Habitat One....Part3

Onwards....

So in the last post the habitat had three walls and here are the three pieces for the missing wall plus the two windows I've made to fill in the open window gaps(!).

Weathered with MIG Ammo Track Wash and chipping with sponge using MIG Ammo 'Chipping' colour. The pipe conduits are just lengths of plastic square and rod. With plastic channel for the brackets. The exposed wire is copper jewellery wire about 1mm thick.

The windows are clear plastic sheet with 0.5mm strip for the surrounds on both sides. Not sure how thick the clear styrene is; 0.5mm or less. I picked it up at the local hobby store and I did not see any dimensions. I've chipped both sides of the window frame and put a thinned Track Wash around what will be in the internal part of the frame. Though the windows will probably be the last part to be added.

Starting to take shape now. Some of the details will be hidden once the furniture goes in. Once that is in place I will probably do some more weathering to tie everything together. 

You can just make out in this photo the gap between the two wall pieces. Again once furniture goes in some of that will be hidden. It's not down to a bad fit by Sarissa, but because I added paint layers before assembly and clearly in this case did not rub the paint off the lugs enough to get a good connection. So to remedy I added strips of plasticard to the outside.

Next was to paint. Masked off the surrounded area and airbrushed a coat of paint on. Thinking about it now maybe I should have done it in a different colour?  Anyway will leave as is. The hatch on the roof is from Zinge Industries.

    

The frame fits the hole cut into the MDF on the basic model perfectly. But this is the best part.

Yep it opens. Just a case of pushing the hatch top onto the frame and it clicks in place. Hinge built into the model piece. I think it's the 🐕's 🍒's.

That's it for now more to follow soon.....

  

 

Habitat One...Part 2

The supporting internal wall has been painted separately and like the rest of the internal space weathered internally with AK Interactive Track Wash. The door after basic painting has been chipped using the sponge technique with MIG Ammo Chipping Fluid and then Track Wash applied. The wash is only applied around selected areas and when dry or nearly dry a GW small drybrush is dampened with thinners and used to 'push' the wash around to achieve a pleasing look.

The two brass rods are the hinges. After a bit of scratching of the old noggin' I came up with away to make the door open and close. I had looked at hinges for doll's houses and tried to make a hinge using brass rod and wire. But I was not too sure they would stand up to wargaming use. So the solution was to measure in 5mm from the one side the door and then drill down using 0.8mm drill in a pin vice. I had marked out the door then cut it out then drilled further into the now separate door. The wire is 0.8mm thick.

The internal wall in position. Door closed.

Now with door open. It works fine. So I hope it will stand up to regular use during games.  

 

Now it's starting to take shape. The toilet and shower base are 1/50th scale architectural models. There is wall mounted sink in the corner opposite the shower base. I picked these up from  EMA Model Supplies. The shower head is a cut done spare IDF swing mount 1/72 scale for a turret mounted MG.

The fire extinguisher is a cut down piece of plastic sprue, like used before on the D9 tractor (see other blog). The wall mount is plastic channel and the sign is from Hasslefree.  

That's it for now. More to follow...

 

Habitat One

This the large Habitat Pod from Sarissa built and primed.

The basic building comes with the access opening, which allows corridor sections to be attached and a door and two large windows at either end.

Now I decided I did not want any other exits, so the doors at the short ends were closed up as were the windows on one end. I covered theses with 0.5mm plastic sheet. The centre support I also decided not to use and cut a new support from 2mm thick plastic sheet, and then cut a door out of that.

For cutting the sheet I use an Olfa P-cutter. This is a great tool for cutting plastic card. Having used a Stanley blade for years and/or a scalpel blade the Olfa cutter makes it so much easier.

The idea is you cut two, three or how many grooves you need, into the plastic and then snap it off. Don't do like I did first time and use it like a Stanley blade and ended up carving chunks out of the cutting mat! The other advantage is of course you can score lines into plasticard to represent sheeting.

The photo above shows the base which I have coated with Vallejo Red Oxide Paste and the floor of the habitat. I've stuck a piece of 0.5mm plasticard to the MDF floor. Not sure it can be made out in the picture but I have grooved it. Dividing it into 30mm squares, or near as damn it.. Since there is an end lip which falls outside the end walls I have cut and glued in position 1/50th scale treadplate. Which is also 0.5mm thick.

Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the next parts of the construction. But the next photo shows the building with it's initial paint colours applied.

I have removed two of the closed window inserts to replace them with clear plastic. The floor, including external treadplates have been given a coat of Tamiya Flat Aluminium XF-16. Then sealed with satin varnish, then a coat of MIG Ammo Chipping Fluid. Finally a coat of Tamiya Deck Tan XF-55 on the internal floor and Tamiya Sky Grey XF-19 on the treadplate. The floor was then chipped and I must admit I was not too particular how much paint came off.

