Terrain Challenge – Shanty Town

Started this project and it needed to be fast and furious.

I thought of lots of cool things but I need a shanty town as a part of an upcoming part of an RPG I am doing.

There are lots of ways to make this fast. If you have seen any of my other recent projects I am also lucky enough to have a laser cutter. Problem is I don’t like the look of run down laser cut buildings it doesn’t have enough texture to make me believe in the object.

I then went about looking for inspiration. I have been playing fallout since Fallout 2 came out. I love the look and writing of the games and I just needed to use this an inspiration.

I not only looked at the aesthetics of the game but also looked at Fallout 4 and how they make there own buildings.

So I have my plan!

I will make a modular construction system similar to fallout 4 so I can make copies of an individual building component and join them together to make larger more complex structures.

So I started putting some lines down on my computer using CAD software.

I will make these public so if you have 2mm MDF and access to a laser cutter you can try yourself.

Link to files if you wish to try – One Drive

I just wanted a frame though would be sturdy and reasonably square so I could just have fun putting things together. This could also be cool if you wanted to make a building site.

This has been though many iterations in a short time. When I was cutting one I was already making changes to the next. Not the best idea but it seemed it work.  and some of the ones you will see are older versions. I have just improved the concept and fit of things.

I made one with stairs and one without and the hole I need for stairs is larger than the standard width in the floors.

NOTE: I have not tried the stairs so I hope they work…

I could go overboard at this point and make lots of different sections but stairs and without are ok for me at the moment.

I have also included joining sections to join wall sections together. This may not be elegant but again it worked. Also the side frame feet are only 1mm deep to allow for stacking and I also have a central column for if you are joining 4 squares together. Again could do more but this is more than enough and have I said I don’t have much time.

The drawings took about 2 – 3 hours so I don’t expect them to be perfect with all angles covered but I may revisit this when I have further time and add to this.

So I had everything done and a sort of final design started so I got my laser cutter running.

I will say that I am now the proud owner of lots and lots of MDF rectangles.

I posted a video of my laser cutter, cutting before but it’s dull as dishwater so I will not post that but here is a quick video of me making a 3 cube structure.

quite a few mistakes here due to camera in my face but I hope you get the idea. This is sped up 4 times so it took around 30 minutes to build in total. Which is not bad for me. I done this for lots of buildings.

So I have My building site. Now it’s time to truly build!

I needed to try this off the cuff and see what the results would be.

So I rushed ahead. Now I have all of this straightened out in my head I will try and make a video and break down the process in my next post on another building and the materials used next.

This is the smallest possible structure I have 3 of these to do so seemed like a good idea to do this.

I used offcuts I had laying around, balsa wood, coffee cup holders, card and some fabric to cover the shack. I need to find more suitable materials for variety.  I used a number of techniques that I will go into later e.g. so the fabrics do not get fuzzy. I think this needs another layer of detail so I will continue to work on this.

Something to note, the roofs are all removable for interior gameplay and they are still stackable so I should have a limited amount of changes I can still make. The door works as well!

I am just glad all that texture is still in there, this is the key to what I am doing. The post apocalypse in Soap Dodger’s head is not pretty but it is full of texture.

Feel free to tell me any materials you would think is good to shove onto this. I think I will cut up some plastic bottles for some clear sections and may also use some plastic wrap of differing kinds to add after for a transparent effect.

Some of you may think this is not a strong structure but even before you add the sides it is quite strong like an oak in the wind because of the flex it has.

So that’s where I got up to with this. Not a bad start, but need more work on the project and further tutorials on sections and also painting!

As ever, more to come when I can find time!

I had my prototype. So as I said I wanted this to be almost a study in textures. To this end I decided what types of textures will be involved. I think I need more but this is a good base point.

I used mainly hairspray, airbrushing and dry brushing to get this far. I think it needs some pigments but I have ran out also I think I can get a lot more variety out of the hairspray than I did.

