Urban Project - Supermarket WiP 2

Hi all

Progress is being made on the supermarket, mostly on the structure. I wanted to represent the more typical retail structures which are usually glass fronted.  This meant going back to the technique used in my three houses i.e. coffee stirrers cut in half length ways and then painted, in this case bronze to make up the frames.  I then used blister pack plastic to recreate the glass.  

I then made up the walls for the shop.  I chose to make a Morrisons (a UK based supermarket chain) not for any real reason but the signage is pretty usable for the build. I wanted the walls to look modern so didn't scribe the brick pattern on any of the public facing walls and only left the bare brick work for the employee only areas to recreate the difference between the public and private areas in retail operations.

While the paint was drying on the walls I started carving the ground work on the base.  This meant the standard paving/tarmac mix that makes up British pavements, as well as the tiles on the shop floor.  I also sanded the "dropped curb" areas, one for a parking lot and the other for the delivery entrance.

Painting the base was simplicity....erm not! Tiles individually painted is so time consuming.  The tarmac areas will eventually get a textured paint covering and white lines etc but for now left a base black.

The roller door for the delivery entrance was simplicity itself.  Some corrugated cardboard with the thin paper covering removed carefully and then glued back to back before cutting to size.

Last thing this week is to show the shelving units I've started to build, made from coffee stirrers and some mdf scraps.  These will have either my Das fully stocked pieces on them or half filled versions when I get  around to making them.

That's it for this week. All that remains is for me to wish all of you good people a very merry Christmas and I'll catch you on the flip side.

hope you enjoy
dGG

Urban Project - the supermarket WiP 1

Hi all

Onto the next part of my project and one that I'm hoping will add a lot of character and playability to the setup.  As the title of the post states, the next build will be a supermarket.

Not a great deal has been done on the structure of the market but I have been putting together some of the detail which will (I hope) enhance the piece.  First of all though I need to know rough dimensions, so I cut a base out of blue foam.  As you can see its a pretty big chunk of the board, roughly 2'x2' in an "L" shape.

Onto some of the detail then. Firstly I made a set of shelving contents carved from blue foam and made a mould from Blue Stuff.  I then replicated the piece 8 times out of Das

Which I then painted up

I then made some wheelie bins.

As well as some pallets for the warehouse section.  These were made out of coffee stirrers and some mdf pieces roughly the size of matchsticks.

I then moulded the boxes that will make up the boxed goods for the warehouse.

The one thing I didn't have a clue how to make were shopping trolleys.  Given time I could pobably figure something out but that is a luxury I don't have. So I hit t'internet and procured these.

From a 3D printing company that does for Architects.  Painted they look pretty darn good and scale well with 28mm minis.

and thats as far as I have got this week.  

hope you enjoy

dGG

Urban Project - Nash Road completed

hi all

firstly my apologies for the late post and the lack of comments on my fave blogs. I have been reading them, late of course, but I have been reading them. However the new job role requires some adjustment time.

So onto the post then.  The last post for Nash Road, so all that was left to do was the final upper floor of number 6.  Finished off in the same way as the other two buildings.  Some movie posters - check out Dawn (and Shaun) of the Dead as well as Guardians of the Galaxy.

So the upper floor is done, her is the wider picture

I decided a billboard was in order...

thats it for now

hope you enjoy

dGG

Tiles - a tutorial

Hi all

Recently I was I asked by Joe from Zabadaks Zombie World to give a tutorial on how I did the roofs on the houses in my Urban Project.  With one more roof to do I was happy to do it so here we go.

First of all I cut some 6mm thick blue insulation foam in to 2x rectangles to the required size in this case - 9x15.5cm.

I then took a large flat head screwdriver.

using the blade of the screwdriver at an angle, I pressed down and slightly toward the top of the roof

going down in columns to produce a look of overlapping roof tiles, then go along the row.

I then use a cheap emulsion - Rustic Red from Poundland to provide the main colour, weighting the roof sections down to avoid warping, I then "wash" it liberally with a homemade dark brown/black wash, before drybrushing the whole thing with Rustic Red.

While the paint is drying I cut two long pieces of card (cereal box card) the length of the roof (15.5cm) by 2cm, scored down the middle of each length of card. I then chopped one piece into 2cm chunks and added a 3cm chunk as well.

Glue the 2cm chunks to the long piece of card, shiny side to shiny side. Overlapping the "tiles" so they look like roof tiles make sure you start at both ends and meet in the middle.

Use the 3cm "tile" to cap the middle section

I had already made the next few pieces so my apologies.  The chimneys are made from 1cm thick blue foam, in a 1x1x2cm piece. cut the base to the angle of the roof and cap the top with a small length of drinking straw.  Score the foam to look like brickwork and paint the whole thing with Rustic Red and brown wash combo to match the roof.  The TV ariel I made from a cocktail stick.

The satellite dish was a small cut off of blue foam and using my "not" dremel I scored the front so a concave surface was produced.

I then glued the foam to a cocktail stick and stuck an old wire from a set of headphones into the back before painting the whole lot black.

The whole lot get glued together (not to the walls) with PVA

So that's how I made the roofs for my houses, hope it wasn't too boring a post for those of you who didn't request it. Joe I hope you found it useful buddy!

With regard to other bloggers.  I found this in Tesco, Simon "Blaxcleric" have you and Greg "The Wargame Addict" got together and started producing my favourite tipple?

Finally, I've now completed all the requirements to be a practicing paramedic - degree, transition to practice, interview and registration with the HCPC.  5 years of hard work and commitment have paid off and here we are!

hope you enjoy
dGG

Lamps

Hi all

maybe one of the most boring titles in blogging history but I hope you enjoy the content at least.  For my urban project I've been wracking my brains on how to add layers of detail without cluttering the piece so much that miniatures can't be used in the games!  To this end I'm always walking the aisles in hobby shops of various types looking for inspiration and often finding it in the most unlikely source.  This is largely the fault of Jez from the blog "Carrion Crow Buffet", who is always doing something spectacular with just a bloody button or something! (no jealousy there at all :-) ). 

So in a shop called "The Range", I found some lovely little beads that I thought I could do something with.  They are pearlescent and vaguely teardrop in shape.  The first thing I did was glue a cocktail stick into the bottom of the bead.

I then cut the stick to size and reached for my trusty glue gun.  Squeezing a roughly round blob of glue onto baking paper, I then stuck the other end of the cocktail stick into the glue, flattening it somewhat.

Once the hot glue cooled and hardened, I took it from the baking paper and voila.

With a touch of black paint....

and in my newly built houses... sorry for the photo

nice and simple detail with a minimal outlay and takes about 5 mins exc drying time.

hope you enjoy

dGG