Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Post-Apocalyptic Tales => Topic started by: myincubliss on April 17, 2009, 01:16:19 PM
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So, as mentioned in the workbench, I've been building a comic shop to fill with zombies...
The first step I took was to devor Matakishi's site for tips on cork building (very useful, but stay away from Random Defence, it eats hours of your life), as well as drawing up various sketches and plans, and discussing scale questions here on the LAF. To help decide on which scale to use, I built a paper mockup of the ground floor of the comic shop, so that I could place minis 'in situ' and generally have a gander at how it would look.
Now, I'm no Matakishi, but things haven't gone disasterously wrong, which counts as a win to me...
And so, on to pics from the phone cam (it's the fiance's birthday next month, and she wants a new digital camera...)
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/comic1.jpg)
The cork walls, ready for some more cutting - the 'plans' I had at this point were my paper model and what amounts to a shopping list of how many of each different sized rectangle I needed...
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/comic2.jpg)
Due to being a little bit over-eager, I didn't take many in progress shots - here's the ground floor put together, with the paper model in the background; you can see the corner supports too, installed in the vain hope that the thing will turn out square... - and yes, we're in bed watching Gilmore Girls at this point...
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/comic3.jpg)
Having cut out the window, I wanted something to go in it - cue a display shelf, which slots neatly onto the corner support...
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/comic4.jpg)
Said display in place...
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/comic5.jpg)
The wall pieces for the upper floor - I wanted a slight overhang (I forget why), so it's 120x100 rather than 100x100 like the ground floor.
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/comic6.jpg)
Again, a lack of in progress shots - here are the two floors together, complete with boarded up windows. The top floor also has matchstick locating lugs to keep the whole thing together should it get knocked during use.
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/comic7.jpg)
Angle shot to show the slightly recessed roof (it sits on the corner supports of the top floor, and is non-removeable for sturdiness).
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/comic8.jpg)
Roof detailing, consisting of a trapdoor for roof access made from various scrap wood, cork and card, and an air con unit made from balsa and granny mesh - with the air con unit, it was one of those classic moments where you turn to the person next to you and ask 'do you think it'd look better stood up on it's side?' only to find the glue's already dried... that's why I should plan in greater detail...
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/comic10.jpg)
The roof getting a sanding - I used Mad Carew Snr's sand, which was absolutely perfect for this - I used the medium grade first to give patches of texture, followed by the fine grade to give an Asphalt/light gravel kinda feel to the roof...
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/comic11.jpg)
Which gives us this - I used a scrap tongue depresser to spread the glue for the roof, which allowed me to give eddies and swirls, as if the material's been blown around and rained on for several years...
And that's where the photos end.
Since then, I've undercoated it black and painted on the base colours (painting terrain takes aaaages!), as well as cut out and installed perspex for the window and a door window. The roof was given a coat of grey, a wash of Vallejo Smoke, and then a couple of drybrushes of lighter greys to bring out the detail.
Still to do: Some more drybrushing, then making props! I plan to make some little comics for the window, as well as a standee of some sort. Then, the next obvious thing to make would be a batsignal for the roof (the current plan is to saw the end off of a small torch, and mount it on a stand on a 25mm round base, although as I'm typing this I suddenly realised that a screw-on wine bottle-cap would probably be perfect rather than using an actual torch...)
Then some more terrain (currently have plans for a billboard, bakery, bookshop, memorial garden, games shop, charity shop, Quick Stop complete with 'I assure you we're open' banner, amongst other things...)
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looks good, I particularly like the display window.
looking forward to seeing it painted.
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wow, it looks good! Wanna see it whith zombies!
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Impressive stuff! I'm always a bit in awe of people who can scratchbuild things like this. I have enough trouble with kits. Like Sangennaru, I long to see the finished product teeming with zeds.
As for how long it takes to paint terrain, I can relate from my own projects. What always shocks me is just how MUCH paint it takes to get good coverage on a hill or building. I suppose that's a product of spending almost all my time painting minis, which after all are several orders of magnitude smaller than even the weediest terrain.
-Curry
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Also discovered I need to get some brushes specifically for terrain painting - I have housepainting brushes, which are to big to get paint on out of those fiddly little pots, and the rest are mini-painting brushes - this was painted almost exclusively using a small flat drybrush o_o
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ah, so this is your first scratchbuild terrain? well, congratulations! :)
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I am very impressed!
