"15mm SF Asteroid Mine Tunnel Supports And Flooring?" Topic

Instead of the wooden support beams and flooring you see in terrestrial mines . . .

Would these splopes with slots pieces work for supporing the walls of an asteroid mine, placed at intervals, and if painted to look like aged steel?

auction

How about these grill tiles for the flooring?

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What do you guys think?

Dan
PS. Dimensions of those pieces:
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I don't recognize the brick – can't tell you if it's useful or not. But I wouldn't recommend the tile. 25 of those would only cover an area the size of a business card. You could get an extremely similar finish cheaper and easier by using textured Evergreen plasticard.

-Chris K.

The sloped piece with slots, if stood up with the thinner tapered end to the top, looks like it stands 16mm tall (according to Dom in the other thread).

If I made the tunnels to stand around 20mm high, do you think the 4mm difference will be too noticeable?

Thanks,

Dan

Would an asteroid have enough gravity to cause a collapse?

As for a floor, which way is "up" on an asteriod?

Gravity is not required, only force. If the miners are using blasting and not just cutting, that force has to go *somewhere*.

That said, a flat floor suggests gravity has been imposed upon the asteroid artificially. Law of Unintended Circumstances and all that…

I wish there was a new set or two of these little guys, that already came with drilling equipment:

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They may be little by 15mm standards, but I think they would be very happy and feel right at home controlling a huge mine in space, don't you think?

Dan

That's exactly what the Sons of Thunder are in my own gaming world. If that's how everyone has decided to use them, maybe we could persuade Rebel Mike and Wiff Waff to sculpt a Sons mining crew…

-Chris K.

That would rock! (pardon the pun)

Dan

@cleagle

Beards are suggested but not required. :p

Beards are suggested but not required. :p

Nah… Khurasan is going to release the Thrainites eventually. TMP link

I'd personally rather keep the Sons of Thunder as a bunch of who-knows-whats in enclosed suits.

-Chris K.

Me too!!!

Interplanetary Men of Mystery, I say. Maybe they don't even realize that, beneath their helmets, they are all identical clones!

Dan
PS. Of course, a few of them may have the occasional impulse to scare giant old women:

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Chris,

Have you given any thought about what terrain you plan to make for your Rebel Minis' Sons Of Thunder?

I love the exterior cratered look:

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Though I have yet to see any examples of the interior terrain for asteroid mines.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Dan

My idea was to take these 6" x 6" tiles I bought some time ago and make a more tech version of a rocky mine, with support columns on the sides or overhead.

So, instead of wooden beams as supports, I was hoping to add a little more SF flavor to something like this:

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By the way, his tutorial starts halfway down this page:

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Here's another example of a non-tech mining concept:

QUESTION:

Aside from the Legos pieces I asked about, what other SF bits would you recommend then, for making a mine look like it was carved in space or on another planet?

Dan
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Are there any Legos or other off-the-shelf bits I could buy in bulk that could could like these wall supports?

Not much interested in ceiling crossbeams, as the tunnels will be basically V-shaped for easy access to the figures. What I'm really looking for is support columns and flooring of some sort.

The simpler the better. That way I might be able to use it for other things, such as this:

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Thoughts?

Dan

You might be interested in some of the Bionicle and Tecnic pieces for the wall supports and details such as vents. Here is an ebay bid to give you a general idea of what some pieces look like:

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The blades (orangish ones in the bottom right) for instance would make excellent support beams if embedded partially into the walls. I would not recommend trying to find legos on ebay. It's usually a lot cheaper to buy whole sets and just keep the stuff you don't use in your bitz box.

As for the floors I recommend using plasticard for flat surfaces such as metal paneling (or even actually sheet metal from a hardware store, it's not that expensive just heavier and a little harder to work with). For grated floors just use a really tight woven metal mesh and glue strips of plasticard around the sides.

Very cool!

Thanks so much,

Dan

At Michaels and other craft stores, in the sculpting aisle, you can find fine metal mesh that's used to create frames to apply clay to. It's much more expensive than granny grating, but it looks like real chain-link and would make decent flooring.

