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!
