City Fight: A new addition.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Hobos and Tramps, Cross-eyed mosquitoes and bow- legged ants,

For this weeks little tutorial, I will show you how to recycle your kids old toys (or new if you just want to be mean).  This does require some imagination and simple tools but can get you some cool looking and functional wargames terrain. 

So on to the show.
The "victim" started out as my son's Color Changing Car Wash from the Cars movies which he doesn't play with anymore.

The Victim: Disney's Color Changing Car Wash

Firstly, I got rid of the ramps and water parts.  The top, spinner part was lost so I didn't have to worry about that.  A little trimming was done to get the revolving "glass" level with the roof.  Other parts were taken out that made the building look to bulky or had no purpose to the building.  A tip:  Look at the building and its parts and try to justify its existence.  If there is a piece that you can't imagine being in a real building, take it out.  It will help the asthetic of the finished piece. 

Stripped and cut.

The roof had to be replaced/fixed since there wouldn't be any room to place models.  Since it has a lip that I wanted to keep, I had to make a template of the roof first.  I went about this by using masking tape to outline the roof for a template.  First, lay down the masking tape along the roof edges.  For tricky areas, use a razor blade to cut around the corners.

Masking tape helps to outline the roof.

Once you have the outline, peel it off slowly so the pieces stay together and you don't lose the outline.  Place the tape onto your material for the roof.  Here, I am using cardstock (a cereal box).  Since I couldn't get a curved piece of tape accurately, I used a compass to draw the circle.  Trace the outline of the tape on the cardboard, peel off the tape, and cut.

Use the tape as your template. Cut using scissors or razor blade.

You should be able to place the cutout roof on top without any trimming.  Add any holes for the roof fixtures or details you want to add.  Don't glue the roof on just yet, as there is still a couple of steps to do first.

Viola! A new roof!

The next step is to put the battle damage on the roof.  If you look on the original, you can see where the cutouts are (the two circles).  Use this as your guide to determine the roof damage.  Using a rotary tool and a cutoff wheel, cut from the edge to the circles and back again.  Now that you have a large hole, put the new roof back on and from the underside, trace the outline of the hole.  Don't cut this literally as you will get lines that are too straight.  The lines are only a guide to show you where not to go beyond.  Cut jagged lines to create the battle damage.


So much for the new roof.

I'll show you how to finish this project on the next post.