Cityboard street furniture and accessories

I took some pics today of the cityboard with some street furniture and accessories. Some are from model RR sets, some from toy playsets.

The jersey barriers in the background are plaster castings from an ice cube tray.

Pic above and below shows some model RR accesories.

This is some plastic fencing I bought online a few years ago.

Pic above shows one of the back lots.

Pic above shows the street blocked. The traffic cones are marking some casualties I made from Clix figures. There is an excellent article on how to make these casualties on the Combat Zone Chronicles Website.

One of the AT43 containers. I love these things.

More accessories with one of the Clix casualties. I based my casualties on a piece of clear plastic.

Pic above shows a police checkpoint. I drilled bullet holes into the signs and barriers.

Pic above shows another angle of the fencing. I think it really adds a lot of impact to the table. The warehouse now looks fortified. I could see this stout metal fence being pretty effective against zombies.

Another shot of a back lot.

Different angle.

Another back lot shot with a casualty.

That's it for now. I didn't do too much today hobbywise. Was feeling a little sick, and spent a lot of time helping the wife with projects at the new house. I did manage to mostly build a dumpster, made from a piece of a plastic plantation blind. My wife bought some plantation blinds a while back, and when she cut them to size she saved me a bunch of the excess plastic slats. It's a very nice, 3mm thick plastic. I hope to have the dumpster finished with pics this weekend. 

Thanks for looking. 

Some inexpensive Vehicles for Modern Gaming

Hi, folks. I stopped by a Rite-Aid Drug store not far from my house and found some nice new vehicles. I plan to use these in upcoming games of ATZ. I got 4 for about $20. Pic above shows a little ice cream truck. It has front doors that open independently of each other and some nice interior detail.

Pic above looking into the ice cream truck from the back. Looking at the colors of this vehicle makes me think it will be perfect for some Killer Clownz to drive around in.

Another view above from other side.

Pic above shows another Rite-Aid find. A nice little New York State Trooper car. Scales in pretty well, I think. Doors open, but not as wide as I would like and both open together. They don't open independently of each other, either.

Pic above shows another find from Rite-Aid. My favorite: a Hot Dog Wagon/Roach Coach. It also has doors in front that open independently, and some nice interior detail, too.

View from the back.

View from other side. I like that the sides are different.

Pic above is the last of the new vehicles. Doors that open for cover and access. Size is also about right.

Well that's it for now. Thanks for looking. I may have to go back and get an extra of each of these so I can distress them. I think the food trucks especially could be turned into nice fortified Post-Apoc/Zombie Hunter vehicles.

Thanks for looking.

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.

WIP Modern City Board

Hi folks. I've been doing a little work on a city board for some ATZ gaming. I bought a couple of 1/4" thick 2x4 foot pieces of hardboard at Menards (a local DIY store). Board is divided in half by a painted on 12" wide road in the center, with a 6" wide road running along the top edge. That leaves an 18" square in each lower corner for buildings.

Picture above is not exactly to scale, but should give an idea of the general layout. I made two boards like this so they can be placed together to one 4x4 board.

Pic above is from about mid board looking toward the 60 zombies I've been working on. A mixture of 30 Wargames Factory and 30 Zombies made with WGF Legs and Mantic Zombie trunks and heads. I like the mixed ones a lot more than the straight WGF Zombies. I also mixed in some WGF Saxon heads I had bought from Hoard O Bitz off e-bay. I'll be posting more pics of these Zombies as I get them painted.

Pic above is looking at the horde from a side of the board.

Pic above is looking from the bottom of the board to the top, through the Zombies. I set up the top side of the board with 15mm/HO scale stuff to see if I can use the board for 15s, too. 

Pic above is looking from mid-board toward the North. That's a 15mm Old Crow Goanna in the foreground. The APC is a Bravo Team 1/72 M113. The buildings are H/O model RR.

Pic above is another shot of the 15mm side of town. There is a mixture of 15mm minis, another Goanna with a different weapon set, and a Combat Wombat Hover tank. The ruined building and the Billboard are from Proxie Models.

You may notice a lighter gray colored strip by the street in the pics. It is where the sidewalk will be. I took a few vinyl floor tiles and cut them into 1.5 inch squares. I spray primed them with Rystoleum automotive gray primer. Those will be added to the board soon. I think having a raised sidewalk adds more realism than a painted on 2d sidewalk.

