Mars Attacks! Martian Replacement Helmets

Somewhere along the way a few Martian helmets went missing. They're small and clear and easy to lose. Mantic is pretty good about giving you extras but, even so, I managed to be about 8 short. No big deal as I happened to have some extra clear plastic lying around. 

Start with a dowel. I'm not sure how big this one is, probably 1/4".

Sand the end until you have a nice round tip.

Like this.

Then grab some clear plastic. This is from a used salad container.

  

Apply some heat to soften up the plastic. Not too close or you'll burn it!

Then, slowly, push the dowel into the heated plastic. Make sure you go far enough into it to make a good helmet. I'd say about 1.5 inches. Let it cool down a bit before you remove the dowel.

Then clip it off with some scissors.

Here's shot of a martian with my homemade helmet.

Here it is with the original helmet. Or is it?...

Miniature Storage Idea

From time to time I find old wooden silverware boxes at yard sales and thrift stores and if they're under $5, I grab them.

I have to say that I had other ideas in mind when I grabbed my first couple of boxes but, ultimately,  I decided to use them for miniature storage. I know it's not the most practical solution. The tool box type containers are more practical but this is cooler looking. :)

To start, I grabbed some 2" thick foam rubber at Hobby Lobby. Remember to grab your 40% off coupon at their website!

Alternately, you could grab some of the 1" thick foam and lay out a bottom piece, then cut a second layer and add whatever size miniature spaces you'd like.

Remove the silverware holder insert thingy inside the box. There are usually only a few nails holding it in place.

Next, cut the foam to fit the space inside the box. Measure a tad small and things will fit much easier.

Then, I recommend making a template for cutting your spaces out. 

I went with a piece of cardboard and cut mine at 1" x 1/2".

I cut the foam with a "sawing" type motion. Meaning I "saw" into the foam, pull it up and move it slightly forward before going back in again.

Here's a shot of the finished piece. It holds 42 miniatures.

Bonus: The "loops" that hold silverware on the inside of the lid can be used to hold pencils.

I can't really imagine a game where you would require a dozen pencils though.

All that's left to do is to give the box a light sanding and then apply some stain to it. It'll look (almost) brand new! 

UPDATE
Here's a pic of the sanded and stained box.

 With some miniatures

6446

ERTL Farm House Set

I picked up one of these online. The ERTL stuff is listed as 1/64th scale (same as the Machine Shed. See that here, here and here) but I think it runs a little big.

Here's a repainted Heroclix mini for comparison.

 and

It's a small-ish house but it works for me. Well... it WILL work as soon as I finish it. ;)

How will I finish it? 

Well..., I started by cutting down some left over illustration board to fit in as interior walls. They measure 1-7/8" high. The short walls are 4-1/16" wide and the longer walls are 6-9/16" wide.

Next, I cut them and placed them in the house to make sure they fit. Adjust/trim as necessary.

Next, I grab a knife and "score" into the board from the outside using the windows as my guide. You could use a pencil or pen here too, I just went in with the knife.

Then cut the windows all the way out.

Place them inside to see how well they work. As you can see in the picture below I also measured out the floor space and cut a piece of board to fit. Right now, since I haven't decided if I'm going to glue the walls in or not, I recommend cutting the walls first, then measure for the floor. This way when you place the floor in it helps to hold the walls in place. My idea is to be able to swap the walls out so that I can have different color walls or paneling or things like that.

Next I grabbed a bunch of coffee stirrers and started laying out a floor. The more narrow the better as far as I'm concerned.

I started by laying out 4 sticks and measuring them for the width of the interior floor. Then I started glueing the floor slats to the support sticks. I had to add extra support sticks periodically to help keep the sticks close together and to keep them from bowing or warping.

Next time I'm going to vary the pattern a bit more, this is a little to "patterny" for my tastes. It should look more like a hardwood floor.
Yeah... nitpicky... I know.

It does look pretty cool when placed inside the house.

