Trash Terrain: Spaceport Landing Pad

Agents of a Rogue Trader rendevous with a pilot returning from an advance scouting mission atop a remote landing pad...

 A couple of months ago, my neighbour (who keeps on seeing my various projects being put out to dry in our shared back yard) asked me if I could use a circular metal tray that had been inside of his cooker and was now destined for the bin. I immediately thought of the landing pads that I had seen on sale from various companies and for various different prices, and wondered if it could be the basis of something similar.

I sawed off the feet on the three legs so that I could stick some medicine bottle caps onto them to serve as something more stable and sci-fi in appearance. I might have thought about using some kind of plastic or MDF for the basic platfrom, but the size of it meant that cardboard was the most effective and easily available material on hand.

I decided that an octagonal platform would look better than a circular one, and so that's the shape that ended up getting glued to the frame. As you can imagine, hot glue was really the only option that I could use to stick the whole lot together, but also meant that things progressed far more quickly than they would have using PVA.

I added edging made of the same cardboard as the platform and then a landing pattern in the middle of thinner card so that it would be raised once the whole thing was finished. Self-adhesive beads from a craft shop and a couple of bottle caps were next to act as lighting beacons, then a couple of ladders attached to two of the legs for access to the platform itself.

I sealed the cardboard with Mod Podge, painted the apron of the platform with texture paint and followed this with a coat of black primer, then grey and white dustings from an angle above. Then  it was time to get into weathering, washing and picking out the smaller details.

I mostly used Vallejo paints for the next stage, Desert Yellow for the landing pattern, Bright Yellow for the beads, German Field Grey for the feet and ladders, then finally Ivory for the edging and four larger beacons, followed by sponge weathering on both of these using German Camo Brown.

Everything then got a heavy wash with Black and Burnt Umber craft paints, water and washing-up liquid, to simulate grime and stains, all the nasty stuff that must accumulate from take-off and landing, as well as liquids dripping from poorly-maintained craft too.

Last of all, I came back in to pick out the tops of the larger beacons with White and then Aethermatic Blue Citadel Contrast Paint, which helped to give the impression of a weird, lambent glow. In reality, I have no idea if these are supposed to be lights or power relays of some kind, as I just wanted them to look sci-fi and cool in nature.

And there you have it, a piece of terrain that cost no more than the materials needed to assemble and paint it. I'll probably build some kind of ramp or cargo elevator to go with it at a random point in the future, but that's a project for another day.

As always, let me know what you think, either here or on social media.