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

Monday 25 November 2013

Some Final Bits (The Park part 4)

Here's the final bits for my park starting with the centrepiece for the central path - a monument.
It doesn't really represent anything other than a generic monument and I could have attempted some engraving on it, but the effort involved I thought wasn't worth the return.
I'd also thought of putting a statue on the top of the plinth but this would have added greatly to the overall height of the model and would have been just another bit that could be broken off.


The left hand photo shows the structure of the pieces, two layers of  cardboard sides with the base and steps of plastic. I wish I'd thought to use a slotta-style base for the top of the model.
It's a very rough and ready model made in about an hour on a whim, (I had originally planned a small fountain or flowerbed) and with a quick thin wash of filler and some hurried painting I decided that it had had sufficient time spent on it for what it  was.
Next up were some benches for the park, which again were fairly quickly made (I was getting quite bored with this model by now).
The benches are quite simple affairs, just slatted seats and a pair of supports. The slats are of course coffee stirrers, cut in half lengthways and then cut in half widthways too. The overall length of the seats is about 50-55mm.
The supports are scraps of plastic cut to a rough trapezium shape. The base of the support is 1cm, the top (supporting the slats) is 15mm and the height is a mere 1cm.
I thought I'd need at least four, but made the "extras", knowing that some would turn out better than others.
Next up was another one of those "I wonder if I could make" moments when I thought about waste bins as an added detailing feature.
I cut a strip of mesh (the car repair stuff) and wrapped it around a spile marked at 20mm to make a cylinder. The mesh was then pressed into place to make a cone and finally the bottom pieces were were pressed flat too.
(The spile is the cork like looking thing in the picture, used on the top of beer barrels to let air in).
The rubbish bins were painted black and had various small bits of paper and plastic glued into them. The base was also filed flat to sit better on the model.
The final bits I made were as shown, four picnic tables, made entirely from coffee stirrers.
The tops are half the length of a coffee stirrer (about 60mm), as are the seats. The table top is about 20mm high, the seat being about 1cm.
Construction was fairly easy and quick, most of the time spent to finish these was waiting for glue to dry.
They were painted in a similar colour to the benches above, but were given an additional highlight for contrast.
Some minor detail would be later added when they were in situ.
I did think that I'd be using all four in the park, but as things turned out I ended up only needing two for the park.

With the final few features, made and painted up, putting it all together was the next step and that will be subject of next week's blog.

That's it then for another week; I have "Dannoc", a new follower to welcome and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

38 comments:

  1. Great window dressing for the park. Perhaps as an option a broken statue on the floor. Perhaps a survivor has used it as a defensible point and broke the statue off to create room.

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    1. Thanks Brummie, the suggestion of a broken statue is an excellent one, that I should have thought of.

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  2. Those are very impressive pieces of scenery, Joe. My favourites are the four picnic tables.once again, your modelling prowess is an inspiration to us all.

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    1. Thankls Bryan, the picnic tables were very satisfying to make (read quick and easy)

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  3. The finishing touches are great they really add to the park. They bring a simple patch of green to life. All of them are excellent and worthy additions to your growing city.

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    1. Thanks Clint, I do take a lot of inspiration from many others though.

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  4. Can't say anything that hasn't been said yet! I love the bins, I made one like that before, but mesh I got isn't good enough as it falls apart for some reason.

    For statue, I'd just take a miniature or something you got laying around (see, this is why you should be using plastics!), paint it bronze or something and but it on top whenever you feel like having it there!

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    1. Thanks Mathyoo. The bins took only minutes and I didn't use any glue at all.
      A loose statue placed on the model is a disaster waiting to happen and I do have a lot of figures I could use for one, both plastics and metal.

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    1. Thanks Tito, the simplest is often the best.

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  6. The man is gifted I tell you........gifted!!!

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    1. That was meant to be me but the other half was signed in!

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    2. Thanks Fran or Mim or whoever, gifted is just another way of saying can make stuff out of crap - right ?

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  7. Absolutely fabulous! Can't wait to take a stroll around. Zombies permitting!

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    1. Thanks Irqan, the finishing touches to next week's blog will certainly allow you todo so !

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  8. Some tremendous scratch building here, those wire dustbins are inspired! Any ideas for traffic cones?

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    1. Thanks Michael. As for traffic cones I have had two ideas, one is just moulding them (latex and plaster of paris) and the seond is to use dowel sharpened in a pencil sharpener then the end filed flat.

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    2. Both great ideas, I must try the doweling idea.

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    3. I think the dowelling idea has possibilities, I'd be very interested in anything you do on that front.

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  9. Nice effective terrain pieces there. Well done. :)

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    1. Thanks PC, cheap and cheerful and they should all pass the 2 foot test.

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  10. All good, but those rubbish bins are inspired! Now I have a use for all those little offcuts of aluminium mesh :-) .

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    1. Thanks C6, I suspect, like me, you don't throw away any bits that "may come in useful later".

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  11. Fantastic work, the waste bins are genius, cant wait to see it all together

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    1. Thanks SK, For the few minutes that the bins took, I was quite surprised how well they turned out.
      The whole thing will be revealed of course in my next blog.

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  12. You should check out DM Scottys page on youtube, he does D&D scratch builds, you might get some good ideas from him.

    https://www.youtube.com/user/theDMsCraft

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  13. The devil is in the details as they say. I think these are going to make your games really special for you and your players.

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    1. Thanks PS, I reckon you're right about details, but it's easy to overdo them for little effect.

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  14. Love this finishing touches, I'm gonna steal some of these ideas myself if you don't mind, great stuff.

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    1. Thanks ZA, I doubt very much if any of my ideas are original though.

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  15. Absolutely love how you can make terrain out of just about anything! It really looks good.

    The monument, you could make a statue of some kind but not glue it on.

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    1. Thanks LS, I think I make stuff simply because I'm a cheapskate !

      The Monument statue is still a possibility

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  16. You should gather your awesome works in a magazine and getting paid for it. Look at me, giving you ideas for free.

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    1. Thanks Alvaro, thanks for that, but I don't think it'll be quite the money spinner you seem to think !

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  17. Everything is always so great and ingenious. You have got to running out of clever ideas.

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    1. Thanks Baconfat, I feel quite flattered. My ideas come out of necessity as a rule of thumb.

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  18. Inspired and great work, I like that!!

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    1. Thanks Phil, I do get a lot of inspiration from others' blogs.

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