Bars, saloons, cantinas and taverns are popular places in science fiction (literature, movies and gaming). Every starport and colony settlement needs a nice, seedy place for people to plot, sell stolen goods, and generally carouse. Martian Joe’s was built to be such an establishment; it is also my first two story building. In case you’re interested, the name comes from H. Beam Piper’s “Four Day Planet”.
Since I like to be able to put miniatures inside my buildings, the bar was constructed as a pair of boxes (one atop the other) with a removable roof. The walls and floor are foamcore and were glued together with a hot glue gun (a low-temp model I picked up for three or four dollars). Before being assembled, the windows and doors were marked and cut out (use an unpainted figure to ensure they’re at the right height!). These also had small ledges added above them (to keep out rain, etc.) made from the bits of foamcore cut to form the openings in the first place. After putting the structure together, the walls had a light covering of Elmer’s Wood Filler applied to give it texture and fill in any gaps.
The bar itself is simply two pieces of foamcore glued to the floor, with sheet plastic on top. The plastic was left off until everything had been painted; this made it easier to paint around the bar.
The stairs are simply two boxes (more foamcore) glued into one corner, with a wall to partially block them from the rest of the room. On the second floor, the stairs are again divided from the hallway by a wall. A strip of card (comic backing board, in this case) was used to mark off the end of the stairs. This area was then painted black and had the RPG map symbol for descending stairs added in grey.
After the building had been painted, details (like the bar top, posters, fire extinguisher and viewscreens) were added. The viewscreens were made from more comic-backing board. Posters and the fronts for the cigarette machine (on the bar) and the fire extinguisher were either found online or scanned from a model railroad kit and printed out. The extinguisher and cigarette machine are made from balsa.
The roof is made from more foamcore. It was painted with PVA on both sides to help prevent warping. Small triangular pieces were added to the corners of the second floor to help support the it. Texture was supplied with more wood filler, which was patted on to make the roof texture different from that of the walls. A GW paint bottle top was used for the ventilator (proving that those bottles are useful for something!); this also serves as a handle to lift the roof. The final touch is a trap door made of card.
While essentially finished, the bar will probably have a few more posters added to it. I’m also thinking of adding a pay-phone (which could come in handy for some skirmish games).
Joe greets a pair of Ragoo mercenaries.
Another view of the ground floor.
The second floor. or the first floor for Europeans :)
Another view of the second floor. The stairs are almost visible on the right, behind the angled wall.
Viewed with the roof off. This was taken during construction.
