Moving

Waaay back in this post - temporary-absence - I explained that I wouldn't be likely to be posting again in the near future due to my impending home move ...

Well, 9 posts later (!) it's now happening.  My completion date is next Wednesday - 31-Oct - but due to the demands of work, I'll be actually moving on Friday and then have the Monday to Wednesday of the following week as holiday.

All this means that there won't be any posts here for the next 2 weeks (maybe longer) and the sites/blogs that suffer my presence on the interweb will be seeing less of me as time continues its inexorable march towards the event.

So, until I'm back posting, good luck!

Stoelzel's Structures' Local Pub

After the tease in my last post, I thought I'd do a proper post on my latest build, Stoelzel's Structures' "The Local Pub. When I began this build, I wasn't too keen on the building, having several reservations about its layout, but as I've progressed, I've come to like it and, although the reservations are still there, I think that I will use it as my survivors' home when I begin my zedalypse campaign.  Anyway, on with the pics!


First up are the exterior shots. To the left you can see the pavement pieces that I made from the prints in the file. Also, you can see that I renamed the pub to a more patriotic 'The Crown' (as supplied the pub is named 'The Winch'). Apparently, 'The Crown' is the second most common pub name in England (after 'The Red Lion') and if you included all the derivatives (e.g. 'Three Crowns', 'Crown and Cushion', etc) it would be far the most popular, so I redubbed the pub. You can also see that I cut out all the windows in the building and 'glazed' them with clear plastic - mainly saved from blister packs. This is the first build I've made where I decided to glaze it before I'd stuck the walls together and it's much easier to cut the windows out then, I can tell you!

This exterior shot shows off the larger of the 2 pub signs I made. The picture was liberated from the interweb, glued to card and then stuck to a cocktail stick that I forced into the foamboard. I'm very pleased with both of them, although the ground level, smaller, sign is a bit too low. In all 3 exterior shots you can see the problem I've got with the roof - the foamboard I've used is bowed :(  This means that I can't get all the roof to sit neatly on the second floor - bum.

I have made enough pavement to surround the pub (honest!) but didn't use it all for the photos, so this final exterior shot has just the 2 pieces re-aligned. It is surprising just how much of a difference it makes. Anyway, this rear exterior shows where I've put the pub sign again. I'm thinking about putting a billboard on this wall as well. Just need to come up with a poster for it. You can also see the small back door in this pic, which is also glazed.

And the last of the exterior shots - the roof. I'm going to add an access hatch to this (once I've made it!) as it seems a waste to not have any way to get to it. As designed, the pub has solid vertical walls with 'lift-out' interior; I've previously said that I don't really like this, as when I put the Food Market together I found that the 'lift-out' design means you have to lean over to see the interior properly. So I made each floor of the pub a separate removable piece.

This is demonstrated by the pic to the left - the roof has been removed and you can see the interior of the second floor (third to you yankees). The doors in the walls are made using Vampifan's masking tape method, described here on the Stoelzel's forum (as well as somewhere on his blog no doubt!). I must admit to some scepticism on reading it, but it works a treat - thanks VtG!

Having removed that floor, we can now see the next, with Zed-Me on the stairs, the top of which can just be seen in the pic above. As I described in the post about the Food Market, I've not put anything (except the paper print) in the vertical risers of the stairs, so Zed-Me's base is trapped between the stairs' horizontal steps and held in place. This floor is also one of my reservations about the layout. I don't really like that you have to go through one room - the centre room - to reach another - the room on the left. Not sure what I'll do about this, but I suspect that at some point, I'll change the layout by adding a hallway of some sort ...

And removing the first floor we can see the bar itself. I've not made all the furniture supplied in the file, although you can see the juke-box, pool table, example bar stool and example chair. This area is the second and final of my layout reservations - the way that the stairs are placed into the room - very strange IMO. They should be against a wall I think and I might move them or add a wall ... at some point .... Just at the top centre of the picture you can see the edge of the toilets, which I've changed considerably from how they are supplied ...

The detail of my changes can be seen in this pic to the right. I've used walls from Stoelzels' hospital model as they seemed more fitting for a loo, and added a second toilet and sink as well as a hot air dryer on the wall (made by chopping the toilet cistern about).

The dividers and doors of the stalls were made from a piece in the WWG Mayhem Police set and I'm very pleased with how they came out. Again they're hinged with masking tape and do open and close. The bar across the top is another cocktail stick, coloured in with a permanent  marker.

This penultimate photo is an zombie-eye view of the bar's interior showing off some of the extras in the file - the dartboard, chalkboard for score and juke-box in particular.

