ISO sci-fi terrain and random rambling

textfilter: chose text/plain from a multipart/alternative

Dear Brain Trust:

I had thought I had seen some company making 25-28mm sci fi terrain that
included a variety of non-square, non-rectangular cargo containers and
boxes. I'm thinking some were hexagonal, others were a variety of odd
shapes. I recall they had other products, but it was all of their odd
shaped
shipping containers that caught my eye.

Only, just now, I cannot recall whom it was and consequently can't find
their site...

Some of you who keep track of who is who in the miniatures world must
have
some idea. Help? :)

While Browsing....

I did find a small company that has done what I think are 28-30mm moulds
of
Mal, Kaylee and Shepherd Book (though obviously under other names).
They're
pretty good. I wish they'd do Wash, Jayne, Inara, Simon and River as
well. I
think these same guys have a Corbin Dallas, a Leeloo, and a few other
notables (Doc Savage). They have a couple of kits which you can combine
to
do a good K-9 and several 'Doctors'.

And another company making a 40mm Jack Burton (Kurt Russell). And
somebody
did a lot of not-Star Trek NG in 28mm complete with Alternate Universe
builds of their (quite large) figure lines.

Unrelatedly....

I've decided my current building and moulding projects will include:

1) MALP/FRED from Stargate
2) Trauma Tube (armoured autodoc/stretcher for wounded to stabilize them
for
transport) - eventually I want to create legged and tracked 'mules' for
casevac and a grav version of the trauma tube for really high tech
militaries.
3) AC Jeep GMS variant (or AAA variant) - kind of a Stinger POST module
on
the back of a small AC jeep
4) Ship crew workstation (this is going to take some time because I'm
kind
of sick of crew consoles looking like they have 60s 'Mod' seats, pipes,
and
1970s TV sets for displays).
5) Making plaster wrecks of the die cast cars I own so I'll have wrecks
for
my gaming scenarios of the cars I put in them

My friend Kevin is scratchbuilding and moulding a Puddlejumper from
Stargate
using 4" pipe and resin moulds for the front, rear (with working hatch),
bottom, weapons pods and interior detail.

He already built a MALP, but he carved it (!!!) out of foam and I don't
think it'll stand a casting. I think we'll have to build a hard one as
the
foam one may not have the desired durability. But it sure looks nice.
I'm
expecting one or both of these to see the light of day at the next ECC
Stargate scenario.

Lately, when he was bored, he scratchbuild a 28mm Spanish Town for his
pirates games.... argh... if I had 1/4 the talent.... his home made 20mm
multi-level WWII row housing (from moulds he made) is good enough and
far
more game-friendly than most of what I see on the market today.

Of course, my own plans are interfered with by the 25mm wild west
phase...
need to scratch build a barn, make some terrain boards, cast some cacti,
and
generally work on finishing off Tombstone. I've taken Desperado from MKP
and
modified it to be a bit quicker and less fiddly in resolution. Everybody
loves a good Western.

I've discovered that permastone (dental plaster ish) casting in plastic
egg
containers yields half-egg sized objects that resemble a back yard
composter. Of course, I plan to build some composters from these. But
more
pertinently, it looks like they'd do in 1/300th (if I line 3 up in a
row)
for a small 3 Mile Island sort of reactor. Maybe part of a local
municipal
power grid.

I have some other plans to try to produce other 1/300th terrain from
some
oddball bits of plastic packaging from computer bits and consumer goods
saved over the past few years. My inkjet cartridge plastic packaging
became
mixing bowls for the Alumalite resin. The expended cartridges may become
1/300th or 25mm gaming terrain as well.

Not quite as good as Martin, Stuart, Mark, etc. but working on it.... :)

Tom

-- 
Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their
family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything.* 
*--
Willa Cather (1873 - 1947)Solitudinem fecerunt, pacem appelunt
-- Publius Cornelius Tacitus (from the book Agricola, attributed to a
speech
from Calgacus)