Bryan's Terrain, Structure Building Paper Pulp

DyeHard's Wargame Terrain

Structures of Mars
My concept of Mars has massive structures of the ancient past still standing and often in use. As time marches toward the time period of my wargame setting (the late nineteenth century) the structures became every smaller and less sophisticated as the Martians lost their technological knowledge. Their architecture features a concrete like material and was often formed into curvacious structures. But in more recent times the majority of the newer buildings on Mars are made of adobe bricks or even a mud plaster technique like Earth's 'wattle and daub'.

Here we explore the use of paper pulp packing material as the basis of a structure. This material is basically the same as used in common egg cartons. This type of material is good to represent some of the more recent construction on Mars. But be sure to use the rough side as the exterior. The lumpy surface looks like very warn and pitted concrete.

This particular set of pulp packages came from a computer. The rough pitted surface will represent the warn concrete of a more resent period of Martian construction when the Martians were no longer able to formulate as high of strength of blend as the ancients. So time and the elements have ravaged the outer surface leaving it irregular and without decoration. I was hoping to find a dome to cover the large round opening in the top of the structure in rear, but have not yet found that complimentary part. Perhaps it can be a stadium of some time.

The first step is to remove the edging and separating some of the sub-units. Note the three man stand to help give a sense of scale. The material is not very strong, but it surprisingly difficult to cut. A ripping action turned out to be the better way to go.

To stabilize the walls, bases had to be added. I used some old backer card from some toys for the smaller and some corrugated cardboard from the larger structures. The pulp packaging was not a flat as I would have liked so a good amount of glue and weight was needed to secure the structures to the bases.

I cut irregular shaped bases for the structures to allow for some terrain around each.

It is not always easy to find something big enough to base such a large item. I like to use light weight bases for these light structures, make moving easier.

On this one I laminated some corrugated cardboard and some thing card from a frozen pizza box. I thought this would add strength and cover over the corrugated texture of the sub bases. In retrospect, I would not use this lamination.

This material is very porous, to seal it I gave them a quick spray of paint. Why red you might ask, well it was a left over from some old project and I did not see any real use for it in the future. I was also one of the oldest cans I had about (and that is saying something). This stuff really sucks up the paint and one could go broke trying to paint it directly with spray paint. But I figured being nothing but paper, that starting with a water based paint would result in a mound of mush.

Once the spray paint had dried, it was time for house paint. I have mixed up a nice mix to give a warn light brown. The house type paint seals and fills in the EPS quite well. It also cover and sticks to the painted surface and not soak in as much as model or craft type paint. The other consideration is the cost of the paint. One can often buy house paint that has been custom mixed but rejected at paint stores. As you do not have to match your couch with the color, other peoples mistakes can be a very good source for paint.