And finally a shot of the bar itself with Zed-Me ready to serve - not that I'd take a drink from him!

New Arrivals at my Hovel 01

I'm sure I posted somewhere about these impending arrivals, but can I find where it was now I'm posting about them? can I f**k!

Anyway, back on the 8th October, I stumbled across the Warmacre website (can't remember how!) and browsed their modern miniatures range, as always looking for my mini's for my British zed-a-lypse

Thhe miniatures looked pretty good to me (and the prices even better!), so after an email to Warmacre to check the contents, I ordered the "No-Go-Zone ‘Friday Night’ Miniatures & Rulebook" pack, plus No-Go-Zone Hooligans/Rioters pack. With the ridiculous postage charge (i.e. a flat £1 to the UK!) that totalled £31 for 30 miniatures (each with slotta base & metal scenic top!) plus a rulebook.

Yes, that's right. £31 for 30 28mm miniatures.  Bargain!

The package arrived on the following saturday, IIRC, and here's a pic of the contents:

As I said above, each miniature has a 20mm slottabase plus one of a variety of scenic metal tops. The tops themselves have a tab moulded on the base to fit in the slottabase's slot, and they seem to me to be pretty well sculpted.  Unfortunately, all my mini's are on 2ps or 25mm slotta's so although I won't use the slotta's (I do use 20mm's for kids, small animals, etc, so they won't be wasted), I intend to use the tops on the larger slotta's. As you can see to the left, each top has a hole for the peg that is on each mini's foot.

And speaking of the miniatures, following are front and back pictures of the contents of each pack. First is No-Go-Zone Police 1 which has 5 PCs and a WPC. There is no flash on the figs (the pic is straight from the pack) but mould lines are visible. The sculpts are good, but not excellent.

Next up is No-Go-Zone Police 2. This time, there are 3 PCs, 1 WPC and 2 Paramedics. The same comments for Police 1, above, apply here for flash, mouldlines and sculpts.

Now the No-Go-Zone Chaos pack, which holds 6 criminals, including 2 prostitutes. There is nothing specifically criminal about them to my eyes though, so they'll make great civvies/survivors in the zed-a-lypse. Again, no flash, mouldlines and good sculpts.

The final pack in the 'Friday-Night' set is No-Go-Zone Citizens. I especially like the figure eating crisps and the woman searching in her bag - for zed-repellent perhaps?

Finally, the extra pack that I got, No-Go-Zone Hooligans/Rioters. A nice variety of poses here, obviously designed to be taunting a line of police, and I think they'll do excellently for zed-gaming. The only bit of flash in 30 figs is here, attached to the bottom left mini's index finger.

I am very, very pleased with my purchase, and I would have been had the figures been twice the price I paid for them.  I may not have been flattering about the sculpts but they are very acceptable and a damned sight better than I could manage. The only thing that I haven't done yet is compare them size-wise with other figures, but they 'look' the right size to me.

All-in-all they are very welcome additions to my lead mountain, and the police especially are essential for anyone setting a zed-game (or any other kind) in modern Britain (yes, I'm looking at you m'lud Siwoc!)

PS - this post is number 01 as my Mantic Games parcel arrived yesterday, so will post on that soon!

The Pub - a tease ...

Well it's nearly done ... just got a few bits more to do and it will be. In the meantime, here's a couple of pics to show you parts of the Stoelzel's Structures Local Pub as I've made it:

a drive-by pic - that's why it's blurry, honest!

Zed-Me all alone in the bar

I took this with my phone, looking through one of the windows
at the LCD screen - v. pleased with how it came out!

With the Local Pub there are some pavement prints and I made one last night - I'm very pleased with it and will make more

Pub Progress

As I mentioned briefly in this post - post 100 and it's a biggie! - having got as far as I wanted to with the Food Market, I am building the Stoelzel's Structures Local Pub at the moment.

I've finally finished 'glazing' the windows, had the doors glued in and was on the point of beginning to assemble it last night. I just wanted to get the ground floor internal walls in place and could then glue the ground floor together ...

But could I find the prints for the internal walls?  No. The foamboard-building-print-out-eating fairies had struck again! They'd completely vanished!!

Bum.

So I've just printed another set out, and hopefully will resume tonight. It was so frustrating that I just had to share :(

Ebbles Card Vehicles

After seeing Ironmonk's post on his card vehicles here:  paper-people-movers, as I said in my last post, I was inspired to take pics of the Ebbles trucks I've made - and I actually did it!

