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How to Make Shipping Container Scatter Terrain for 40k/necromunda/kill team, etc A guide as requested, written down to the mental age of the person writing it As should by this point be pretty obvious, I've been making shipping container terrain pieces because the GW ones are both absurdly expensive, and also kind of dumb-looking. So much wasted space created by making them octagonal. I mean, it totally jives with the general imperium vibe of never letting practicality get in the way of an overwrought flair for the dramatic, but it also rubs me up the wrong way, so here we are. I made a bunch of my own, and without overt '40k imperial' visual design clues, they're pretty much good for any roughly 28-32mm scale modern-day to sci-fi setting too. Here are a bunch I haven't finished painting yet, so feel free to take the piss out of all the mistakes: In the finest tradition of 40k, the varous company names and logos are a string of pop culture references and goofs on real world comanies. How you paint them is up to you, but I painted these ones so naturally they're about 80% terrible jokes and oblique references. Crucially, they're also 6cm x 6cm x 12cm, which is the exact same size as the GW ones. Therefore, placed on a game layout with such items, they'll look right, which makes a difference. The proportions are slightly off, in terms of scale, compared to the real-world ones they crudely resemble; but so are all proportions in 40k minis, so get off my back. Ok, materials. No, wait, let's do it like this: Materials and Tools So much more offical-looking. You will need: Plus also a decent pair of pliers, and possibly tweezers, and also 1mm plastic rod. Which I have run out of, because you get ten containers' worth in a packet, and no, I will not be handing out prizes for guessing how many I have built to time of writing. I used 1.5mm rod in the example I made for this guie, and it felt wrong the whole time I was doing it, so it's not in the photo. This is a clean house. The tools are: Rulers of various sizes. Don't have to be metal ones, so long as they're consistent and straight. But metal ones are best. A good sharp craft knife or two. I have one with a point here, useful for picking up and placing small pieces of plastic, and one with a replaceable balde, good for keeping a sharp cutting edge. Engineer's squares. Can't stress how important a proper square is. I ordered these really very smart examples from Axminster Tools for my business, and they've served me long and well. You'll do just fine if you have a carpenter's set square, a roofing square (so long as you don't mind it being three feet long) or a right-angled triangle geometry thing from your old school stuff, or more probably your child's old school stuff. The materials are: Corrugated plasticard (Slater's 0437). Three standard sheets will get you enough stuff for five containers, at a fraction of the cost of the GW kit. Not a small fraction mind, but you do make out better in terms of numbers by a long way. Other brands may be available, and indeed other sizes. I'm not your dad, buy what you want. You could certainly do a perfectly fine job using corrugated paper glued onto a smaller box, but you'll have to work out those measurements yourself. I hate working with paper, I always cut myself. Slaters for me, and nothing but. I'm worth it. Regular plasticard, in 1mm sheet and .5mm sheet. Styrene sheet. Should be clear enough. Polystyrene cement. You don't need me to elaborate on this. If you do need me to elaborate on this, give up now. 1mm plastic rod. This will make the door release mechanism on the front, or more accurately this will look a bit like a door release mechanism to a degree I ffelt was up to snuff and that sort of subjectivity is something you're just going to have to live with if you keep reading. Initial Construciton Right, a shipping container is a big oblong box. We're going to make an oblong box. You can do this if I can do this, and I can do this, I've already done it ten times. Therefore, Q.E.D, time to crack on. First thing to do is cut out the pieces. Be aware, the plasticard sheets you get, when they turn up, are probably not going to be proplerly 90-degree square. This is apparently to do with the cutting process, and it's important because you really need square pieces or the whole thing is going to look wonky. Plus it won't stack up properly, which will get on your wick something chronic if you're anything like me. See below: Not square. Further investigation revealed that in this case, it was actually the lower edge of the sheet that was cut out of true with the corrugations, which is the important thing. It was carefully trimmed, wasting as little material as possible, because the tolerances are tight. With the material readjusted so it's properly true, you need to cut five pieces of corrugated material per container. They will be: 3 pieces 6 x 12cm; 1 piece 6 x 6cm, 1 piece 6x 5.9cm. For the 12 x 6 pieces, don't cut them in the wrong orientation. The long edges should be at 90 degrees to the corrugations. This is important. Look at the picture below. You also need to cut 1 piece 12 x6 cm and 1 piece 6 x 5.9cm from plain 1mm plasticard. That'll get you this: Hooray, we have achieved step one. Have a biscuit.