update ...

Apart from finishing sticking my new ships to their basese, I've not accomplished much of anything recently. Work has been a b*tch and home-life has not been great either ...

[end self-pity mode]

However, this weekend I intend to finish off my Stoelzel's Structures Food Market or, at the very least, take some photos of it to post here on Monday. So more then.

Until then, have a good weekend!

edited 3.15pm 31-Aug:  I've just put in a huge order with Grekwood to try and cheer myself up - hospital zeds'n'beds, plus some 40mm baddies to kill my greeks! pics when they arrive

Stoelzel's Structures' Hospital part 2

I first posted on this build pack in this post - stoelzels-structures-hospital, and in my last post - sickness-strikes - I threatened to post the updated photos of the build and here they are.

To begin, there are pics of the exterior before the recent changes:

 

And after:

As you can see, I've opened up all the windows (and 'glazed' them!) and have re-skinned the building so that the pairs of windows at the sides of the 1st and 2nd floors are now singles. I've done this with the windows on the ends of the hospital as well. I did this for 2 reasons - first, and the main reason, I was too lazy to cut out 4 windows for each room [ ;) ] and second, I wasn't going to have enough wallspace for what I wanted in the rooms if there were 4 windows in it.

So, to the first of the interior shots which are of the Director's office. As a reminder, this pic is a 'before' shot, showing the director's office - the 3-walled room at the bottom right of the pic:

And these pics show the now furnished office from 3 angles:

These next 2 shots show what I've put in the Records office (the room at the top left of the last 'before' pic). The tape drives on the machinery is now out of date, but I like them - makes me think of James Bond films!

Here we have one of the patients' rooms. The beds are the 120% version which fit very well, as are the cupboard/wardrobes. You can also see I've added the in-houose brain-washing/conditioning entertainment system:

Now pics of the 'Control' rooms that are on the 1st and 2nd floors. I've covered the fire extinguisher that is printed on the wall with a folded version and added a security monitor add gun cabinet - all of which are from the Stoezel's Modular Lair 2, IIRC:

As well as furnishing and 'opening' the windows, I've also added a room to each floor. It niggled at me that there were no toilet facilities in the building, so at the left end (as you look at the front of the building from the outside) I've added a wall across the corridor, a window to its end and tiled flooring (from Stoelzel's Modular Mansion, IIRC). I had to move the doors into the patients rooms adjacent to this new room sideways to create a room of any worthwhile size. The left pic below is to illustrate where this room is - at the right side end of the corridor - and the right pic is of the room itself:

And finally, a pic of the furniture I've added to the reception area - namely a bank of chairs and a coffee table. These are also from Stoelzel's but I m not sure which!

So that is the 'Clinic' as it currently stands. It's still not finished - the Personnel and Finance offices in the extension need furniture - and without conscious decision I seem to have furnished it more for an RPG or 7TV game than for a zed-based game, but I'm happy with it!

Sickness strikes ...

I recently posted a long list of Stoelzel's Structures that I'm planning to build, but unfortunately a bout of sickness has struck that will prevent me from completing that list ...

Yes, once more the wargamer's curse - "Ooh-Shiny"-itis has struck ... I found out that there is a wargame based on the battle of the Atlantic called Convoy available.

As this is something that I've always had a hankering to play - No, I don't really know why! - I had to (of course) buy it and all the supplements for it and some figures!

So instead of building, I've been reading the rules, ordering figures and generally getting very excited about yet another new project!

Before this struck though, I did manage to furnish most of the clinic that featured in this post - stoelzels-structures-hospital - so I intend to photograph that tonight and post on it tomorrow, before I start posting on my latest obsession.

Quick Update

Unfortunately, nothing substantive today. Just a post to let you all know I'm still here and working away on card and foamcore models.

As an indicator of what I'm upto, here is the Stolezel's Structures die-roller that is included with the Modular Urban Construction Kit (aka M.U.C.K.) that I built a while ago. I will do a post on it with more pics soon:

Last for this post is the model that I finished last night. It's a lorry from the Genet Models Convoy set, although when I bought it, the company was called "Ebbles Miniatures". This one has the fuel tanker body. I made a water tanker (in white) a long time ago, and I'm going to make a couple of the closed and open body versions (all in grey) to make a convoy/lorry-park as scenery for games. Just as a note, rather than score the folds necessary to create the tank shape, I used a ballpoint pen (pressing down hard) and I do like the way that's come out.

The set includes 15mm versions of the trucks, has 4 bodies (water tank, fuel tank, open bed and closed bed), each of which is in 4 colours - grey, white, tan and 'helo drab' The colour on the product page linked above).  Very nice models and worth the $5 the set costs (atm!)

The Build List ...

In a comment on my last post - wip-stoelzels-structures-federal-house - LuckyJoe, author of the superb LuckyJoe's Place blog, asked what I was building next ...

"Good question!" I thought, and decided to do a post listing what I'm intending to build ...

