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Ever since the terrain sprue for Maelstrom's Edge was conceptualised, I've wanted to make some sci-fi farm terrain to go on barren landscapes. Here's my first, very rough effort...

It starts with the purchase of some pre-cut acrylic:



I then cut a door hole using a dremel (I tried using a saw but it was a total pain). The hole was marked out by just tracing around the garage door element from the terrain sprue:



I then glued the panels together to make this rectangular building:



and then stuffed it full of bits of exotic looking plant from an aquarium shop and tried out different bits of the terrain sprue to see what might work. I would have cut the height of the box down to match the side panels, but the acrylic company did not offer any smaller size than that which I had, and I was not confident I'd make a neat job of trimming it down myself, lacking the necessary tools.



The plants looked way too rough in there, so I took them out and redid them on an acrylic base piece, lining up small bushes to make it look more farmlike and less overgrown. The plants were held in place with blue tack, which was then sealed with superglue. I then just slapped on loads of Tamiya Soil Effect which is premixed brown soil so I'd not have to paint anything and it would still look realistic-ish (great product for the lazy - one small jar could do about 4 of these farms probably).





The edges were pretty rough due to superglue frosting, and me gluing myself to the acrylic in a disturbingly large number of places. I picked up some L shaped plasticard to cover my sins which fit really nicely:



I then sprayed the back of all the plastic elements black, and the facing side silver. After that I glued it all in place:



Looking far too clean, I gave it all an umber wash, and then a bit of weathering powder and finally a tiny bit of detail painting (computer terminal screen, the big lights, etc):



And here it is on the field:





The first of a few as I have a lot of panels and a bunch of different funky aquarium plants to use. I left the bottom unsealed so that I can insert different bases at will. There are many things I'll do differently next time:
1. Add/explore piping and irrigation
2. Place the side panels from the base up, then frame the top in with more L shaped plasticard
3. Add more detail to the painting - I just picked up a load of tiny warning symbol decals that I'm eager to use!

Thanks for reading this far More to come in many moons as I am the worlds slowest builder/painter...

Very nice and it's great to see something new.

One question though isn't there such a thing as clear styrene, wouldn't that work better for you than acrylic?

or failing that maybe clear storage boxes which will usually have more texture and shape than a straight up cube.

Most storage boxes are designed to come out of big plastic moulds, so taper slightly and have curved edges which I did not like the look of. I'm unfamiliar with clear styrene - that would be quite cool. I went with acrylic for strength and thickness, so that the thickness of the walls would be equal to the thickness of the inset terrain elements, so nothing would be sticking through on the inside.

Really digging the terrain, lego

I'm a bit curious about why you went acrylic vs clear plastic, too. Can buy the sheets of Vivak or Polycarbonate for cheaper than acrylic, usually. Just what you had on hand? Or perhaps thicker/more solid?
*EDIT* Question answered!** */EDIT*



Had a thought as far as assembly with the acrylic anyways... Next time try a clear epoxy rather than super glue. Will take a bit longer to cure, but you shouldnt have too many issues gluing yourself to the acrylic, plus epoxy wont craze it!

I love the farm idea Maybe cut up some of the terrain sprue and make the framing go all the way to the bottom?

Looks great, lego!

Agree it would look a little better if the framing went to the bottom (or the sides were a fraction shorter. Although an alternative would be to put it on a base, and build sand and rocks up around the sides, so that it's sunk in.

Love it might steal the idea

I'll add to the corus about having the frame go all the way down

 legoburner wrote:
Most storage boxes are designed to come out of big plastic moulds, so taper slightly and have curved edges which I did not like the look of. I'm unfamiliar with clear styrene - that would be quite cool. I went with acrylic for strength and thickness, so that the thickness of the walls would be equal to the thickness of the inset terrain elements, so nothing would be sticking through on the inside.

wat about these boxes?...they are of polysterol...take plastic glue etc. very well...and i´ve glued GW pllastics to them with great success... the shapes they come in are a wide range...

or something like these could work too...i´ve seen them made in star shaped ...er...shapes or diamonds and the likes too...


but nevertheless...love the idea and the execution!!! more of this kind...!^^

cheers, vik


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 legoburner wrote:
Most storage boxes are designed to come out of big plastic moulds, so taper slightly and have curved edges which I did not like the look of. I'm unfamiliar with clear styrene - that would be quite cool. I went with acrylic for strength and thickness, so that the thickness of the walls would be equal to the thickness of the inset terrain elements, so nothing would be sticking through on the inside.

what about these boxes?...they are of polysterol...take plastic glue etc. very well...and i´ve glued GW pllastics to them with great success... the shapes they come in are a wide range...
http://www.modulor.de/en/plastic-boxes-transparent-rectangular.html
or something like these could work too...i´ve seen them made in star shaped ...er...shapes or diamonds and the likes too...
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/quote/0/8578064.page

but nevertheless...love the idea and the execution!!! more of this kind...!^^

cheers, vik

Cool scifi greenhouses!

Thanks all I completely agree about needing to do something to those corners but am still undecided on the best option.

Extending the side panels down would be ok, but they would not fit perfectly flush due to the height of the panel, unless I use the tech style panels, which would have a slight visual mismatch.

Piling up on the corners with sand, etc was something I'd been tempted by as well, as that would look quite cool from the inside of the farm, but I also wanted to keep it generic so I can use it on lots of different battlefield textures.

I'd also considered taking the side panels off, moving them down to the bottom, and then putting more of the L shaped plasticard back at the top to fill the new gap there.

Any more suggestions very welcome!

You could also make a (textured) plastic or cardboard trim all around the bottom of the farm up to where the corner panels start.

Good thinking, if I use differing angles and heights it could do that without blocking the view of the crops from the model's eye, and I could match the angular pattern on the double door.