Impovrished Gamer Tip: Not just Jungle Trees

Blister packs can make good vehicles as well. I have 2 MICV's (SGII) made from
two GW blister packs glued together (the ones with the one very sloped side) 1
gal. milk bottle caps for the wheels (two caps glued together for each wheel)
and straws, card, and toothpicks for the details. Almost any box shaped item
can make a good wheeled tank with some milk bottle caps, or even soda caps,
medicine caps,....... ( A knight in full armor walks up and smacks me with a
rubber chicken)..Ahem... for wheels.

Milk caps (wash well before using of course) also make great fans and
A-Grav
Generators. I have two grav-tanks that use milk bottle caps glued to the
underside as A-G generators, one milk bottle cap as a turret, a straw
and some card make up the cannon mount. It has rotary machine guns made of a
bendy straw and three toothpicks (the texture on the straw makes an excellent
heat vent.)

There's a lot of great plastic wasted in the bathroom too. I have a missile
carrier that the missile racks are made from razor blade 5 pack packing. The
packaging consisted of a cover piece for each razor blade, in a "rack" that
holds 5 blades. The modular style of the packaging just looked like a missile
rack to me, so I washed off a couple of the packs I had used and glued them up
into a missile rack with some straws as the missile tubes. Once painted it
looks great.

A lot of hobby stores have tank extras (shovels, small sandbags, machineguns,
ect.) very cheap. Most tank kits come with these extras already, so not many
people buy them seperately, and the overstock ends up in the discount bin.
Glue some of these to your improvised vehicles to add detail, or more
usefully, cover unwanted details without using lots of putty or extensive
knife carving (removing the molded copyright dates on cheap toys is a pain in
the [BUZZ])

FT players take note as well, Impovrished gamer fleets can grow exponentialy
faster than white-metal fleets. The old sprues from the epic square
infantry bases are in a majority of my fleet. I used four of those sprues (
for those that haven't seen them they are a long bar with two crosspieces,
squareish not round crossection) two vertical and two horizontal to make my
FTL-Tugs,
with jump field generators on extended booms. a few added features
(bridge[toothpick head], sensor dome[ pellet gun bb]) and they were done. My
light and medium cruisers are made from sections of those sprues. The plastic
was perfect for modeling and the square shape of the sprues made excellent
hull pieces.

Need cheap fighter groups? find some party toothpicks with the playing card
tips. Select two of the card shapes and glue one on top of the other,
staggered (my favorite is a spade on, and slightly back of, a heart. it
looks good with a Not-Macross "Not-Skull Squadron" paint job.  ;-)  )
glue them to a base, a good paint job will completely disguise what they are.
You can use varying combinations of pieces to make various types of fighters
(my torpedo fighters are a diamond on a heart, it has a very "lifting body"
look I thought was good for a fighter carrying such a heavy weapon.)

I have a family friend that needs inhaled medications. She is constantly
geting the "elbow" shaped plastic cases even though they are reuseable (just
don't use different medications with the same inhaler). When she learned
that I scratch-built a lot of my figures I got a pile (okay about five
or six) of these inhalers. They make great carriers! Cut off the mouthpiece
and close the hole where it was. (I put the mouthpiece back on paralell to the
main body so it looks like a squarish oval fin.) Put some "fiddily bits" on
for intrest, I used toothpicks extending from the "Fighter deck" in the main
body as "fighter alignment beacons" (PSB: a friendly IFF signal will transmit
a holographic "runway" to the inbound fighter's HUD.) a bridge from some
sprue, some engine blocks, and the whole thing looks rather Babylon 5ish.

I hadn't thought of using matte board for a firebase. I just graduated from an
art college and I have the better part of two sheets laying against one wall
in my room. I would like to see more of this thread, I think that all of us
could use the information to help cut some of our gaming budgets (okay okay
not cut the budget, but definately get more for our money.)

> On Sat, 24 Apr 1999, djwj wrote:

> Almost any box

the sprues that GW epic infantry bases come on can be put to use, too. they
are basically little cross of lorraines:

    |    |
----+----+----
    |    |

i laid them horizontally, and put an oblong of foamboard vertically on either
side:

  ==========
    |    |
----+----+----
    |    |
  ==========

elevation:

  +========+
  H        H
--H        H--
  H        H
  +========+

front view:

H     H
H     H
H--+--H
H     H
H     H

and bunged some extra sprue at one end, sticking slightly over:

(close-up)

   +-----------------+
   |                 |
   |                 |
----------------+----+
                |
                |
----------------+----+
   |                 |
   |                 |
   +-----------------+

and stood the whole thing on a flying base. i think it makes quite a good
container freighter, and it was free. it looks a bit like the basic
freighters in X-wing and tie fighter.

i've got a science ship modelled along the same lines, but with banner poles
made into antennae and a base as a radar panel. and some other bits and bobs.

> A lot of hobby stores have tank extras (shovels, small sandbags,

i have a bundle of bombs i was supposed to stick on a F-15E Strike Eagle
(or whatever) model a few years ago, but never did; they look a bit like tiny
classic flash gordon style rockets. any ideas as to what i can use them for?

> FT players take note as well, Impovrished gamer fleets can grow

<DOH> that'll teach me to compose without reading in full first!

i could add that i scratch-built tanks, IFVs, and a couple of other
things
for 1/1000 scale from card and toothpicks. but then i'd have to confess
that i made an entire regiment of MBTs to scare an opponent. regiment = 10
companies, company = 10 tanks. now all i need are the footsloggers to go with
it...

Tom

For the truly cheap, ask your local framing shop for their matt board scraps
(I did, I now have a stack of odd sized pieces 10" tall).

[quoted original message omitted]

For the truly cheap - don't forget going by local magnetic sign makers
to get the scraps of their magnetic sheeting to line boxes for holding your
troops. Some thin sheet steel or more magnetic sheeting on the bottom of troop
stands will keep things from sliding around when you transport them.

Hi ho guys....

Looking to expand my SGII home rules. I don't own FT but I'd like to know any
information about the Kra'vak and the Sa'Vasku. You know, psychology,
technology, goverment...etc.   I'l trying to get a hold on what is
already established.

Thanks,