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

Monday 2 November 2015

The Street (1)

The bits, some finished most not.
I decided to try and finish off a project that I started three years ago (for the first mention of it see here), I think the major reason why it was never finished was that the material I was using was art board rather than the foamboard I use now for nearly all my buildings.
It took me almost a week to find the relevant pieces, cunningly hidden in plain view for the most part.
The "street" was intended to be  a block of three shops and it still is despite my misgivings now about the whole thing. I didn't want to actually 'waste' all the effort I'd gone through to get this far on this project all those years ago.
At the time I  started this I was taking about thirty tablets a day for breakfast alone and miscellaneous other medications throughout the rest of the day too.
The two photographs above and to the left will testify to the fact that I was the equivalent of being under the influence when I'd started this.
There are whole walls cut out and not glued to here counter-parts, windows panes still needing to be cut into card and doors still needed fitting (and finding in one case).
I also didn't have my original sketches of how I wanted to fit the whole thing together, which definitely would required another search. The basis of the whole build were buildings from "Tommy Gun" and two MicroTactix (all freebies).
I did photoshop a lot of each model to get to my final versions and also to enable some internal detailing for each of the 'shops'.
A sketch of the third building.
I did find the sketches I'd made of all three 'shops' and even some of their internal detailing.
The next thing to do was to complete all the walls; there are a total of 16 external wall forming the perimeter of the block and four internal walls that were the dividers between the three premises on two  levels.
A quick sort through of what I actually had, was made and some priorities were established, namely completing the final walls, door windows etc. that still needed doing.
This task of course was not going to be any easier as upon inspection of the pieces I did have, one wall had bee printed back to front), whilst another's front and back didn't match and was about half an inch out.
The task had suddenly gotten a lot more difficult than I'd imagined.
Trying to get some semblance of order into the build.
I did eventually get some order into the various parts .
The picture on the left is missing a mere four walls, all of which had to be completed before much further progress could be made and the whole thing assembled.
Assembling of course was going to bring a whole new set of problems.
The whole of the second story (it''s a two-story block) had to lift off to reveal the ground floor AND sit tightly on it; there has to be a floor on the ground floor and the upper floor as well as fitting a roof.

As this was started with Art-board  it would really have to finished using the same materials too, which again brings on a yet another complication - fitting the corners ! With foamboard one wall would have a rabbet cut into it whilst the other butted into it -  but this artist board stuff ?
Floors always cause problems too, you can either glue the walls around the floor or on top of it, both having their own advantages and disadvantages.
Whilst I haven't set a deadline for completion of this build I'll be working on it no more than an hour or so four times a week and I reckon it'll take about four weeks to get some semblance of a building  at the end of it.

That's it for this week, next week I'll be posting more about this wip.

In other news I seem to be gaining and losing a single follower on a regular basis, which is odd, but probably par for the course for "Blogger" and it's not anyone I can actually pin down !

Over on my other blog HERE, you can see my attempt at painting a statue

23 comments:

  1. Slow progress Joe, but progress is at least progress. I look forward to this moving swiftly forward now. Sometimes we all need to wait for the stars to be right!

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    1. You're right Clint, it is very slow atm with a lot of head-scratching as one or another 'problem comes up. But I am making steady progress and I have a lot of things now in positon for much better progress this week.

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  2. I actually find returning to old projects very motivating Joe, as for the sake of a couple of sessions, I usually find myself in the position of having loads close to completion if not finished. Good luck with this endeavour and I certainly won't be stopping being one of your followers :-)

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    1. Thanks Blaxx, I hate oldprojects, but I din't really want to see all the effort I'd made with this go to waste. I find I need togetprojects finished (or near enough finished) quickly as I tend to lose interest very quickly.
      The follower thing really baffles me (rather than bothers me); I have to join Brummie's blog every other week as my dashboard seems to reject it regularly.

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  3. The answer to the housing shortage right there!

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    1. Haha, quite posssibly, as the upper floors are all going to be apartments

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    1. Thanks PC, I do hope there'll be something of interest

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  5. Can't wait to find out how you finish this off.

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    1. You and me both Micheal and as I've now found my plans for the upper floor layout I'm saying I'm ahead of the game.

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  6. Good luck bud! Now I've found your blog you won't be able to shake me off...lol

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    1. Ps I know your pain, having just stuck nearly 700 hand painted floor tiles for my Hosp project and then realising that I now need to trim internal walls to accommodate the newly raised floor.... Buildings do make the game but they are a pain in the arse to build!

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    2. Thanks GG, (and welcome btw) I've tiled roofs the same way as your f;oor tiles and a Scottish Castle with individual stuck on 'bricks' (several thousand) so I'm well aware of the soul-destroying effort that goes into such things. The internal parts really bug me too and I must spend as much time thinking about how I'm going to accomplish something as I do doing it.

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  7. Loving your tenacity Joe! I'm sure you'll finish it sooner rather than later and I for one am looking forwards to the fruits of your labour.

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    1. Thanks Bob, I'm already much happier about this build as I've now ironed out a lot of 'problems' with it; there's till much more to do but I'll plod along.

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  8. Looking forward to see them assembled and ready Joe!

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    1. Thanks HW, it'll be some time before I've finished all I want done on this build.

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  9. If I'm honest, then I've got to say rather you than me building the kits. But I do wish you luck.
    As to losing followers. Yes, I've lost one, too. But can't pin them down. Interesting times :)

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    1. If these were indeed kits then I think they'd be finished by now, but as they're mostly made from my imagination, with the help of available kits then it makes the jobe that bit more difficuly. If I had the resources I wouldn't scratchbuild anything ever again, there's so much out there.
      The follower thing is peculiar to say the least,someone else could be having the same problem I have in having to join a blog every other week.

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  10. Progress is still Progress Joe :) Keep up the good work and it will turn out great i'm sure!

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    1. Thanks Brummie, you're right but I could have done without spending hours looking for the damn pieces

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  11. Goodness, I can't imagine how big of a zombie game you could put on if you laid all of your terrain out at the same time.

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    1. It's a case of being able to put on games in three distinctly different environments and having the terrain too, which is why I have been making so much terrain. Having different building also allows for less "samey" games plus I've always envisaged being able to fill a 6 foot x 8 foot table (my "ideal" playing area)

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