Alexander Lowry Programmer

The Drinkrig

A stilted rig above a sulfur sea, in H0 scale.

Published

The finished drinkrig model: a tall lattice tower carrying stacked platforms, sheds and a greenhouse, standing in daylight above a bed of clouds.
The completed drinkrig.

Recently, one of my friends started an Apocalypse World game where he homebrewed the setting. Gideon is an imaginative and vivid storyteller, so I was instantly enthralled by his verbal pictures of this world he had imagined:

My friends, the world you know is drowned. Generations ago, the machines of the old world smothered the land in dense, sulfurous, acutely toxic clouds. These rusty yellow clouds came to be colloquially known as the sulfur sea. Humanity was forced to seek safety above the sea. Generations later, descendants of the wealthy survivors of the smothering assumed all walks of life, and the name of the Earth was lost. The Earth is dead, gentlemen. Long live the Ochrelands.

Some inhabitants of today's brutal Ochrelands found solace above the sea on stilted drinkrigs, like the old world's oil rigs, that stand high above the clouds and support large, unmoving populations. Many of them also pump water up from below the sulfur sea, hence their name and their relative security.

Gideon, on the setting of his Apocalypse World game.

In just two paragraphs, so much sprang to mind for me. I had bought 3D printers to make game miniatures, and I hadn't yet. So I got to work.

Process Posts

  1. The Idea
  2. 3D Printing Girders

Photos

The whole drinkrig at night, its windows and lamps glowing warm against dark clouds.
The lower deck of the drinkrig at night, lit from within.
A tiny H0-scale Coca-Cola vending machine tucked into a back corner of the rig, spotlit by a gooseneck lamp.
When I found this H0-scale coke machine, I knew exactly what I had to do with it. It's a detail tucked away in a back layer, but it still gets the hero treatment with the gooseneck lamp.
A small shed on the rig at night, with a miniature notice sign posted beside the door.
The tiny notice sign here is really funny to me for some reason.
The upper platforms of the drinkrig at night.
The upper platforms of the drinkrig in daylight.
The shed on the rig in daylight, showing weathered paint and rust.
Inside the drinkrig's greenhouse: rows of tiny plants over a textured dirt floor.
A second view into the greenhouse, showing the dirt texture and planting beds.
I love the dirt on the floor in here. The plants are one touch that made the greenhouse become clearer, and gave it complexity and color, but the texture of the dirt really sells it.