Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Interwar => Topic started by: 6milPhil on November 04, 2010, 01:38:17 AM
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I've been working on a few terraces for VBCW, but also for more modern games, because I hadn't really found something which; i: suited what I wanted to do, ii: were pretty cheap and iii: I like building stuff, especially as I'm relatively newly converted to using cork tiles (All Hail Matakishi).
This has been a pretty complex build for me, and it's not finished but I'm madly happy to have finished the basics, and have the bugger work as well as I had hoped. I've been taking photos of the build for a "DIY project" to share with you all when it's finished but I have dashed off some piccys just to share my joy at having got to such a point with it... unfortunately the photos are blurry but you'll get the idea.
So here's the basic model, six terraced houses back-to-back in two rows of three.
(http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4732/dscf3196o.jpg)
It has removable roofing to let you get into the bedroom.
(http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/892/dscf3197h.jpg)
But also has removable bedrooms so you can get to the parlour.
(http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/7009/dscf3198r.jpg)
And you can do this with each and every house! The one thing which became apparent to me was how many buildings with removable roofs gave away the game in showing the whole interior, whereas I wanted to be able to tuck minis into buildings and their presence not be known by an opponent wandering into an adjacent room. I first tried this idea with my compound (http://6milphil.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/confounded-unbounded-and-compounded/) but it's a bit more difficult with a terrace.
blah blah!
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Nice. You really should do a seperate row of back yards, with the obligatory outdoor loo. A few window boxes at the front would dress them up a treat too.
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(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WG5alGp4ptY/TNJMPX2MeeI/AAAAAAAACO4/WsBGZrCcp9w/ts_yorkshiremen_091005.jpg)
Backyards? Luxury! We used to dream of a backyard, all we had was a one up, one down blind back hovel. ;)
The outdoor loo was in the form of a row of outhouses at the end of each block for this type of housing. There was normally a communal wash house (room to wash clothes etc) for the residents to share too
(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WG5alGp4ptY/TNJO40XQbJI/AAAAAAAACPA/LERXn-zs_B8/bbb.jpg)
They're looking good btw and thanks for reminding me of cork tiles... :)
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Very nice indeed! These are going to look good. Have you thought about what you'll use for the brickwork and roofing?
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Nice. You really should do a seperate row of back yards, with the obligatory outdoor loo. A few window boxes at the front would dress them up a treat too.
These are back-to-backs as Jim Hale illustrated. The other two terraces I'm building will be two-up-two-downs and have backyards though. Window boxes are a nice idea but a bit posh perhaps...
Jim, thanks for the illumination on the vernacular architecture of the British outhouse, it hadn't occurred to me for a moment.
Have you thought about what you'll use for the brickwork and roofing?
Well the roofing will be tile texture plasticard, and I had considered paint with the odd bit of brick relief for the walls BUT having seen your rather excellent terraces on http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=23647.0;topicseen (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=23647.0;topicseen) I'm wondering what you used as it's much better than what I was thinking, from your original build thread it looks like plasticard... am I right?
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You got it, I use embossed plastic either from Antenociti's Workshop or Plastikard. If you do decide to use it go for 7mm (O scale). I use Flemish Bond pattern brickwork for mine.
Thanks for the compliment. :)
Good luck with the build.
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Jim, thanks for the illumination on the vernacular architecture of the British outhouse, it hadn't occurred to me for a moment.
Glad I could give you something to go on. lol
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lol
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You got it, I use embossed plastic either from Antenociti's Workshop or Plastikard. If you do decide to use it go for 7mm (O scale). I use Flemish Bond pattern brickwork for mine.
Thanks for that, good timing as well as I'm yet to start putting the other two together and I think cladding would be best done before all the cutting... not looking forward to cladding this built one but hey ho if it'll have a similar outcome to yours it'll be worth it.
Glad I could give you something to go on. lol
I hope such help isn't a flush in the pan... :P
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Momentum is the key, far too easy to get bogged down on this sort of thing.
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I await the finished product with great
constipation... erm anticipation. ;)
I'm not sure about pebble-dash (no pun), I understand it was used mainly where low quality bricks were used in the construction. I know it was in use in some areas, certainly the Low Hill Estate in Wolverhampton had many houses with the upper floors, or complete houses in some cases, pebble-dashed, but it was left in its natural colour until the 70s and 80s when it was painted a cream colour. Low Hill was a 'model estate' built in the 30s, so may be the exception and it didn't have blind-backs anyway.
Stone cladding (to quote Paul O'Grady "like a filling in a mouth full of bad teeth") is a relatively new thing afaik. Pre-War folk didn't worry too much about a house's outside appearance, with the exception of the front doorstep, which was rigorously scrubbed clean, often daily.
