This competition ran in March/April 2006 and was run by Andadas. We also owe a word of thanks to Eazy-O for writing up this summary from the information posted on the forum.
The subject matter I have decided upon is "temporary shelter / lodging". To better define this, let me clarify: Temporary shelter or lodging for a medieval or modern day army would be tents or sleeping bags on the ground as they travel. Temporary shelter for a plane crash survivor could be a cave, or a half buried wing of the plane hull with some material hanging to keep more of the wind and rain out. Temporary shelter for an alien species could be a force bubble that encompasses them at night, while they are in traveling through the jungle or floating through space. Basically anything that can be "put up" in a few minutes... a "setting up camp for a night" type feel... not a "well, let's start building that Swiss Family Robinson Tree house where we will live for the next month or year".
US Army Special Forces have set up an observation post in Afghanistan. Using a civilian vehicle for transport and taking the appearance of the locals, they are able to deal better with the local warlords as they pursue the remnants of Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Currently, their pickup is parked behind a rock outcropping for cover and a lean-to is set up to shelter the radio, satcom gear, weapons and supplies. This serves as a field base for observing a nearby terrorist encampment.
The tent is several layers of tissue paper soaked in a glue/water mixture. The ends are reinforced on the inside with heavy paper and the edges and corners have a layer of superglue for further strength. The plastic windows were cut from a plastic bag.
The tent simply lifts off the frame. The frame is aluminum rod bent and glued into holes drilled into the base. The frame should protect the interior details from accidents and prevent the tent from being crushed.
Inside, there is a table with an iBook laptop computer, two radios, maps, and a cold can of pop. The ice cooler with pop cans is made of sculpey polymer clay and plastic rod.
It's the tempory campsite (tents, sleeping bags, bed rolls, campfire, etc) outside of a "dungeon" entrance or whatever as they prepare to go inside.
The mountain is mostly just there because I want a good backdrop for the camp scene.
The wagon had planks poured from Hirst Arts wood plank mold. I then glued and cut and sanded them into the wagon you see here. The wheels are some wheels I had lying around that I made a mold of and then poured new wheels out of resin. Three coats of paint and there you have a wagon. I still need to work on the horse and connection system of course.
I finished painting the mountain base coats with some dry brushing.
I added some flocking via PVA / water mixture to the ground and some of the rocky areas. My flock jobs tend to take 48 hours to completly dry.
"I'm punchin'......", Haddix screamed through the mic. He couldn't finish the sentence through the rocket-powered jolt from his ejection seat. Or maybe he could, but the words just couldn't overcome the rending sound of armoured plating or explosive bolts. "...out!"
Created an ejection seat - scrap foamcore, scrap plastic, scrap paper... Based on a CD. Glued it down, add the flock, add the sand. Basecoated and painted with 3 layers.
The Shredded Paper Trees show in the background have been written up as an article in our archives.
The 'tents' in this piece have been made from the bottom ends of fizzy drink bottles. You can read more about px166baja's Alien Military Encampment in our archives.