Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 12 August 2013

Mean Streets

As I've not accomplished much in the last week, here's something I made earlier (as they say)
Nothing new I'm afraid as I made two very similar models way back at the beginning of March ("Flats"). The two buildings I made then were two single buildings basically butted onto one another to make a larger terrace.
In this instance I've put three frontages together to make a single model.
There is no internal detail to these models as they've been made to bulk out a city. They also suffer from being very small; with only a 4.5" frontage it would be very difficult to get sufficient internal detail inside and still have enough room for figures.
The second photograph shows a second triple frontage terrace alongside the first.
As with the first pair of double frontage buildings these were fairly tedious to make. The building weren't designed to be made with  5mm foamboard, as these are and it does make it more difficult to make these (especially the roof parapets).
As with the first two models I've dispensed with the card stair and scratch-built my own from foamboard exactly like the originals.
Along with the Triple fronted buildings I've also made two single fronted buildings along with another pair of double fronted buildings.
So I've now got two single fronted buildings, four double fronted buildings and two triple fronted buildings, which is the equivalent of 16 individual buildings. In the photographs the buildings are shown sitting on two of my terrain boards (each 2 foot x 2 foot square), which means I'll now be able to fill a 6 foot by 4 foot table with comparative ease.
Whilst these buildings all look fairly identical there are minor differences in each of them, namely in the colours of their doors. Whlst the body of each building follows the same pattern of build, each of their roofs have all been individually bodged to fit. I have already made some inroads into getting roof exits for each building, which I'll be making happen asap.
I would have shown all the models together on a single set-up had it not been for the fact that most of my table is cluttered with things from my current project.
This photo shows what I have managed to achieve in the last week despite the after op effects of my eye surgery (soon to be resolved  - hopefully !)
It's the start of what will be a construction site.
The base is about 16 inches square which, as can  be seen fits nicely into one of my terrain boards.
Whilst the base is plastic, the perimeter fence is
lolly pop sticks, which I've used before in other projects. I've cut each stick in half to make two "planks" each about 40mm high. They've been glued to the edge of the base and to one another's edges. You can see from the photographs that this is not an exact fit by any means. As the sticks were difficult to hold in place whilst the glue dried (PVA) I was only gluing about a third of a side at a time. Barely noticeable on the photos is the supporting internal beam at the base of the fencing (coffee stirrers), and the beam about 30mm up the fence. As for detail, I've made provision for two public viewing windows the one shown has had a matchstick frame added to the external (public) side, I may well add an internal mesh to it as an extra feature.
The main gate to the site I've made from two pieces of sprue, one from the fence sprue I got with the farmhouse (the brown one) and the other from some EM4 plastics minis, whilst the mesh came from my Wilkinsons Bird feeder
The gate will be openable using hinge posts (the silver sprue).


And that's it for this week

It remains for me to welcome my latest follower "Kasper" and to wonder which of my erstwhile followers has departed and why.

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

34 comments:

  1. Those buildings look rather splendid, but I just love the look of the building site.

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  2. Thanks, I've been wanting a building site for some time.

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  3. Buildings are great. Personally, I'm more and more lining towards buildings that don't even open, let alone have interiors. It really bogs games down, people forget their things in etc. You really got a whole downtown worth of flats now.

    Construction yard is great idea and while flats are more useful, this one is certianly more interesting to build. I can't wait to see it finished!

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    1. Thanks Mathyoo,I'm of a mind too that building interiors for the most part are superfluous.

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  4. I would love the skill to create those beauties, top work old boy!

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    1. Thanks AL, I'd say there's as much skill in them as in paint-by-numbers.

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    1. Thanks Colin, I just want to get them together on a table.

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  6. Great! I like those buildings!

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  7. Building site looks great, will there be a crane?

    Those buildings are just great all set out

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    1. Thanks Brummie, I do like the idea of a crane, but it would have to be wargame friendly. I'm not a fan of tall or spindly.
      I do likes the crane though in the construction/demolition lot in this blog:
      http://28minuteslaterazombiegame.blogspot.co.uk/

      (The whole terrain is inspiring and I think, made for a wargames show.)

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  8. That's a very impressive inner city you've got there; the stairs should give plenty of places to hide. You must have more storage space than me though (I'm guessing that these are rigid boxes, rather than panels that can be flat-packed)...

    Will you have a cement mixer or silo on your construction site? Might work well for "zombie kill of the week" :) .

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    1. From the start of this venture I wanted an inner city, both for zombies and gangsters (hence the mean streets reference) and with these I think I'll have come pretty close.
      The buildings are actually open ended and I can store building within buildings, which works for me.
      I guess I'm pretty lucky with the amount of storage I have too which helps.
      I already have a few construction vehicles, which I used on my improvised building site in my first game, but I'm always on the lookout for others.
      I have only two priorities on my list of vehicles, US Cop cars and a Limo, anything and everything else I obtain is a bonus.

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    2. Both are tough to get hold I've been after U.S cop cars for a while. I can only suggest trying to get some 1/43 James bond Cars there are a couple of cars from in the movies but its copping them at the right price as they go for silly money on ebay.

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    3. You're spot on, they are tough to get hold of, unless you want to pay silly prices (especially after you add on p&p).
      I'm hoping Xmas will bring a spluge of cheap plastic knock-offs to the stores !

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    4. I'll keep ,y eyes open for you in my travels. You never know.

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    5. I might get better at spotting things myself too, once my eyes are finally fixed !

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  9. Nice looking buildings and start to the construction site. I am at a loss as to why I haven't been following you, but I'm here now.

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    1. Thanks Sean, I suspect that the sheer quantity of very good blogs around is the reason you've missed my own. You are of course very welcome here and thanks for the comment.
      I don't truly follow that many blogs myself, nor do I advertise myself so I'm easy to miss.

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  10. Outstanding work. What a great environment to game in.

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    1. Thanks Irqan, if nothing else I'm good at glueing !

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  11. You have inspired me. Thank you.

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    1. Thanks for that Clint, consider me blushing.

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  12. Great start on the Construction site, looking forward to see it finished.
    By the way.... im building a Construction site to :)


    Best Regards

    Hobby worker.

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    1. thanks for that, but please finish your one first so I can copy it !

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  13. Fantastic looking buildings, streets will be very realistic!

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    1. Thanks Phil, more street furniture and detritus still needed though

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  14. Nice job, they'll fill out the city nicely.
    Construction is a great idea as well.

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    1. Thanks Adam, the construction site obviously isn't an original idea, but should fun to build and fairly easy too.

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  15. It's been a while since I've been round the blogs, but just as I remember your table looks awesome. Those buildings are pretty cool, and I see you your lolly pop skills are still top notch!

    Also sorry to hear you had eye surgery, and I hope it is all better soon :)

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  16. Thanks Rovanite, you've been quite busy too. I now need more lolly sticks !
    My eye is still giving me problems but is getting better.

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  17. I really like the fence and gate.

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    1. Thanks for that, the gate turned out much better than I'd anticipated (it's in place on the model now!)

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