A quite evident issue about building the sci-fi mining town is that you need it to look like an actual place to live. Not necessarily to live decently (this is a Rogue Trader-WH40K kind of project after all!), but at least to have something more than mere square boxes and line of sight blockers. A part of it, of course, is to add some doors to the boxes, so they upgrade to houses :P
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| Remember, this pic says it all for me. This is what I am aiming for |
Back in the day I got some of the
Trash Bash sci-fi doors by RoeBeast, but I used all of them. I tried to look if I could get a few more, but I wasn't able. Besides, I was thinking I would need quite a lot! So what could I do?
The solution came in the form of card and foamboard...
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| The Ikea approach |
Right, the only reasonable way was to make my own doors!
I wasn't sure of how to get the right design. In the end I think they look too much Tatooine-like, but I think subconscious references cannot be underestimated!
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| If this doesn't scream sci-fi in desert, I don't know what will do |
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| I added rivets. You can never go wrong with an excess of rivets |
I can hear you. '
So, your solution is to make dozens of doors, one by one'. Though that sounds like me indeed, I currently lack both time and motivation to do so. What I would need here is the way to cast these. I've been interested in learning resin casting for ages, but it always looked overwhelming for my puny skills. But a few weeks ago I discovered
this acrylic resin for dummies, by Green Stuff World. The 'dummies' is mine, but it's an accurate description, trust me. Make a mould, mix the powder with water and ta-da, it's done. Witchcraft!
So there we go! I press moulded the doors:
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| Ooops! Unexpected setbacks |
The oyumaru mould was good, but the original doors were ruined when I put them out of it. So well, apparently I have a single shot to discover if I'm doing this right...
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| This is all you need. Oh, and water, sure |
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| Drum roll... |
About half an hour later...
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| It works! IT WORKS! Mwahahahahaha!! |
I'm happy with the result; the frame finally got the adobe like texture, the control pad looks reasonably good and the door itself will work. Of course this is but my first experiment, but I hope I'll get better with practice.
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| In fact I've done this third, simple door |
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| And I'm about to experiment with control pads and an junction box |
Well, but for the moment, after a lot of half hours... :P
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| I hope I have enough doors for a few buildings!! |
Well, let's see how they fit in the town! I had to blend them in with some das putty and I had to fix some minor texture and filling issues:
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| Now this looks more like a thriving neighbourhood |
I also remembered I had a few MDF doors by MadMechaGuy. I got them ages ago and totally forgot about them until the other day. I hope the mix works in the end.
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| Doors! Doors everywhere! |
Ehm. Yes, right. There's a door leading to nowhere up there. Not that I just needed to fill that empty surface. Let me elaborate. I'm also making this:
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| A comm array? A void shield control pad? Who knows! |
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| Still in progress, I want to add some details |
So the thing is that I cut a tiny gap just under the frame of the door, allowing me to place the walkway this way:
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| It's a precautionary measure about storage to avoid unnecesary damages |
It's not the only weird door I have...
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| Yeah, I should really call for a professional architect |
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| I guess I'll have to properly texture and paint the wall before I add all the stuff I'm planning, but you get an idea |
This is all I have right now. I'm quite happy with the discovery of the resin, it's super easy to handle and opens a whole world of possibilities. Of course the doors are not perfect, but they work fine at tabletop distance, so I cannot ask for more.
More stuff coming soon!
