Assembling Space Station Zero Terrain

Combinations of industrial elements from various sources were used to create my space station terrain

One of the things I like to do is scratch-build terrain on the cheap. I usually assemble it using various items I've found at craft stores, so creating terrain for Space Station Zero was definitely going to involve a scouting visit there. My usual choice is of the various shapes of wooden pieces you can find there, much like my peg and drawer pull droids from last post. In addition, on my last visit to Dragons Guildhall, I'd picked up the Mantic Games "Industrial Accessories" from their Terrain Crate line.

    My second piece of terrain has ruptured pipelines from one of the Mantic Games Terrain Creates

My follow up to last post's 3-D printed piece would be a combination of bits from the Industrial Accessories box mixed with things I'd grabbed from the craft store or my bins of various bits and pieces. I actually sat down a couple weeks ago and assembled five 6"x4" styrene bases using these sources. It was several nights of gluing various things together to fill up the base. I followed that up with spray painting all five, and then going over them with a 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water. There the five sat for about a week or so until winter break from school hit.

Despite a rough start to break (I tested positive for Covid last Friday), the Paxlovid medication had me feeling better within a couple days. I found myself tiring easily, though, so I worked on and off on the terrain for several days. Still, they took much less time to paint up than the 3-D printed power plant. My second terrain piece for this project was a section of burst open pipeline along with some various industrial fans and vents. These pretty much all came from the Mantic Games box.

    Another view of my two terrain pieces with 28mm Sci-Fi figures from my Post-Apocalyptic forces

With the black base coat, I decided to layer my metallic coloring to give the pieces a somewhat run-down look. Metallic Gray would be applied over most of the pipe sections, leaving only small joins in the base black color. I would apply a Pewter color over the top portions of the metallic gray, and then a small line of silver over that to give an effect of light reflection off the pipes. I used a copper/reddish gold as accent color as I did on the power plant. For two upright pipe pieces with fans atop, I used a Metallic green to add a new look. Finally, after it was finished and fully clear coated, I forced cotton ball material down into the burst open sections to look like steam or gas escaping the ruptures.

    A train store electrical transformer is the centerpiece to my second piece of Sci-Fi terrain

The second piece used a Walters electrical transformer made of plastic for model railroad terrain as its centerpiece. Surrounding it are wooden pieces from the craft store - different size wooden barrels with colored gem stones atop them. I followed the same painting scheme with metallic gray and pewter, but this time with a metallic brown to go with the copper accents. Each piece also receives a black wash to give it a more grimy and less pristine appearance. I was really happy with how the orange gem stones look like glowing power sources. It was the effect I was hoping they would create. I did dry brush silver to bring out the coil rings atop the transformer.

So far, I am happy with how these are turning out. They are not show-stopping pieces, but they look the part, I think. They will look passable on the tabletop and give the proper effect, I hope. Look for more of these coming soon, as another one is currently in progress on my painting desk!