Advice on streets, sidewalks and buildings

[Dr Mathias]

I have a fairly nice collection of modern and near future buildings. I'd like to upgrade how they interact with the streets though.

I currently have all my buildings on varying size bases, some with sidewalks, some without. I use World Works paper prints for the streets. They look good but they're flat and I'm not satisfied with that anymore. Ideally I want some blocks that have enough compatibility that I can plug the buildings into the street layout and get to playing.

I'm looking for elegant ideas people have used to do modern and near future tables with streets, sidewalks and buildings. I want it to look okay for zombie games set today, but not look wrong for Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell type actions.

[OSHIROmodels]

Somewhere in this thread... http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=55891.0 there are the pavements that I'm using.

All the buildings are modular but I think you might have to base all the your buildings on the same footprint, filling in open areas with dustbins, pallets etc and then you should be able to sort out a grid that all the buildings will fit in.

Does that make sense?

cheers

James

[FramFramson]

There's also this option: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=51363.0

[Braxandur]

Here is the option I went for:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=5483.0

Just last year on holiday I found even some nice 5 mm foam that already had a square tile profile on one side. Not shown on any pictures, but I even tried to make some road markings using white paint on cut up clear acetate sheets.

Looking forwatd to which ideas you are going to use/combine.

[Rhelyk]

If you're willing to put in a little effort, you can make some fantastic looking streets and sidewalks for fairly cheap. Make some sidewalks/baseplates for your buildings out of 1/8" (3mm) MDF board, it looks fantastic. You can easily make streets out of the textured spraypaint as well.

This is a board I made for Mantic's Deadzone, and only took me an afternoon to make and another to paint (2nd day mostly just because the glue had to dry). The base board is 1/4" MDF (6mm) I picked up at my local DIY store, a 4'x2' (60x30 cm) for about $6 USD. Cut that down to a 2'x2' with a hand saw, but most DIY stores will cut it for you if you ask. I also bought the same size MDF board in 1/8". I cut the 1/8" MDF into a 2'x1' section, a 6"x6" section, and a 6"x12" section. I sanded down a few of the corners to round them off and to look like the pedestrian landings on real sidewalks where they meet the street with a Dremel and a sanding drum bit. Then I glued the 1/8" MDF to the 1/4" mdf base board with elmers wood glue, clamped it and let it dry overnight. I then scored it with a 3" grid pattern used in Deadzone, but you could make any pattern that fit your table. I have a XSquadrion brand panel line scribing tool I picked up at a Hobbytown USA years ago for $9, a quick google search shows they're about the same online. Use it for TONS of stuff, it's a great tool, and in this case it's perfect for scribing the MDF  with lines for the curbs/sidewalks etc. Just use a steel ruler as a guide and pull the tool across it a few times. One all the lines were scribed I tok some sandpaper to clean up the rough edges and everything was ready for paint. You could also use the scibe tool to make cracks in the "concrete" at this point, or a hobby knife, or an awl, anything really as MDF takes scribing really well. The I primed the MDF, painted it grey and the real secret to making it look fantastic is a weathering wash I found from the UK a few years back: http://www.florymodels.co.uk/weathering-wash/. It's a clay-based wash so you brush or spray it on with an airbrush and after it dries you can wet a paper towel and wipe it away, leaving a very convincing amount of "dirt" in the recesses. The more you wipe away the cleaner it looks. I hear Modelmates makes a similar spray in an aerosol can, but I have yet to ty that one. Anyways, it's absolutely the secret to my success, and it's ridiculously easy to do.

The other secret is for roads, and that's just another aerosol can. In this case it's Rustoleums textured spray paint: Aged Iron. I just masked off grey "concrete" with masking tape and sprayed a heavy coat of aged iron onto the streets. After it dried overnight I masked off the white lines and spray painted those in, then took some sandpaper and sanded it down a little so the texture wasn't quite as rough (yes, it's TOO textured out of the can ) which also makes the white lines look worn and used, then sprayed some more weathering wash on them. It's  super easy, and you could of course skip a few of these steps or make roads out of 1/8" MDF and baseplates/sidewalks out of 1/4" MDF and set them on your normal table. Even if you had to buy all the tools and paints just for this project you're probably looking at around $50

a few more pics: http://s1153.photobucket.com/user/Rhelyk/library/Terrain?sort=2&page=1

[Dr Mathias]

Thanks for the ideas, very helpful.

I love jimbibbly's execution of course, very cool. I may have missed it, but do the buildings have attached floors, which projects to the front to form an integral sidewalk? Looks like corners an sides are separate?



Fram, I like that curved look, I'll have to figure out a way to integrate that.

Braxandur- I may do something similar for edging, I might make a custom mold that I can cast to save some time.

Very cool Rhelyk! I have Deadzone myself, so I will probably go your route for crossover potential. Nice touch with Blood Angel about to get a surprise

Thanks again gents!

[Sangennaru]

Personally i'd go (and i actuall go) with MDF as well... adding some little crackings around, as shown in my blog:

http://www.thelazyforger.com/tutorials/how-to-sculpt-a-paved-road-part-1/ (there are other two parts linked in the first one)

the article is a little old, but it was a "best-seller" on my site for years!

[OSHIROmodels]

I may have missed it, but do the buildings have attached floors, which projects to the front to form an integral sidewalk? Looks like corners an sides are separate?

All separate, front, sides, rear and anything else that I'll do for them. The initial idea was for a modular kit set up but as I might not be doing them to sell anymore they can be of any sort 

cheers

James

[Michka]

Here's the link to my Blade Runner/Cyberpunk thread. http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=56081.0
The bases are made from large sheets of plastic, which were cut into block sized sides of the street. These were double think, so the streets would tuck under the edges of the blocks. 

[Braxandur]

Braxandur- I may do something similar for edging, I might make a custom mold that I can cast to save some time.

I can imagine, a friend of mine actually made a tool for this as well and that speeded up the process a lot for him with near similar results.

Really like jimbibbly's buildings a well, really want to look into those as well

Time to build a few more nice looking tables!

[Silent Invader]

I use/do something similar as well but it's vac formed plasticard that I attach to foamboard for the height differential. 

There are some images in use here

http://sss.miniaturemojo.co.uk/index_buildings.htm

And here

http://www.miniaturemojo.co.uk/docs/16/vacuum-form_buildings/

[Too Bo Coo]

I have a fairly nice collection of modern and near future buildings. I'd like to upgrade how they interact with the streets though.

I currently have all my buildings on varying size bases, some with sidewalks, some without. I use World Works paper prints for the streets. They look good but they're flat and I'm not satisfied with that anymore. Ideally I want some blocks that have enough compatibility that I can plug the buildings into the street layout and get to playing.

I'm looking for elegant ideas people have used to do modern and near future tables with streets, sidewalks and buildings. I want it to look okay for zombie games set today, but not look wrong for Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell type actions.

I use a zussy rubber mat that is entirely a 'road'texture and then place buildings on top.  Whatever is left open is 'roadway'.  The only thing I miss from this are road stripes, but I get in return a great deal of versatility.