Most of the buildings are made of various plastic boxes and plastic
tubing, plus some domes made by cutting plastic toy balls in half.
Buttresses made of wood were added to the sides. Doorways made from
small wood boxes, some with arches made from wooden napkin rings, complete
the basic structure.
For texture, I dabbed a bit of Concrete patch onto all the building
surfaces, after filling any gaps in the basic construction with concrete
patch. To get the right effect, you really want to pat the texture
down almost smooth, not stippled and rough like stucco. I even went
back and sanded down the roughest areas before painting, to get a rough
concrete-like finish true to the movie look.
To paint the buildings, I primered them with a flat tan camo spray
paint, then a second coat of flat white primer over that. Using acrylics,
I mixed up some splotchy brown washes of various shades using cream, rust,
and dark brown paint, a bit of water, and just a hint of dish soap to break
surface tension. Stippling this mixture over the entire piece, I
went back and wiped off the high points to bring out some of the white
color for contrast. Then I drybrushed with cream to highlight edges
and tone down any stark whites. Technical details were painted dark
grey or dark brown, drybrushed with steel, and washed with dark brown and
rust.
A variety of buildings is supplemented by gantries and walkways, moisture
vaporators, and other islands of technical detail. The Vaporators
are made mostly from round Lego parts, the outer chiller bars made from
finishing nails sheathed in small straws from juice boxes. I also
particularly like the ventilator pipes, made from tubing from fish tank
filters. The table itself is made of a tan velveteen material that
used to be a curtain until I repurposed it for desert sand.