Now I know what I am doing I will be able to do better tutorials on how to get this done on the other buildings.

There you have it! Finished prototype. Didn’t take to long and I think it’s an ok building.

Thought about pre painting all of the components and just assembling this. I would do this if I were making a kit but the whole idea of this was free flow construction and I think the amount of touch ups to the paint would not make this worth it.

The rest should only improve from here. Looking forward to getting more texture in it.

Feel free to suggest other texture techniques and materials. Ones I am thinking about are polythene from carrier bags. glass elements, stippling on paint, newer metals etc.

I will start the next one and the how to’s next.  I was also thinking of adding a shop of some kind and a destroyed or collapsed building. This will be time dependant though.

I don’t this yesterday and painted it today. This is a massive amount of footage but as I do not have the patience so edit properly you can have it all in one.

I used:

• Superglue
• Scissors
• Scalpel
• Lighter
• PVA glue
• Straight cutters
• Coffee cup holders
• 1mm balsa
• 2mm balsa
• Scraps of plastic
• Aluminium mesh
• Fabric
• 1mm card

Possibly some other stuff I would watch the video for further details.

This took a bit of time but I think it may be useful to some people. Video is sped up 4x times to try and make it worth a watch, if you want to get to a particular point just scroll to it.

Sorry it’s so long but I think if I speed it up any more it will just be a blur. I could edit this but life is too short :).

I have finished this at this point but editing videos, even though I am not editing and uploading them seems to take some time.

I will see if I can edit this tomorrow and put up the painting side of things. This is a lot longer. It may have been a better idea just to take each element and do a short 5 min video of the painting but it’s done now.

As ever more to come.

As promised here is the full painting video of how I paint these.

Weirdly enough making this times what I do and I have to say I must be slow at building and painting. You can see in the vids I don’t know how as I am always doing something.

Assembling a hut takes up to 30 minutes building it takes 2 hours and painting it takes 4 hour. That’s 6 hours 30 minutes per hut. I know if I was not filming I would go a bit faster but I would say about 5 hours per building. That seems crazy…

Anyways, enough of my time rant. I am not in this hobby to make money I do it for enjoyment! This has been certainly fun to paint. Here is the video, again sped up 4 times.

I used:

• Cheap Poundland spray-paint grey and black.
• Airbrush
• Brushes
• Toothpick
• Hair dryer (borrowed/stolen from wife)
• Vallejo paints, matt varnish and streaking grime effect paint.
• Homemade airbrush medium
• Cheap masking tape
• Model masking tape

Possibly some other things. (see the video for further information)

As you can see if you watched the video I don’t always mask when spraying. I get away with it sometimes and not other times and this just comes down to how much effort and what look you wish to get.

I also don’t wait for things to try even when this effects finish. It’s the post apocalypse no one has time to watch paint dry, even if this marks the model. (in this case)

I like some of the colour going around and some paint chips worked into things as every time I see this in real life the chips are never removed anyway and paint flecks are all over.

I will do a photo tutorial showing how I do the metal and how to do this better. This was stolen from scale model people but who knew some cardboard could look so cool! (I didn’t) I also want to try and do a proper video but unsure of how this would come together or if I have the patience for it. Guess it can wait until a rainy day.

More to come! Perhaps something larger?

It’s been great to see everyone’s work. I have not commented as much as I wanted to as I feel under the gun, though I have lots of time left.

Started this yesterday. Thinking of breaking this down for people who do not wish to watch an hour video of me painting, I will come to that later.

I found some more materials, only a couple. A fridge was delivered with corrugated plastic. This works great and I also used a screen cover this is more of a fabric but has a strange texture on it.

I also made the stairs and they do work. I also laser cut Balsawood for the first time. I used 2mm balsa and apart from the smoke that comes out of it, making stains the wood this worked surprisingly well. I did have my fire extinguisher handy as I thought it would just catch fire and knowing how fast this would go I just had to make sure I had a plan B. Though I did laser cut the grain of the wood in the wrong direction (Doh!).

