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hi to all
currently i'm making a bastion from foamboard but i wonder, is it cheaper to making land raiders, predators, drop pods, etc from plasticard or is that a waste of time and money than just buying them?

any opinions?

Depends on who you ask. There are some people who will troll the F*** out of you for even suggesting this, so watch out.

Personaly, I make the things i need a lot of (drop pods, rhinos, razorbacks) and add bitz. the big stuff (land raiders) I just buy the model to make it stand out from the army.

Having done some work with foam board/foamcore I think you'd be happier using plastic card for tanks. Foam board seems to work really well for buildings, but I think the sharp edges and more regular movement a tank will see may leave you feeling unsatisfied after using it a few times.

I've made vehicles from plasticard before.

It's a lot of work, but rewarding when it works out.
Disappointing when it doesn't though.

Still, I get 1mm plasticard by the square metre.

How much is your time worth to you? How spiffy do you think you could make a scratchbuild look? Do you play at stores/clubs where making a crude knockoff would be judged harshly?

There are some pretty decent templates out there for SM vehicles, but without a very clean build and subsequent detailing, they'll never compare to the real thing. For some, that's not really a deterrent, but consider the cost of the materials (not terribly high, but still significant) and the amount of time spent to make the vehicle (very high, if you're doing anything of worth), as well.

For most, scratchbuilds are a labor of love and a chance for a highly personalized army - since the models you're talking about are available, only scratchbuild to avoid buying the model if you have way more time than money, won't run into trouble for using non-GW models when they're available, and either have skill in the field or don't mind that your vehicle will look like pants.

oadie wrote:How much is your time worth to you? How spiffy do you think you could make a scratchbuild look? Do you play at stores/clubs where making a crude knockoff would be judged harshly?

There are some pretty decent templates out there for SM vehicles, but without a very clean build and subsequent detailing, they'll never compare to the real thing. For some, that's not really a deterrent, but consider the cost of the materials (not terribly high, but still significant) and the amount of time spent to make the vehicle (very high, if you're doing anything of worth), as well.

For most, scratchbuilds are a labor of love and a chance for a highly personalized army - since the models you're talking about are available, only scratchbuild to avoid buying the model if you have way more time than money, won't run into trouble for using non-GW models when they're available, and either have skill in the field or don't mind that your vehicle will look like pants.

QFT

Scrath building a kit that's available is only worth it if you don't care what it looks like or you've got stupid amounts of free time to model with. You can get a part time job to fill that 80 hours of time and then buy several of what you would have built.

If you're just playing in friendly games buy a dollar store toy tank to use as a proxy. The guys I play with have a few that they use when they want to try out new lists or different armies.

Scrath built terrain on the other hand is awesome to make as you can personalize it any way you want. Try and think of new interesting buildings and most people will enjoy the variety you bring to the table.

There are site / groupls arround that share vehicle templates - might be worth your while.
You need to be very acurate though, otherwise things will end up looking quite pants.

dreadwing wrote:hi to all
currently i'm making a bastion from foamboard but i wonder, is it cheaper to making land raiders, predators, drop pods, etc from plasticard or is that a waste of time and money than just buying them?

any opinions?

I don't think I can add to what Oadie said - whether or not it's "worth it" really is dependent upon your skill level and dedication. But what you could do is try making them out of paper first, and see how it comes out! Google "40k papercraft" to find some models, and try making them from stiff paper and elmer's glue. If they come out fantastic, you know you can try them in plasticard. If they come out terrible... then you know.

I've built alot of vehicles out of card & find it very enjoyable & worthwhile, especially if people at my LGS don't realize it's card until they handle it or look at it up close. Plus, it allows me to make custom vehicles different than the standard kits. For example building a rhino like a smaller land raider for a squad of sternguard or berzerkers is always nice. Or as an example, for my Iron Warriors apoc army I'm building a pair of ragnarok battle tanks that count as leman russes. It's time consuming & it's not easy but it's worth it if you're willing to put time in. The key thing w/ card tanks is the devil is in the details.

Edit:

Here's a WIP example of a card tank:

Game-wise it's a las/plas razorback. Model wise it's a repressor w/ the gun turret replace by a hatch & the searchlight replaced by weapons in a hull mount w/ extra armor based on the forgeworld extra armor.

Here's my card warhound WIP, I can't take any pics of the finished model til I can find the battery charger for my damn camera:

As the Goblins say: "Time is money friend." Scratchbuilding stuff takes a lot of time and effort. However, I'm not discouraging you to do it. Scratchbuilding would help you to get out of your comfort zone and expand your hobby skills. Who knows, you might even like it.

As for making stuff out of paper. You can do some pretty amazing stuff like Red_Starrise's stuff. I've seen some people build 1/1550 scale WWI battleships out of paper. But of course this requires a lot of skill and practice. But definitely worth it to try once.

I build all my own ork vehicles and buildings out of 5mm foam card because yes its cheap but fun to make and show off. If you have the money I say buy it, if your low on cash build it lol.

Get that beautiful Basilisk added here, thread moved to P&M Logs and you’ll have yourself a subscriber!

...seven years.