Build Something Small 2023 Challenge - Mine? Mine! Entry

 The 2nd of my entries for the Challenge will be a 28mm Mine entrance....but I'm not going for easy. I like making a bit more visually interesting, so....

I want a steeper bit of hill and a mine opening and a ramp or ladder up to it. And I have to stay inside a 15 x 15 cm square and max 25cm tall. The only thing pre made sofar is a bit of plastic rail (from a toyset I guess?) I found at the Goodwill years ago...finally it is time to put i to good use :)

My lazy sunday afternoon (besides, cooking, cleaning, laundry, folding, chasing afte the kids) and this is how it started saturday evening and where I am now. 

How it started

                                                                     Where I am now

Scrap wood from New Years Eve fireworks, everything pinned and glues with superglue and dowels where possibel for added strength. Need to cut a 15 x 15cm MDF base fot it, and the beams will be pinned into that as well so it is going nowhere. Spoil shute is ready, just need to add reinforcing beams between the legs. I expect a order or cork bark to arrive somewhere next week. 

Mine will be usefyl for 28mm Mid West COwboys era as well as Postapoc Fallout

Big Silo 1 (50 cent build)

 Had a great tone of fun turning this manure injector tank from a toy tractor kit into a 28mm scale silo for Modern and Post Apoc games, and limiting the wear and tear I usually add. Scrapped the frame and wheels and just used the tank as is with some very minor additions. Great fun to get stuff fone, and I only paid 40 cents for it, so another 50 cent challenge done. Also fast, I picked this up a mere few weeks ago, so this is ultrafast for me :)

 

 

 

Copied this from a bit of graffiti not far from my house.  Used my wifes markers for a change, it works....okay.

The marking on the back is a reference from Fallout 4

 

A bit of recycling never harmed anyone, did it now?

 I barely surf online anymore, I removed a good 2/3rd of all of my FB groups as there is only so much time in a day and after 8-9 hours behind a desk and my PC.....you kind don't want to sit here for another 3-4 hours. But I ran into this pic:

Sadly I cannot for the life of me remember who made it. I liked the idea, not so much the pristine barrel and GW style blood.

 

 

So....made my own. Bit more like what I'm used to blood wise (please don't ask) and should come in useful someday. Or not. It was fun to paint again, and finish something. I'll focus more on these little things for a while. Sorry if it is a bit too graphic for some....it's a gamepiece, nothing else.

 

 

And my God is my camera and light combo a big pile of steaming......ugh

Rusty old hog

Finished the first of the GW 40K bike wrecks, only took like....forever. Wheels will get recycled some way, they live in my bits box now. No papers or anything, thought it was good enough and I want to clear the table. Goes straight into my Inq28, Necromunda and Post Apocalyptic pile.

Oh, and 2 aluminium canisters, like the ones I keep hoarding in Fallout 4. From TT Combat I believe. To be put inside scenery at a later date.

The old and the new

Safe picked up yesterday at Crisis, Fallout PC I got from DeltaDog a few years ago. I really want to increase my output as it prevents me from shopping around, and it decreases the stash. And it is supposedly fun to paint stuff and have it ready for the table, or so people tell me :P

Ready for matte varnish, a bit of dust and then set aside to go with scenic pieces on a later date.

New MDF pieces for TNT have arrived

I had a few distractions today. I woke up fully energized (have not felt that way in months) and after breakfast I just started clearing stuff in my room by myself. Lights low, shutters and door closed. My mother in law passed by to have a chat with Kim and wish me well, and was amazed at the progress I have made this week (and the enormous mountain of stuff on my gaming table). Sticking to the simple rules, drawing lines and finishing those parts, and not fretting when it is not working is making a big difference.....for now. I now have to teach myself to do this every day, and the closer I get to having a clean room, the easier it will be to stick to it. And if I do have an off day, so be it. There is always another, and doing a bit each day is much easier then doing 90 minutes of work in a day.

This must all sound like something completely logical to you, the reader, but to my brain, it is not. Ever since leaving my parents house at 17, I've never had a daily cleaning routine that I could stick to for more then a few days, before drifting back into chaos. I'm not saying it will be different now, or easier, but I'm trying my best. And Kim is backing me up 100%

Well, my morning ended with this:

No more junk under either desk, nor on any part of the floor for that matter. PC desk fully cleaned, the stack of books are books I'm selling off (if anyone wants a cookbook by various British chefs? Mostly Gordon Ramsay in this case). As you can see the painting desk still looks Hiroshima, used as a dumping ground.

Put up a temporary recycling centre for all the plastic, paper and other. Gotta do my part!

Meanwhile, I have 3 problem areas on the list to be cleared. My painting table, the small cabinet on my right with all of the new arrivals and other assorted crap, and the gaming table.

Yes, about that........gaming table :)  But the same principle, Draw a line. Sort, throw away, sell or keep. Clean. Next line.

So....after consulting with Delta Dog he asked me to clean the gaming table first, with the logic that I look at the painting table as the main prize. Fair enough.

