Post Apoc Shacks or Shanties

 This post is about making and painting some post apocalyptic shacks for games. My family gaming group is planning on more Fallout Wasteland Warfare, some Fallout 2D20 and a member of First Command Wargames is working on his own set of rules. So with all that I decided to put together and work with some 3d .stl's I downloaded, the creator has a website and is on patreon (Terrain4Print). Well I liked the files from the pics on Thingiverse, but was a little put off when I ran the test batch. Not that they weren't exactly as shown, but because I was looking for shacks that were stand alone. These files were made so both sides of the print had elements on them. Since I'm not a fan of having pieces people can pull apart at a Convention game, I looked for something else first. Didn't find anything better, so sat down with 3d Builder and to try to figure out what I could do. 

Now even though I have been running some prints for about 2 years now, I am still a neophyte with all the tools. First attempts at free hand designing went no where fast. So I pulled up one of the wall sections and looked at it. They are great for defensive walls as is, thick enough to stand on their own if need be, with guide holes for running them together as well. But, that thickness gave me an I idea, I split one of the walls in half so I was left with one smooth side and the other great for outside of a shack. So I ran off 4 wall pieces and then it hit me how was I going to glue them together. Edges are irregular enough when split that normal glues weren't holding well. Flex it a couple of times and they came apart. So I used one of the two part epoxy putties I have on my workbench. Like the building, but thought there has to be a better way after the second one I did. 

The above is what the original file looked like and the second is what I had after splitting it. I laid them flat as it was then easier to separate them and use only those sides I wanted for each building. Also figured it doubled the amount of walls I could use.

 

The above shack is one put together with epoxy putty, doesn't look horrible. Just corners seem off.

So back to the computer, got frustrated and dropped it for awhile. Then after something a friend said sank in. I went back to 3d Builder and merged the corners, added some planks where needed to hide the corner joins and just printed of the whole building. Since this little learning lesson 3d Builder and I are getting to know each other much better. 

The above is are pics of the same building pre and post black wash. Only real difference I see is the glare from the lights is muted, this without Dullecoating them. 

And now just some pics of the rest of them.

Number 6 is from another designer and I can't find it on Thingiverse, but when I saw it I thought it looked like it was made from the material some pole-barns were probably a decade or so ago. Metal sheets with a baked gloss finish, high shine and fairly rust resistant. And with the tractor tire on the roof, it became the farm shack. 

The last two pics are of roofs that had hole I wanted covered, tried two different ways. First I wanted something simple and fairly easy. So after watching Black Magic Crafts on Youtube use construction paper (like we used in grade school cheap colored paper), I tried that. Cut the paper to fit or size wanted and then soak in a mike of 50/50 water and white glue. Covered the holes and left to dry. the drying process had pulled the paper off the plastic. I tried the Superglue it, still wasn't sticking and no longer looked like I wanted. 

Try two, what are tarps, cloth. So I found two things I could use, a pair of jeans ready for the trash and an old craft store handkerchief. Thought the thicker jeans might look better and used it on two shacks. After sticking it on with E6000 craft glue (learning to love this glue, if it wasn't for the smell), I let it dry then primed whole building. The edges of the jean material shed some of the color from both primer and paints, so some white comes through. It looked good but was a little thick. Second set did everthing the same but used the thinner handkerchief cloth. Bottom two are with that material, it glued and primed well, took the first color really well and even with the repeated soakings formed to beams beneath. Really liking it then the great moment, I was washing in some orange for the rusted area and the cloth absorded some of it and spread, at first I was thinking oh well I can redo it. Then after it dried it looked great, just like a tarp sitting on or over rusting material, it has been colored by the rust. Looking forward to using these in a game soon.

Only items used in this build besides paints, and to many of them to list.

Terrain4Print

E6000 glue