Building Sarissa Precision's 28mm CityBlock buildings (finished, 4 Aug)

[Wirelizard]

While I was out of town over June I ordered a batch of Sarissa Precision's lasercut 28mm CityBlock buildings, mostly to move our pulp gaming somewhere more urban - I have a bunch of gangster-themed figures that always seemed out of place in the Lost World!

I got six of the CityBlock buildings (Sarissa does a bundle deal), an extra floor, and one of their newer Gaslamp Alley buildings. They're all lasercut/laser-engraved MDF, and generally very nice. Very solidly constructed, definitely "gamer-proof", which is always one of my requirements for scenery.

Here's all seven buildings laid out on the counter, basic construction done (I haven't glued in the window frame sheets in a number of them) but detailing and painting not started yet:


There's a bit more over on my blog - Sarissa CityBlock Buildlings, Part the First. I'll get more photos of the detailing process as that progresses - I'll be adding some relief detail to the walls, especially on the fronts of the buildings, as well as to the roofs.

These buildings have a lot of scope for detailing and personalization, but even just a quick coat of paint would give you perfectly acceptable buildings for a wide variety of tabletops. The six-building bundle is a pretty good deal per-building, too.

[Elbows]

Good looking stuff, Sarissa stuff is always pretty top notch. 

[joroas]

...and useful for pretty much anywhere,,,,,  

This is Cairo:

[Wirelizard]

...and useful for pretty much anywhere,,,,,  

That's one of the things that attracted me to the CityBlock buildings. This sort of square, basic masonry building was *everywhere* with any European influence at all at the end of the 19th C & beginning of the 20th. Cairo, Shanghai, Cape Town, Hawaii, anywhere in North America... For urban buildings in the last 130 years or more, it's the closest you can get to a universal building.

Some detailing done last night, pics later this evening, and hopefully some painting tonight, or detailing of roofs.

[Amalric]

Those look great!
I look forward to seeing them painted up.

[Elk101]

The Gaslamp building goes well with the City block range. I rather like the look of the narrow townhouses. Looking forward to seeing them painted up.

[Wirelizard]

Front details added to five of the six (I want to try something a bit different with the last CityBlock building) and some roof detailing started.

As I assembled the buildings, I kept the offcut "scrap" bits of MDF from inside the window frames, and wound up with a pretty good collection of bits by the time I was done.



The result:



The statue is a nominally-28mm figure, just for scale.

I've since added details to a couple of roofs (gravel on a few, masking tape tarpaper to a couple more) and done basecoats of paint on three of the buildings. There's a few more details over on The Warbard, and I'll try to get more photos tomorrow in daylight before I head off to work.

[Kitsune]

Looks very good so far. I've built all of my sarrissa smaller buildings for cityblock and the warehouse is about halfway through atm.

Be watching this for any tips on painting them.

[Wirelizard]

Looks very good so far. I've built all of my sarrissa smaller buildings for cityblock and the warehouse is about halfway through atm.

I was sorely tempted by the big CityBlock warehouse (and by the newer multi-storey warehouse in the Gaslamp Alley range...) but resisted in favour of a tableful of regular buildings!

Be watching this for any tips on painting them.

I base-coated all six of the CityBlock buildings last night. Here's all six of them stacked up:


The paint is just ordinary craft paint, mixed and thinned with water. The main thing about painting MDF is that it is thirsty, thirsty stuff. It sucks up a ridiculous amount of paint and water, and it shows brush strokes and streaking very easily. So I thinned the paint still further and made sure I was moving the brush in a regular back-and-forth motion, to minimize the appearance of brushstrokes.

Thinning the paint almost to a wash also lets the lasercut engraved lines still show through the paint slightly.

I need to go back and do the doors and window frames, obviously. You'll notice that a couple of the buildings haven't had their window inserts glued in yet, as I realized as I was assembling the second half of the set that if I left them out, it would be much easier to paint everything separately and then glue it up afterward.

I've also done gravel on three of the roofs, but forgot to get a photo. Will try to get one tonight when I get home from work!

[Dr. Zombie]

I have been trying real hard to not buy these houses (as I cannot really afford them at the moment).

This thread is not helping - At all!!

[fred]

Nice work.

Interesting to see that you went for assembly then paint.

I've just done some of the Gaslamp Alley ones, and went for paint first, then assemble. I also went for a dry brush style of painting, rather than washes. But its good to see that whatever the approach the end result looks good.

[Sangennaru]

Great progress! the trick of adding bits around is very nice! You should do the same on the corners!

[Wirelizard]

Nice work.

Interesting to see that you went for assembly then paint.

I was too impatient to paint then assemble... I wanted to see buildings, not flat-pack bits! At least with the last few I put together I managed to restrain myself from putting the door/windowframe pieces in right away!

Great progress! the trick of adding bits around is very nice! You should do the same on the corners!

Thought about that, and I might still on some of the buildings, but I was too short of the scrap offcut bits from inside the windowframes to do it right away. I'm looking after a family member's house while they're away for ten days, so I have lots more space than I usually do but I'm away from most of my usual supplies.

I'll probably get another couple of roofs done with gravel this evening, then later in the week it'll be time to tackle the detail painting of windowframes and other bits.

[Wirelizard]

Progress continues on my Sarissa buildings; all seven of them have gravel on the roofs now, most of the windowframes and doors are painted, and I'm starting cleanup and some detail painting.

One of the things I've always loved on older buildings is the big painted ads and business signs on the side walls, so it seemed natural to break out the smaller brushes and do this:


Some cleanup to do tomorrow, and it's a fairly bad late night cellphone photo, but I'm pleased with the new "Hotel Atlantic" signage. It seemed like a usefully generic name, the sort of hotel name that might pop up anywhere in the English-speaking world - or elsewhere, if it's set up to attract English-speaking travellers!

I may or may not do another big Hotel Atlantic sign on the other end wall; not sure yet.

Done freehand with a brush, after doing some light pencil guidelines over the white base. I did lay the lettering out on the computer first, in Inkscape, to get a feel for spacing and letter shapes. There's a bit more over on the blog, as is often the case.

[Wirelizard]

...and done! At least enough to get them onto the tabletop and be happy with them!

Here's all seven stacked up, with the newly-finished "Drink 7-Up" sign in the centre:


Over on my blog someone asked how the buildings came apart, so here's the Hotel Atlantic spread out for all to see. You can also see how I finished the roofs with fine gravel and a quick drybrush.


Scale in both pics provide by 28mm Pulp Figures reporters.

There's a bit more detail over on the blog, as there often is.