That's it for now. Coming up I plan to:

  • Create another hardwood floor for the second level

  • Create the attic

  • Create a basement space

  • Paint the exterior of the house

  • Figure out how to make some better shutters
  • Make it so that the door can be opened. Maybe.
  • Make some interior walls that can be arranged in different configurations.

  • Create a stairwell

  • Make or buy some furniture

  • I'm sure there's more but I can't think of anything else right now.

Making Fences

I'm currently working on scenery that can be used in a modern (or wild west or even post apocalyptic) setting or fantasy setting. Standard stuff like these hand made fences.

Choose your post. I grabbed a rubber banded bundle of 15 of these at a yard sale for $1.00.

The guy tried to tell me they were hand carved. I looked them over and I asked him if the bar code on the bottom was "hand painted". Anyway...

Cut them to the desired size.

I recommend sanding them to give it a flatter edge. It'll help keep them straight when you base them. I, also, recommend grabbing a sander like this. It's nice. I bought this beauty (the Sand-It) online at www.micromark.com. I also grabbed a Duplicate-It. Which I recommend.

Then I soak them in a watered down black paint bath. You don't have to leave them in there for very long. Also, as a side note, you don't want to mix up to much as the mixture starts to stick after awhile.

Set them somewhere to dry for at least a few hours. You don't want the water interfering with the glue. If you're in a hurry, set them under a lamp to speed up the drying process.

I am currently working on a more sophisticated version of this (I have a tray that I've glued a ruler too and plan on getting some double sided tape to lay down). But for now the duct tape dopes the trick just fine. It helps keep things lined up and makes it MUCH easier to glue together. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to have an issue with objects sticking to my fingers better than the glue can hold.

Add your glue drops.

Then your fence pieces.

Clean up the excess glue.

And place something heavy and flat on it so it dries straight.

When it's dry you can trim off the extra over hang of the fance and add your bases ( I use clear plastic, post on that coming soon). And add any extras at this point, like grass, bushes, tall grass, etc.

And finally...

Train Tracks

I've been busy at the studio, I just keep forgetting to bring my camera. So, I finally remembered and after some battery charging time I was able to take some pictures of one of my projects.
Train tracks.

I grabbed some O scale tracks at a model train store (also got a ton from my Dad) and started working on making them a little more realistic.


Start by removing the center rail. Use a small regular screwdriver and pry the little tabs open. Remove the middle support section and keep it with the middle track section so you can combine them and make more tracks.

Next, I glued some wooden coffee stirrers (free) together to get the desired thickness of the rail road ties. I painted them a dark brown and glued them to the tracks. I used E-6000 which worked great (though it does get kinda stringy).

I bought some balsa wood planks Michaels and cut them to match the length of the tracks. Then penciled in some marks to help keep them lined up.

I then hand painted the balsa wood brown. You could probably use spray paint here to save some time. Make sure you get both sides to keep it from warping. The next step is adding the "dirt".

Side note:
I stumbled upon this idea while working on another project. I was cutting some masonite/hardboard, or whatever it's called (it's the stuff used to make clipboards), into circles to use as bases and noticed the remaining sawdust looked a LOT like dirt. So I scooped it up into a jar and saved it.

Anyway, thin out some Elmer's glue with water and coat the top of the board. sprinkle some of the masonite "dust" over it and let it dry.

When dry, glue the tracks to the board with the E-6000.

Then use the Elmer's mix to put down the little stones. I gathered the stones from the beach on Lake Michigan (free). Cover most but not all of the surface. You want room for the dirt to show through. Plus you want space to apply some grass and bushes and such.

I found two things at a thrift store that help make these boards look a little better. The first is a weird fake plant that has a bunch of tiny stalks with leaves on it ($1.00). I don't know what it is or where to find another, but I will be sad when it's all used up. The other was a Barbie hair styling head thingy ($1.00). Cut off little clumps and glue to the boards for grass clusters.

Here's a full shot of a straight section of track.

And another shot of it connected to a curved section.

Now that I'm done with a bunch of them, I kind of wish I had removed the metal pieces near the end. They will help make the sections stronger, but I think they would look nicer if they were all wood ties.