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Mark Logue's missile base started out as a computer's power supply: I decided to create a missile base to use in objective based games. It can be used in games where there is a story element, such as imperial troops attacking the base to prevent a missile attack. |
Materials
Method
| The main structure is made out of a power supply from an old computer case an empty coke can and an empty tuna can. The concrete tube on its side is an old toilet roll. The coke can was made to look like a guard tower by the addition of balsa wood and the power box had defences added using corrugated card. |  |
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A hardboard base was cut out using a jig saw. I then used a modelling knife to create a slight hill upon which the base sits using sheets of polystyrene. The top of the underground missile silo was also cut from polystyrene sheet. The doors were cut out of cereal packet and glued in between the two polystyrene sheets. |
When sticking the polystyrene onto the hardboard I made a couple of rings with my hot glue gun and covered the rest of the surface with PVA. The base was textured by coating it with a mix sand and rocks with watered down PVA. This also acts to seal the polystyrene so that spay paint doesn't melt it. I glued on brown flock to represent the paths then covered the rest of the area with a mix of different types of static grass. I find that by adding the static grass when the glue from the paths is still wet some grass will stick to the path and give it a more natural look.
Most of the base was painted brown prior to adding flock and grass with concrete areas being painted with highlights of grey. On the concrete areas some patches of moss were added by giving it a light coat of PVA and adding some light green scatter from games workshop.
I created a mix of plants. Carnivorous plants were sculpted every time I ended up with some extra green stuff during the models construction. The spiky leaved plants were made using plastic from empty milk bottles or paper soaked in PVA. The trees without leaves were made with wire wrapped in masking tape. I intended to glue shredded foam on later with a hot glue gun.
| Sections of cereal box were glued to the top of the power box to give it a metallic texture. The door frames were made from left over pieces of sprue and the doors from cereal packet. Corrugated card (1 inch high) was glued around the top with balsa wood supports.
The ramp and watchtower were made out of balsa wood and affixed to the top of the coke can with supper glue. I put masking tape over the ends of the toilet role and textured it using spakfilla (internal wall filler). |
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Structures
The Gun position was made using card and guns from an old battle tech miniature. After creating the basic structure I placed masking tape over any gaps and coated it with a mix of PVA and sand. I also added some adornments from my bits box and built the computer from some putty. Where I attached any of the wires I drilled a hole into the joint with a pin vice and then smeared on some glue from a hot glue gun to hold the wires in place. The structures were all sprayed black then dry brushed with either boltgun metal or shades of grey.
Walls
The sandbag walls were made from putty, pressed together in their final position while the putty was still soft. These were sprayed black then dry brushed with increasing highlights of a 50:50 mix of goblin and dark angels green with increasing bleached bone.
I made the rock wall in stages each time I had a break in other jobs. I just put a line of PVA down then added a layer of aquarium rocks. In the end it was sprayed black and dry brushed in stages with a heavy layer of scorched brown, then a lighter layer of bestial brown, then bubonic brown and finally bleached bone.
Razor wire
The razor wire fence was created by wrapping thin wire around a thicker wire then winding this around a pencil. The metal pickets are made out of spare sprue. I painted this black then added increasing metallic highlights using the dry brushing technique. When it was dry I gave it a light glaze of brown ink to represent a bit of rust.