Sunday, 10 March 2019

AZTEC FARM

A scratch built 15mm sci fi farm. No this is not a farm for growing Aztecs! Nor is a farm built by the ancient Aztecs. It is just the name I was using as I built this.  Nor is it complete. as it would require several further tunnels to finish it. But it will do for now!
Below is a step by step guide on how it was made.

Firstly I needed a concept. It needed to be easily built and cheaply. So I used only Items I could either scrounge or had already I am sure there are beter options and I look forward to seeing them.

This was actually the hardest part. Using "Grey board" (extra thick cardboard) I cut out some semi circles. I cut them the wrong size. Feel free to laugh andI am sure many of you will. This is actually quite gruelling and requires some effort. So Rather than re cut them to the right size I went with it. Not Ideal but what in wargaming or I life is!

I used  some spare 6mm MDF to make a base board. This was easy and straight forward and I was able to use power tools so little effort bu some time was required. For the actual tunnel I decided on an old "Pepsi" bottle. Feel free to use something else. I nearly used "7UP" as the bottled were lime green in colour and I thought (and still do) that might make them more sci fi in appearance. But I had a pepsi bottle so that was pressed into service.
There are molding lines and I used these as a guide to get some pieces hemispherical and using the molding lines was accurate enough.

I did a dry assembly first and then once I was "Happy" (BTW I am never happy) first stick the end pieces in place and then set about making the interior. The interior was first painted then dry-brushed and then commercial "Tufts" were added to reflect crops.  Again |I used what I had and the next version will probably be cheaper! Yeah I am a skin flint!


When ready (and left over night) I used a cheap (Bought from the 99p store) Uhu glue To hold in all in place. It is not perfect but did the job I required cheaply and efficiently.The interior was painted black on the walls and any other colour would have been acceptable, Personal choice and what, in this instance, I had to hand. Thick card board (actually Mounting board) was used on the sides. Again UHU was used but feel free to use any other general glue.



At this stage all the inside was done and a coat of grey paint was applied to the appropriate areas. As I had not been super neat (such s my way) I used thin strips of "Plasticard" as a junction between the "clear"  and the grey walls. Yes I split glue more than a few time and If working commercially would have taken more care. Superglue was used to hold the plasicard in placeas my "Mekpak" had all dried up and superglue was all I had handy! Again more care should have been taken but it was not and I have learnt not to beat-my-self-up about it.

Finally I painted to finish ad blogged it. I added a solar panel from the "Blotz" company (LINK) and a figure for scale. The solar panel and the figure are separate and can (and will) be used for other things!

Yes lots to get "right" in the future, but at least my sc fi 15mm people shall not starve straight away.  Yes I need to build a few more (and in different sizes) or supporting life will not be easy and shall be expensive. But not a bad place to start.

Below are some more finished pics just do you an see all the mistakes. Don't bother pointing them out I am already aware of them and all it does is make you look stupid!





Thanks for looking and no doubt see you soon. All the best Clint



12 comments:

  1. What a great piece of scratch-building. Very clever and it looks very effective.

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    1. Thank you Bryan. Mistakes were made so the next shall be better. Already thinking of it! But for now it will do.

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  2. Excellent and inspirational, Clint. It looks just the job :-)

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    1. Thank you Blax. It took a while and as mentioned in a comment above already planning the next one. (maybe with livestock!)

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  3. That's bloody good bodging Clint!

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    1. Thank you Fran. There are loads of mistakes but all things I can work on in future terrain projects.

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  4. Brilliant idea Clint, and nicely executed too, should look very cool on the gaming board

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    1. Thank you Dave. I feel I need at least 1 more of these(maybe 2)as the food will seem a little scares at the moment

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  5. That is very cleaver Clint I really like it a lot :)

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    1. Thank you Frank. I shall start another one either today or tomorrow.(I hope)

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  6. I laways like seeing scratchbuit scenery and the ddded solar opanel makes this stand out - great stuff Clint.

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    1. Thank you Joe. I HOPE to have the next one done by the weekend.

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