on old HobbyLab episodes) or for smaller scales – the splatter screens people use in the kitchen for pan frying, etc.  You can cut it with any scissors and shape it into effective smaller-scale chain link fence that immediately identifies an urban scene as 1970s-forward.

[lawnor 25928xp 1]

Perhaps a little big for 30mm bases but perhaps not.  Something to think about for sure.  Definitely something you can throw on older looking terrain to modernise it at a moments notice though.

 

EDIT: I had to google that splatter guard.  I’ve never seen one of those before.  Perhaps its more an american thing or perhaps I’ve led a sheltered life when it comes to this sort of thing.  Strainers/sieves would also work and may come in plastic which might be easier to work with, or at least stab you less once cut.

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