The internal walls were painted with Tamiya J.N. Grey XF-12. I did not use chipping fluid on  the internal walls. The outer walls were painted with Tamiya J.A. Grey XF-14. The outer walls were chipped back to the base coat. Which is Halfords Grey Primer for cars. I want to give it the appearance it has been subjected to a harsh environment.  

All these paints were airbrushed on, except for the primer.

The wall lights are from Zinge Industries. They are the 10mm round wall lights. The piping on the wall is different thickness of plastic rod 0.8 and 1mm with short lengths of plastic channel cut to represent brackets.

That's it for now more to follow....

   

A Working Title.LV-537

Finally got round to picking up the AvP : The Hunt Begins by Prodos Games (First Edition) at Christmas just gone.

First Edition

It looks like the Second Edition is available now; Wayland Games

So back to the First edition. Well cannot say much; have not got round to playing it yet. But have started to paint the figures, which I had seen before and they are lovely.

Even though I like board games, this is more of  a wargame to me. So what it needs is 3D terrain. If you are old enough to remember the release of 'Alien' then you will remember that 'Aliens' seemed even better. USCM vs Xenomorphs. Still love that film. So the scene was set. The USCM and Xenomorphs would be first on the list and will get round to the Predators eventually. So I needed my own Hadley's Hope colony as on LV-426 or Archeron.

The question was how to go about it. Build the colony from scratch. Possible to make a facsimile. Others have done so but would mean a lot of work and trying to recreate a replica of the film's colony which I decided may get problematic....getting it accurate. Use commercially available starship corridors like those made in resin by Ainsty Castings or in MDF by Blotz. I looked at several options, but I wanted buildings and kept coming back to some Sci-Fi buildings made by Sarissa Precision.

They have been around for a while and I liked the design when they were first released.  So I decided to take the plunge and ordered one of the large habitation pods with a side access panel.

The modular design of the product would suit my needs perfectly. As soon as it arrived I started to build the basic design and then decided I would do some little conversions to make them fit in with what I wanted.

So the working title of my colony will be LV-537. No reason for this other than it will not be 'Hadley's Hope'. LV-537....simply added one to the each of the numerals of 426. I'm not decided if this will be the end designation for the project. But for now it will fit. 

That's it for now more to follow....

Return to the Fray

So firstly, why a new blog? Simple answer I decided my previous blog 'The Repple Depple Clubhouse' had become to cluttered and I wanted a fresh start. I intend to kept that blog open but it is very unlikely I will be adding to it.

My intention is to restrict this blog to a few projects. These are some new and some which have been growing for a while. The main reason for returning to the blogging circuit is to start to record my progress for myself, once again of my main interests. By interests I mean wargaming projects. I may add game reports, and other wargaming related posts but I want to have a blogging diary of projects as they advance along the 'to do' highway.

At present I have the following projects which are top of my list (clue for one in the blog header photo!)

Main Projects

1. AvP. Not hard to guess if you are observant. Prodos games hit the nail straight the head with this one. Finally a Alien(s) based game with great miniatures. Version 2 just about to be released. Not a Kickstarter backer, so if you were and are still waiting for Version 1 to fully arrive, you have my sympathies.

2. First Lebanon War 1982. 20mm modern project. Since I have been commissioning figures through Bill Weston at Underfire Miniatures for IDF and Syrians at present. I'm quite keen on this one.

3. Walking Dead. Mantic Games 'All Out War' release. Big fan of the Walking Dead, both of the Comics and TV show. Had to back the Kickerstarter on this one. To the TV fans no Daryl 😭.It's following the Comic stories. But who knows what could happen the future.

4.  Stone Age Tribal Combat. Yep that's right Cavemen vs Cavemen. Or more accurately Cro-Magnon's vs Neanderthal. With Mammoth hunts thrown in for good measure. Having painted up some of the Lucid Eye, Cro-Magnons for my daughter's school project, I was hooked. Also have a soft spot for all things prehistoric. Which some would argue could also include me😂

5. French Foreign Legion. FFL in 28mm c1900 in North Africa. Yep I'm going all 'Beau Geste'. I'm using Artizan and Unfeasibly Miniatures figures.

Secondary Projects

1. Cold War 1984. In 6mm. Been tempted with recent releases in 15mm but will stick with the smaller scale.

2. Anthropomorphic Animals. This is in 28mm using the Oathsworn range. Lovely figures. Small scale skirmish but using armed Mice, Rats and Badgers , etc. Just for fun.

3. WW2 in the Far East. In 28mm. I want to concentrate on the Malaya/Burma campaigns from 41-45.

4. Gladiators. That's Roman Gladiators of course. In 28mm. Did start to build an arena last year but got sidetracked. Again just for fun. Well it's all for fun, right?

5. Viking Invasion of England c9th. In 28mm. Along running project which has stopped and started. I intend to concentrate on the period of the Great Army and Alfred.

So far amount there. Enough to keep me busy and it does not include a few projects which have stalled and I would like to return to as well.

At present the AvP is my main focus so I will begin posting on that soon.

That's it for now more to follow.....