So here they are; first up is a group shot of the three I've made, with Zombie-Me on top to give an idea of size; also, IIRC, the grid on the cutting mat is made up of centimetre squares

l-r: Water Tanker, Covered Body, Fuel Tanker

The trucks come in a set,  which has the 3 bodies shown in the picture above, plus an open flat bed that I've not made yet. You can get them from here at Genet Models' shop. (Genet Models is the new name for Ebbles).

Now for some individual shots of the trucks. I made the Water tanker a while ago, which is why it's white and the others Grey. There are another two colour schemes in the set: Helo Drab (dull green) and Tan (pale greeny-brown (on my monitor anyway!)).

White Water Tanker

 Next is the covered body version. I like this a lot and intend to build at least one more

Grey Covered Body

Finally for the trucks is the Fuel Tanker. Unlike the water tanker, I made this by scoring the interior of the body so that instead of being curved its sides are angled straights.  I think it looks better and it was easier to assemble than trying to bend the sides.

Grey fuel Tanker

As a note on the trucks, I put a piece of 2mm card in the base of the chassis when I assembled them - well the two grey ones anyway. This has made them substantially heaver than the white truck and they feel 'more solid' as well. I also think they'll be less likely to get knocked around on the table when used. I'll certainly be doing this with other card vehicles I make, as well as using Ironmonk's tip of dowelling for the wheels, which will add more to their weight!

And finally for this post, the M11 police vehicles. The pic shows the M11 copcar as supplied on the left and a K9 unit version that I bashed from it. I'm very pleased with how it came out.

M11 Cop-cars

 So much so that here's a close-up of it!

I enjoy making these card vehicles, and have decided that I'm only going to use card vehicles. This means that once I get into my new place (and find everything again!), I'll be running a giveaway of the diecast vehicles I've got through this blog - but not today!

Update and Something Ordered ...

I made some progress on my Stoelzel's Structures' Local Pub this weekend; all the windows are fully 'glazed' [what a goddamn pain that was! Carl - don't make windows that small again! grrr!  ;) ] and the next step is to do the doors. Once they are done, I'll be ready to assemble the building, and then there will be pictures - honest!

It's nice to see Ironmonk back posting over at his blog - Zed Storm Rising - and his latest post on card vehicles, reminded me of my mention in this post - quick-update on 24 July - about my intent to build a convoy of Ebbles Trucks. I can't remember how far I got with that, but as the drawer unit with them in is still at home and not in storage yet, I'll try and get some photos of what I did make done tonight.

Mantic Ghouls as Ragers ...
not so happy with them now :(

And finally for this update ... I've been 'umming and ahhing'  about whether to order this set from Mantic Games for several months now ... I wanted to get some more 'ragers' (for which I've used Mantic's ghouls) and wanted some zombies that wouldn't look out of place up against my Edwardian Sci-Fi stuff, and IIRC Brummie at Brummies Wargaming Blog, posted on the Mantic zombies saying they were good.  Plus the tombstone markers will help expand my small cemetary terrain piece.  So this morning I bit the bullet and placed the order. More on this when they arrive!

So the 60 undead in that set plus the Studio Miniatures plastic zombies from their kickstarter project that should arrive soon, will give me a plastic mountain to match my lead mountain!

ATZ-FFO now on sale...

Just so you know, I got an email from the Two Hour Wargames yahoo group this morning saying ATZ-FFO is now on sale ...

So yes, I've bought it, no I've not read it yet!

Post 100! and it's a biggie!

Well, despite what I said in my last post - temporary-absence - I have been able to take some piccies to share with you all, and when I realised that this would be the 100th post on this blog, I thought that I'd better make it a big one!  So, below you will find pics of the progress I've made on my Stoelzel's Structures Food Market, what I've done on their Local Pub (not much!), the bits I have ready to build from their M.U.C.K., the first unrealistic attempt at their Storage Unit Building and pics of the hospital beds from Grekwood Mini's that I got recently.

So then, onto the pictures! first up, to the right, is a view of the Food Market as it is at the moment. The structure itself is more or less complete, but as the other photos below will show, the interior and a few more details have yet to be done. As usual, Zombie-Me is in the pics to illustrate the size of the build. This first pic, shows the sign that I created for the build. A clearer view of it is below (somewhere!)

In the first pic, you saw the left and front of the build and this second pic shows the right side, with Zombie-Me on the roof. The roof that I've used is not the roof from the Food Market - this one comes from the M.U.C.K.  The roof in the Food Market has some stuff printed on it that I didn't want to use, so I opted for this one instead. Although I've 'glazed' the building, I haven't yet put the doors on ...

