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I am modeling miniatures with an industrial, war-torn theme to them. I am looking for things like plastic meshes, old fuel drums, ammo crates, pipes, control consoles, pistons, engines, wheels, things of this nature.

I've looked at the stickied links in the P&M Forum and like some of their stuff, and intend to use it. Anyone have their own suggestions? It would help a lot!

There's plasticard that has that crisscross pattern of anti-slip metal plates, like you see on the dakkadakka background. You can probably use that for floors or similar surfaces, I think it gives a nice industrial look. Wazzoo is using it in his scratch-builds a lot, but if you ask him where to buy plasticard, he may get the angries. I figure any hobbyshop for model trains should have that stuff.

You can indeed find patterned styrene sheet, including corrugated metal siding and "diamond plate" non-slip flooring. "Granny grating" is an old standby - the thick plastic "canvas" into which yarn is woven to make tacky covers for tissue boxes and the like. Better still is aluminum sculptor's mesh - it's easy to cut and shape, takes to glue and paint more readily than the (PET?) plastic, and scales well with 28mm models as either an overlay for flooring (like inverse diamond plate) or a chain-link fence. Most any arts and crafts store is likely to carry both.

For things like ammo crates and oil drums, Pegasus Hobbies has a line of (pre-painted, now - when I bought some, they were all individually cast and shipped bare) accessories that you might check out. Both can also be built from scratch (one by one or a few masters for casting, depending on your resources and the number needed) without too much trouble. 1/35 sets are also sold by model companies like Tamiya that scale reasonably well.

Control consoles, A/C units, generators, etc. can be bought from Antenociti's Workshop, cast from Hirst Arts molds, scratchbuilt, or harvested from 40K building/vehicle kits (potentially picked up from bits sellers, piecemeal). I've seen a great many LEGO wheels, pulleys, and steering wheels requisitioned for modeling use, too.

The "best route" for many of the listed items depends largely on the scale of your project(s), your budget, and your willingness to put in time and effort, yourself. Pipes, for example, can be created in near limitless sizes and configurations with some time and a healthy supply of styrene tube, but many with more money than time and/or loose, flexible designs would rather just buy an IMEX Chemical Plant kit and pick and choose bits that roughly fit their intended task. Are you looking more for shopping direction or DIY resources and tutorials?

Thank you both, very helpful. Specifically I am looking for DIY using conventional model parts. I don't mind converting, cutting, or chopping stuff up. Both shopping direction and DIT resources are equally helpful. My problem is I can paint, I just don't know where to go to build stuff.


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Edited

In that case, time for a link dump:

Antenociti's terrain page, which includes too many industrial parts (air filters, consoles, etc.) to link individually, their nuts, bolts, and rivets, if you don't want to make your own (I prefer to sink microbeads, like these, into shallow drilled holes - most people used sliced styrene rod, since it's faster, but I don't think it looks nearly as nice), and the aforementioned diamond plate styrene sheet.

Both Evergreen Scale Models and Plastruct produce embossed styrene sheets, as well as any diameter styrene tube you might want for smaller pipes. I imagine that corrugated siding, tread plate, and diamond plate would be most useful to you, as far as textures go. Plain old sheets are invaluable, as well, if you decide to build anything from scratch or need to flesh out a form to cover with bits. If you don't have a local hobby shop that carries styrene, Antenociti's and Ebay sellers would be my next stop. The former has a huge selection and is based in the UK, while the latter occasionally nets you fantastic deals and frequently has prices comparable to, if not slightly cheaper than, larger e-retailers (if you can combine shipping, that is). For massive (at 28mm scale, at least) pipes, hit up the plumbing section at you local home improvement store. PVC is generally cheaper than copper and the thicker walls better suit the exaggerated aesthetic of most sci-fi/post-apocalyptic miniatures, at least in my mind.

The sculptor's/armature mesh I use is this stuff, but any art supply store should have alternatives.

