A Viking Longhouse

 I created a variation of dutchmogul's Longhouse found on Thingiverse at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4245111

The original files were able to build the open shelters, but don't allow for a longer building. My modification allows for a longer building. Both are visible in my second picture below.

I will try to upload the STL files by this weekend. The location will be is https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6613687

The view from Blender

Ready for a small engagement

Large Office Building

Overview

This one has been in its incomplete state for years. I finally got around to providing some exterior paint.

The building is really large and will serve as the central point of interest for many games. It is two floors tall plus a roof. Each floor is really just a large hallway which I can and will eventually partition with doors which will allow the interior to be modular.

Pictures

Here they be.

Internal with some partitions.

Partitions removed.

Flat black primer on the first floor section.

Aerial view with my new black-top road sections.

Back entrance near the chimney.

Some rough marshy terrain leading to the back entrance.

Aerial view three-quarters turn.

Side entrance is guarded by a copper.

The Green Door entrance. And also the red-carpet entrance.

Above it all. You can see the roof-top trap-door entrance.

Quick and Easy Tarmac Roads

Overview

For many years I've been looking around for a quick way to create black-top roads for my 28mm wargaming needs. I found a lot of interesting solutions, but not with which I was satisfied.

Here are the other methods:

1. Buy 3D-printed terrain.
2. Buy laser-cut wood terrain and flock with grit.
3. Make the roads using MDF and some sand.
4. Make the roads using sandpaper mounted atop some MDF or plasticard.
5. Make the roads using roofing shingles.
6. Full-color 2D paper prints.

So, I didn't like any of them. Here's why:

3D-printed terrain

Very expensive. The scale is usually 20mm posing as 28mm making them too narrow. I have a 3D printer which can save on the cost, but it will be time-consuming.

via Thingiverse by AntorFR

Laser-cut Wood

Too expensive. Otherwise, very nice.

via Firebucket Games

via Cross-over Miniatures

MDF and Sand

Nice looking stuff. Too much work for me. Maybe next time?

via The Lead Will Walk the Earth

Sandpaper and MDF

Acceptable. Too much work for me. I tend to create terrain in bulk and this would be too slow.

Roofing Shingles

Ah. Just about right. However, I didn't want to pay too much. I also couldn't figure out how to cut curves into the shingles. 

via Jay's Wargaming Madness

Full-color 2D Paper prints

I did this ... and it didn't look too good. Too flat and color was hard to get correct.

My Solution :: Foam paper

This solution works for me because it is cheap and it is easy to do. It won't win diorama prizes but it looks good enough for use in person and looks decent for photo ops.

My local Michael's Art Supplies now stocks materials for cosplay designers. Foam paper comes in several colors, and I chose black for my road's base color. I purchased in bulk, and so got a 60x30-inch roll of this stuff. 

So, with that here's my tutorial.

Supplies needed

• Black foam paper. see above.
• Medium Gray paint. Darker is better.
• A coral sponge. The flat kind with lots of crannies.

Step 1 :: Determine Road Widths

In the USA, a two-lane road is about 24-feet wide before any road shoulders. 

24-feet x 12-inches per foot = 288-inches. 

• At 1:43 scale this is 288/43 = 6.7-inches. 1:43 is the scale of my die-cast vehicles.
• At 1:56 scale this is 288/56 = 5-inches. 1:56 is 28mm scale, which is most of my minis.

So. Decisions. Decisions.

I fudged this to be about 6-inches so that I could do easy math for cutting shapes. This makes them 288/6 = 1:48 scale.

Step 2 :: Straights

I created straight-road sections 6-inches wide and either 9-inch or 18-inch in length. Two of each of those. I also created a large set with one each of 24-inch, 36-inch, and 48-inch sections. These latter are for highway scenes on a 4x4-foot board. 

Step 3 :: Intersections

These are the T-section and the X-section connectors between roads. These will fit within a 12x12-inch box if the roads are 6-inches wide. The roads join with a curved corners. Take a look at these pics. The corners have a radius of 3-inches. If you are using 4-inch or 5-inch road widths, these corners could be 2-inch or 2.5-inch in radius. 

Or not. Up to you.

I created two copies of each intersection type.

A T-section. Grid cells are 3x3-inches

An X-section. Grid cells are 3x3-inches

Step 4 :: Elbow Curves

Ack. These are hard to do without a nice template or large compass. Really don't need them. I eyeballed mine and just made sure that the entrance and exit edges were 6-inches across.

Step 5 :: Cut It Out

Yep. As necessary. I usually go big and I cut out a lot for later use. Never know when I'll need them for a 4x8-foot board.

Step 6 :: Daub with Medium Gray

This is all technique. 

