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Hey there just wanted to show off these cool milk crates I picked up from Home Depot last Christmas. $1.50, 7.5" long, 6.25" high, 7.735" wide. They usually only have them in store during Christmas but you can have them shipped to a store near you for free.
Link
https://www.homedepot.com/p/United-Solutions-1-75-Gal-Mini-Crate-in-Black-CR0353/300720596

You will want to put a roof on these as its annoying to put models on top. Make sure you can still stack them though. (If you want)


You can get some polystyrene sheets on amazon for ~$7-10
Link. .020 size is fine since the crate is supporting all the weight.
https://www.amazon.com/Evergreen-Scale-Models-White-Assortment/dp/B0006O5I3Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510008992&sr=8-1&keywords=polystyrene+sheet
https://www.amazon.com/Styrene-Sheets-12x12x-020-4-pack/dp/B00IDDCIH4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1510009290&sr=8-3&keywords=polystyrene+sheet

Polystyrene stays on great with plain old super glue. Hot glue for any wooden sticks (the billboard and water towers) and card.



There you have it, ~$20 gets you a ton of LOS terrain with lots of potential. Discuss with your opponent on how to get models from bottom to top. Any questions/comments welcome.

Edit:
Oh if you plan on cutting a lot of styrene or hate using rulers.
https://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewart-Crafts-12-Inch-Trimmer/dp/B002BTOT2I/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1510009671&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=martha+stewart+paper+cutter
is a great tool.

I'm....surprised. That worked out really well.

I was surprised as well. You really don't need to do a lot to them to make decent, workable terrain. It dosn't hurt that they are perfect scale for my Fat mat lol

man, i cant figure out how to get home depot to let me buy these and ship to a store for me to pick up.

the closest thing that i could find was from us plastics direct for 5 something but its about twice the size... ugh!
https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=116739&catid=1102

have to keep an eye out around christmas time.

you were able to get super glue to stick to yours?
i tried something similar to these but the holes in the crate were round and i couldn't get anything to stick to the damn thing.

Dang, I love these!

We used milk crate buildigns the first couple years of our Mech Attack convention games...
https://www.chicagoskirmishwargames.com/blog/2013/05/06/epic-photo-dump-from-little-wars-2013/
...but we never made any as visually interesting as these.

I look forward to seeing them finished.

guy locally to me as similar, largely as wreaked buildings using old broken crates, odds of internal floors added to the grids, bits of rubble scatter then a textured spray paint and dry brush and they look amazing.

Certainly a lot better than you expect, I like the billboards etc and using them as intact buildings, guessing with care turned the other way up not only do they still stack but are still useful boxes for storing other stuff as well

What kinda plastic is it?

Hoping its not polypropalyne.

local ones here are a superglue or hot glue job from what I've seen but no idea beyond that, they get fragile if cold or exposed to UV (hence the broken ones as buildings)

Yep polypropylene

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
man, i cant figure out how to get home depot to let me buy these and ship to a store for me to pick up.

the closest thing that i could find was from us plastics direct for 5 something but its about twice the size... ugh!
https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=116739&catid=1102

have to keep an eye out around christmas time.

you were able to get super glue to stick to yours?
i tried something similar to these but the holes in the crate were round and i couldn't get anything to stick to the damn thing.

There should be a button that says ship it to the store, but its not there for these. You could write down the SKU # and call your local Home Depot and ask but I'm guessing its only a seasonal thing. Yeah super glue and hot glue stuck fine to them. Spray painting worked fine as well.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
Yep polypropylene

Agreed. All the ones I've used have been polypropylene. If you clean them thoroughly (I recommend a harsh degreaser like purple power and prime with a plastic specific paint like Krylon Camo you can get pretty good adhesion. If you want even better adhesion, lightly roughening the surface with fine sandpaper helps alot too.

usernamesareannoying wrote:
Yep polypropylene


Agreed. All the ones I've used have been polypropylene. If you clean them thoroughly (I recommend a harsh degreaser like purple power and prime with a plastic specific paint like Krylon Camo you can get pretty good adhesion. If you want even better adhesion, lightly roughening the surface with fine sandpaper helps alot too.

The sandpaper should work, however if you do find it keeps falling off, you might have to resort to a 2 part adesive that is suitable for Low surface Energy plastics or LSE, I used to work for a glue company and I ALWAYS hated PP, the only advantage was I had access to adhesives that the general public wouldn't have access to that was suitable for PP, we even had ones that would stick metal to a non-stick saucepan

Saying that though, if you look up structural adhesive companies in your local area and ask them nicely, they might be able to send you a sample of one, they might sell you one or they might be able to point you in the direction of a store that would sell it because they only deal in bulk.

You wouldn't need a lot if it is purely designed for PP or LSE Plastic, the great thing about 2 part epoxy is once it's stuck, it's stuck.

Failing that, you might want to try a Polyurethane based 2 part adhesive, not quite as strong, but strong enough once cured.

Other than that, I like the idea behind it and great eyes for seeing the potential of it

When I have a section of polypropylene where paint keeps flaking off I paint the area with superglue and paint over that. Usually works quite well.

For gluing backdrops (windows) inside or foam roofs on the outside of Polypropylene we used PVA and it worked qutie well.

For things that require a bit more strenghth or just greebling a polypropylene surface, ive' used superglue, 2 part epoxy, or Plumbers PVC solvent (really nasty stuff). I've not done anything with polypropylene where it was hanging off the side like some of the stuff above. If I did, I might be tempted to add some small wood screws to strengthen whatever adhesive I was using.