... as you can clearly see in this pic. Also, the fire escape needs adding - that's it next to the build in the pic to the right. Along with the fire escape will be a ladder that I've not done yet. I'll also add a ladder to the roof, so it can be accessed by combatants.

In this next pic, the roof has been removed showing the interior of the first floor. I was surprised that there would be a room with no windows, but I guess it's a storage room. I'm going to furnish the windowed room as an office, and try and fit a small toilet at the end of the corridor where the window is. I'm really not sure that there will be enough room though ...

The pic to the right shows the first floor after it's been removed along with Zombie-Me in the front room. Once more I've used 2mm thick card for the vertical walls, as it gives plenty of strength while being narrower than the exterior walls, as I think the interior walls should be. Although - IIRC - all of Stoelzel's Structures have this lift-out interior floor design, this is the first one that I've built in this manner. Unfortunately, I don't really like it, so my future builds will have stacking floors, each level having the exterior walls attached to the floor.

Onto the staircase. This is at the rear of the building and, as you can see in the pic to the left, is sandwiched between the exterior wall and an interior wall. It is quite narrow, and the 2 floor walls on each side make it quite difficult to get to.  However, as you can't actually see the stairs from the front, this did allow me to not bother with the vertical parts of the steps themselves.

Not having them present also enables a figure's base to be held in place on the stairs as you can see with Zombie-Me to the right. This is quite helpful, and I think I may use this again on future builds.

Onto the ground floor. The pic to the left shows how little furniture I've put together so far. In fact the shelf units that you can see are required to hold up the first floor, so they had to be there! The shelf units are actually double sided, but these ones are glued to the walls to keep the first floor in position. I do intend to make furniture, just not sure when ...

And here is a 'ground-level' view looking through the (absent!) front door. I think the shelving works pretty well and Carl's done a good job with them!

As promised way back at the start, here's a pic of the sign that I created for the shop. Hopefully some of you might recognise the name and the nature of the offered delivery service, but I don't think many from the far side of the pond will!

The model actually comes with a canopy for the front of the store and, although I made it (as you can see to the right), I decided not to attach it as a) I thought it would be a real pain to do as it had bowed :( and b) it would be a liability when storing the building.  I may revisit this at a later date though ....

That's it for the Food Market. In conclusion, it's a nice building that I'm glad I built - not that I've finished it yet!  If I were to build it again, I would certainly have made seperate floors, but that is my personal preference. When I originally built it, I didn't cut the windows out, but this made the ground floor interior so dark I felt I had to cut the windows out - which was a real pain when all the walls had been glued together!


Now then ... the Local Pub from Stoelzel's is next. I've not built it as yet, but I have made a start ... although that's only gluing the exteriors and main floor onto foamboard!  This pic to the left has the ground floor itself with exterior walls

This final pic of the pub shows its exterior upper floor walls

Here we have the main parts of the first building from Stoelzel's M.U.C.K that I intend to assemble. I'm not sure if I'm going to use the recessed entrance for it or not ....

Another M.U.C.K. building awaiting assembly ... although this one is about twice as deep as the first, it is narrower

And the last of the M.U.C.K. buildings I've assembled parts for; this will be quite a bit bigger than the other two.

And now onto Stoelzel's Storage Unit Buildings. I mentioned in my last post that renting some storage space for myself, gave me some ideas for this build. Unfortunately, I didn't realise how impractical they were until I'd actually started making it. To the left you can see the ground floor that I put together. That's an A1 sheet of black foamboard that I used for it, and none of the piece has actually been cut away ...  It was only once I had this done, and, as you can see, started on the walls, that I realised 2 things:

1. Where the hell would I store it?
2. What interest would a storage building of that size actually be in a game?

So since these pics were taken, I've revisited my plan and will now make the building (more-or-less!) the same size as Carl's design, although it will have 2 floors.

To the right is the modified main entrance that I put together for the building, complete with opening doors!

And to the left is the first floor that I started on before I came to my senses ... again this will be considerably smaller when finished.

And - at last! - the final group of photos in this post - the hospital beds from Grekwood. I got the mega-bundle of all the beds they do, and to the left is a group shot of them all after I'd finally got around to gluing the 'undercarriage' to the beds themselves.

I do have a question though ... these next 2 photos both have beds that have vertical panels at their sides. Of the 16 beds that I got, only these 2 have the panels.  Are they supposed to be like that? or is this flash of some sort?

 

So that's it for this post, not sure when I'll be able to post again ...