In Defense of Pudding

Recently I've been trying to think of ways to expand my sci-fi battlefield inexpensively.  There are some absolutely top-notch, beautiful terrain pieces being produced for 15mm SF these days; not only in the way of figures but also buildings and scenery.

To name but a few (not an all-inclusive list):

Basement Gaming Bunker's 15mm Terrain

Startown Slums 15mm Scifi Terrain 

GZG's Shack Set 15mm

And while I plan on acquiring them all at some point, my personal financial situation requires me to wait.  So I was thinking about how to make my own buildings and what nots when I got a little hungry.  After my snack I went to rinse out the pudding cup and turned it upside down to dry...and the proverbial lightning struck!

I realized then that hardened concrete bunkers were in my immediate future.

I didn't put a ton of time or energy into this project, as I wanted to see if it was going to pan out first.  I think, for being rather slap-dash, it looks pretty good.

In the pictures below (which, as usual you can click on to enlarge) you will see my source material.  I can assure you I bought the sugar free version by mistake.  Bleah.  The best thing is, there are 4 cups to a package:  voilà, one set of Imperial Bunkers.

 A better view of the future bunkers.

Next a closer view of the cleaned cups.  This part is crucial:  you must turn them upside down!  Things begin to take shape....

Here are the six buildings after super-gluing some thin card to them, to represent doors, windows and armor plating.

Below shows two of the bunkers with a 15mm Imperial Trooper for scale.

Here they are after being spray primed grey.  I was a little worried that the walls would be too smooth, but as it turned out my spray paint was a trifle coagulated and I got a nice grainy texture that would normally have sent me into a towering fury.

After a quick paint job, here are my Imperial Battle Bunkers in action.  Nothing's more exciting than seeing buildings in action, y'know.  (Side note:  they look a totally different color from the grey above because of the daylight/lamp conditions under which I took the pictures; those below are closer to the actual color.)

The best thing is they're easy to store:  they stack!

So now my soldiers have someplace to either defend or capture, and all it cost was...well, nothing really, since I already had the pudding to begin with.

And just wait until you see what I plan to do with this tasty snack....

Thanks for reading!