Tutorial: Information/Propaganda Kiosks

A unique and visually-appealing piece of scatter terrain is an information or propaganda kiosk. These were common in European cities in the late 19th and early 20th century, being covered in advertisements, news, and propaganda posters, and sometimes housed telephones or informative guides. They ran the gamut in terms of shape and size from squares, hexagons, or cylinders; from the size of a single person to large structures that were buildings in their own right. 

Kiosks are quick and easy to make, provide a nice piece of LOS-blocking hard cover, and can be customized for use in games as diverse as historicals, moderns, post-apocalypse, or grimdark 40K/Necromunda. In trying to get terrain finished for Adepticon, for this tutorial I'll be making four for the latter.

Materials

• Wood dowel/PVC piping (I'm using 1 3/4" wood dowel cut @ ~2" tall)
• Metal washers (2 per kiosk, slightly larger than the dowel/pipe. I'm using 2" washers)
• Plastic bases (2 per kiosk, one about the same size as the washers and another smaller diameter. I'm using 40mm rounded lip and small flying bases)
• Cereal cardboard, cut into strips
• Plasticard rod (for rivets. Not really necessary unless you want a gothic-industrial look)
• Bitz 
• Super glue
• X-acto knife
• Sandpaper
• Paint
• Advertising/Propaganda posters (sized appropriately for scale, do some internet searches and simply resize your printer output)

1. Cut the pipe or dowel to whatever size you want. I prefer somewhere between 1.5-2" tall to provide cover from elevated positions and for enough surface space to place lots of posters. You want to cut these pieces out at perfect 90 degree angles, so use a miter box or table saw. Rough up the metal washer with a piece of sandpaper for between adhesion and glue the dowel to the washer, looking at it from the top down to make sure it's centered correctly.

2. Repeat the process with the other washer at the top of the dowel, being sure to rough up both sides of the washer, since you'll be gluing bases to the top of it. Again, do you best to center the dowel properly.

3. Glue the larger base to the top of the washer to build up the "roof".

4. Glue the smaller base to the top of the large base (small flying bases fit almost perfectly inside a 40mm base, with just a little sanding around the outside of the flying base)

5. Glue the cereal cardboard strips around the top and bottom of the dowel. To get a proper fit, glue one end of the strip down, pull the strip around so it covers the glued end, then use a sharp X-acto to make a cut just before the glued end, and then proceed to glue the rest down.

For decoration, I used the winged skulls from the Cities of Death kits for the roof and plasticard rod in slices for rivets. You can you whatever bitz you'd like. Obviously, I'm going for a design suitable for the grimdark universe of 40K but you can easily change the design up to fit any period. Most historical examples before WW2 incorporate faux gothic or, more commonly, Art Deco features.

6. Prime and paint. Once dry, seal with flat clear varnish and then cut and apply the posters. It's up to you how you apply the posters, though I use white glue. If you'd like a more weathered look, you can "age" the posters by washing them with diluted black tea.

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