The old IMEX/Pegasus/whatever company was producing it at a given time Chemical Plant kit is still stocked by The Warstore, but I couldn't seem to find it through Amazon. Might have to check Ebay or domestic hobby stockists for that one, if you want it (wouldn't be surprised if you did - it's got enough pipes, tanks, and assorted gubbins and whatnots to spruce up terrain for a whole table).

Here are the fuel/oil drums I mentioned. The Tamiya kit can be found cheaper than linked, but the Jerry cans don't scale quite as well as the drums (which are large, but don't have giant handles reminding you that they're out of scale), so half the kit is either wasted, or looks a bit wonky - I wouldn't really recommend it, personally. The Pegasus set, however, looks like a decent value, even if you choose to repaint it.

Should you have really big plans, casting parts may actually save you money, in the long run (and be worth the associated hassle). In that case, Hirst Arts sci-fi molds and some good dental plaster or resin (which is pricier and will degrade the molds faster, but is generally preferable when it comes time to use the parts) would serve you well. Scroll about 2/3 down the page and you'll hit pipe and machinery molds. His site has a ton of info on casting, if you're curious about going that route.

Oh, and if you'll be making a lot of power cables, consider investing in the tube tool from MasqMini and some epoxy putty. Wound guitar strings are the old staple, but many people have trouble working the stiff wire into natural curves. The tube tool lets you get truly segmented sheathing (the strings are wrapped in a continuous coil, so you see ///// instead of |||||||) that is completely pliable and can be made to any diameter. Guitar strings are long and some people have old ones lying around - those are the only two benefits I can think of. For smooth cables, rosin-cored solder is cheap and flexible, with none of the pesky spring-back that rubber-shielded copper wire has (I'd never buy it for modeling, but bits stripped from busted electronics are worth saving).

Actually, busted electronics are an absolute gold mine for techno-bits - just exercise a bit of caution, as capacitors on higher powered devices can apparently hold a nasty charge for quite some time. Now that I think of it, for all the links I've just dropped, probably 90% of my "bitz" used are either scavenged or built from scratch, using styrene (and possibly foamcore, for the bigger ones). There are plenty of great shortcuts for sale, if you have a particular vision and find suitable parts (or just build up a stockpile and use them as you're able), but a moderate supply of basic materials, a tiny dash of ingenuity, and a willingness to muck about for a while will get you surprisingly far.

If you can find something old and mechanical, break it open and liberate the innards as scenery. Old VHS units are pretty good.

Exalted oadie - that post was awesome!

Tamiya do some great barrels - can't remember if I use 1:48 or 1:35 though (1:35 me thinks).
I've used a couple on this base:

For wire mesh look in your local automotive shop for it.
It's aluminium over here so very soft & easy to cut & bend.
For wheels look at toys - try looking at yard sales (or however people sell their 2nd hand stuff where you live).
For pipes try plumbing parts.
For engines try http://www.ramshacklegames.co.uk/ as they sell their vehicles parts separately.

Hi There,
In my experience, the best and cheapest source of industrial looking terrain is from old discarded printers. The older and bigger the better. They're super easy to come by. Crack them open and dissect the whole thing. About half of it will go back in the garbage but you'll find a lot of gems in there.
If you want smaller debris you'll find all sorts of gears of all sizes and other industrial looking small pieces.
If you want something bigger, sometimes the printer case itself will make a good terrain piece.
Check these out:

Before:


After:


Line of sight blocker:


Tower:


Hope this helps

I love the dead printer tip. I like using recyclable stuff for terrain. There is a lot of useful stuff in the toiletry section of supermarkets to make silos, fuel tanks and things.

Boss Trav-Trav wrote:
Hi There,
In my experience, the best and cheapest source of industrial looking terrain is from old discarded printers. The older and bigger the better. They're super easy to come by. Crack them open and dissect the whole thing. About half of it will go back in the garbage but you'll find a lot of gems in there.
If you want smaller debris you'll find all sorts of gears of all sizes and other industrial looking small pieces.
If you want something bigger, sometimes the printer case itself will make a good terrain piece.
Check these out:

Before:


After:



Hope this helps

It certainly does - that is fantastic!

Exalted!