Tuesday 10 November 2015

Computers and things

a recent comment on the hospital thread asked about how I made some of the detailing for the basement, so I thought I would post about some of the work I've been doing for the ground floor.  All of it is made from scraps I have in various bits boxes.  The most useful being the foam, mdf and card box!

To be honest, before I started this project I'd never really thought about doing this sort of thing, in fact I had planned on buying all the individual furniture bits separately! However when I started looking at costing it was clear that this board would be the most expensive yet if I bought everything in. This wouldn't do as I couldn't afford the amount of stuff I wanted but I didn't want to have empty corridors either, so that meant having a go at making what I wanted....

When making my other tiles I used sarissa precision buildings, the left over mdf make for lots of little  shapes that make great components for all sorts - v useful. The best find ever though was sheets of foam that can be cut to any shape and be scored to make lots of different 3D surfaces. I've been using it to make my pathways. I used it to put detail onto the industrial washers in the laundry, by carving circles into the foam i can represent doors to the machines. I used it on my boiler room to detail the gauges and dials before adding a stripped off tyre I took off a toy car from pound land (6 cars for £1 bargain!) This time I wanted to use it to make something that I will be needing lots of in the clinical and admin areas - computers.

To buy 28mm versions of PCs would cost £1.50 each, I needed at least a dozen so I made these for nothing as I already had the stuff!  Sorry for the poor photos and the odd running order but I put this post together on an iPad and it's a bit crap....the monitors are made from foam rectangles with card edging for rigidity and detail, an mdf scrap on the back represents the electronic compartment and more foam was scored to make keyboards


this stuff is 50p per sheet! really!!
what do you think?

10 comments:

  1. These are superb, great work and a great saving to boot!

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  2. As Michael say "Superb" stuff. I never would have thought to do them that way. This is a terrific project coming together :-)

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  3. Thanks guys, I'm really enjoying making this stuff - much to my surprise! ;-)

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  4. Excellent detail work dude! Great post.

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  5. Great scenic items (I love the price of them too) and I do love the fact that you've mass-produced them. when I'm doing things like this I always make more than I'll immediately need and use and hence I have a nice little stckpile of things for future builds. I'll have to have a try at your method and make a few computers too.

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  6. I agree 100% about stockpiling them, I should need maybe 10 in the whole build so should have a couple left over for other things! Can't sniff at the price £0.00 lol I had everything and it used so little of that, compare that to cast PCs and it runs up at £18 for the dozen I made up! That for me is a lotta dough (NHS worker...nuff said)

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  7. Fantastic. I am having similar dilemas planning my villainous base for 7TV its very expensive this hobby of ours lol!

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    1. So expensive man, jeez I was thinking of starting another bolt action army (Japanese) but it's like a kidney's worth of cash! Each of my boards so far have cost a minimum of £60.... Ironically except this one which potentially could have run into the hundreds. I'm hoping it will be less than £30, mostly paint costs and the foamboard which has cost £12 so far

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    2. Saying that I've just remembered the hospital beds that I ordered before I decided to make everything and that the wife diverted from me for a xmas present. From Grekwood they cost £24 for the lot....d'oh there goes the budget already!

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