1. I poured some Medium Gray craft paint atop a piece of scrap foam paper and took the (a) sponge and soaked it. 
2. I daubed the edges of each road tile along its length and let it dry. This is for about half-an-inch on each edge. I rotate the sponge as I go.
3. Let the paint dry by working on multiple pieces.
4. Afterwards, I use more paint but I lightly layer the daubing and move progressively inwards from the road tile edges. About 2-inches inwards.
5. Again. Let the paint dry. 
6. After that, I just lightly touched-up the areas where the paint doesn't show up well.

Step 7 :: Lane Markings > NO!

My roads do no use lane markings at this time. 

Sensible marking patterns are in white for lane division headed in the same direction, and yellow for a divided opposing traffic directions. And then there are solid-yellow and solid-white divisions for highways instead of urban roads. 

There's too much variety to be fair to actual implementation. I'd need a set for highway, rural, and urban. And then for 2-lane unified traffic, divided 2-lane, and something for when within an urban environment.

These were introduced in 1917 within the USA and they vary by country and time.  Not every road had these lane markings, and the Pulp & Mythos TTWG stuff I care about would benefit by being "authentic" and I suppose in the future I will flip each of my road tiles and add some additional paint to mimic some lane markings but I don't see a need now.

USA lane markings

Solids and dashes.

The Results

Here's a series of pics showing my progress.

Not Much

I finished moving my home and setting up my man-cave shed. 

Here's a first picture of my gaming table with some goofing around. 

A corner street in an older neighborhood.

WIP 28mm Farmhouse :: Finished!

I finally did a big push and got my farmhouse finished!

Lessons learned; I used Nuln Oil wash for my weathering on both the interior and exterior of the farmhouse building. Black instead of brown because it fits what I've done before for my other minis. Nuln Oil apparently goes pretty quick and it is expensive. I think I will need to either go back to water + acrylic black or learn how to make my own acrylic flow solution.

The Farmhouse

This is a conclusion to https://matter-energy-space-time.blogspot.com/2020/10/wip-28mm-farmhouse.html

I tried something new here. Take a look at the captions for more information. Basically I created several inserts within the first floor so that I could have more interior flexibility for use. I also created a false additional door which allows me to use the second floor by itself.

The Pictures

Front of the farmhouse.

Side with a false door addition. This is for later.

False door addition removed.

Back with the chimney. The paneling on the first floor was made by my daughter using coffee stirring sticks for a school-project which I co-opted when she gave the house to me. When I decided to build the top floor, I found some old balsa wood paneling which I used.

Other side. There are two functional doors and a third from the false addition.

Top of the farmhouse. The roof and the second floor are removable.

First floor. The stairs and partition walls are inserts.

Walls partition removed. 

Stairs removed. My immediate and crazy desire at this point is to purchase or print some 1:56 scale furniture. Well, at least an upright piano and maybe a stove and a stool.

Second floor. The staircase is at the back and egresses into the direction of the chimney. This floor is ideal for pulp-era wooden crates.

Second floor by itself.

Adding the false addition.

With the roof. The false addition allows me to use the second floor of the farmhouse as though it were a smaller building.

3D Printed Gaslands Barriers

 This next set I've been working on for a while. They are a set of barriers set up for the Gaslands game which I thought would be a perfect fit for my use of them within the MEST :: Retropocalypse setting.

These designs are available on thingiverse.com at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3990615 and https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2933354. They are created by sablebadger and I scaled them up to be correct for 1:56 (28MM) figurines.

Technopunks against some Radspyiders.

Different view. I have an LED lantern for that crazy light.

Threw more scatter elements atop the terrain blanket. It looks to me that those two Technopunks are gonna die. Also looks like I need more terrain!

WIP 28mm Farmhouse

I've always wanted to craft a farmhouse building for my Mythos genres for use by MEST. Recently, I've decided to start using my 3D printer for creating small terrain elements and this farmhouse project was a good a place as any.

Printed Items

I either altered the original STL files from thingiverse.com using Blender, or I crafted them directly. 

• Doors
• Windows 
• Stairs
• Ladders
• Roof

The Farmhouse

These are various shots of the work-in-progress. I will provide an update once it is painted.

The exterior shot with two 28mm figures. These are Pulp Figures minis, I think. The tiny half-wheel is 3D printed. Blue-foam is nice for shaping, but is very brittle.

The ground floor. The three doors swing open and close. The staircase is removable.

Also removable are the inner walls. This will allow me greater utility for how to use the floor.

Close-up of the second floor. The roof is 3D-printed. It is "good enough" for tabletop. The windows are also 3D-printed.

Inside the second floor. The staircase doesn't quite align with the ingress of the floor, but it works for me! The two large windows are 3D-printed.