05/06/2019

Opening doors to new experiences

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

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...
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!
If this doesn't scream sci-fi in desert, I don't know what will do

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:
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...

This is all you need. Oh, and water, sure

Drum roll...
About half an hour later...

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.

In fact I've done this third, simple door

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

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:

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.

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:

A comm array? A void shield control pad? Who knows!

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:

It's a precautionary measure about storage to avoid unnecesary damages

It's not the only weird door I have...

Yeah, I should really call for a professional architect

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!

38 comments:

  1. Great job, man! This is coming along very well!

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    1. Thanks! I still have to improve the way I produce these, but it really opened new perspectives :)

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  2. Si no te importa el peso puedes utilizar pasta de modelar, aquí las venden en los bazares orientales por un par de euros el kilo, es como arcilla que se seca al aire, así me hice yo los marcos y las puertas para el heroquest. Y guarda las primeras copias que hagas para hacer nuevos moldes si hiciese falta.
    Por cierto te está quedando muy bien.

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    1. ¡Gracias! Ese tipo de pasta (concretamente pasta DAS) es la que uso para texturizar y rellenar huecos. Sin embargo para piezas como estas resulta demasiado quebradiza y no me da suficiente nivel de detalle, esto de la resina ha sido todo un descubrimiento :)

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    2. Por internet corren tutoriales de cómo hacer masilla para modelar FIGURAS con la pasta de papel (DAS). Creo que DM Scotty en YouTube tiene algo.

      Si no recuerdo mal era añadirle cola blanca al DAS y amasar como el que hace pan. Cuando queda una masilla digna de esculpir (no se agrieta) se guarda en plàstiques transparente en la nevera.

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    3. ¡Gracias! Eso no lo he probado nunca. De momento con la resina esta de Green Stuff World estoy muy contento, pero todo es probar :) Buscaré, muchas gracias.

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  3. y no olvides alguna pintada por las paredes..... Romani ite domum o algo así con marines :)

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    1. Jaja, eso lo hice en la pancarta de uno de mis manifestantes :D
      http://oldschoolworkshop.blogspot.com/2016/04/crossover-civilians-pt-2.html
      Pero sí, aquí van a hacer falt apintads y suciedad :)

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  4. Very cool, I can see this looking like a 'livable' place.

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    1. Thanks! I cannot ask for more, that's exactly the vibe I was trying to get. I hope it will look better with electric boxes, street lamps and that kind of stuff :)

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  5. Replies
    1. Thank you! It's pretty fun to see it taking shape :)

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  6. The walkway with the door screams a bit Star Wars bespin to me 😁.
    This resin is exactly what I was looking for, being a real noob at casting myself that is. I was wondering if it would be useful to cast miniatures with or is it too brittle?

    Anyway, your project starts to really come together. Every detail you add looks just as if you had planned it out beforehand 😉. Awesome work!

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    1. Haha, the influences are pretty obvious, aren't they? :P
      The resin is fantastic, and rock solid. The key here is getting a crisp mould. It's amazing for simple bits like these, but I still haven't dared to make a two sided piece. However, I'm eager to produce more complex elemements, so I'll let you know about my progress! Thank you!

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  7. Oh man I absolutely LOVE this !
    I really need to get room to allow for such projects !
    It's fantastic, cannot wait for the progress on this one.

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    1. Thanks, pal! Storage is a hell of a concern here :S
      I've made sure this fits in the space I can currently afford, but I have plans for further buildings that need to be part of this board, and I am in serious problems :D

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  8. Nice progress: love that walkway!

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    1. Thanks! I think I'll add a control pad or console or something, but the basic shape is already there :)

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  9. That's looking brilliant . . . . just brilliant!

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    1. Thank you! It's fun to see this growing. I'm not sure if I'll be able to build more stuff in a few days due to real life issues, but I'll try to keep on bussiness!

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  10. Those doors and accessories look great!

    This finished product is going to be amazing with these doors, and your new accessories, and wires/hoses/cables all over the place.

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    1. Thank you! You see, it was a solution provided by necessity, but it turned out better than expected. Right, I'll need a lot of stuff, but definitely wires are going to be all over!

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  11. Great doors and build. Nice work. I must try my hand at resin casting bits.

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    1. Thanks! The whole process is easier than anticipated; this resin was exactly what I needed, given my skills. I encourage you to give it a try :)

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  12. Very cool! I actually lived for a year in a place that had a door to nowhere kind of like that (except not nearly so high) due to the porch having rotted away on the side. Could be fun to leave one with just some fragments of stairs left leading up to it.

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    1. Thanks! Ohh, you know what? That's actually a cool idea! I'll see what can be done, thank you!!

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  13. These look absolutely fantastic Suber. Truly they are.
    To add variety in the future you could add some curtain doors for those really poor abodes. Not very sci-fi but contrarian doors can sometimes look very sci-fi. Eye of the beholder and all that jazz :) Regardless ... clap clap ... great work.

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    1. That's actually a nice idea and makes perfect sense. Hmm, let me see how can I make some of these, thank you for the input!!

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  14. This project is growing by leaps and bounds! I love it more every time you post. :) Well done!

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    1. Thanks! I'm trying to do something different from the usual boards, it's fun to see it growing into something real :D

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  15. Suber this is looking amazing man!

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    1. Thanks! The doors are super simple, but I hope they transmit the correct vibe. Tubes and wires will come for a later stage, but I'm not sure of how will all look in the end! :D

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  16. really enjoyed this post, it's so exciting seeing this come together great work

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    1. Thank you! It's fun to see how it grows and grows. Time consuming, yes, but fun :)

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  17. Lovely bit of home casting, great looking doors! What's the mould made of? Doors in space make total sense in a building that has evolved rather than been planned, oh and it's funny ever since you've started this project I've been thinking of the rogue trader illustration in relation to it!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks! The mould is made of a product called Oyumaru, but there are some other brands (for example, the shop where I got the resin also sell their own: http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/reusable-blue-stuff/2-blue-stuff-mold-4-bars.html).
      Just leave it in boiling water for a moment; when you can work with it, simply press the original piece you want to clone on it. Leave it for a couple of hours and you have the mould done. I've used it before to clone little pieces with greenstuff, but doors this size required resin. The best thing about this oyumaru-whatever is that it's reusable, so you can make as many moulds as you need with the same material.
      Give it a try! If you need better explanations (instead of this lousy attempt) just let me know :)

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  18. Replies
    1. Thanks! Not particularly difficult, but rewarding once you see the results :)

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