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So, here's a couple pics with a bit of colour on:
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/20042009044.jpg)
Front shot, complete with the beginnings of a stencil to put some graffitti up one wall... note the windows are in, but I still need to knock up some set dressing...
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/20042009045.jpg)
The view from the top - I think I might make the rooftop a little browner, with a greyish tint rather than being so grey...
I'm no nearer to having anything to make a batsignal out of, so I think I'll have to tear myself away from the doctor who toys for long enough to try and find some sort of child's torch whilst shopping tonight...
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Wow! simple, but nice! I like it! :) good work! :)
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For comics in the window, just find ads for real ones, and print them out in the right size.... Think I need to make a FLGS at some point... lol
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That's pretty much the plan - been scouring the internet for the right covers, but the fiance ran out all the black ink in the printer printing out darth vaders to screenprint onto tshirts...
There was some previews thing that came with my comics this month that had some cover images in, which are about the right size to use as posters though...
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that is very nice!!!
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Looking good, just needs some signage now.
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A month later, and it's pretty much done:
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/22052009006.jpg)
The sign is blood-spattered because in a moment of foolishness I tried to use superglue to stick the printed sign to the wooden backing - big mistake. Also in this pic you should be able to see the comics in the window, as well as the 'closed' sign in the bloody door window.
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/myincubliss/22052009007.jpg)
And here's a close-up of the window insert - after agonising over how to make comics in scale, I bought some heroclix in the local Works and was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the cards have tiny, in scale comic covers on them - some careful cutting later, et voila!
I may come back to it in the future and repaint the roof material, but I think that'll do for now (allowing me to move onto other things...)
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Not bad, now all it needs is some fat, balding guy to run the joint. ;)
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very cool.
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Looks great.
Right, whats next....?
:D
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A water tower, I think (since whenever we visit some friends of ours we see a water tower, which always leads to me thinking about it's suitability for zombie defence...)
that or the bookshop; bakery; games shop; vet's; church; memorial garden I have plans drawn up for (although our local art shop seems to have stopped stocking 4mm cork sheets I noticed whilst picking up some dowel...)
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You should put some Walking Dead comics in the window. ;)
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[ (although our local art shop seems to have stopped stocking 4mm cork sheets I noticed whilst picking up some dowel...)
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Art shop, why dont you try a DIY store? Possibly cheaper too
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I tend to go to the art shop purely for it's convenience and the cork comes in big ol' sheets as opposed to tiles. If they would but restock, I'd be able to break my period of procrastination...
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I tend to go to the art shop purely for it's convenience and the cork comes in big ol' sheets as opposed to tiles. If they would but restock, I'd be able to break my period of procrastination...
Not bad at all though with no other ground floor windows it does kinda remind me of a gentleman's private shop! Nice use of plastic/blister packaging, used it to great effect myself on my petrol station kiosk.
Cheers
The Commander
;)
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The plan is to have other buildings that butt up to the sides of it to make a street of buildings, but as I said, my procrastination...
Blister plastic? Alas, that window is perspex (probably about 3mm thick), cut and sanded to size by hand. Using a tiny, tiny saw.
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I think you need to add a "Walking Dead" comic cover to the mix...
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&um=1&ei=WN_MSveGDsSytwf-pPnpAQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=walking+dead+comic+cover&spell=1&start=0 (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&um=1&ei=WN_MSveGDsSytwf-pPnpAQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=walking+dead+comic+cover&spell=1&start=0)
Awesome shop!
I wish cork tiles were more easy to come by (and cheaper) here in the States.
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The original plan was to have a walking dead comic in the window, so i started collecting suitable images, planned to print them out at high quality... then noticed that on the cards that come with heroclix (i picked up a bunch from the works) several of them have comic covers that are the right size. There are two marvel zombies covers in there though...
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lovely. just needs a dead comicbook shop owner (in batman costume) on the street outside..
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a dead comicbook shop owner (in batman costume)
Okay... you're startiing to worry me, jimchenko! :)
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a dead comicbook shop owner (in batman costume)
Okay... you're startiing to worry me, jimchenko! :)
(and you need to learn to use the quote button rather than italics all the time! :D).