More Sci-Fi signs now at Station 42

 Well I made several more signs from trading card holders and I put them up around Station 42 since I was setting it up for a game anyway.  I even made some signs for some of the buildings which I think turned out pretty good. 

 Here's a close up shot of some of the advertisements and a building sign.  Hopefully I'll have stage 2 of Station 42 done soon.  We are trying to get all the signs done and finish all their interiors.

Speaking of interiors here is a shot of Rosie's Workshop with furniture and some data screens I made using the same method as the signs. 

Here's another shot.  I tried to make the displays look as if they had several windows open on them.  I'll try and get better shots of the screens up soon.  I'm really happy with the way they turned out. 

Sci-Fi Billboard update!

 I knocked out a couple billboards from the trading card display protectors I picked up.  I glued the protectors to some cheap shaving razor guards to make bases for them.  I'm even thinking about gluing them to magnets so I can stick them to metal railings and signpost.  I've used parts from these cheap razors in a number of projects. 

 I found some "Futurist Fashion" images from a quick google search then made a simple logo for the fake fashion design company "Alejandro of Titan" in photoshop.  This isn't my most futuristic set of buildings and I know that these ads in particular look a bit out of place but you get the idea. 

I printed these out on some luster photo paper then cut them out and slid them into the protectors.  I made two "posters" for each billboard.  In the future I plan to glue the images together to make them a little easier to deal with and look a little cleaner but These are just test subjects.

One word of warning.  You need to be very careful that you keep your work surface clean when using these card display protectors or any other clear plastic items.  I messed up one of my heavy duty protectors because I accidentally laid one of the pieces in a small drop of super glue that I got on my work table.  I think I can salvage it as a distressed display or I might set it up to be one sided and mount on the side of a building or something. 

Sci-Fi Terrain bits

 The Station 42 project has all but spiraled out of control which was to be expected.  Instead of doing one big spaceport project we are doing one big spaceport project and a number of other locations around the spaceport creating a mini setting.  I guess this is to be expected and it's kind of a cool thing.  After all the big project is coming along nicely but it's still a 5x12' table so it's not the most practical thing to have regular games on.  Still because of the modular nature of the designs we are working with it is providing us with a lot of use.  One of the things we have been needing to work on though are detail bits.  We have managed to put together a lot of buildings but we don't have a lot of smaller detail bits or furniture for those buildings.  We have some that we have purchased and scratch built but we need more.  The goal is to make these bits as modular as possible too. 

 We have a number of these smaller adobe structures we built out of cork tile we are working on.  We plan to use them for a lot of different locations.  They are very plain however and we were looking to spice them up with some tech bits.  Here is an example of some tech bits made from junk.  We built little platforms that we can slide right up against the building so it will look integrated and be highly modular.  Also we can put these pieces out as stand alone terrain bits.  On larger buildings they can even be set on top. 

 Here are four that I made that have identical construction.  I often use the design principle of unity and variety when thinking about miniatures and terrain. 

 Here is a shot of a number of our adobe buildings with some work in progress modular tech bits as well as some of the other storage/chemical tanks and other smaller terrain bits we have been working on. 

 Stage one of the painting.  I hope to make a large number of these for use with my terrain sets.  I want to make some larger and some smaller sets to add to the versatility of my terrain.  Little projects like these can add a lot of detail without adding a lot of storage problems.  It's easier to make one building with several modular bits than make 10 buildings that only look one way when you set them on the table. 

 Here are some simple wooden tables we made.  All of our buildings open up for play so we need a lot of furniture.  There are several lines of pre-made furniture out there but we are going to need a large volume of furniture so we are going to have to resort to scratch building to fill in the gaps.  These are for a sci-fi setting even though they are wood.  They could represent either nicer actual wood furniture or fake wood furnishings.  That brings up another thing.  Don't discount any fantasy or historic furniture you might have in your collection for Sci-Fi settings.  You can find uses for it because furniture designs have a long life span.

 Another detail I'm working on is signage and billboard advertisements.  I was looking for a way to make them highly modular and easy.  I got the idea to pick up some cheap acrylic photo frames and some plastic trading card sleeves.  I plan to make adds using photoshop and them sliding them into the frames.  I'm going to use different methods to attach them to my buildings and also make some stand along billboards.  Being able to change out the art will make them highly modular. 

Here is a detail shot of the two types of card protectors.  The one of the left came in a pack of 35 for less than $3.00 and the acrylic one was $1.29.  They are designed to hold collector cards like sports cards. 

Legends of the Gold Sea Costal town tavern WIP

 We started working on the "Legends of the Gold Sea" project.  The first project will be a small costal town.  This is the tavern we are working on.  It will have a small staff. 

 It measures about 8x6" and it's about 3" tall.  Most of the buildings in the town will not be overly large.

Next up will be a small temple. 

Reaper Dwarf Fighter

This is the first fantasy miniature I've painted in quite some time.  The figure is a dwarf fighter from Reaper Miniatures.  I took a little more time on him since he is going to be a well known npc in the region we are starting out fantasy campaign project in. 

Fantasy Project "Legends of the Gold Sea"

We are starting a new Fantasy project similar to the Station 42 project.  We are going to focus on a geographic area called "The Gold Sea".  Our first project will be a small coastal village but we will also be building up to a large port city.  This is going to be a pretty generic fantasy setting with a very Mediterranean feel. 

The Gold Sea is named not for it's color but for the massive amount of trade that goes on along it's coast.  It is the richest area in the world and a cultural melting pot.  All manner of fantasy races and monsters will be a part of the setting.  It will be a place of wealthy city states, pirate kingdoms, and clashing empires. 

We plan to create the setting in several different ages.  We will have an Ancient Age, a Dark Age, a Medieval Age, a Renaissance, and an Age of Exploration.  We will accomplish this by making terrain that can be changed out in each location to show the changing times.  We will likely start in the late Dark Age or early Medieval Age. 

This will of course be a long running project so we are starting with a coastal town terrain set that we plan to fit on a 4x4' or 4x6' table. 

Look at the size of that thing! Is this toy too big?

 I recently picked up a "Victorious Mission" military play set from a local Dollar General for $8.00.  Actually I got a couple different ones.  One of them had this large AFV which looks a bit like a Stryker.  I want to used this for 28mm games but it's pretty large.  About 8 inches long and 3and a half inches wide.  It's clearly meant for larger scale figures.  The figures that came in the set were the typical 54mm sized army men. 

It doesn't really look that bad to me and there are larger sized tanks and troop transports on the market right now like the new Land Raider from Games workshop.  Also "Super" tanks and AFVs are common in many sci-fi settings.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up using it because it's just such a good deal even though it's a bit on the large side.  I'm just looking for some feedback from other gamers.