Dollar Tree Icicle Ornament Ice Spire Terrain

Dollar Tree Icicle Ornament Ice Spire Terrain

On a recent trip to the Dollar Tree Store I came across these packs of plastic icicle ornaments, and were struck by their asymmetric, uneven shape. I bought a few packs to experiment making terrain for my Christmas Wars games.





I first clipped the hanging ring off of the top end. Then I cut the icicles in half into uneven lengths using a hack saw. I cut them at an angle so they would lean out in random directions when based. I then glued the cut halves onto rough circles I had cut from foamcore. Finally I textured the bases with Woodland Scenics snow.






I'm very pleased how they came out, and I think I will also try making a few and spray painting them and then painting them up like rocky spires for more conventional Sci-Fi and Fantasy games.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Firestorm Armada Dollar Tree Scratchbuilt Freighter

Last week I wrote about a 6mm sci-fi terrain piece I made using handgrenade squirt-'gun' party favors that I had bought on a recent trip to the local Dollar Tree store. Today I am gong to show a Firestorm Armada scale freighter I made using the these same party favor grenades. Shown below with a US quarter for scale








For the hull, I used the handgrenade pretty much straight out of the package. I removed the squirter handle and the cap that inserts in the water well. Then, once again, I raided the bits box to get suitable spaceship 'looking' parts.

The exhaust is a pony bead glued to a goblin shield. The bridge is the front end of a Space Marine bolter. The laser port is a seed bead. The top tower is the water well cap (turned around and covering the hole it went in.). And the two side fins are the muzzles off of Kroot rifles.

Once all the parts were glued on I sprayed the model with black primer. It is shown below next to a Firestorm Armada Sorylian frigate to give a sense of scale.

I then painted the model. I first gave the whole thing a coat of dark navy blue, then painted it with GW Shadow Gray. I then washed it with dark blue ink, and then drybrushed highlights with Duncan Decorator Acrylics Slate Blue. the final touches were to pick out some detail in metallics and then apply a couple decals. The results are shown below, again with a FA Sorylian frigate for scale.