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

Monday 5 December 2016

Spinning Plates

Ground floor and first floor of the new build.
This week has seen a major upheaval in my household as we have my daughter and her family living
The outcome of this is that we have a lot let space and a lot of my own projects etc have had to be stored in my wargames room (now very crowded), but there are is also the more important tidying up to do after any hobby-related things I do - no more leaving things out until tomorrow!  It seems that scalpel blades and 3 year-olds are not compatible!
with us (and all that that entails) as she has had to vacate her own place and has to wait for her new home - probably sometime early next year.
Some of the ground floor walls
I am still managing to get a few things done though!
I've made some progress on my new build (The Federal House from Stoetzels) but wasn't that inspired reading through the initial instructions that it could take some two hours or more to build. The initial cutting out of the ground and first floor floors walls etc. (and edging them too)  took at least that amount of time! (and there's an attic too).
A very "wrong" wall
My wry smile took  a down-turn as a worked my way through the model and realised that one wall was mistakenly labelled and there ere also a host of other minor (very minor) 'problems' with the model. I'll talk about these though later, but as an example, one of the walls, (shown right) has a major 'problem' with it (though easily fixed), as it's an internal corner but allows for a wall attached to it (the blue rectangle).
Aaarrrggghhhh!
Further work on this model had to be halted as I ran out of glue and when I came back to the build, after tidying up I'd accidentally stuck  a scrap of foamboard to two walls - duh!
I couldn't repair the damage and now I have to await the re-printing of these two walls (luckily though they're on the same page - so just one copy needed.)



Undercoated chopper, with Sid for scale
I did manage to grab the chance of a clear day to undercoat my helicopter, so that's coming along slowly but surely - though I'm not entirely sure why I used #2 son's gloss black instead of my own matte black as an undercoat !






My solitary palm tree

 In other news I have started to try and accumulate some scenery for my pirate project as I didn't think my single (rather pathetic) palm tree would hack it.
Evil- bay was my friend in this and I found some very reasonably priced palm trees for about  £4.50 (including p&p) for 2o of he. - each approximately 13cm (about 5").
The most surprising thing was that they were from an English supplier (from Basildon IIRC) and cheaper than some very similar models from China , so I went ahead, splashed the cash and bought two bags of them!

40 Palm trees - woohoo!










Sid and the Palm trees
I guess for the price, you get what you pay for, they're bright, very plasticcy and have a shed-load of flash on them, but they'll do the job just fine imo.
I'm as yet undecided as to how to base them and will be considering all the various options carefully an will also be awaiting further varieties of palms sometime next year. (who knew that there were so many different varies and models of palm trees ?
It also turn out that plastic palm trees can be waved bout with great abandon and glee, though whether as fairy wands or dolly feather dusters, you'd have to ask my grand-daughter
(they're in a safe place now though).



So, progress then, and although little has been made, in the quieter moments I've been working on my abstract ship-to-ship rules -something which I enjoy but is made difficult without having a friend as a 'sounding board' for my ideas and checking the rules generally.
 I also been busy designing some builds for a project I (and probably every other Zombie gamer) has sought since I started  down this track, but more of this as I make some proper progress and have something tangible to show!

That's it then for this week - things can only get better - right ?

Thanks for reading through or at least for visiting and looking at the piccies and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated!

20 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks youMichael, lots of little bits maybe does make it greater than it appears.

      Delete
  2. A little clean up and a quick dry brush and the palm trees will look the biz, I've no doubt!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ray for the reassurance as it's exactly what I thought too.

      Delete
  3. You are fighting the good fight, Zab. Ever onwards and upward fellow modeler!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jay, it's a struggle at times, but we do ourbest

      Delete
  4. Things will get better, power on good sir!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The palm trees look the business Zab, good find

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks dGG, it's all coming together, slowly but surely

      Delete
  6. I know the feeling of first spinning plates and also of watching plates fall. So I wish you well in all that transpires.

    I bought some similar palm trees 2 years ago. Mine are all on 2p pieces now (attached with Miliput) and the 2 p s add weight and therefore stability. So Highly recommended that you also do the same. I also cut the trunks of at least 1/2 the trees shortening BY EYE the trunks by between 1 and 2 inches. trees of different heights look more natural. So I know these are an excellent buy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks fo rtht Clint, I don't like havong lots of projects on the go simultaneously, but needs must as they say. I've abandoned (probably for all time) at least two that will never come to fruition (ever).
      TIfI'm to base the palms indivividually then 2p pieces is a good starting point (I'd hadn't thought of this simple solution)), I won't be cutting any though as I'm intending to purchase some taller ones oo.

      Delete
  7. Look forward to seeing where these projects take us! I like the gloss under coat on the Helicopter. It looks more metallic! I had fun with my palm trees but I'm still not satisfied with what I did with them. Can't wait to see what you decide to do. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks David, I've a feeling that the pirates will be a while in its realistation, but I do have a few plans for some 'testing'.
      I'll be seeing what others have done with palm trees and await the arrival of other plams (that I've yet to order) before commititng them to thepaint tray.

      Delete
  8. Family home for Christmas then! Awesome stuff. Shame about the building but at least you can reprint it. I have had some great success with buying bags of trees similar to these they look excellent. I am having similar decisions to make as well as I have no idea how to base them all!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, they're home for Xmas and beyond )but how far beyond iscurrently up in the air).
      I'm going to have at least one 2' square board as'forest/jungle but the ret I'm still unsure about!
      Thanks Brummie.

      Delete
  9. Lovely finds there Joe.I really envy you the palmtrees because they will both look real good and come handy when playing pirate-skirmish.The helicopter looks like i will come nicely together.Good luck with building rest of the building and we cross our fingers that there will not be any more setbacks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ptr, I'm currenly looking to buying some more varieties too. All te other thigs I'm currently working on are coming along very slowly, but at least someprogress is being made, despite all the set-backs I dforesee in the near future.

      Delete
  10. Yup, lots going on there!

    For the palm trees, I think it depends on how you intend to use them. If they're for dense forest then you need to mount many trees on each single, larger base. On the other hand, if they're for scatter scenery then having many clumps of 1, 2 or 3 trees is more flexible. And of course there are many possibilities in between...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks C6; my current thinking is along the lines of acentral 2' square permant 'forest' boaed plus a lot of varied scatter bits. I'm looking around a lot of sites/blogs (your own included) to see how others have modelled similar scenics.

      Delete