The first instalment of Helsreach buildings is well on its way for BOYL.
- Surface – this is an old sheet which has been painted with a mixture of PVA and paint and then sprinkled with coarse sand. Newspaper is put underneath the sheet, which sticks to the sheet and stiffens it, helping to prevent cracking when it’s rolled up. Still needs more painting/drybrushing.
- Adobe buildings – one of these has been cut from foamboard, the other two from cork tile. I’m going to use cork for the others as it has a better surface texture. The two rectangular ones fit exactly inside each other so they can be packed into a smaller space. I think I could nest about 3 before the inside one gets ridiculously small compared to the outside one. I’ve kept them deliberately plain because it’s quick and it also makes them more generic. I’ll do some more that are more specifically sci-fi/Helsreach.
- Shack – this is cardboard, scraps of mounting board and cardboard. They are fun to make but very time consuming compared to the simpler adobe buildings. I’ve got some more half built, and this one needs more weathering and painting.
- Industrial buildings – The left hand one is a hot chocolate cylinder with a mounting board platform. In the past I’ve made some very complex industrial buildings. For this one I restricted myself (for speed) to just sticking a few bits of card on it to form panels and then gave it plenty of weathering. The right hand one is mainly CDs – it has a bit more decoration, but again, fairly simple.
- Courtyard – This was originally built to be the inside of the Mos Eisley cantina for 25mm West End Games Star Wars – the arches are the little booths like the one where Greedo got shot. It languished unpainted in a cupboard for a few years until I decided to press it into use for this. It’s a little low, so I made roof pieces with a larger upstand to disguise this is a bit.
Particularly like the rust effect. Makes it stand out – corrugated iron on the roof might benefit from it as well. The Sheet looks very good. The Adobe buildings could support loads of historical scenarios as well.
Would rock outcrops fit in with Helsreach? (Showing my cultural ignorance.)
Alan
Yes – rock outcrops would be in keeping. There’s very little info in the original book. Just a couple of pages of black and white drawings. I’ve got some small rock outcrops made from bits of actual stone embedded in filler/plaster. I’ve also got a lot of dry grass pieces that I built for WWI Africa. I’ll set it all out soon and see how it looks.
Wow, these are really nice, I love how they look! The courtyard is a total winner!
What sort of paint do you use on the sheet? Just house paint?
Looks great. Could you elaborate a bit on the sheet? It looks great, but would it not crack when rolled? Similar home made mats always seem to use various type of caulk.
It’s ordinary interior emulsion. It can be rolled but not very tightly. The PVA sticks the sand on very hard. Some came off, I scrubbed at it with a broom to remove anything that wasn’t stuck down hard. I’ll take some more photos and do a bit more detailed write up. Definitely learned some lessons doing it.