Jav,

Just bought some with really small mesh holes. Hope it lays flat and works as a floor surface.

Thanks,

Dan

Also how could I have forgotten about K'nex. Cut them to the height you want, paint em metallic and glue em in place. I imagine they'd look great.

auction

I wouldn't bother with the connector or endcap bits as they alone are larger than a 15mm figure (unless you like macro engineering). The floor pieces might be something to look at, but they look a bit weird when I last compared them to a figure since the holes are large and spread far apart making the difference in "scale" a bit obvious.

Junkotron9000,

Never even knew they existed! And they sell those rods in all sizes and colors.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Dan

Junkotron9000,

Thanks for the tip! I bought a bunch of the K'nex rods. I think the ones I got are about 1.25 inches in length.

I can imagine a tile system like this incredible one here, but with the K'nex rods and other bits as supports, instead of the timber beams, as well as machinery and lift-up pressure doors:

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Dan

The above foam construction with some of GameCraft's Starship Interiors bulkheads might produce a nice scifi mine.

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-Eli

Oooo, I like that idea!!!

Dan

Guys, I'm still salivating over these original pics.

I'm sure something like it can be built for SF, either as an asteroid mine or as an underground complex on an alien planet, don't you think?

And if the walls are made lower, and maybe even sloped, then the corridor widths would be much more roomier for 15mm too!

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Dan
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You know, perforated plastic medical tape would make cheap and decent flooring. Just affix it to plasticard, paint, drybrush, and give it a rust wash, and you'd be golden.

Hey, Dan, if you want to sketch something out as far as what you want wall supports to look like, I could probably throw something together in Sketchup that you could print off of Shapeways as a master. Drop me a PM if you like!

Thanks,
Andreas

Andreas/Jav,

I love your idea of using the plastic medical tape!!! I must give that a try for sure.

I guess the general parameters for the wall supports are rather simple and give plenty of room for creativity . . .

ANGLE -

This is not exactly the right look, but looks like the right angle:

auction

HEIGHT -

As long as the piece doesn't exceed 1.25" or so (for a max wall height of 1.5").

WIDTH -

Not really sure on this one, but the width on the auction lego piece looks cool.

PATTERN -

I like the idea of an I-beam or H-beam, pre-done as an angled piece, but with a few perforations running the length of it. The perforations could be just three, with the larger circle at the bottom and the smaller on top? Not sure if that's structurally sound at all in real life though, or it that's only for curved pieces:

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I once thought of buying a bunch of these, cut them into long triangles, gradually enlarge the holes and, finally "thin" out the beams laterally, but that's WAY too much trouble and would never look factory made:

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Similar but curved pieces would look cool too for ceiling supports.

Does the above make sense? I know it makes perfect sense in my head, but I may not have transmitted the idea properly. About 99% of the time it's "Sender Error". :)

ADDITIONAL INPUT?

What about the rest of you guys? Is that more or less what you envisioned?

Dan

Guys,

Do you see any way this other material could be incorporated into the 6" x 6" tiles, or is it too much trouble to try?

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Thanks,

Dan

Dan and folks,

Get me a good 2 drawing of what you want, I will try to cut it with the laser.

If it works, while learning which will take some time, Mats shipping, and a few bucks for the tube fund.

Hope to have the shack done this weekend and trying a 3d etch.

Guys,

Wow, check out what Javelin98 has come up with!!!

Angled: link

Curved: link

Half-Angled: link

Middle-Angled: link

X-Brace: link

Hydraulic Jack: link

Incredible looking stuff, don't you think?

Dan

Given the new stanchions designed by Javelin98, plus the other bits suggested above, I think stuff like this might be possible now:

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What do you guys think? Anything missing?

Dan

What do you guys think? Anything missing?