I'm also led to believe that washing was hung up across the street from the upper floor, via a system of pulleys, although I haven't come across any pictures showing this.
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If you watch the film Get Carter, you'll see the washing hung out across what presumably were the night soil lanes in former times.
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Render (including pebble dash) became more common due to the Arts and Crafts movement(around WW1), and then again due to the international Modern movement (20's to 30's) all over the country. It does often cover Stock bricks or Blocks.. (lovely crumbly black/dark grey blocks made from foundry slag and called breeze blocks)
Most back to backs were Victorian, so would have nice dense "engineering" type bricks, often only 9" thick solid walls, and blue welsh slate roofs.
They could use Blue or red engineering bricks below the ground floor level (6" plus above the ground) on corners and around window and door openings, with softer bricks as infill between (which could be yellow in or near London)
Roofs normally 30o pitch, they became lower as tiles with better water shedding properties were developed.... 22o
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Anorak... ;)
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Anorak... ;)
True but i bet you read every word..I did and then went right okay, thanks for that lol
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I'm also led to believe that washing was hung up across the street from the upper floor, via a system of pulleys, although I haven't come across any pictures showing this.
There's a tiny picture showing this on Wikipedia, of all places, - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-to-back_houses
(bottom right). There's a couple of much better pictures at http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.uk/2010/10/monday-was-washing-day.html but that's at ground level not first floor. 8)
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There's a tiny picture showing this on Wikipedia, of all places, - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-to-back_houses
(bottom right). There's a couple of much better pictures at http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.uk/2010/10/monday-was-washing-day.html but that's at ground level not first floor. 8)
Wikipedia huh? Darn you kids an yer fancy book learnin' ;)
I was thinking back to 'the Sweeney' or 'Get Carter' or something and recalled a car chase through a street's worth of washing.
True but i bet you read every word..I did and then went right okay, thanks for that lol
I did, I can't deny it. He let me down by discussing roof angles instead of talking about Flemish bond's superiority to Stretcher bond though. :)
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Bleeding hell!
Guess what I've been doing all week? If you guessed cladding this build with brick plasticard you're half right. What a bleeding palaver! It has meant theres a few gaps which weren't immediately apparent before, plus not all the bricks line up perfectly, but hey ho! At least the following two models have had the texture applied before all the cutting was done and therefore it won't be an issue with them.
More blurred pics...
(http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/696/dscf3211.jpg)
(http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/3303/dscf3212.jpg)
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Coming along nicely, bet you cant wait to start painting them ;)
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Quite, but I'll be making the other two first so I can guarantee matching finish and colors.
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Hmmm not sure about my next step, I've built another terrace, this time with the cork pre-clad prior to cutting. This was much easier of course however because it is another modular then it doesn't match up perfectly.
Older building...
(http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/245/dscf3301v.jpg)
Newer one...
(http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7048/dscf3297h.jpg)
(http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8301/dscf3299r.jpg)
What I'm wondering is should I put in some horizontal plasti-strip to make the horizontal gaps less evident. it'd look like a simple architectural detail, but I'm in two minds about it.
What do you think?
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I'd go for a line of styrene strip or something horizontally, and maybe rain downspouts to help hide the vertical joins a bit?
Round styrene rod would work for basic downspouts.
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Ahhhh drain pipes is a bleeding good idea, although I do have a feeling I'd be swopping one gap for another... ;)
I will consider it though as I had resigned myself to being stuck with the vertical ones.
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Almost finished these little buggers...
(http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9314/dscf3392g.jpg)
(http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/3140/dscf33940.jpg)
Thanks to all for their helpful input. Special thanks to Thunderchicken for the inspiration and in upping the bar so I didn't end up with a mediocre piece of terrain... :o
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You're missing the coal sheds and a sleeping cat... lol
They look great!
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Not forgeting the crashed tram either...
Have dustbins and some coal for post-varnish though.
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Bloody good work Phil, these are excellent!
I'll go with Wirelizard with drainpipes for the vertical gaps, that's what I do with the Victorian builds. With the horizontal gaps maybe Green Stuff or Milliput as this will give it a more uneven mortared look if you know what I mean.
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Thanks mate.
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The only thing I can come up with is to weather the building as a whole. With darker colours, the 'black' join line will be less noticeable. It's always going to be there though and is the price you pay for the utility of having such well thought out scenery. I'd imagine most people seeing the buildings in action will be thinking "wow!" and "Oh my, that was clever - separate lift-off sections", rather than anything else.
:)
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I believe you may well be right. Played with these the other day, as you know, and no-one really noticed any of the minor imperfections which I'd started to become obsessed with.
It's the same paranoid self-criticism which Dali used to rave about, the moment you're happy with something totally is both the moment you cease to have the desire to create, and also when you're ready to die.
Neither are agreeable with me at this time. lol