Pages

Monday, April 22, 2013

Victorian Terrace - Empire of the Dead - WIP - MDF structure

With the immanent arrival of my Requiem kickstarter figure allotment for Empire of the Dead, in June /July, I decided I had better get cracking and try and clear the backlog of outstanding figures I still have for this game.

I still have 3 Police Inspectors, 4 London Gents and a few civilians to paint up. These are all from the Vampire Wars Range from Westwind. I got these all prep-ed, based and undercoated, so good to start painting.

I also realised I must make a start on some appropriate Victorian urban setting buildings, and decided to make a start on a simple terraced block.

I used 3mm MDF sheet, as it's cheaper than foamcore, and more sturdy. It is admittedly a little more difficult to work with than foamcore, but you can still cut it with a sharp Stanley knife though it will take several strokes.

Here's what I have managed so far, all cut out with a Stanley knife and steel rule.



The idea being its two houses terraced together, with a walled yard at the rear. The two yards will be separated by a wood fence (balsa/matchstick construction). The rear yard wall, yet to be done will have rear gates for access to a rear alley way. I may also add a coal bunker and outdoor W/C adjacent this back wall too, for each yard.

I grew up in one such Victorian terrace in the North of England, as a kid, so know their layout old, and new... Thankfully ours had an indoor loo in my time, and the rear yard had been converted to a garden but I could see across to the neighbors and they still had the outbuildings on the back wall intact...


So far I have managed to cut out the basic shape and have done the window frames and door frames with cut matchsticks. I have just gone for a very simple small square window for these humblest of dwellings...

The plan is then to clad the exterior, with DAS modelling clay, and roller this smooth ( I got myself a small lino roller) . Once dry I will etch in a brick pattern. No doubt this will be laborious, but I can't think of a better way...

I am going to do this to each building panel, then assemble the building, and fix up the joints with more clay, and etching.

In effect, this is a test case building construct, to see if these techniques are going to work and how long they will take to do.


A Victorian gent shown for scale.

The building is 24cm wide at the front and  I have allowed 6cm per story, with a further 7.5cm for the pitch of the roof. ( I recall the ceilings in the house I used to live in were very high). The depth of the building is 15cm and another 15cm for rear yard.

So far this was an afternoons work.

So perhaps while laborious to do, at this 'footprint' size it won't take too many to fill up a 120cm x 120cm board, with space for alleys, pavements and roads in between....

For the windows, I plan to use some clear plastic cut from the blister packs all the models come in), glued to the inner surface. I have some white wedding veil material, this I will cut into small strips and again glue onto the inside of the clear plastic to effect a mesh curtain appearance. Then some black paper behind that to blank out the view into the building.

I pondered doing lift of roofs and internal floors, but I think this will become too messy to play, and if figures actually enter a building in the game, I'll switch the action to a separate floor plan to side of main table.

I am also pondering having little lights inside that will give a glow from the windows... I'll have to check out how best to do this with Joe, who's quite clued up on this wizardry!

If all goes well, I would hope to do a few more of these. I'd also like to do a corner public house, shops, perhaps a police station, some warehouse type buildings, may be a church?... We'll see how I go, grand plans and all that!

However as normal I have several things on the go at once, there's still 13 dwarves staring at me from the painting table, and a bunch of FOW stuff; 3 Universal Carriers and 3 Stuarts just awaiting decals and final varnish, a Typhoon that's long overdue finishing off to add to my XXX Corp, and I just got a pack of Pioneers to give my German grenadiers some extra help, these are about 50% base painted now... Busy busy as always!

So this building and all those figures are vying for my time...

25 comments:

  1. Very clean and tidy work here Scott and if you get those lights in, that will be really sweet.

    As for having too many projects at once, it's the mark of a serious gamer. Be proud!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's some good work Scott, the more the merrier I say when it comes to scenery!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great work there, Scott. I am always impressed with work on terrain, especially nice ones like this. Best, Dean

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great start there Scott! Have you checked out 'Ripper Street'? I think it would give you some great inspiration for this project. Looking forward to the finished product.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I haven't seen it yet, but have heard good things... must check it out...

      Delete
  5. For lights, the cheap and simple answer is Christmas LED lights from Poundland.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A good start there Scott, look forward to seeing it finished. Have you thought about using brick paper as used by railway modellers?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dave.
      I must admit I am not too keen on the papers as they are flat, I guess, with little texture?

      Delete
    2. I've got a book here on how they do the amazing brickwork on the Pendon model railway in the UK.

      http://www.pendonmuseum.com/

      Basically they use scored cardboard and water-coloured bricks. Even if this scoring of cardboard doesn't suit your particular project, the colouring techniques (and also info on different types of brick bonds) might be useful.

      Delete
    3. I've just posted some photos of Pendon on my own blog, including a simple brick cottage that should give loads of ideas for the brickwork on terrace cottages.

      http://arteis.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/pendon-museum-the-ultimate-in-scenery/

      Delete
    4. Thanks Roly, the Victorian Terrace looks just the sort of effect I am planning. Though I think, to preserve my sanity where possible, the bricks I will do will be a bit bigger than 1mm x 3mm!

      Delete
  7. Hi Scott,

    very good work so far. I'm looking forward to the next part.
    How many buildings will you need for the board?

    Cheers
    Stefan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks Stefan.
      At this point I am not sure, but I need enough to sufficiently cover a 120cm x 120cm board as thats the game size EotD works at...

      Delete
  8. Well done, this is quality work, thanks for putting the sizes in as well, this is really useful.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That's is an awesome start Scott. I get alot of satisfaction from making buildings. Keep up the good work mate!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Rodger. I have just finished cladding it with DAS clay tonight. More pics tomorrow once clay has dried, then I can start etching it...

      Delete
  10. Like where this is going. Is there going to be roof areas to be played upon?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Simon, not likely on this model due to pitch and angle of the roof.
      But if for example you want your bat swarm to perch on the roof , a good blob of blu-tac should do!
      Any other model on foot trying to scramble around up there, better hope they pass their difficult terrain test, or its a long fall to the ground!

      Delete
  11. Cracking start Scott, would love to see these lit on a cold, foggy night!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Michael. Yes I think some kind of lighting effect will be cool!

      Delete

Please feel free to comment on my blog. It is always nice to get feedback.