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Figured i might introduce myself a little more aggressively that just posting a thread on the introductions forum...i saw the contest, and decided to join. i figured there is no way i cannot find enough little junk bits laying around to at least give it a go.

a bit of background: i work a few different jobs, and one of them is managing an equipment rental store. there is always little things on the floor that could be of use. the day i found out about the contest (same day it started), i found this stuff at work:



(edit: only took me 5 tries to figure out how to imbed pictures...)

had two different ideas--a barricade-style piece of terrain, and a sniper emplacement. (i recently re-read david l. robbins' "war of the rats", which i would highly recommend to anyone interested in WWII, snipers, urban tactics, or the movie "enemy at the gates"). drew up so preliminary sketches of both ideas...have since misplaced the barricade sketch, but here's the sniper hole sketch:



got home and got serious about starting, and weeded out some bits and added some others:

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2013/11/17/557568_md-old%20bits%20and%20new%20bits.JPG" border="0" />

read somewhere on here that dip (chewing tobacco) can lids are almost exactly the same size as a 60mm base...as a guy i work with chews tobacco, i can get one of these cans pretty much every day, so good thing for me they are the same size, because i have a steady source of free 60mm-equivalent bases.

starting with the base (the tube is the filler line from a big bottle of GoJo hand cleaner):


it being November, and it being difficult to locate a plastic easter egg at this time of the year, i went with an alternative: the plastic cap from a tube of lubricating grease.


the first thing that really caught my attention in the sketch was the mattress (seems to me a trash pile isn't complete without a dirty, busted mattress on top). i knew i wouldn't 'find' one, so i would have to make one. got some air-dry clay on clearance at hobby lobby. turns out it is rubbery when it dries (guess that's why it's "scrapbook safe". turned out pretty well, in any case. textured by rolling the clay with the knurled part of my exacto knife. indentions made by pushing a plastic coffee stirrer. springs made by my girlfriend wrapping thin wire around a piece of styrene tubing.


some of the air-dry clay had cured in the package. chopped it up to make 'rubble'.


and just building it:

a few notes on materials: dark blue thing is a butt connector for electrical wire. orange sprocket thing is the flange for a stud gun nail (stud guns use a .22 caliber blank to drive an anchor into concrete or hard substrate). the chrome thing is the headlight from a model car. also used another 2-wire electrical connector, some scraps of textured plastic card, some snippets from some aquarium plants, the coating from some stripped wire snippets, a plastic and metal bit (from a motor of some kind), and part of a spray tube from a can of WD-40 (smaller than a coffee stirrer).

and finishing up the build and basing:


the extra touch, that means so much (and because i am a fan of ironic signs):


material notes: green trash bag sculpted from oven-bake clay (still waiting for my green stuff to be shipped), light blue thing is a bullet wire connector; also used a sprocket-lock nut, as well as kitty litter for the basing.

have base-coated it. will start painting later tonight.

thanks for looking.

I like it. Although I think painting in some more realistic colors would add a lot to the piece.

Scrappy

And welcome to dakka

Igloo--the colors you see in those pics are the raw material.

Monkeytroll--thanks!

first whack at painting it...pics uploading now.


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i know the paintjob sucks, but here's my first whack at it.







wanted to have an idea of what it was going to look like with some paint on it. will redo some of the base and fill in some gaps/add some stuff tomorrow, then repaint.

having seen the WIP pic from Theophony (thankfully, we aren't in the same 'chaos category' for this contest), and having read Camkierhi's thread statement about wondering whether or not to post finished pics, i am starting to wonder a) if i should be a little more cloak-and-dagger about my project, b) if i should rethink my whole approach...

may have a go at redoing the entire project, using the same basic concept. but then, i do have at least one other idea...and there is still 25 days until the deadline. AND my girlfriend has to work this weekend...

still looking for inspiration, but the only thing i see on the ground is cigarette butts. which might make for an interesting wood pile...

Nice work, but the contest rules say that you shouldn;t be posting WIP shots. Good stuff though.

 Ifurita wrote:
Nice work, but the contest rules say that you shouldn;t be posting WIP shots. Good stuff though.

