"Starship Troopers: Tent-Buildings from Film?" Topic

Those tent structures look tailor made for vaccuum formed plastic models.

CC, right now I could cast these from hydrocal but as Insomniac mentioned they cry out for VF production. There are slight differences in the angles of the various tent sections (really at the two ends) and a properly done model would need to be consistent to be able to fit the tent umbilical connectors and door hatches anywhere the user wanted. For now, I made the tent umbilical with asymmetrical ends so that the user can flip the piece in order to find a better fit.

I've never done "home oven" vacc-forming but I have some ideas down that path that might do a similar effect without heat. There is a local VF company to me but he is always too busy to do anything that I've posed to him. I think he wants to stay "in the money" with the high quantity customers. One idea would be to be able to fit various door sections on the base unit and then VF various structure options (one or two doors located in various positions).

I really don't think that I need to pay a license to anyone as this is (on purpose) not exactly the same tent as was seen in the movie. Also, the movie rights owner didn't make the tents as I remember that they just bought the tents from a company that already made them commercially. Iirc that was said in the "making of Starship Troopers" film. Like I mentioned before, I might call it a "CC Tent" that might be taken as "Camp Currie", "Carbon Composite" or a certain member of TMP (heh). Officially, I'll describe it as an ultra-modern Carbon Composite bivouac tent.

These two tents (and the smaller round one in the previous photo) were made by using a coating of Acrylic Gesso painted into the mold, backed up by several layers of truck bed liner (spendy stuff but OK for a few one-off models).

This method allowed me to show the inside as an open area to place crates and MI and to provide a "usable" tent model. My full company of Cap Troopers are missing in the photo as they are boxed up currently. I plan a few diorama photos that include a parade ground as in Camp Currie and including a large stylized eagle on the tarmac.

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"made by using a coating of Acrylic Gesso painted into the mold"

Is the Gesso liquidy, or does it have some body to it?

Is there a brand you recommend, or are all Acrylic Gesso products essentially the same?

Thanks.

CC
PS. I'm already thinking of how this would work for so many other things I have in mind.

The Gesso is more of a protective layer to separate the much thicker truck bed liner coatings. It goes on like thick paint and dries a little flexible (a good thing).

The brand of gesso that I have now is Liquitex acrylic colored gesso. I picked it up at a local Michaels store. There are several colors (mine being gray).

Remember that I used the gesso as a base coat for my SST Exosuit project. The bed liner is nasty stuff so remember to provide good ventilation if you try it.

Yesterday and today I made a mold made from tent end caps. Now I can cast "igloos" to mix in with my long tents. That first round tent was made using gesso/truck bed liner.

DCP (formerly known as SF Gamer) has just sent me his very first resin casts of the tents!

I have to say, they look absolutely amazing, so I had to get more, which arrived incredibly fast.

I think he really has something special there, with great potential for any futuristic gaming scenarios, regardless of the game system you use.

As soon as I get home for a reasonable amount of time, I will try to get them painted and post photos.

I just cannot believe how quickly this has happened, from concept to production. Certainly a credit to the creativity and determination of DCP. I'm sure that this is just the beginning of greater things to come from him.

CC

Ah, geewilikers CC. Although I had thought of doing these several times, it was your post here that finally gave me the impetus to get them going. It seems that this little project has also got me into reviving my old company, comatose these last 15 years. That's the reason for the name alteration from the old SciFi Gamer tag (with the permission of Bill, here).

What I'll try to be doing is specialty items that can be used over a range of periods and game systems. I'll be dropping in a topic shortly that will show just how crazy I can be with a project. I even surprised myself on this one, and I can blame CC for starting it all.

Here is an alternate use for the new tent models. I guess you could say it's still sci-fi since Battlefield: Evolution by Mongoose Games is set in the near future or the "ultra-modern" period. What is not sci-fi about this is that the real structure company that builds the "tents" that inspired my miniature versions already has thousands of their products in over 90 countries. That means that you could definately use these scale structures in a wargame set in a contemporary setting, such as the Middle East.

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Wow. They look nice next to those modern/contemporary troops.

What figures are those and how tall are they? Do you have a close-up of the figures and the tents (closer to eye-level instead of overhead)?

CC

DCP, now you have me thinking using the tents for modern/contemporary troops, like those in the Stargate film. Damn you man!!! :)

TMP link

CC

Here is the lowest angle shot that I have, without setting up again.

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The figures are from Mongoose Publishing's Battlefield: Evolution and are a "steroid-free" 28mm scale.

Yes, I'd think my structures would work well as a temporary bivouac for an SG team on another world (and a perfect target for an attack, lol). If you painted your tents in a khaki or OD green (or multi-color camo?), they'd look just fine with your SG figures. I can think of all sorts of uses for the tent models. Medical stations for injuries or even bio-containment (for those pesky exo-fly bites that morph you into a Wraith monstrosity, heh).

In thinking of how to use these structures in a game, the first thing that crossed my mind was that they were not bunkers, in the least. Then it occurred to me that their weakness was also their strength in lasting for awhile in a fire fight.

Most ammunition is intended to pierce armor, so AP bullets would pass right through the tent membrane and not damage the structure. Even energy pulses would not bring them down, as the modern tent fabric is most likely a non-flammable composite material.

I'd think that only explosive ordnance like grenades and mortars would bring them down, so there is a pretty good chance that they'd survive on the tabletop as excellent LoS barriers.

Wow. That low angle shot really brings out the detail and scale.

Thanks!!!!

CC

DCP,

What are these containers on the foreground?

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Are they water/storage containers of some sort?

CC

Here's another shot with one of the tents:

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CC

What do I think that they really are? My guess is plastic sewer storage, heh. I don't have a clue what the movie folks thought they were, as I can't remember them mentioning those within the plot. If you wanted to replicate something like them, you might try looking at the sprue from the Tehnolog/Pegasus Power Plant maybe.

Latest:

TMP link

CC

It is with a heavy heart that I must part with the set . . .

TMP link

I must get rid of a lot of things I have not been able to paint and this is one such item. Too bad because they are awesome-looking tents.

CC

If only these fantastic tents were also available for 15mm . . .

TMP link

CC