One of the things I like about miniatures gaming is building stuff. It really doesn't matter what - vehicles, terrain, figures and the like are great projects. With a little time and imagination, you can make stuff that no one else has and add extra "neat things" to your games.. A lot of these things can be done cheaply and the time is mostly broken up over several days (while you wait for paint, glue or putty to dry). This article is more concerned with making figures (mainly robots), vehicles and stray objects, but terrain will be brought up anyway. Most of the examples assume 25 or 28mm.

It's always a good idea to keep an eye out for "useful things". This is a nebulous category of objects, but includes anything that might be handy for scratchbuilding, kitbashing and the like. The main thing when looking at a potential useful thing is to see the SHAPE. Does it look like anything in the scale(s) you game in? Useful sources include model kits, toys, lots of things found in a hardware store, beads, Christmas ornaments, plastic Easter eggs, ping pong balls and lots of other things I either can't recall or haven't seen yet.

The hardware store is a good place to start. Walk down the plumbing aisle and look at the PVC pipe fittings. Elbow joints and expanders (or is it reducers?) make handy vents for underground installations (as well as large drainage pipes). Some of the larger pieces could be used as weapon emplacements or buildings. Fender washers are an old favorite for basing figures, especially when you need something heavy to avoid tipping.

The craft store is loaded with goodies. Beads (plastic, metal and wooden) come in lots of different sizes and shapes. I have an entire fleet of spaceships made of beads (you just need a core to fit the beads onto - brass, toothpicks or something similar). Beads are also handy in larger scales for making sensor domes, parts for guns or other machinery, etc. Robots (like AL-11, the robot bartender), can be made in the same way as the spaceships. Arms can be made from wire fitted into holes (careful with the drill!) and either left as tentacles, given hands from other figures or sculpted from green stuff. Extra details can be glued or painted on.

Easter eggs have loads of possibilities as well; these usually show up before Easter in craft and dollar stores, Wal- and K-Marts, etc. They can be used for larger spaceships (with beads attached for engines, crew sections, etc.), gun turrets (for vehicles or installations), dome buildings (in smaller scales) and much larger robots. My Berserker "Exterminator" class warbots are made from small Easter eggs, beads and brass tubing (thicker stuff to mount them on the base and thinner to form the gun, arm, eye stalk and ear-like commo gear). With some additional details (such as a hatch), these could also be used as a "space bottle". I've seen photos of a 25mm crashed escape pod made from a plastic egg. Larger eggs can be used to make 28mm vehicles (like the "Hoverbug").

The only Christmas ornaments I've done anything with so far are the clear globes sold for "do it yourself" ornament making. The ones I have are 3 inches in diameter, split in half (so you can put things in them) and cost about a dollar (US). One of these has been turned into a Berserker (with a Death Star design) to fight my spaceships. The sphere was mounted on a large base; surface detail was added with thin plastic and green stuff. Another is going to be used as the clear dome over my giant disembodied brain - whenever I actually sit down to finish that project. Check craft stores for these (the ornaments, not the brain ...).

Clay is also found at craft stores. The only stuff I have any experience with is DAS pronto, which is an air-drying clay. Thinner objects made with it usually take about a day to dry; thicker stuff can take several days. It doesn't take fine detail very well (though that may just be my skill as a sculptor), but is useful for making rough shapes. Sandbags, crude sculptures (check the "Fantasy" section of my Yahoo Album for the "Cthulhu Heads"), canoes, etc. can all be made from it. Green stuff might be used to add details, but I haven't tried doing so yet. When working with it, keep some water handy to smooth the surface. Once dry, it seems fairly sturdy - the Cthulhu heads haven't broken yet, anyway (and I've dropped them a number of times). Usually the cost runs about three or four dollars a pound, cheaper if you get the larger (five pound?) package.

Incidentally, the Easter Islandish head in the photo album is a plastic novelty drink bottle. I cut the top off, covered the hole with foamcore and wood filler and then mounted it on a cardboard base. The bottle cost me a whole dollar.

Toys can be a source of useful parts, serve as the basis for kitbashing or be used whole. Dollar stores and yard sales are good places to look, since it's a lot easier to chop up a $1 car than something that cost $15 (plus you can spend the extra $14 on minis or luckier dice). A lot of toy vehicles don't look exactly like a particular car, truck or airplane; some of them look more like entirely different types of vehicle. The latter are good for science fiction games, where a little work with card, plastic, putty and the like can turn a weird racecar into an aircar, or a helicopter into a VTOL ground attack jet. The main thing to do when looking at them is to ignore what the box claims it is and see what you think it looks like. One thing to always remember when converting vehicles (especially when using parts from wildly different sources) is that it *always* looks weird before the first coat of primer, since you can see that the parts don't match up in color, material, etc. (It's also worth noting that the first time you field the Shiny New Thing You Just Painted, it will likely blow up before you can say "Klono's brazen whiskers!".)

On a related note, you can use leftover tires for terrain. Generally that means stacks of them near warehouses, garages or gas stations, but you could always cut them in half and paint them white. Lance and Laser make some 25mm lawn flamingos ...

So (he says, starting his closing paragraph), there's a lot of possibilities for scratchbuilding. The information above just reflects some of the things I've tried. It doesn't cover areas like paper models or casting in various materials, since I haven't done any of that yet. Basically, if something seems interesting to you, give it a try. If it doesn't work, you can always stuff it with firecrackers and burn it in the driveway ¹.