Not a lot of innovation in this one but I have made a plan and stuck to it. I wish I would find 28mm scale model kit cars and vehicles as I wish I would use this as panels for a building. I looked and can’t find anything I like or that would work.

From doing this one it was quicker than doing 3 1/2 “cubes” but it’s surprisingly time consuming to build and paint. It’s fun doing get me wrong, but half way though each step I get the urge to do something else. I think it’s component fatigue due to the amount. Something I would think about if you undertake a similar project. Possibly don’t do it for a time based challenge so feel you can leave it for a bit.

Today I am going to start on the detail painting. Next up though I have a tutorial section on wood (giggles).

A short tutorial on how I do wood (cant phrase this any other way) If you cant face watching an hour long video, I don’t blame you! This may be for you.

That’s how I paint wood. It’s not a natural looking wood but if you look at railway sleepers this is more like that effect but a bit brighter and warmer. I do this so I can knock it back later with washes but still keep the lighter spots.

I use balsa wood as I like the fibres from it they pick up the paint and drybrush very well. I think it’s impossible to get this effect from any other material. it’s also quite cheap from where I get it from (£1.90 a sheet) but I am sure you could find much better value if you didn’t just walk into your local craft shop.

Coffee stirrers are a close second but depending which ones you end up with they can be too smooth unless that’s the effect your looking for I would say get some 1 – 2mm balsa sheets.

I also try where possible to drybrush cross grain but also drybrush in a circular motion and focus on a spot for a light effect.

I am not a fan of dry brushing overall but if you are going to overuse this technique anywhere it should be on terrain. as you are painting large objects and need to get a good result quick for your own sanity. Also you don’t want to use a lot of paint especially if you are using model paints this didn’t take much at all apart from the base layer of brown.

I am thinking of doing the same thing as the above for the rusted corrugated panels. I made one panel all wood and the woof all metal to do these tutorials as both things are key to the painting of this project.

Any feedback on the icons on the pictures would be good, but I think people read this asking for feedback may not be the people it was aimed at. Just trying something different.

I hope to have more today.

Keep up the great work everyone and start a challenge project and show us your stuff if you haven’t already!

As I said before I stole this from the scale model people. It’s not new but I have not seen it used much in wargaming I like the effect a lot and it adds so much into post apocalyptic terrain.

A few things before I start you can get rust effect paint and rust texture paint or even both. If you are only doing a small piece or looking for the best quality I suggest doing this for the rust. This is almost a quick and dirty version of something that can look even better!

Been busy this week but had the day off today so finished up this Shanty hut. Two more to go and a few more ideas that I should progress.

Another building bites the dust.

Two more to come. One big one small and then moving onto some items to make this more lived in if I get the time.

As ever more to come.

So it’s been a while for this project. As I suspected, so little time. I used my time where I had it. Got obsessed with pressing refresh on a certain site for tickets to an event and got a promotion at work! It’s been eventful, but not for this project!

Started again today. Got side tracked as ever. I will not have time next week so I think I will finish the project with the large building.

This was todays side-track. I was remembering comments and what I should add. I tried to find a suitable 28mm kit car but it seems modelers do not like 28mm or scales close to it so I couldn’t find any car panels. I did find ones for 3D printing but alas time got away from me and I would have needed to get these printed somewhere.

I loved the idea of signs but with time constraints and the size of road signs at 28mm I didn’t think this would be possible. Then I remembered motorway signs and they are big! I think these are aluminium these days but with some creative licence I made mine out of steel.

Steps using the techniques I have already shown used in layers.

