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

Monday 25 April 2016

Factory Assembly

Well, what I thought would be a fairly easy exercise to assemble the basic four walls to the base turned out be something of a nightmare (I really should have known).
All the walls have a slight warp to them making them bow out a mm or so from the base.
Camping the base firmly to the table and using other clamps to force the walls to align with the base whilst glue dried was the answer, but took a very long time as I wished the glue to be really set before releasing the clamps - overnight for each wall was the time I'd set.
Before (left) and after (right)
In the meantime I covered and painted the corners of the annex with thin strips of folded cards, to hide the obvious MDF joins (one of the features I hate worst off all with MDF buildings.

Obligatory boring picture
I also made some thin card pieces to cover the three ventilation ducts for later, undercoating and  paint. I used a slightly different method than I did with my previous MDF build and the result was far more satisfactory.
In case you're wondering why and hadn't caught this the first time, the shafts are made from three pieces of MDF sandwiched together and imo look awful.
After the four main walls were glued in place and the roof added, it was obvious that although the clamps had cured the  warp-age at their base it had continued to the roof, consequently making a 1mm to 2mm gap (slightly exaggerated in the photograph).
Extra 'padding' to make the roof look 'better'.
This was yet another feature I  hadn't experienced before, but with the 2mm MDF, plus thin card, plus glue and paint I should really have anticipated this happening.
Three pieces of card were quickly employed to cover the gap, more or less successfully.
Once the roof was in place another problem reared its head.
Another reminder that these are not called 'precision' for nothing as the roof was a very tight fit. So much so that I poked a piece of the perspex out to enable me to get a grip on the roof to lift it off. This is a minor niggle but one I haven't sorted -yet.
The photograph shows the quick roof-fox in place though not entirely pressed down into place (for ease of removal).

The 'annex' showing the corners of the main building and central strip.

Other features went together really well, the annex/office glued into place (once more being held and pressed into place using clamps because of the slight warp), The four corners each had a thin piece of card added to them to hide the MDF joins and yet another piece of card was added half-way up the wall to reproduce the etched feature on the original model. This later detail had to be left until late in the build so as to fit the corner pieces too,
You can see from the photograph that I've also added the ventilation ducts.

Staircase side with single ventilation thing.
The ventilation ducts didn't want to fit where they were meant to either, though I can't pin it down why - it was probably through my own inadequacy. There are three ducts, each with two fittings and following the trend with this one of the fitting had mysteriously disappeared into some void or other.
Luckily (?) because of the configuration I'd chosen for the staircase, I'd need one ventilation shaft less (yay!) as the stairs covered the intended location. In the photograph you can just see the top fitting hole to the right of the door.
Front view (yawn)
Because of the way the walls sit atop the base, the base edges have no features on them, this wil be remedied with some filler to represent dirt and to fill in some gaps made by the walls lifting slightly during the time the glue dried on them . I have no-one to blame for this, save for my own tiredness and boredom in the length of time being taken trying to get this to the table.



Bits of filler can just about bee seen as can the missing roof perspex (top left)

I'm hoping to have this model finished in the next week, as I can't see what other problems it can throw at me.

So that's it then for this week, thanks for taking the trouble to visit and of course tyour comments and criticisms are always welcome.

24 comments:

  1. Great work Joe! These things are always more fiddly than they look, a bit like card modelling.
    Once it's done though, job's a good un.
    It really is quite a large building and with your other one should make a, very cool, more industrial part of town.

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    1. Thanks Bob, when I set out to add to this model i really didn't think it would take so long and have so much to it

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  2. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. OORAH! You're the man, Zab!

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    1. Thanks For the encouragement Jay, much appreciated

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  3. A cracking tutorial Joe, which clearly shows both your innovation and determination to get the job well done. Thoroughly enjoying this series and looking forward to seeing the building finished and on the tabletop :-)

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    1. Thanks Blaxx, I consider it more of a tale of my journey into making this rather than a tutorial, but I now do hope others can learn from my ineptitude, it will be finished one day, I hope.

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  4. What I love about this project is how shabby and realistic it looks, just as it should in real life. You can almost guarantee that the men that work there do not give a hoot about the way the place looks. A credit to your skill.

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    1. Thanks Clint, it is the look I've been working towards as I also want it to represent a deserted post-apocalyptic building as well as a working one.

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  5. Really good job Joe, I love your little fixes, they really start to sell the authenticity of the piece.

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    1. Thanks Michael, I wouldn't have had to do so many if I'd pre-empted moreof the problems

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    1. Thanks Tamsin, it's always a pleasure when you drop by

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  7. Great assemble and truly great paintjob... looks soo real!

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    1. Thanks HW, I aim to make my models look "lived in" rather than brand new.

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    1. Thanks Brummie, it may be looking good but I wish it was finished!

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  9. Nice work Joe, I constantly suffer from "the warps" with my builds, well done buddy

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    1. Thanks dGG, I thibk it's only because it's 2mm rather than the heavier 3mm, but I 'll be aware of this in future builds with 2mm MDF.

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  10. Amazing job! That turned out very well, I love your card covering the MDF joints, inspirational! Really great job!

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    1. Thnks N667, I really dislike the obvious MDF joins that I see on a lot of MDF buildings, but I don't think this method would look as good on brick buildings.

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  11. It's amazing that you're getting so many comments on how shabby the building looks, isn't it :-) . I agree totally; it does look run down, or at least past its youth. And that's a very good thing!

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    1. You're right of course, it does seem the less pristine I make things the more folk like it!

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  12. Nice work there Joe. The paint make the buildings come alive!

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    1. Thanks Ptr, here's hoping the 'decrepid' look is convincing.

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