Grey Blockville (Sci Fi City)

[the_inquisition!]

Hi all!

Over the last few weeks I have been building a setting to play smaller scale sci fi games in. Although I already have enough ruined city terrain to fill a 6'x4' board, I don't have any intact buildings to play games in.

I wanted the buildings to look generic so that I could use them for 40k skirmish or infinity, or even the Judge Dredd minis that I am eyeing!
 
I ordered two TT Combat buildings from ebay over Christmas and was really happy when they arrived; the MDF "sprue" had lots of interestingly shaped offcuts that I immediately glued onto some conveniently shaped boxes:

2 Medium sized buildings:




 
2 small buildings:


I mostly used spare parts from the sprue, but slipped in a set of plastic GW city of death doors as they were around the right size.

The roofs are cut from MDF or boardgame board (Cluedo leftovers after I pulled the minis out  ) and lift off in case I ever want to model interiors.

I broke out my airbrush to paint the buildings and now they are very, very grey:



I have some spare X Wing tokens that I want to use as signs on the buildings to add some colour, but even with those additions I am a little concerned that when all the buildings are together its looks way to concrete-y.

Does anyone else have any ideas 

[fastolfrus]

Graffiti?
Some brightly coloured sprawl on the walls might help.

Neon signs. Advertising posters & billboards.

Litter & rubbish.

Pavements, to lift the buildings above the rest of the board, and to mark out roads etc.

[Vindice]

Rust. Brown grime. Fly-posters, billboards as already suggested.

[KGatch113]

I wa driving around Baltimore City some time back...and I noticed that most buildings are either steel/chrome and glass, red brick, or white/offwhite/beige concrete, not grey concrete. The roads are grey concrete. I realize you've already painted these, but in the future you may try it.

[Diablo Jon]

Re paint the roofs in different colours and pick out doors and windows in contrasting colours. The size of the buildings suggests more of a shanty town than a city scape so try

[Hatemonger]

When my group painted up our 40k city board, we did the standard gray drybrush job too. The trick we used was to vary the grays - mostly the highlights. So for most buildings, we used a standard neutral gray as the base color. On a few, I think we used a slightly darker warm-gray. On top of those, we swapped through a handful of different paints: lighter or darker, warm brown-grays, or cooler blue- or green-grays, even some up into an off-white cream color. We had gone to a craft store when they were on sale and got a bunch of bottles at ~$1 each. We bought maybe 5-6 different highlights, plus a few bottles of each base color, all for $10, and finished a whole table's worth.

- H8

[the_inquisition!]

Graffiti?
Some brightly coloured sprawl on the walls might help.

Neon signs. Advertising posters & billboards.

Litter & rubbish

Rust. Brown grime. Fly-posters, billboards as already suggested.

I like the dystopian downtrodden feel of having neon signs, graffiti and rubbish 

Before I started work on the buildings I had read this topic on an infinity forum and the writer here did go the extra steps with dirt and graffiti and it looked great http://www.data-sphere.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=637

Pavements, to lift the buildings above the rest of the board, and to mark out roads etc.

I've got some pavements that I made for my modern zombie games, I will get some pictures up with pavements and bins. I have the deadzone boxed game and that comes with some street lamps and barrels etc too.

I wa driving around Baltimore City some time back...and I noticed that most buildings are either steel/chrome and glass, red brick, or white/offwhite/beige concrete, not grey concrete. The roads are grey concrete. I realize you've already painted these, but in the future you may try it.

I agree, after had done the last coat I saw the XCOM 2 buildings which have beige and different coloured panels and still look really futuristic  https://xcom.com/news/en-the-environments-of-xcom-2-slums

paint the roofs in different colours and pick out doors and windows in contrasting colours. The size of the buildings suggests more of a shanty town than a city scape so try

I originally tried painting the roofs yellow, I'm not sure if I gave it a fair chance but I just didn't like the look of it and the only airbrush paints I have are yellow and grey!

I really like the papercraft shanty town - where is it from?

I think we used a slightly darker warm-gray. On top of those, we swapped through a handful of different paints: lighter or darker, warm brown-grays, or cooler blue- or green-grays, even some up into an off-white cream color

I think I can try and go lighter on some of the buildings, if they do have to be grey they can at least be different shades of grey

[KGatch113]

Where did you get the MDF parts from? TT Combat buildings???

[Cherno]

I think the grey would look fine it paired with another, more striking color, like a deep blue. Also, don't forget that you can alway add green-black warning stripes everywhere (as Games Workshop tends to do it! )

[Diablo Jon]

I really like the papercraft shanty town - where is it from?

Finger and Toes I believe

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/114387/Shantytown-28mm?http://www.wargamevault.com/product/114387/Shantytown-28mm?manufacturers_id=797&filters=0_0_0

http://fingerandtoe.com/28Histstructures.htm

[the_inquisition!]

Where did you get the MDF parts from? TT Combat buildings???

All the mdf parts in the unpainted pictures are the leftovers from the mdf sprue after the building parts were punched out.

I did use one set of "proper" mdf parts on a couple of the buildings,  the square windows with rounded edges and hinges. You can see them on the right facing side of the small building of the painted picture above. I got a sheet of 9 off ebay for £2, i think they were also tt combat

Insert Quote
I think the grey would look fine it paired with another, more striking color, like a deep blue. Also, don't forget that you can alway add green-black warning stripes everywhere (as Games Workshop tends to do it! Smiley )

I think it may be time to break out the airbrush again 


Thank for your the link Diablo John, looks like a quick way to fill a table!

[Suber]

Cool! I saved most of my old MDF sprues myself, but really didn't know what to make with them. You just showed me the way!

[the_inquisition!]

Cool! I saved most of my old MDF sprues myself, but really didn't know what to make with them. You just showed me the way!

I've acquired many good ideas here too 

A little progress

I blue-tacked the acrylic signs in place on three more buildings:



Not quite sure how to glue them in place, I think superglue might leave white frost around the glued areas...I'm thinking PVA glue

I took a picture of the buildings with pavement and street furniture from my modern set up:



The bins are HO scale railway accessories from a charity shop, came pre painted  The barrels are from cheap toy car sets.

Next steps:

I would like to add colour panels, but without having to paint any of the details on the outside walls of the buildings (I'm lazy!) so based on feedback here I'm thinking of adding:

1) more rooflights/solarpanels - I have three more to paint up (dark blue) which I will keep "loose" to place on roofs as necessary;

2) hazard markings - I can mask off and spray yellow on the edges of the roofs. This will probably be thicker than the lines below; and 

3) add various posters - I've found several sets of sci fi posters and will use these to add colour.

please see high-tech mock-up below:



C&C please!

[fastolfrus]

Might be worth painting the doors a different colour, they may be a different material to the walls.

Also, for hazard markings etc you might find a few in catalogues.
I picked up a trade catalogue from a firm that makes hard hats and safety equipment for building firms.
There is a whole page of adverts for different warning signs.

But you might find something in Wickes etc, even Argos might have some pics you can cannibalise.

[the_inquisition!]

Quick update: I broke out the airbrush and added yellow stripes to the flat roofs:





In natural light the yellow is somewhere between the bright yellow in the first picture and the subdued yellow in the second.

I also added yellow and green coloured panels to some of the walls but they didn't come out so well:



I've also started the extra roof lights and roof furniture in the picture to break up the flat roofs, the new ones are a bit darker than the one original roof light.

Next stop, advertsing posters