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

Monday 4 November 2013

The Park (A wip part 1)

The walls that I featured in last week's blog were the start of my next large project, namely a park.
For the base for the model I used a sheet of 5mm plastic, as it would give some rigidity to what I think will be a fairly fragile piece when it's finished.
On the first two photos you can see lots of lines and writing on the base, these are in fact a 1:1 scale plan of my Superdupermart that I built a while back ! 
The second photograph shows best what the strange fort-like cut-out is intended for - the entrance.
The pillars I'd made were glued into place on the sides of the base whilst the shorter walls were glued on top of the base and the taller walls were stuck to the sides of the base. The walls had to be cut to size between each individual pillar (not very accurately !).
On top of each of the walls I then glued an additional strip of 5mm foamcard with the top layer of card stripped away.
The tops of the corner columns also had another piece of card glued in place on the tops and then the foamcard squares that I showed last week were fixed on top of those. These squares I found were 5mm too large and were cut to size, once in place.
The column tops and walls were filed down to give a curved appearance and the final touch was a small plastic 'BB' ball glued to the centre of each column. A thin coating of filler was applied to all of the of the columns and the tops of the walls.
The next stage was an undercoat of tester paint from the DIY store (Wholemeal !) applied to all the brickwork. I also glued a thin piece of plastic as an additional step into the park (Sid is standing on it in the photo above).
The brickwork was painted next, staring with a very dark brown stippled randomly, followed by a slightly lighter brown, Although this doesn't really show in the end product it does give a better look to the brickwork imo and is worth the effort.
Next I dry-brushed a very deep red across all of the brickwork  followed by another dry-brushing of a more 'brick-like' red.
To finish off the effect, once thoroughly dried I applied a dusting of white filler across brushed the whole of the brickwork using my finger.
This appears on the photograph much harsher than it actually is.
The tops of the walls and pillars had a wash of dark brown applied and then success layers lighter brown highlighting applied.
The two photographs show the grass effect applied inside the model and a green terrain board the model  is sitting on - note the variation in greens even though its the same model in both pictures!
I've showed the only detailed feature of what would have been a very bland looking perimeter, a broken section of wall. This was not a mistake that I incorporated, but just something I dreamed up whilst making the model!

This venture has now been a month in the making and is nearing completion, but has a little more still to do on it. I have started on some of the internal features too, but I have been greatly distracted by trying to make other things for my next scenario, all of which will feature sometime soon.

 That's it for another week, as ever, your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

 

28 comments:

  1. Looking great, as usual! Great idea on the broken wall, it makes it look much more apocalyptic :D

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    1. Thanks Mathyoo, even if it wasn't apocalyptic I don't particularly like things looking brand new

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  2. Rockery on! Good start mate.

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  3. I'm already hooked! Bring on more please!

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  4. This looks great. I may have to pinch this idea and make a cemetery

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    1. Thanks Brummie and yes, it was nearly going to be a cemetery.

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  5. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing the finished article, Joe. So far, so good. It should be a worthy addition to your cityscape.

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    1. Thanks Bryan, I'm sure the finished product will be an asset.

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  6. Holy Crap! That came out great. I didn't understand what you were making until now.

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    1. Thanks Baconfat, at times I don't think I quite know what I'm making either.

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  7. In the second photo I took the broken wall to be another (side) entrance. Your choice of course but another entrance would have been welcome in my opinion.

    That comment aside I must say it really does look splendid. There is so much that is well accomplished and carried out that even at this stage it is clear that it will be a great addition to the wargames city scape. The broken wall is a very nice touch as well and I can see the broken wall being next to the construction site. Builders having an Opps moment. But that's just me creating a narrative moment.

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    1. I really did ponder for ages on a second entrance to the park, a single rear gated one like the construction site., but I was getting impatient to finish off the whole thing. Similarly I've changed my ideas of the inside layout constantly - a problem of not having anyone to bounce ideas off.

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    2. I know the feeling, always good to bounce ideas around. I may well ask for advice on my blog tomorrow concerning a second Tar7an board. (I have secretly been working on the first one after a long break.... I should say It is nor looking reasonably good.

      I can understand the desire to get thins done. Not impatient just eager!

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    3. I'd wondered what had happened to that and dare I say the Chariot racing ?

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    4. Chariot races have slipped of the back burner so I don't see it happening just yet. Good memory.

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    5. Nothing gets past my spies

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  8. Beautiful work Joe, great idea and concept!

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    1. Thanks AL, I'll reserve my final judgement until it's completed.

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  9. It's always nice to have open spaces in urban terrain, isn't it? I know I've made a number of buildings myself, but not really any gardens or parks.

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    1. I just thought it was a good way to fill space !

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  10. WOW, that's pretty cool looking, must have been really time consuming, bet after doing that much work you feel like that construction guy next to the wall.

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    1. Thanks Commissar. it has taken a while to finish, but only because I do no more than an hour's hobby related stuff each day and I've a lot of projects on the go currently.

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  11. Win for the 'open spaces' section of town. Great job

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    1. Thanks ZA you're right and a cemetery is on the horizon too !

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  12. Excellent looking wall. Mike Whitaker also has an interesting technique of doing a white wash over a brick color. The wash settles into the cracks and looks like mortar.

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    1. Thanks Sean, I can't recollect seeing Mike's stuff but I've had tried white-washes with little success !

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