Terrain Showcase: Star Wars Scrapyard, Part 1

In this terrain showcase series, I'll show off the scrapyard that Atomic Mass Games commissioned me to build for their Star Wars: Shatterpoint miniatures game. Part one focuses on the board itself and the scenic backdrop.

 

The entire scrapyard consists of a 3' x 3' board, a 3' long backdrop piece, and a ton of modular pieces like buildings and piles of wreckage. All the pieces allow the battlefield to be set up in any number of configurations, and the backdrop helps extend the background and setting when used for miniature photography (You've probably already seen the terrain in Atomic Mass Games' promotional photos and some of their Star Wars Transmissions).

 

 

The project began with a concept sketch, where I designed the layout and how the backdrop would interact with the board. (I was watching season one of Andor while working on this, and the scenes in the Ferrix scrapyard served as great inspiration, especially for the color palette of the terrain.)

 

 

I built wooden frames for the board, with insulation foam in the center.

 

 

To create some depressions that would become small pools of standing water, I drew the pools on the foam, and covered them with a layer of masking tape. The shape of the pool was traced onto the tape, and then cut out with a hobby knife.

 

 

I placed the tape back onto the board and then used a heat gun set to "low" and melted a shallow depression into the foam. Believe it or not, the tape barrier helps protect the foam from the heat, allowing me to precisely control the shape of the depression. (Although, I'm sure if I used the "high" setting, or held the heat for too long, it would have burned through the tape.)

 

 

As was drawn in my concept sketch, the backdrop consists of a large building and tall pieces of wreckage. The smokestack was made from the some PVC pipe segments with styrene plastic embellishments. The vehicle wreck is a A-A5 Speeder Truck, and the tall shapes are cut from 1.5-inch insulation foam and covered with a thin layer of construction adhesive so I could super glue styrene sheets to them.

 

 

These two large sections represent sections of large star ships that are being dismantled for scrap salvage. I "skinned" the foam with thick styrene sheets, etched with panel lines. I wrapped the styrene around the curved edge of the foam, and on the straight edges, I extended the styrene panels past the edge to create open sides where I could detail the exposed interiors of the ship. 

 

 

The A-A5 Speeder Truck is a great kit because the interior is fully detailed, and the inner panels are separate from the exterior, meaning I could build a solid, closed vehicle and have all the interior pieces to use for other terrain. I cut up those panels and attached them between the layers of styrene, and filled in the gaps with more styrene card and a host of rods, tubes, and I-beams to create the appearance of a broken open ship with its interior and superstructure exposed. Pieces like this are a great way to use all of the random accessories, unused bits, left over from other projects.

 

 

I detailed the front exteriors with more styrene bits, pipes, and "greeblies" to evoke that distinct Star Wars aesthetic. The pieces were primed with grey and then dusted with GW Wraithbone spray primer to give them an off-white tone.

 

 

I made a bunch of smaller wreckage panels that overlap at the base, and help create the illusion of depth.

 

 

This large building was built out of foam core board, and the exterior detail was kitbashed together with components from different Shatterpoint buildings and walkways, and plenty of styrene. You can see this building's construction in more detail in this hobby transmission that I wrote for Atomic Mass Games: Rob Hawkins on Kitbashing Star Wars Buildings

 

 

Once the position of all the larger bits of wreckage was established, I covered the ground with a mix of cut up model parts, off-cuts of styrene, and fine ballast. (I'll cover this more detail below.) Most of those large components were kept separate for painting.

 

 

The primer spray served as the base color for the ship wreck pieces. Over that, I applied a wash of rust-color, and used a spray of isopropyl alcohol to get the wash to seep into the recesses and panel lines, wiping the surface with a paper towel and more alcohol to pull up the wash and keep it from overtaking the whole thing. Then, I painted the metal beams, and interior areas, adding more rust and applying paint chips with a sponge.

 

 

The main battlefield was covered with sand, sprinkled over a thin layer of waterproof wood glue, and I added some bits of scrap around the pools and along two edges of the board. The scrap-covered border allows the backdrop to be positioned along either edge, and the scrap conceals the seam between the two board sections. I kept the majority of the board clear so the modular scenery pieces could sit flat on the board. (Some of them would be large enough, with hollow undersides to cover the pools if necessary.)

 

 

To make the scrap, I used a ton of bits– Left over pieces of the various vehicle kits, buildings, and battle droids that Atomic Mass sent me to incorporate into the project, and I went through nearly all of my off-cuts of styrene, and used every bit of plastic sprue that the kits came on, chopped up into "sprue rubble." I also bought a WW II tank kit to cannibalize for the tread wheels, and I chopped up some of the more interesting bits of the hull and turret assembly. (The olive green parts here, and above are all from the tank.) 

 

 

All of the components were trimmed, bent, and distressed to look like they are actually broken pieces of scrap.

 

 

To affix everything to the table, I applied a layer of construction adhesive and then painted a layer of wood glue, thinned with water over that. The large pieces were pressed into the adhesive...

 

 

...and then the smaller rubble and fine ballast was sprinkled overtop. As the mixture dried, the construction adhesive secured the large pieces, and the wood glue holds the small bits and ballast. Immediately after applying the sand, I sprayed the rubble with alcohol so the glue would soak into all the sand. To further secure everything, once the glue was dry, I dropped some extra thin super glue over the scrap– The thin glue seeps into every crevice and locks it all in place.

 

 

Here's everything, fully assembled. The two rectangular holes in the middle are where the tall crane plugs into the board (I'll talk about that next time).

 

 

To paint the board, I spray primed it all black, and then sprayed brown and red oxide in mottled patches to give the ground a base tone of rusty dirt. The scrap areas were then sprayed with medium and lighter shades of grey.

 

 

The ground color was drybrushed up with lighter browns and greys, and the scrap was drybrushed with light grey and beige, and then any details or specific elements were picked out with appropriate colors (for example, there are some destroyed battle droids and speeder bikes in the pile). Finally, everything received a generous amount of rust wash and chipping with the sponge.

 

 

In these three photos, you can see how the scrap on the board edge completely hides the seam where the backdrop board lines up:

 

 

The water pools were filled with Envirotex Lite "Pour On." It's my preferred two-part epoxy for water effects. I added some muddy brown color to increase the opacity, and the effect is murky, rusty water...

 

 

...the perfect breeding ground for Dianoga! I sculpted a couple of eye stalks and attached them to small circles of clear styrene, so they could pop out of the pools to see what all the commotion is!

 

 

'Til next time!