Earthen Habitats

I’m not an architect. I don’t even play one on TV. However, I’ve been taking classes in architecture for a good while now, largely because everyone who teaches CAD here is an architect. I’ve had this idea in the back of my head since I was a Scoutmaster, but it’s re-emerged in the last few years.

I love accurate, interesting miniatures of things. The more authentic the better. I own an RC M1A1, and several miniature accurate assault rifles, machine guns, etc. I’d like a wider variety of miniatures and would love to have to time, space, and funds to make and collect more.

I think it would be fun and instructive to make mini habitats based on simplicity and the environment. The kinds of habitats that I’m referring to are lean-tos, stacked-debris, tipis, stick huts, dugouts, and maybe even igloos (fun problem to solve there). I would like to make small models of them using the materials they would actually be made of, taken from out of doors. I’d planned to do this with my Scout troop, but never got to execute it (I think I ended up deploying to somewhere).

Here’s how I thought they could be made:

3. If you’re planning to build a big one, drill 3-6 1/4″ holes in the bottom to let water run out. If it’s small to medium, you can just carve some grooves into it.
4. Fill the bottom 1/2″ with pebbles.
5. Create a mixture of dry dirt, dry clay, and powdered glue or plaster. Spread it over the pebbles so that it is packed snuggly between them and the top layer has some highs and lows, creating the effect of terrain. Mix some twigs, straw, and crumbled up dry leaves into the top layer.
6. Use small stones, green sticks less than 1/8″ diameter, and some of your leftover terrain mix (essentially your cement) to build a shelter, burying support “poles” in the dirt down to the wood base. Use oil paper or wax paper (probably two sheets spray-glued together with some random bits of overlapping thread between them) as a leather substitute. I have no easy way to simulate a hairy hide without a lot of work. A tree can be simulated by a skinny branch/twig from the same kind of tree.
7. When you’re all done, spray/drizzle water over the terrain mix and let it dry.
8. Add scale model people and critters for context (carve from wood or mold from clay).
9. If you want something that looks like grass around it but don’t want to use the stuff they use on train sets (which is very good stuff), you could peel some moss off of a stone and throw in it the blender with a little milk. Pour it where you want grass and wait. Like a Chia Pet (does anyone know what those are anymore?), you’ll soon have a lush green mat.