1. Cut out your sign. I used 1mm thick card. ( I used a laser cutter for speed)
2. Prime this using a spray primer (the cheaper the better when it comes to terrain)
3. I prayed the rust colours on using an air brush. Brown base followed by patches of orange and yellow then knocking it back with spraying brown and black wash.
4. Hairspray everything I done two coats on the second I threw some salt over it. I done each side like this in turn.
5. I airbrushed one side green and the other grey. and rubbed off the stuck down salt.
6. I cut the first stencil out of 1mm card. I used masking tape over the parts that would fall out and removed only the letters. For the parts that would fall out I removed the masking tape so I could move them covered the bottom in PVA and stuck them down again, then lifted only the masking tape to hold them in position.
7. I sprayed more hairspray then white.
8. Removed the mask and the parts I stuck down with PVA I tore and then used some water to remove them without disturbing the paint to much. I then weathered further with a toothbrush.
9. I then used a toothbrush and water after the above had dried to chip and scape away the paint in places.
10. I applied the second stencil which was in a graffiti font it was applied as before. I sprayed red for the letters and removed the mask.
11. Final touch ups were done with a tooth pick and a hard brush when dry to further weather this.

I will continue to work and get the large building done tomorrow (I hope) this will be better built in terms of materials used as this would have taken them longer to build and I think more care would have been taken.

I will then apply the sign when the main painting is done to remove the need to mask this.

More to come…. but the end is nigh!

Finishing the communal shanty hut. I didn’t get this done last week but did manage to find some hours throughout the week and finished this on Thursday.

I wanted this to look more taken care of as this wouldn’t be a single of family dwelling but a community building and as such better build and repairs.

I used all the same techniques as before I like everything on this apart form the roof. I had something in my head and just didn’t achieve this I think if I were to do anything again it would be this but it can be pulled off and replaced later due to the modularity of it.

Just as well the car wash down the road from the shanty town got blown up for materials. 🙂

The only thing done different was the notice board for side quests. In my (sci-fi) RPG this would mostly be done via a terminal but in this location I think a noticeboard is more fitting. This was just some balsa wood and some print outs varnished and sprayed with washes.

One last post to come with some conclusions and I will end this. But As I have finished a project I am off to get stuff to start the next.

I have already moved onto my next project in the desert.

As I said before I wished to wrap this one up with some reflective thoughts.

Things that I think went well:

• More natural looking rust and paint effects than I have managed to do before.
• Modular building layout. This may not be modular enough for some but it makes sense having a building helper rather than me just laser cutting the sides of a box with all the texture engraved in it. It did speed up building time.
• I love the motorway sign. building this up with just paint was time consuming that could have arguably be spent better elsewhere but I love it and made me think about laser cutting stencils which I don’t know why I don’t do more of because I like the end result so much.

Things that I think didn’t go so well and possible reasons why/how to fix:

• Colour choice on roof of communal shanty hut. I think I should have perhaps done 1 or 2 colours. It ended up too bright and eye catching. If I were to do this again with the same colours I should have added way more salt so that this is mostly rust and the accent is the colours.
• Time. I planned this to be quick due to life commitments / aspirations away from the hobby. I managed to achieve all of those but the hobby did take it’s rightful back seat. I think I could have designed this to be a faster less time consuming build and paint.
• Internal details should have been thought about from the start e.g. furniture. I am now left with empty shells and although for use in wargaming this may not matter, but for my roleplay. I will need to come up with other parts before use. Again this may come down to time above.
• While happy with materials used I think it needed more and to be random. The great suggestions I received were mostly unrealised. If this in the future is used for fallout wasteland warfare then expanded, I may be able to fully realise this.

That’s just a few points. I am sure when I have used these and looked at them some more I will come up with much better ways to do everything!

This was fun to build and paint which is the main thing and provides another location for the players of my RPG if they wish to go down this path. The files are present bellow (or above) if you wish to give it a go or you can print them off and use as a template if you want to scratch build the frames out of 2mm balsa wood (which would look better).

It would still be great to get some form of discussion on what kind of formats you think are good for projects. I don’t a few things in here. Written instruction, pictorial instruction and videos trying to find what I think works best within the project system. I myself prefer the bog standard written instruction but I am still curios to see what people prefer.

Oh well… the end is nigh.

More to come just not here.

THE END