Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Modern Cityboard WIP Update


Here's a little update on the cityboard. It's been a little while since I've been able to do any work on it, just a little bit, here and there, mainly. We closed on our new house and are gradually moving stuff over to it from across town. I finally got most of my gaming stuff sorted and organized in the new game room and felt like I could take a few pics.

I managed to get the sidewalk glued down. The sidewalk was made from vinyl floor tile cut into 1.5 inch squares. I left cutouts for vehicle access from the street and alleys.  I was puzzling how to handle the integral sidewalk sections on the buildings because the sidewalks with the buildings have a different texture from the sidewalk tiles I made. Trying to decide whether to have those integral building sidewalks set back behind my floor tile sidewalk, or to just include them like part of the regular sidewalk. My wife pointed out how you sometimes see different sidewalk sections in front of some building, especially in older sections of town. So I decided to just include them into the regular sidewalk for some of the buildings, and to set them back for others.
Pic above shows the Sarissa Precision CityBlock 28mm buildings on the left. Their sidewalk section is 40mm wide and works well sizewise with my 1.5 sidewalk tiles. So I integrated them into the vinyl tile sidewalk. On the right foreground is a Gamecraft Miniatures Old West One Story Building - 28MWEST011. It's "sidewalk" section is a boardwalk that's 1.3inches wide, a little too narrow and too different from the vinyl sidewalk tiles I'm using.  So I set it back from the sidewalk. It's going to be an Old West themed Steakhouse.


The pic above shows the board from a different angle. The street has more of the excellent Sarissa Precision CityBlock buildings in the foreground. There's an open area behind each grouping of buildings. I'll probably add more street furnishings like dumpsters or fences and have some parking spaces, too.


Pic above is the board from the other angle. On the left is a warehouse made from the Hirst Arts small brick mold, with a mixture of sci-fi and other components. That section has the vinyl tile sidewalk. The right foreground has the Sarissa buildings.

That pretty much covers the general layout of the board. Right now it's 4x4 foot. I may add one more 2x4 foot section to make the total size 4x6.

Here's a few pics of some of the buildings.









Pic above is the Gamecraft Miniature 28mm Old West Building 11. I did a slight modification on it, I put the front canopy on at a slant and used a couple of Litko cornice pieces for supports. Beneath the canopy is also a piece of triangular balsa which adds more support. There was a very nice porch rail piece from GCM designed to support the canopy but I decided to omit it because I wanted more room for minis. The pic on the right shows the roof of the building. I used a Hirst Arts air conditioner bit to be able to easily lift off the roof, and add a modern look. Still needs a paintjob and some signage. I'm thinking I'll call it "Pioneer Steakhouse". If I switch out the roof I can also still use it for Old West gaming.

Pic above shows a couple of the excellent Sarissa Precision CityBlock 28mm buildings. I really love these. They have playable interiors, are beautifully detailed and can have additional floors added. My wife got me these as part of their CityBlock 28mm Mixed Bundle deal for Christmas. 6 buildings for 99 GBP with free shipping, plus the service was great. My wife said she got the order in about a week, all the way across the Atlantic, and well before Christmas. The bundle has 3 building types, 3 of the #64 type (the smaller building in the center of the pic above), 2 of the #86 type (the larger one pictured on the right foreground) and 1 Residential building.
The pic above shows the Residential building. This is a really nice building with interior rooms on the ground floor, and as you can see it has a very nice front.


Pic above shows a couple more of the Sarissa Precision buildings with some more in the background.


Pic above shows one of the back lots. The buildings are positioned to have some narrow or wide alleyways between them.

Well, that's it for now. The biggest job left is to get the buildings painted, including interiors. I think I may use some print-outs of WorldWorks Games textures for the interior walls and floors. I'm also planning on adding street furnishings. I'm thinking I'll make some dumpsters from scratch, but I may buy some other stuff like vending machines, though those certainly can be scratchbuilt. Thanks for looking.

