| Cacique Caribe | 18 Apr 2007 7:34 a.m. PST |
How in the world did you carve out those fantastic-looking tunnels? picture
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picture Did you use a U-shaped foam cutter or something along those lines/ I've gotta know! CC |
| Cacique Caribe | 18 Apr 2007 7:57 a.m. PST |
Also, did you add some sort of backing to keep the piece from breaking up? CC |
| Steve Hazuka | 18 Apr 2007 9:54 a.m. PST |
How do you keep those bugs from taking a tumble on those pinpoint feet? I'd imagine one or two have met the florr or table top. |
| Cacique Caribe | 18 Apr 2007 10:15 a.m. PST |
I was thinking of building something similar, but for use as a flat board. It would be great as a cave system or, if painted differently, as volcanic steam tunnels within a glacier. CC |
| Steve Hazuka | 18 Apr 2007 10:25 a.m. PST |
Or did you ever see that one South Park where the hamster was making its way through Mr Slaves guts. |
Gabriel Landowski  | 18 Apr 2007 12:02 p.m. PST |
Looks like multiple passes using a hot wire cutter in a loop shape. Nice idea though – taking gaming to a "new level"… |
| Cacique Caribe | 18 Apr 2007 12:07 p.m. PST |
It must be a rigid or semi-rigid loop. My puny wire foam cutter could never do that! CC |
| Detailed Casting Products | 19 Apr 2007 2:40 p.m. PST |
Hi guys. Pretty good guesses there  . The problem with those "affordable" (around $10.00) straight-wire foam cutters is that the wire doesn't bend. Other ways to do this have been discussed on TMP in the past such as using a hot-air gun (either a better-quality hair drier or those high-temp shrink-wrap guns). The method that I used was to invest in electric tools from the Hot Wire Foam Factory ( hotwirefoamfactory.com/home.php ). They have various tools that allow you to bend the wire into irregular shapes. By wiggling your hand (high volumes of caffeine do help, heh), you can get a nice ribbing effect for spelunking-combat games. I built this just as I was getting into the Starship Troopers Miniatures game and was of course inspired by the children's "ant farm" toys. The scenic has a backing of sections of foam-core board to add strength. Although intended for vertical use all it takes is a slight sideways push and it's a flat game board . This project and a few others did get me an invitation to write up how-to articles for Mongoose Publishing's Signs & Portents Wargamer "digital magazine". One of the options for use when I constructed it was to be able to hang it over the end of a table that had up to an area of four feet of width and ten feet of length. At one end I can place my rendition of Whiskey Outpost for the humans to inhabit. At the far end is the underground "hive" of the Arachnid forces. On the center sections of the table I can place smaller outposts of both sides (which I have since made). Although I've never had the opportunity (or the room) to set it all up in its full size the pieces are all constructed to do it. Talk about a frustrating condition, lol. The entire board is a bit to large for casual games but is really meant for a mini-campaign. The game flow would be designed to play like a football game until one side was laying seige to the other sides main fortress. Otherwise, the 2x4 foot board sections can be used piecemeal for casual games. I, like others here, have an amount of imagination but don't have the space, time and money to really get it displayed in the way I'd really like to. Here is an example of just some of what I've done. Now just imagine these different areas of terrain and structures all linked into one single gaming "banquet" board… picture
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picture It's a shame that I don't own a warehouse, as this stuff is all stacked in my small computer shop, lol. Oh, and this is my "desert" board. I have a lunar, jungle, and urban board too, heh. |
| Cacique Caribe | 19 Apr 2007 7:00 p.m. PST |
SciFi Gamer, you're back!!! And you never cease to amaze and inspire. Thank you so much for the photos and explanation. When I'm ready for my cavern system (soon, I hope), I'll follow your suggestions on tools and technique. Thanks!!! CC |
| Detailed Casting Products | 19 Apr 2007 7:28 p.m. PST |
I really thought you did a fine job on that hut. I give it a score of five 'grunts' . |
| Madan Mitra | 23 Mar 2008 2:57 a.m. PST |
Will you look at this for an Ice Wall…awsome!
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Rgds
Madan |
| Detailed Casting Products | 27 Mar 2008 11:22 a.m. PST |
Well, thank you Madan! Cacique Caribe had posted a topic here on TMP last year asking for assistance on how a "glacier" wall might be constructed. What was funny was that when I posted it, CC asked when I had made it and I said "within the last two hours or so" if I may paraphrase myself. That's what I like about "hanging" around TMP when I have the time. Other members here inspire me to do something that I might otherwise not have ever made. In case there is any confusion to my name changing, I checked with Bill about altering it more to reflect me bringing my old company back from cold-storage (glacier joke- get it?)after like 18 years. After only offering a few items, one expertly mastered by the same CC at a time later to this wall topic, I may now be going a different direction entirely with my time. Here is the link that caused it's creation. TMP link |
| Cacique Caribe | 27 Mar 2008 6:47 p.m. PST |
When I get home, I will post photos of my attempt to immitate DCP's (artist formerly known as SciFi Gamer) glacier example. I hope the attempt is half as nice. CC
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