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

Monday 23 November 2015

The Street (4)

Aaarggh!
Another week and another problem, the photograph on the right shows it better than I can explain.
As I'd measure and re-measured (I always do) the dimensions for the internal floors for the three buildings, I was pretty confident that when I cut the paper pieces out for the floors, they would fit with ease and would require no more than a trim.
It seems however that printers have 'settings' which if not attended to, makes them feel unloved and so they f*ck you over by printing within their pre-set margins rather than to their maximum and can also reduce the size "to fit".
Double Aargghh !
This has happened for both the end buildings' upper floors (see left) and no matter which way I fiddled with them, neither would fit the other.
Rather than bodge the job, which would have been very unsatisfactory I've put this particular job on hold until I can get a re-print of the flooring.














Boring corner pieces
Frustrated by the flooring (or rather the lack thereof), I decided to move onto the roofs, a straight-forward enough job as the roofs are merely drop-in sheets of foam-board, cut to size.
Attaching the corner supports, using my widget.
I cut out four triangular corner supports for each of the four roofs from scraps of foam-board, more or less right angled (Foam-board is great for pressing into whatever it is your gluing it too, so it doesn't have to be 100% accurate). 


I also made a widget out of another scrap of card, this time with a fairly accurate ninety degrees cut into it. This would be used to get all the heights of the four corner bits the same.
The widget had to be cut slightly different for each of the three buildings as they varied slightly, not in height, but in what internal details I had included (or not as in the case of the third building).







Add caption


 Prior to cutting the actual foam-board I made some rough and ready templates from cereal boxes, which allowing for mistakes was far cheaper than doing the same with foam-board.
It wasn't just a matter of  measuring and cutting out four rectangles as I've mentioned previously the three building in my street were anything but 'rectangles'.



Oops

The third building's roof had the extra problem I mentioned previously, when I'd designed (read slapped together) this I omitted to include the roof parapet pattern on all four internal walls - You can probably imagine my displeasure on realising this and such words as "Oh bother" and "Deary me" were obviously bandied about.
 The slight gap you can see between the corner support and the roof parapet would be covered by the thickness of the foam-board used for the roof - just in case you were wondering.
Rear view of the roofs in place.
Having cut the templates out for the roofs, fitting the foam-board versions was a lot easier and they came together quite quickly, though possibly they'll be too tight a fit once the printout for the roof is added (they may also be coloured by hand as I haven't decided yet) and once more I'll be awaiting these being printed.
The roof will also need to have some roof furniture added, if for nothing else other than to have something to hold on to take the roofs off !
There's still quite a lot of work to be done on this model, the rear staircase (another tail of yet another disaster), the rear roller-door to the first building (on the right in the above photograph) and of course all the internal detailing (aarghh) and as I've already got some of the internal detailing "ready to go" this is what I'll be posting next week.

So, until next week, that's it and if you're reading this I hope you've found something of interest. this week,


If you wish to find out what I've been up to on my Gladiator blog you can find out HERE.

 


20 comments:

  1. Nice touch with the corner supports, they work a treat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Micheal, I think that they're simple enough, effective and hardly intrusive on the model

      Delete
  2. I feel your pain. Trying to printout my 7TV character cards on my printer so the fit card sleeves has been the most frustrating thing ever. In the end I just gave up and used them as they are. Thankfully the boxed game will come with pre printed cards!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Brummie, I've successfully designed and printed crds using photoshop and then rather than put them in plastic wallets, I've merely laminated them. The laminations stick together even when cut from a single shhet - I get about 12 cards to an A4 sheet.

      Delete
  3. Hang in their, Zab. The project looks great.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jay, I'm trying to, but theis build is also very trying too.I' may well get it into a playable state then have a rest from it, but hopefully not another three year rest !

      Delete
  4. Any large project is bound to have some problems. I still think these will be great when you get them done. Too bad the printers have decided to oppose your build. I have no doubt you'll get this worked out. Keep up the great work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks N667, this particular project seems to have had more than its fair share of problems - I blame my drug-induced self od three years ago.
      As you say though it'll be sorted - eventually

      Delete
  5. This is going from strength to strength. Do not get discouraged no matter what happens it is really looking good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Clint, I'm more annoyed than discouraged I guess. It'll be usable soon enough.

      Delete
  6. Excellent use of widget and templates Joe. This is edging closer to completion. I'm sure you'll be able to use the floor printouts on something else. It's looking very good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Bob, everythibg is slowly coming together. I use widget type f things all the time in my builds, they compliment my ever present set-square use. Everything I print, if not immediately used is stored in an A2 pocket for future reference. This latter 'store' of printouts is how I can lay my hand on signage , newspapers, etc. so easily for all the detailing.

      Delete
    2. Thanks Joe.
      Some great tips. Fingers crossed for my next one!

      Delete
    3. One you get into the swing of building in car, cork, foam-board or whatever I'm sure you'll be mass-producing suburbs and citescapes in no time.
      Also keep reading Gobbo's blog for ideas and inspiration!
      (http://dagobbosgrotto.blogspot.com/2015/11/x-ray-canteen-and-atrium-more-wip.html)

      Delete
  7. stick with it Joe, the build is coming on even if the printer is being a bugger! The result will be very nice and playable i'm sure

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the encouragement GG, it's really not the printer to blame, but the person who was printing it for me ! It'll be sorted I'm sure.

      Delete
  8. Yep, I know all about printers and how they only work to their own sizes! [I hate technology.]
    Though all the heartache seems to be worth it though, from looking at that last photo the build looks just the job.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Roy, I don'thate technology, but it seems to hate me.
      The build will eventually be finished, I'm sure, to at least a playable stansard that I'm happy with.

      Delete
  9. Your templates are splendid and there is no limit to what you can build.I will start making templates of my own thanks to your inspirational work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ptr, I've found using templates (even made from paper) a very useful tool when fitting awkward (read not quite rectangular) pieces into a model.
      Good to hear from you too btw

      Delete