And now for something completely different. Cue naked guy playing piano ala Monty Python. :)
I had placed an order with Sgt Major Minis for some Studio Miniatures Zombies. I got a great deal and a fast turn-around but am just now getting around to comment on them. I got set #2. They are beautifully scuplted, I can't wait to ugly them up with my mad paintin skillz. :) I had seen pictures of them on Vampifan's blog and had read how nice they are but they really surpassed my expectations in real life. But what I really think is also cool is the way they are packaged.

They come in a VHS box. I actually thought somebody screwed up and sent me the wrong item, at first. :) The back of the box also shows painted pics of the minis inside. Which I find very helpful. I didn't know Studio Miniatures did this with the package. It makes sense with a name like Studio, of course, but I still think it is very cool. Forgive me if I seem naive, this is my first set of Studio Minis, but it sure won't be the last.

Another first, I also recently got an order from Hasslefree Miniatures. I see these on other people's sites. (I'm looking at you Vampifan :). And have always wanted them. These and the Studio Minis Zombies are Christmas presents I asked for very specifically. No more queer purple goddamn slippers (she said she thought they were gray, WTF?!) Anyway, these are also some very fine minis. I chose ones from shows and movies I like; Buffy, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, and a few others.

It's been a good couple of days. Thanks, for looking and Merry Christmas and God Bless us, everyone.


 

Gunshop for 28mm All Things Zombie Gaming

Hi, folks. Here's a little Gunshop I made for playing ATZ in 28mm. It was made from 5mm foamcore clad with strips of brick texture from a LeMax Christmas Village Brick Road mat, and based on a piece of a vinyl floor tile. Interior textures of walls and floors came from a mixture of WorldWorks Games sets, printed out and glued to the foamcore. The sign was also printed out from a WWG set and mounted on mounting card, stuck on the building with dual-sided removable sticky tape. The windows and doors were scratchbuilt and can open and close. There are also some Hirst Arts bits used; the rooftop AC unit and the electrical meter and conduit on the back wall are from the HA sci-fi molds. The gun cabinets were scratchbuilt from a mixture of Hirst Arts floor tiles, craft wood, and all the glass came from a plastic box of Christmas ornaments from Hobby Lobby. The guns for the cases came from either a Warzone weapon pack, or a Tamiya WWII weapon pack.

 Pic above shows the front entrance with a HaloClix for size.

 Pic above shows the back of the building. The silver device on the left is an electrical meter and conduit amde from Hirst Arts bits. The back door can open and close and was made according to Gisby's design for a door that can open and close found on the Combat Zone Chronicles Terrain section. It uses a bent wire that is glued to the back of the door. The wire runs up through the doorframe top and down into the base allowing the door to pivot.

 Pic above shows the back door open. You can see an interior door that alos opens and closes. It has a hinge tab piece inserted into the wall on the hinge side of the door. It can be bent inward or outward. 

 Pic above shows the roof piece with an AC unit. The AC unit is used as a handle to lift off the roof piece. The window was framed with craft sticks and the window itself was cut from a piece of clear, thin plastic, with a white cardstock flanged frame superglued to the "glass". The window was then glued to the craft stick frame using the cardstock flanges. The door is another piece of clear, thin plastic framed with thin pieces of plastic-card. It is hinged on the back using cylindrical beads glued to the back of the door, resting onto "L" shaped wires inserted through the craft stick door frame. This was originally planned to be a double entry but I was having a lot of trouble with making that type of hinged door, and just decided the other door was broken down and had been boarded over. The boards were made with pieces of craft stick cut to size. I  then drilled nail holes into each board and glued them in place. Then the boards were stained with "Age It Easy" from MicroMark. Also visible in this shot are the corner pieces to cover the joins. These were printed from WWG textures, cut and glued into place.

 Pic above shows the larger floor mounted gun display case. It was made from some Hirst Arts floor tiles, match sticks, craft sticks, and more of the thin clear plastic for glass.

 The top of the case lifts off so I can change out weapons.

 Pic above shows the case turned onto its side for a better view of the weapons.

 Pic above shows a rough workbench for the back room. Its made from Hirst Arts bits, including the crate. There's a Tamiya WWII flamethrower in the crate and a Warzone automatic shotgun on the bench top.

Pic above shows a wall-mounted gun display case with a couple of big Warzone Weapons.

Well, that's it for now. I may add some signage to the side walls of the shop. They're still pretty plain, Overall, though, this project is mostly done. I had a good time with this build. I wanted to revisit some techniques, door hinging in particular, and see how the LeMax brick sheet would work for modern buildings, I want this to be an especially nice table. I have a bundle of 6 Sarissa Precision 28mm City Block buildings I'm getting for Christmas, so this building has to be able fit in quality wise. Thanks for looking. C&C welcome.