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Classic Flying Saucer, Crashed

Once again back to the classics. Also to the deep archive. This is a project I did a few years back, and pulled back out because I have been watching the X-Files in rerun on Netflix. It is timeless and flexible, as well as being a fairly big piece of terrain (covering about 1'x1' of the tabletop. It's also very easy and cheap, but not lacking in detail. So put on your tin foil hats ... we're making a flying saucer.

And crashing it!

Eschewing unobtainium and other materials traditionally associated with faster than light intergalactic travel, we have instead chosen other materials traditionally associated with backyard flight. Frisbees! And a dog bowl. If you spend more than $3 on this, you have spent too much. You are likely to have at least one of these things as swag from some company's promotion or other.

Without gluing, figure out how the piceces go together. Here I have one firsbee inside the other to make a "soild" disk and the bowl underneath, to be some type of power assembly or other. Fitting one inside the other is why you don't want two of the same frisbee. This model is pretty basic, so you could add other types of disc, plate, bowl, or cup fairly easily.

You could also throw on some extra decorations. These are just self-adhesive foam bits and a little bit of liquid latex. Again, this is a big piece (9" diameter of the big disc), so you need some detail. I don't recommend going overboard. Small bits like this give a good retro saucer feel and take only a few minutes to apply. In a more steampunk vein, you could probabaly add lots and lots of bits and bobs. Maybe even 10,000 precision placed rivets.

Oh, yeah. I spray painted it silver. Didja notice?

I lover silver paint because ink gives such a good effect on it. The windows are another one of my faves. Since the top disc was translucent, I put a few pices of tape down before I spray painted. When they are peeled off, they leave translucent plastic windows. If you stick a cheap flicker light inside the piece, you will get flashing light inside the windows.

I kind of misled you up front. We aren't going to make a flying saucer and then break it. The secret to this piece is to make the individual sections, and then break it apart before you assemble them. I broke the saucer with my bare hands and then cut the bowl with a coping saw.

Enter the scorched earth. I made a random shape out of cardboard, then glued some plastic bags to it and finally spray painted it black. Once that mess dried, I glued down the ship pieces.

I hit the seams of the ship and dirt with a bit more black spraypaint to spread the charring effect.

The last bit is to add some stretched out cotton balls that had been painted black to create some smoke. I think it adds a lot to the look with a simple technique. It also adds some more complex terrain (you can shoot or walk through it, but you can't see (or often, electronically detect) things through it).

The chibi necrons are included to show how you can get a lot of interesting play out of a simple piece like this. Lots of options for reduced movement in the ash, obstruction from the smoke. Multiple layers of elevation. A tough to navigate slope. And, of course, lots of stuff to hide behind.

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