ACTUALLY, the contest rules say this:
"4- Do not post WIP shots on this thread during the contest, and do not create direct links to your photos from this thread. You may post your progress on your own thread." (quote from contest thread, emphasis is all mine.)

edit: all the whining crap removed.

My sincerest apologies. I was reading through the rules, wondering if I should participate and apparently missed the "you may".

My intent wasn't to quash your enthusiasm, but rather to keep you in good standing with the competition.

In any case, accept my honest apologies or not. By the way, I used to live in Anniston.

Ifurita-- no worries. and thanks for the apology. Anniston? i don't know of too many places that would NOT be an upgrade from Anniston (Phil Campbell is about the only one i can think of ATM)...way to escape while you could.

my apologies for whining like a brat.

in a way, it worked out: i started another terrain piece for the contest last night (thinking, i'll show those ) , which is shaping up to be even better than the original...may just post teaser pics for now, though.

STILL waiting for my airbrush to get shipped...once i have it, should take me about 20 minutes of farting around to get back into the swing of things and really be able to paint.


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teasers for the new version of the project:







really liking the way the pallet turned out. wanted those thin wooden coffee stirrers, but the emory board worked out nicely.

Thin coffee stirrers are great for anything and everything. Currently, I'm using mine for a trench and for a wooden Roman watchtower. Keep up the good work, Gawdam Sumbish!

@ Tappers - Thanks, man! really wish i could have got some of those stirrers...still on the lookout for them.

take 2 on the project is 99.9% done. now, admittedly, i am a fairly terrible painter. but there isn't much else i can do to make this pretty--maybe touch up the paint in a few places. i will upload more pictures later (waiting to find out what Skalk says about how to get him the images without the general public being able to see them), but i wanted to put this up in case anyone was curious as to how it's going/what it looks like.

In the grim darkness of the far future, humans are still disgusting.

That mattress is gross. Luminol test, anyone?

lol i love it. My favourite piece is the matress. all that's missing is a shopping trolly. nice job

Looking good. Nice job with the emery board pallet.

Love all the little touches, Great work.

@Skalk--well, it wouldn't make sense for someone to throw away a *clean* mattress, would it? i like to think that 38,000 years in the future, they STILL use spring mattresses SOMEWHERE...

@St1mp0--the shopping trolley could probably be done, but it would be A LOT of work...i'm already envisioning paperclips, needle nose pliers, and a ton of foul language being involved...

@monkeytroll--thank you! i appreciate that. emory board wasn't my first choice of building material, but it came out okay.

@Camkierhi--thank you, as well. really appreciate it. the little touches are what really makes a piece, IMHO...i had too many ideas to fit on one 60mm base...might end up redoing my first attempt (because i really liked the mattress idea--obviously, as i used it for this version--as well as the "no dumping" sign) and making a third (or fourth...or fifth...)so i have a grouped/themed set of them.

i have taken and will probably upload and post the 6 "judging" photos thanksgiving evening, or possibly the day after (especially if i can find my macro ring light and decide to take new pictures). it's been a hectic week for me.

happy thanksgiving, everyone!

some work in progress pics of attempt #2 for the contest.



















final pictures tomorrow, i think.

and here it is, kids....the junk pile.

I really like what you have going on here!

Fridge and matress in place as anyy good jjunk pile deserves!

And loving the mysterious tub of ooze.

Skalk let me know i needed a scale shot. knew i had taken one, but forgot to post it, i guess. so here it is:

Man, my poor weird junk pile is gonna get destroyed

Everything here is really cool, I especially love the mattress and road cone.

May the best junk pile prevail, however you've got me sweating bullets, I'll have to step up my painting game to have half a chance.. this has too much character

@hdbbstephen--thanks! i probably could have used the extra time to make it awesome, but 1) i think it's pretty cool the way it is, 2) with hundreds of models to paint, i don't need to spend more than i already have making a 60mm piece of terrain, and c*) i had other projects i wanted to work on.

@monkeytroll--digging through my junk bins, i happened across a stange ceramic resistor that looked kind of like a refrigerator...was watching (listening to) the Rifftrax of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull", and i figured "why not make it a fridge? hell, it wouldn't even have to withstand a nuclear blast... it was simple and fast and looks pretty decent.

