Roadside Construction Zone Barrels

I whipped out some of these Construction Zone Barrels for an upcoming Zombie game to add some additional detail to some roadblocks.

 

I constructed these for 28mm miniatures, but you can easily scale them down (or up), depending on your scale of miniatures. (15mm, 20mm and etc.)

 

Here's how I made them (it is pretty simple, really.):

 

List of Materials:

 

5/8" diameter Metal Washer (Bottom)

1/2" diameter wood dowel x 3/4" high

Lego 1x1 round plate: Translucent Yellow or Orange

(You can order them individually through www.Lego.com in the 'Pick a Brick' section.)

White Glue

(Optional standard staple, see below)

 

Also:

Highway Orange Spray Paint

White paint (or white vinyl pinstriping could be used.)

Black spray paint (for base)

(Optional black (or yellow or orange) paint for the light battery box, see below)

1.  Spray paint the base washer black to represent the black rubber barrel ring.
2.  Spray paint the dowels with the highway orange paint.
3.  (optional) Paint the bottom of each round Lego with a bit of black to represent the battery box. (or orange, or yellow, depending on what you're modeling. The ones in my area are black boxes.)
4.  Paint the horizontal white striping on the barrels at about the 1/3 and 2/3 mark of the barrel height. (every 1/4" on the barrel)  "yes, hand-painting straight lines on a round dowel are possible with a steady hand."
5.  Glue the light to one edge of the top of the barrel.
6.  Glue the finished barrel to the washer.
7.  Now you have a lighted construction barrel.

Here is a typical Highway Construction Barrel:

***Some barrels have a molded handle on top.  I chose not to model this for simplicity. However, if you are really anal-retentive, you could easily make two small holes in the top of the barrel (before painting) and put/glue a standard staple in the top, letting it stick out a little to represent the handle.  Then, when you spray paint the barrel, the orange paint will give some thickness to the handle and look like it is molded onto the barrel.  

Not all barrels have to have lights. You can leave them off every other one or more.  Add some construction or warning signs and you've got a good looking detour or roadblock.

Here are the completed barrels with some recently acquired Police/Security Forces. 

I think these barrels will be convincing in my next Zombie Skirmish game.

AWI/ACW 28mm Brick Building Find @ Antique Store

I'm always browsing through flea markets, thrift stores, and antique stores as you never know what you might find that is perfect for miniatures gaming, but was not created for that purpose.  I recently found this one for $4 and bought it so I didn't violate my rules of Acquisition.

(Rule #1: Buy it when you see it, because when you come back to get it, it will be gone.) 

 

As it states on the bottom of the house:

 

"The Little House Where We Began.  This is a handcrafted replica of the Heinz family homestead designed for you to file your favorite Heinz recipes.  The house is made basswood and silk-screened by hand. " 

 

I did a quick search and you can find these for sale on eBay and such.

 

Here are some 28mm ACW figures for scale. The style of house will fit in fine with the AWI through the ACW and beyond.  You could add additional details if you wish, but I'm leaving it as is and spend that extra time on other terrain projects.  Though, as I can't leave 'good enough alone', I'll probably end up adding some shingles to the roof made from cereal box cardboard.   

The cool feature is that the roof is removable and you can fit a whole squad of 10 figures inside (if mounted on 1" bases.) 

This building will be put to good use in upcoming black powder skirmish games. I'll bet you that the creators at the Heinz company never thought the recipe box would be fought over by small metal miniature soldiers.