25 comments:

Jay said...

Hi, Joe: it's good to find you again! Very nice scenery. I can imagine the fun you'll have sluggin' it out with the bad guys.

Ed the THW Guy said...

Very nice. You have space to leave it standing or does it come apart?

Zabadak said...

Great looking layout,It'll have a "Wow" factor when finished !

Luckyjoe said...

@Jay: Thanks. I'm looking forward to getting some gaming in soon, but I still have a lot of minis to paint.

@Ed: Thanks. I glued the buildings together so they have to be stored in pretty big boxes. They fit in a couple of those plastic totes which I can store directly under the table. The city boards are just a couple of 1/4 inch mdf 2x4 foot sections. They can go under the table also.

@zabadak: Thanks. I was inspired by some of the great work on other blogs and I want to try to make something nice.

Dangerous Brian said...

Looks great Lucky Joe. I'm amazed at how quickly you've been able to put together such a large collection of scenery -and all good quality stuff too.

Ray Rousell said...

Some really great looking scenery, I love the roads and paths, an excellent job Joe!!!

Galpy said...

Some really cool looking streets, should make the game look awesome. being able to play inside the building is a real bonus

Kurt said...

Nice! Where's the KFC?

Don M said...

Very nice work,I'm inspired to get back to work on my 15mm version.

Simon Quinton said...

Very nice would love to game on there. I can't help but think that the mini is wondering around going 'Hello, Hello, Hellloooooo anybody here

The Angry Lurker said...

Amazing set up and so real......brilliant.

Vampifan said...

I love your set-up, Joe. I particularly like the idea of converting an Old West shop into a modern day steakhouse. That's really inspired thinking!

Goose on the loose said...

Looks great. Very nice. Cannot wait to see it in a few games.

lrqan said...

Super stuff. I love the way you built in the various building styles. Plenty of space for movement and pots. Good inspiration and work.

Sandy said...

Great post. Now i am searching for vinyl tile for my office if you have any information please share it.

Luckyjoe said...

@Dangerous Brian: Thanks. I've been inspired by all of the cool stuff I've seem on other blogs.

@Ray: Thanks very much. I'm hoping to do a little more work on it today.

@Galpy: Thanks, I like having playable interiors.

@Kurt: Thanks. This is the 28mm version. The KFC is for the 15mm version.

@DonM: Thanks. 15mm works good for this, too.

@Brummie: LOL. It's a little like the start on some Zombie shows, isn't it? "Where is everyone? Oh, my god, what the hell is that? Yaaaaah!" :)

@Fran: Thanks very much. I want to make a kind of gritty mid-city look.

@Vampifan. Thanks. Now if I can only get my interiors as nice as yours.

@Goose on the Loose: Thanks. I'm looking forward to getting in a game someday. :)

Zerloon said...

Spectacular!! :D

Spacejacker said...

looking great Joe, you really got that done fast!

Spacejacker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lord Siwoc said...

Ooooh... looking pretty good mate!

Keep it going!

Luckyjoe said...

@Irqan: Thanks very much. I'm looking at making a few different tiles to fill in the 18" squares for the buildings. Maybe a big office building, small park, or cemetary.

@Sandy: I got the vinyl floor tile Lowes and some from Menards, home improvement stores.

@Zerloon: Thanks very much. I appreciate the encouragement.

@Spacejacker: Thanks. It has been pretty quick. :)

@Lord Siwoc: Thanks very much. This is a fun project.

Zombie Ad said...

This is looking REALLY good Joe, good job sir. Nice mix of buildings too. Love the

Zombie Ad said...

Whoops, as I was saying...

Love the mix of differnt stuff you've used. I'd considered some those Sarissa buildings but I think you're sold me on them.

Luckyjoe said...

@Zombie Ad: Thanks. Those Sarissa Precision buildings are really nice. And now they have some Future stuff, too.

Monty said...

Excellent work! I'm very envious - nice one :)
Regards,
Monty