In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

What lurks in the jungle?

     The gaming group I'm in is embarking on a campaign in a fictional land that is a mix of African and NW Frontier terrain and peoples.  Since I collect natives and actually have no colonial troops, I'm looking at the savannah and jungle areas of the map for my people to inhabit.  I have around 200 African native types now (no Zulu) that are a mix of Old Glory, Foundry, and North Star.  They break down into 130 spear/melee, 30 bow, and 40 musket.  I still have probably another 200 to finish so this is definitely not the final tally.  I also got the Old Glory set with the Chief, captives, servants, and even a guy in a pot, definitely a good set to add some character to your village.  Speaking of villages, I need somewhere for my chaps to inhabit.  I did buy the set of huts from Old Glory but, as a modeler, I wanted to try making them myself since I wanted a lot of them and it would be cheaper in the end to make them instead of buying all I need.  I came to the realization that I like lots of buildings, in any game where beings are.  A medieval town of 2 houses is fine but 8 would be better.  Fighting over a large Soviet village is more entertaining, especially when those buildings break up line-of-sight.  I can always go with a smaller settlement but I like to be able to go big if I want to.  Even if the structures are wood that a HMG can shoot through, they still break up the table and SMG troops become pretty valuable. 

     So how do I get a bunch of huts for a low price?  I use towels and PVC!  

4 half-way done

The pvc sections

The tools of the trade

     Here are the steps for making a hut, finished hut pics to come in the next update.  Everything done below is done with the proper safety gear and space to work.  Power tools are in use and plastic is flying around so be careful!

1.  I bought a 36" long piece of 3" pvc pipe.  You can get more or less, 3' was easy to handle compared to an 8' piece.  Through trial and error I came up with 2.75" as a good height for my hut walls and proceeded to cut the pipe into 2.75" chunks with my power miter saw.  

2.   I then marked the doorway by tracing a piece of masking tape, about 2"x1.75".  I drilled a hole in one corner and cut the doorway out with a jigsaw.  Lots of plastic dust from this,  wear eye and breathing protection.  Heated pvc is not good for you, in fume or dust form.

3.  For the roof I cut out a piece of cereal box card in a 4" circle using a circle cutter.  A cut on a radius allows it to be folded to make a shallow cone.  This was superglued to the pvc, I use Gorilla gel super glue.  

4.  The grass roof comes from an old towel and I trace various circles using items at hand (a CD, a paint dish, a yogurt lid, and a glue bottle in decending order).  When cutting fabric a pair of fabric scissors are very handy.  These circles were glued to the cardboard and then on top of each other, going from largest to smallest.  The top pic shows the "cd shape" towel glued down.  I use carpenter's glue, slightly diluted, to do this step.  This is one an item you can buy in gallon jugs from the hardware store.  If you build a lot of terrain the hardware store is going to save you a lot of money over the game or craft store.  

5.  Once all this is dry I take the diluted glue and coat the roof so that the towel fibers can be "shaped" downward to make it look more like grass.  I also painted the hut with gray anti-skid paint.  This gives an earth look without looking like someone put gravel on the walls.  It also primes the pvc for later painting.
6.  Now comes painting.  For the hut I use a medium-dark brown and the roof is painted with a yellow-beige.  The interior is painted the same as the exterior.  When the whole hut is dry I gave the roof a coat of Army Painter dip, medium.  It shows the crevices and also protects the roof.