Just a second mortgage due to the astronomical prices that Shapewqys charge…

I don't know …

Considering that no one at all is making stanchion pieces that look like that and that are specifically designed for 15mm figure heights, and that the stanchion pieces are only meant to be accent pieces to what will otherwise be a scratch-built carved polystyrene tunnel wall, I don't think the pricing is bad at all.

They will provide the perfect SF touch to any carved tunnel. Without the occasional manufactured-looking accessory, there would be very little to distinguish the tunnels from those made for fantasy or other genres.

How many you add to your asteroid or underground mining complex is up to you. But even just a few may create a radically different, and unique, environment to play in, and one rarely ever seen in 15mm.

Dan

Don't let me put you off, if you like them and they are within your gaming budget go for it i just think £7.00 GBP for a single wall section is a bit on the steep side. Having said that i cant say much as i bought a load of Alien wall sections last year from Griffon Games that cost me £30.00 GBP but i ordered about sixteen sections and they were kind enough to send on a few free walls that i had not ordered to complete the range. I'm now also looking for some man made corridor sections to expand this complex so i can play a few Space hulk style games but other than the Ainstry castings corridors i have yet to find anything that i really like or that is reasonably prices if you want to buy in large amounts.

2 Cacique Caribe
What game is this?

Seems to be the subject of a discussion on this forum here:

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Dan

Maybe the miners should avoid going too deep into the ground:

But, then again, that could make the game a lot more interesting, don't you think?

Dan

Here are some asteroid miners:

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pictify.com/12387/asteroid-miner

On Io (Jupiter moon):

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YouTube link

Dan

Here's another cool take on the within-asteroid-combat concept:

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Dan

Guys,

How about something like this, for above, on the surface of the asteroid?

And, according to the fella, they're made with Legos:

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Dan

Nice simple mining equipment, and even based on CDs.

And, research done, the formula is here:

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The metal floor gratings, cement floor sections, wall panels, supports, and wall displays in those images all look superb, and certainly make for a nice, Sci-Fi look.

I suspect though, that most of those (other than the wall and ceiling supports) would only be used in the high traffic areas, nearer the surface, or entrance to a mine, since like in the real world as well as the miniature world, they would be expensive to purchase.

In most areas of a mine, the basic rock/other materials of the asteroid would probably make up the floors, ceilings, and walls of the tunnels.

On the plus side, if you make the sections easily insertable, removable, you can use the mines for other genres as well.

Dan,

They are indeed Legos and other bits. Mik did a bang-up job on making some simple but effective accent terrain with readily available materials.

-Eli

Not to throw cold water on the project, its just that asteroids are solid rocky material or metallic and once you bore in they are not going to have "rock falls" or failures of the loose packed earth problems. So instead maybe used a nearly polished stone floor look with rough sides and roof?

This is one ugly "asteroid":

Called a Budong, from Farscape:

farscape.wikia.com/wiki/Budong

By the way, the spiny thing on the lower right is supposed to be Moya, the huge ship where Crighton and the rest of the crew live:

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Dan
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Guys,

For making debris piles in the corridors, check these out …

Plastic canvas pieces (granny grating), 7, 10 and 14 mesh:

Lego bits:

Scrap polystyrene pieces and plasticard punch outs:

Bits from pens, mechanical pencils, screws and screw anchors:

Assorted pieces from drawer organizer, drink stirs, brand new (unused) ear scope tips, and lots of other scrap:

Cookie trays that will be chopped for their moulded bits:

LOTS more pics:
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So, what do you guys think?

Thanks,

Dan
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Nice link for the tunnels, plus I would like to see what come up with for your tunnels/mine

Guys,

A lot of what you'll see in the links below could be very useful for an asteroid mining tunnel system:

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Dan

All those odds and ends have great potential, specially the vacform cookie trays and other items like them.

@CC
That last post could work for your crashed colony as well, wouldn't be to hard to make as wall supports for your tunnels if only to give you the idea of it being tunnel or room support.

Still looking at the last post from CC has helped figure out an idea for a crashed ship concept that I have been struggling with and now that problem is I think solved