Build the kit.
Write the story.
File a build.
Longlight is a shared-world group build for scale modelers. You build any kit you want, in any scale. You decide who made it, where it's been, and what it survived. Then you file it into a permanent archive that other builders are filling in alongside you.
- Free, always
- ·Any scale, any subject
- ·Unfinished builds welcome
- ·About 10 minutes to file
In one sentence
It's a group build with a shared backstory. Everyone builds their own model. Every model goes in the same world, so all of our stories connect.
Ready to build
Start filing tonight
- 01
Find your place in the world.
Set your build before or after the Silence. Factions are world reference material, not something you select when joining.
- 02
Build it however you build.
Out of box, kitbash, scratch, or repaint an old shelf model. Any scale. It just has to be believable in 2127.
- 03
File a build.
Photos, a few field notes, what it's been through. You get a permanent serial number.
Free · takes about 2 minutes · member number issued on the spot
Not sure what to build? Steal an example.
Just looking
Read the world first
- 01
Flip through the archive.
Every build filed so far, with the story its builder wrote for it.
- 02
Read what happened in 2085.
The Silence, and what forty two years of rebuilding looks like.
- 03
Find your corner.
Factions, regions, the road, the ruins. Somewhere in there is a build you want to make.
Basically anything you'd build anyway
DIO
Diorama
A place, a scene, a moment on the ground.
VEH
Vehicle
Anything that rolls, tracks, or hauls.
FLY
Flying
Whatever still gets off the ground in 2127.
ROB
Robot
Walkers, loaders, mechanical labor.
MRK
Marker
Towers, signs, shrines, things left behind.
Any scale. 1/35 is home base, but 1/48, 1/72, 1/24, whatever's on your bench.
Old kits count. That half-built thing in the closet is one of the best places to start.
File before it's done. Concept, in progress, completed, or gone dark. All valid states.
The world in 60 seconds
The apocalypse didn't end civilization. It interrupted it.
27 AUG 2085
The Silence.
Deepline, the compound inside every advanced chip on Earth, lets go of its structure all at once. Every chip made with it dies, and so does nearly every machine on Earth. What survives is older silicon-era technology and anything that never needed a chip.
2085 to 2127
Forty two years of rebuilding.
Diesel trucks, tube radios, machine tools, rail lines, paper ledgers. Patchwork technology at roughly a late-1900s mechanical level. Not restored, but no longer just surviving.
Now
The Registry opens.
Surveyors are commissioned to go out and document what's still standing. That's you. Your model is the thing you found.
Pick a side
A faction shapes what your build is for and who it answers to. It's the fastest way to turn a kit into a story — and it's entirely optional.
The usual worries
“I'm not that good a builder.”
Doesn't matter here. The story carries the build. A basic kit with a real moment in it beats a contest-grade model with nothing to say. That's an actual rule, not a nicety.
“Do I have to buy something?”
No. Longlight is free to join and free to use. There may be kits and books later, but nothing about taking part costs money.
“Do I have to learn all the lore first?”
No. Build your thing and write at least one sentence about how it fits into Longlight. The world fills in around you as you go.
“What if I never finish it?”
File it anyway. Concept and in-progress are real filing states. Plenty of surveys sit unfinished for months.
“Does my subject fit? It's not military.”
If it could plausibly exist in 2127 at a late-1900s mechanical level, it fits. Sci-fi kits, civilian subjects, and scratchbuilds all file fine.
“Who owns what I make?”
You do. The world is shared under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA. Your build and your writing stay yours.
Go find something
Create an account, get your surveyor number, and file whatever's on your bench right now. Even if it's half done. Especially if it's half done.
Free · ages 13+ · your first filing issues your permanent member number
Looking for the definitions? Serials, anchors, condition grades, canon vs community, the ledger. All of it lives in the Registry standards now.
Open the glossaryThe world is shared under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA — your builds and writing stay yours. Full detail in the Terms and Conditions.