I took the rest of the afternoon off as it is 32 degrees here and I'm happy here in my darkend, closed room. Kim left early for a barbie with her sister, one that I declined as I'm lacking people skills now even more then usual :)

But, with progress slow but steady, I was happily surprised to see a package for me on the doormat, with the first 3...well, 2 pieces for the This is not a Test table at Poldercon (the third being more city orientated). UK to me in 1 week, nice :)

The subway sentrance is for later, I'll only need one of the bus stops now but I'll build both at the same time, and the costruction office, which will be the check in booth. I already have some Fallout PC's, I just need to make/buy/beg/borrow a suitable table to go with it. But that can come after it is done and is not perse neccesary for the table either.

I'm not doing anything with these or my 3mm city right now though. I'm really nervous, and my eyes are all over the place (not literally) and it is extremely hard to focus my mind. Since I feel it is not safe for me to drive anywhere I'm just staying put.

Another early night for me. I might draw a line on the gaming table and sort it. Or I may not.

Where I am at with the This is not a Test (TNT) demo for Poldercon 2017

Over a little less then 6 months Poldercon is up, and I have not made the progress I wanted to. I´ve noticed, and this is nothing new, that I prefer to start and finish something in one night (excluding varnishing) as in my current state of mind I have a lot of trouble focussing. This works fine with smaller scale stuff, not so well with larher items unless I do just one thing.

Call me bad, lazy or anything like that, I just lose interest really quickly in one particular item of the bigger plot (not all the time though).

So, TNT. I've decided to move away (for now) from making a full ruined city and make something more manageable on a 90x90 table, that can also double as a table for Modhails zombies, Supernatural stuff like Big Trouble in Little China or Chtullu. I've been working a lot recently with lasercut products, be it MDF or Cardboard, and I like it, and I have sold a lot of stuff (wouter, including some of your old stuff, thanks again!), so I have some funds.

I've decided to go for a trailer park. I've painted a 15mm trailer before and that turned out ok. I've been spending the last few weeks looking at options (resin, MDF, thick card) and availability, put some hard thought into what I wanted to spend etc, and settled for the following map.

Since the aim here is to spike a pre-War water heater, I've given that centre stage. I've made a conceptual design of a 4 booth and 8 booth shower, with room for the water heater in the middle. C = car, T = trailer. The red lines are fences. The trailers I picked up from Sarissa Precision Ltd, they have an offer for a bundle of 6 trailers for a reduced price and 2,50 Pounds flat free shipping worldwide, and they come reccomended by friends. I've added some park benches as scatter to the order, as well as a Children's Playground. There goes 80 Pounds. The other parts come from TT Combat. Initially I had my focus on them, to make 2 rows of Brownstones and a centre street, but (for now) that costs too much. Through Trolltrader on Ebay I purchased the Bus Stop, the Construction Office as a stand in for my reception desk, and the Subway Entrance (not for this game) so goodbye another 20 Pounds. Cars I have plenty, just need to finish a few more. Fences won't be a problem as I have my mighty The Chopper and plenty of basing material, so I just need to measure stuff for a bit and get cutting. The Pool I'd like to have cut by a Evin, custom size, 3 layers of MDF (2mm Base, 2x 2mm thickness walk area, 2 pool stairs, maybe a springboard, with the baseplate painted glossy black/brown for the water with plenty of fixed (newspapers, leaves) and non fixed (skeleton on a air cushion, bike handle, both based on 1mm plasticcard) debris. The rest of the MDF used can be filled with more bases, 2 birds with one stone. All of this based on my Concrete floor mat.

The Sign.....I can't decide on a name yet. Shady Acres being the standard one, but Heavenly Haven is nice (for you Dredd fans). Shape wise there are tons of options to choose from, but I see no problems there ordering this from Patrick/Evin. Anyone have any nice name ideas?

Final detailing will most likely be a mixed order from Black Cat Bases (I have a substantial gift coupon from them that I want to cash in) and bits and pieces from Delta Dog. He's a gifted sculpter who does a lot of 28mm Fallout stuff, and a Aspie like myself, and after a brainstorming session earlier this week we decided we must have plastic flamingoes. He'll do the printing and moulding, I'll do the buying of quite a few of those as well as other items like a Nuka Cola machine and smaller items. I'll need a bunch of letterboxes too, now that I think of it.

While those items arrive (just the MDF bits I mean) I can spend all of my attention to the 3mm Berlin/Stalingrad table, and tomorrow I should receive a medium sized box full of corner pieces and city block bases, so I can glue down what I have and get cracking with the rest of them.

Also, I need to sell more stuff :) And clean this hellhole. Other then that, just dandy. Shrink next week, can't wait :)

Dropping the F-Bomb

Literally in this case.

A few months back I made a request for 1/48 or 1/32 scale dumb bombs and a gentleman was kind enough to send me a few 1/32 sprues free of charge.....sadly the mailmen stepped on them or something so I was only able to salvage 4 of them sofar.

Scatter scenery for This is not a Test, or the ruined city, or as objectives in 40K/Inquisitor, or....anything really. Bombs are numbered 1 to 4 on the tailfins just in case. They are 1/32 American WW2 500 Pounders, in case you want to look for your own.

Bombs away!

Bomb 1 - The F Bomb

Bomb 2 - 10 Tons of Fun

Bomb 3 - Yellow Stripe

Bomb 4 - Serial

Based on 40mm round MDF bases