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

Monday 31 August 2015

More HVACs

Basic box HVAC
I did scratch-build some HVACs and made some card ones for roof furniture quite a while ago, but as my city has grown the need for more has of course been quite apparent as the roofs of my buildings are almost devoid of anything vaguely interesting.Over time I've also accumulated more card buildings from various sources.


Most of them the HVAC units are of the basic cuboid box shape (as shown above) and hence are fairly easy 'builds', even if I do tend to make them look like they've been built by a five-year-old!
Some however do have interesting shapes to them giving a bit of variety.
The one shown on the right is fairly recognisable as a typical air, one which would be equally at home  on the side of a building as well as the roof. In the photograph Sid is having to hold up the vent as it's top heavy and not stuck down. The angles nature of this model made it quite difficult to pack out with foamboard for strength (Damn you sausage fingers!)
The un-remarkable other side
Great Cover
The two HVACs on the left could just as easily be electrical cupboards too, but basically they're just more roof furniture (and cover).
These once more have at least a semblance of an intersting shape to them, even if it's just an extra angled bit tagged onto them.
I do reckon that they'd be fairly easy to make from scratch as they're basically just boxes, but adding the detailing is a pain. For my purposes they're fine as they are, didn't take too long to build and besides I've got another batch already printed out.


Another view, showing the 'boring end'


I'm sure that there are many manufactures who make much better resin versions of these, but alas as in many things their cost to me is prohibitive.

 When I showed my Hospital build I'd omitted
a vital piece(shown left). When playing games, unless buildings are bolted down to the table they always seem to 'drift' around during play.
With the larger 'combination' building that I'd made, the effect would be multiplied as the component parts drifted apart. As I did with my yards. a couple of pies of scrap foamboard (about 1cm apart) glued to a black sheet enables two buildings to be slotted alongside one-another into the gap so at least the entire building will drift and not just one of its component parts.

Next week I'll hopefully have some more boring exciting card boxes to post about, but that's it then for this week, thanks for taking the time to read.

My other blog continues to trundle on, you can read the latest installment HERE
THIS IS A TEST

22 comments:

  1. They look great Joe. I especially like the two HVACs which could be electrical cupboards, as they are packed with detail, and remind me of the ones Frank West had to crawl through to get to the roof of the shopping mall in "Dead Rising".

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  2. Thanks Blax, I like those two too, just for their size alone and You're right about Frank and the one he has to go through I should really model some some from that game.

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  3. I love these additional details, they are what really makes your projects stand out.

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    1. Thanks Michael, as they say "the devilis in the detail", but they can be a pain to do too.

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  4. Replies
    1. Thanks HW it all helps, even just a bit.

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  5. It is elements like these that really bring a model building to life!

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    1. Thanks Clint, I guess it does make for some eye candy.

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  6. It is details like these that make it all come together.

    You should be called MASTER BUILDER

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    1. Thanks LS, but you may be going a bit ott.

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  7. Great modeling, Zab! I love the looks of your cityscape.

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    1. Thanks Jay, much appreciated, especially coming from your yourself.

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  8. Great work! If your make the black base you are slotting the buildings on to of hard board that would end your drifting problem.

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    1. Thanks Robert, I'd agree with the hardboard idea, except for the thickness of the hardboard artificially 'lifting' the buildings.

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    2. Put all the buildings on 16th or 8th inch hard board it will stop the drift problem dead. Not undead.

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    3. Thanks, I didn't realise that therewere thinner thicknesses of hardboard.

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  9. Very nice roof furniture Joe! Makes a flat roof much more playable, in terms of cover, and a lot more interesting to look at.

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    1. Thanks Bob and you're right on both counts, otherwise there wouldn't be any reason to have them.

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  10. They may be just card boxes to you, but they're life-or-death cover to your miniatures! Nice to see the rooftops getting some furnishings - have you considered doing any skylights, microwave dishes or water towers as well :-) ?

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    1. Thanks C6 for putting in the 28mm viewpoint!
      For skylights I have thought of using the corners from cellophane-type box lids etc., microwave dishes, radio antennas etc would probably be on masts and would be another one of those "yes they look nice, but are in the way when playing".
      I made a water tower from scratch some time ago:
      https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4776165776368681924#editor/target=post;postID=399898680879757482;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=27;src=postname
      Maybe time to make another then ?

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  11. Nice work Joe, and I especially like the building anchor - consider that an officially liberated idea!

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    1. Thanks Colin, I've sort-of used the idea before on my back-yards and it works really well imo.

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