Playground Equipment for my 28mm urban battlefield

3-D printed 28mm playground equipment for my urban battlegrounds

When I decided to begin collecting, building, and modeling for my 28mm urban gang warfare project, I started brainstorming what kind of scenery I could include besides buildings. Block after block full of buildings may look cool, but wouldn't be as visually exciting as mixing some other things. I thought of things like a basketball court, park, outdoor market, parking lots, and a playground.

28mm Slide and climbing bars from my friend Joe Merz's 3-D printer

My friend Joe Merz has a 3-D printer and had offered to print up terrain for me, if I could find the file on Thingiverse. I wasn't having much luck searching, so asked him, and he found quite a few things. He sent me some pics and I ordered swingsets, slides, teeter-totter, spinning wheel, and park benches from him. There was enough equipment to make two small playgrounds or one big one.

Members of the Bexley Block Watch keep an eye on their turf -- an urban playground

The first thing I noticed was that 3-D printed terrain has some serious flash in areas. I worked at it with an X-acto knife and made it more presentable. The fiddliest of bits to assemble were the swings. The seats did not attach easily to the ropes or chains hanging from the overhead bar. Otherwise, it all assembled relatively easily (or required no assembly at all). I based everything up on styrene plastic -- mainly because I wanted to model the effect of the grass being worn away to bare dirt in high traffic sections (like underneath each swing seat).

A rival gang - the Sons of Thor, German Village chapter - move in on the Bexley playground

I did a Google image search for pictures of playground equipment, and came to the conclusion that bright, primary colors was the usual look. I thought about doing some serious weathering and rust on the pieces, but didn't want post-Apocalyptic stuf -- just a little dirty. A dry brush of the lighter shade of the base color and a black wash would suffice for that, I felt.

Close up of one of the swingsets, including the difficult to attach seats

I really like how everything turned out -- especially the metal on the slides. I think it will make a good addition to my downtown. Now, I just have to find some modern 28mm kids to be clambering around the equipment. So, if anyone knows where I can find some, feel free to let me know!