@GrimDork--maybe your pile will get destroyed (there's a bad joke about hemorroids in there...) . maybe it won't. (i don't think it will--pretty sure you will beat my a$$, and i'm fairly confident that Vik will, too--haven't even checked the other guys in our bracket's work yet).

i decided i wasn't going to stress about it--if YOU like what you make, that's all that matters, right? it's not as if you are making this project for anyone else...my piece fits in with the cityscape board i plan on making, and could theoretically be used by my orks, as well...good enough for me.

i DID figure out that i would like to make some goop pools and use the technique i used on this piece (that will mostly go unnoticed, i am sure, as it is partially covered and not terribly visible from the final judging shots i posted)...

*yes, i know i went from numerics to alphabetical. it was done for comedic purposes. durhay with a capital "dur".

Yeah, I'm in agreement, I've never been in this to win it either. I'm mostly competing to having something to do, and to see what everyone else has come up with All I know is I had better get to it or I won't even have a thing to submit, 10 days go by fast when you've got a timer

10 days is plenty...you're done building, right? so how long will it take you to paint--2 hours? 4? the lady and kid have to sleep sometime...

Looks very cool!

I think I will have to start my design now

Grizzly Wintergreen Pouches. That's gross man!

I'm a Copenhagen Straight or Southern Blend myself.

Good job on the pile!

@Chootum--thanks...the more i look at it, the more i realize what i could have done better...but you have to stop somewhere eventually. i am way more interested in other projects that were simmering on the back burner while i worked on this...time to move on.

i don't dip myself. a guy at work gives me his empty cans. i tried levi garrett from a pouch once when i was 6 or 7 (thanks, dad!)...threw up after swallowing some juice, and i never had the inclination to try chewing tobacco of any kind after that.

well, it was good enough to place second in my division in the contest. congratulations again to all the winners, and hopefully, we will have another awesome turnout for the new LoER contest, which started earlier today.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/570324.page

well, it's been a while. IRL issues caused me to fail to make the deadline (or even complete) my entry for round 12. pics are on 'da boys" thread and also in the gallery, for anyone interested.

on to round 13.

i remembered seeing a picture of a tank doing an accidental endo (although a purposeful endo in a tank would be amazing to see) at some point before, and figured that would be a good entry for this contest. i found this:



i am not taking credit for this picture, because i did not take it, but rather had google find it for me on the interwebs, but this is pretty much what i had in mind.

per the contest rules: "4. It can be purely playable terrain, or diorama based. But it cannot be a playable model(s) a diorama with removable models is fine however." i don't *do* dioramas, so it will have to be playable terrain. but as the rules say only a diorama can have a removable playable model, my original idea is out:



was thinking about asking for an exception, but i figure i'll just try to build something. we have plenty of time, right?

the rules say "scratch built or heavily converted", so how to scratch-build a tank of a noticeable (i.e., GW Leman Russ, or maybe a Razorback Rhino) make? my original thought was to buy a LR or Razorback and modify/convert it to work like the sketch showed, but i didn't think that would count. besides, it's more fun to scratch build (well, if you don't have a time constraint IRL and contest-wise, at least).

thinking about/ searching for papercraft templates and card templates i had downloaded years ago kept me up late last night. (PS: if anybody has any templates for papercraft or card, please PM me. i realize there is some moral stickiness for some people re: papercraft, but i have a moral vacuum as far as that is concerned.) waded through a bunch of leads that turned into not much...3 hours of work netted me 2 files for papercraft that will probably take too long to convert to card (as that would be my preferred method of scratchbuilding). will spend more time tonight digging through old hard drives looking for those templates i downloaded years ago...

speaking of card: i got about 100 sheets of thick (0.70?) plastic card, about 12" x 18", that they were going to throw away at work, so i would *really* like to use them. or if anyone here could use some, pay for shipping and i'll send some to you gratis. or maybe i'll use it as a prize if i ever win one of these contests and get to run the next one...

Monkeytroll mentioned on the contest thread an idea for an ork spaceship having fallen off it's launch pad, which i thought about running with for a while, and still might actually do, if i cannot figure out how to get the tank fail piece to work.

any ideas or comments are welcome.