"Adding Removable Awnings To 15mm SF Buildings?" Topic

I would like to avoid making permanent changes to my existing 15mm SF buildings, but I would love to have the option to change up their facade every so often.

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Look also at the building on the lower center:

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QUESTIONS:

Did you use magnets? Any other attachments? Did you make an entire porch to go with it, or just the awning? Did you make the awning itself to look like cloth or like slats of metal, or something else?

So, what suggestions, tutorial or pics can you share?

Thanks,

Dan
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Here's another example:

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Dan

Magnets are your friend there.

Get some of the magnetic paint or even just a thin layer of metal on the building, then for the awning, make the piece itself with a wire frame to build the rest off of (Similar to the ropes and poles a lot of current ones use) and then attach magnets to the end of it.

It would also work for adding other bits and pieces of temporary decor of similar types.

Dan,

I'd have to see the buildings in question, but perhaps a vestibule, affixed with magnets might work.

That "awning" in the picture, supported as it is on posts, I would classify as a vestibule, porch or portico. That bit on the side of the building in the drawing, I would classify as an arcade.

As for actual removable awnings, many buildings have these. You might try having some as "summer" modifications, complete with mounting hardware, a la model railroad buildings, and the hardware would stay mounted on the building even after the awning has been struck.

Best. Cheers.

Here are the desert buildings I'm talking about, from The Scene:

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Examples:

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This person here added some windows and doors, but they are the same buildings:

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Another example of someone who has added doors and windows on the basic buildings:

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What I like is that the buildings have a "border" about the height of the first floor, which might support awnings.

The other option is to add "posts" that hook on the inside of the waist-high wall along the top (parapet):

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Dan

Oh, that last pic is just lovely!

Here's another one that seems to be attached to the top of the parapet instead of ceiling height:

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Dan
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An interesting idea for an addition that will add a bit of variety. Thanks for linking to the pictures of my take on the great range from Mike at thesceneuk.com .
I'll have to get them out of their storage box, as they've been "resting" for far too long!

Andrew

Do they have to be awnings? they could be solar panels, working a double duty awnings and power and when not being used as awning you could have a solar panel field, and you can use magnets to hold them in place. :D

Dan,

It just occurred to me that you might be able to use a sushi roller for that bamboo awning, once you come up with your attachment system. They're like a buck-two-ninety-eight a piece.

What would be the basswood/balsa equivalent to a 4"X4" or 6"X6" post in 15mm?

You could build an arcade along the side of the building that was free-standing, and cover it with a section of the sushi bamboo mat. Some have string in like four places, so you might be able to get several arcades from just one mat, and have all of the bamboo tying already done for you.

You could even create vestibules and porches and cover them with bamboo mat bits. A nice arcade between buildings, a breezeway leading to a courtyard, or a covered portico for an open-air market might give your spaceport that exotic mix of hi/lo tech you're looking for. You might even be able to do a sort of bamboo mat quonset hut with some coaster rings or poster tube bits.

Best. Cheers.

(google sushi mat or sushi roller for cheap and easy; google wicker mat or bamboo mat for overpriced and complex)

for instance

Thunder Group (BASR095JP)

Now I can't stop thinking about it.

Dan,

I think I may have found an even easier answer.

At the height of the ceiling (floor of the parapet) add some pins or pegs that run horizontally across the top of the first story, sticking out just a bit. If you place the buildings in close, warren-like proximity, or arrange them in courtyards or squares, you might be able to support the sushi mat "bamboo awnings" from the pins or pegs. If you make them metal, they'll still look sci fi when the bamboo mats are gone.

If you likewise had "antennas" at the corners of the parapets, you might easily just drop the mats over these and be done with it.

I would say you could use bits of the cut-up mats themselves as the posts or pins or pegs (hell, even as "bamboo" scaffolding), or you could use paper clips (or whatever you use to pin models) if you wanted metal, to represent re-bar or antenna masts.

Don't some adobe buildings have bamboo sticking out at story breaks?

To Google!

OK, I educated myself a tiny bit. I see that HO scale dimensional lumber is 1/87 scale, and already exists as stuff you can buy for 30 cents. So, is 1 mm equal to about 4 inches at 15mm "scale" (or close enough for sci fi anyway)? Is a scale 4" X 4" post actually one millimeter square in nominal 15 mm figure scale? Drink-straw sized? That's what we built huts out of as kids. Could be your colonists used PVC or ABS tubing, some re-bar, and some bamboo to rig up an awning out of available material.

Like I said, now I can't stop thinking about it.

Dan,

I guess they are the ends of timbers/logs used as joists or beams?

You know, like on cartoon "adobe" buildings.

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Or on playset buildings. Remember the (Marx) Alamo (playset)?

Here's a sushi mat with six strings, pardner. Enough for three "arcade" awnings. Two cuts, between the second and third strings, and between the fourth and fifth strings. You even get a bamboo spoon-tula paddle thing with it, for future scratch-building brainstorms for just a buck-fifty! You might be able to cut through the mat with a razor knife (for the end pieces) and then with anvil-type garden clippers (pruning shears). Access to a bandsaw?

For a quonset hut or tube-like bamboo-covered arcade you might be able to use the core of a roll of masking tape, cut in half, and cut the bamboo mat the other way, across the strings instead of between them. So far you're out about three bucks, and have more bamboo arcade than one small spaceport can support.

You might even be able to do something like that giant wave above with a wire coat hanger, a bamboo sushi mat, and three chopsticks. Use a coffee can or roll of tape for the radius of the arc, make two matching armatures. Use two chopsticks for columns. Cut third one into three pieces for antenna/flag mast and the two rooftop posts. Paint/weather/varnish/pre-drill/attach/glue accordingly. Perhaps two tiny holes/depressions in the roof to accept the posts. Forty-five minutes, maybe two hours, if you had the tools, material, space and paint ready to go.

4x4 & 6x6 is equal to 1mm x 1mm & 1.5mmx1.5mm.

For poles try cocktail sausage sticks can get very cheap and fairly strong.

If you want solar panel I do a range in 2mm MDF.

Regards

MMG.

Solar panels I would go with the ones from AB, they are really great looking for their size and looks.

Wow. The hexagonal panels on the MMG website look awesome!!

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Dan