So here it is:

• Stoelzel Structure's Food Market - this is nearly completed as I started it when my frustration at my bodging of the Federal House got too much for me to continue
• Furnishings for my clinic version of Stoelzel's Hospital - see this post for the build: stoelzels-structures-hospital
• Stoelzel Structure's M.U.C.K - got 3 buildings from this on foamcore. I need to cut out windows and assemble them
• Stoelzel Structure's Local Pub - have the externals on foamcore
• Stoelzel Structure's Public Library - going to make this as a town hall (with a library on the ground floor)
• Stoelzel's Structures Raised Ranch - I'm going to change this as well; I'm hoping that putting a single garage door on the front and using a brick skin will make it look like a house type that is quite common in England - we shall see!
• Finger and Toe Multi-Storey Warehouse
• Finger and Toe Factory

The following are for an idea I have to create a base for a security force that will be attacked by zeds at some point:

• Ebbles Minatures Medium Folding Unit Structure
• Ebbles Minatures Small Folding Unit Structure x2
• Ebbles Minatures Convoy (3 trucks)
• Ebbles Miniatures M11 x2

And I also have a bunch of models to make for a spaceport from Ebbles Minatures too.

On top of that lot, I've got a few Dave's Games models to build 

I'd also like to have a go at one of the models I got from the Illinois Main Street webpage that Zabadak found ...

And finally - that I'm prepared to admit anyway! - there is a secret Stoelzel's build that relates to Door Number 2 in the Clinic ...

So, as you can see, the 'Collins & Nash' architectural firm is going to be shoulder deep in foamcore/cardstock for several years at least ... A positive note, though, is that Zombie-Me has agreed to become the regular guide to builds following the unexplained, mysterious disappearance of Van Fampi ...

WIP - Stoelzel's Structures Federal House ... sort of!

Just a quick post today, showing you the progress I am making on the hacked-about, bastardised building that I am making from the Stoelzel's Structures Federal House, which I have referred to previously as the ... BUNGALOW OF DOOM!!!  err ... sorry about that!

Anyway, here are a couple of pics that I snatched quickly on my mobile last night. The first shows the front elevation as it is as present and features the first 2 'glazed' windows that I've ever put in a card building! (the 2 on the first floor) You can also see the first bit of roof between the dormer window and the room above the front door. Zombie-Me provides a bit of scale to the shot, but he was moving so fast that he made the shot a bit blurry, damn his eyes!

And here is an overhead shot of the first floor. The tiled area in the top right will be the bathroom, the small room in the centre bottom an office/study and the others bedrooms. I still need to cut a hole for the stairs though.

That's it for the BUNGALOW OF DOOM!! - sorry! - but just a note on the Clinic that featured in my last post. Carl - the CEO of the mega-corporate conglomerate that is Stoelzel's Structures - has already updated his Hospital pdf to include 120% sized beds - how quick is that! Well done him! 

Also, I was contemplating another extension to the clinic, as it has no toilet facilities at all at present! I had a brainwave though and I'm going to add rooms at the ends of the corridors between the rooms to cater for this, so by the time you see it again, it will have changed quite a bit.

Stoelzel's Structures' Hospital

I've been carrying on with Stoelzel's Structures' Hospital and although it's not finished yet I thought I'd post up what I have done so far.I should say that I haven't made the building as it's designed.

Although described as a 'hospital', to me it's more of a 'clinic' - certainly you wouldn't find a hospital this small in England - so I've made it as the 'Hyde-Moreau Clinic' where Doctors Hyde and Moreau will perform any surgery that money can buy. Legal? does that really matter?

Details of the build: the walls and floors are on 5mm black foamboard, while for the internal walls I used 2mm thick artist card. I mainly used cheap glue sticks to put the prints onto the board and PVA glue for the joints. The extension was made using interiors from the hospital, while for the outside I used a brick pattern that's in Stoelzel's Structures Modular Mansion, while the stair-head is from Worldworks' Games MegaMall set which I skinned with the hospital's bricks and the extension's roof is from Stoelzel's M.U.C.K

So first of all, here's a pic of the whole building complete with the extension:

Zombie-Me is considering a course of viral-therapy to
make him an even smarter zed ...

As you can see in the above pic, I've cut out the windows on the extension, but not the main building. I intend to do so, but am going to change the narrow walls to have only one window in each room first.

Next, here are all the parts of the build laid out individually ...

Next is a shot of the main building ground floor. The signs you can see, I made and added as although each room does have a sign on the internal walls above the door in the model, as I'd re-purposed the building, I needed to change them. The black line on the floor to the left of the entrance that then angles to the left wall, marks where another room goes in the designed building. To create a waiting area, I didn't include that room, and did nothing to hide the black lines as I thought they would delineate the area for the chairs and/or benches that will eventually be there.

Mind made up, Zombie-Me enters

From the right of the entrance looking along the ground floor this time, you can see the extra door I added that leads to the extension and the pair of vending machines I made which are glued to the wall. Also, at the very bottom of the pic, you can just see the poster for 'Quantum Cola' on the external wall. (The vending machines and poster are from Tommygun's excellent free paper buildings page)

Unfortunately, body parts aren't in the vending machines ...

From directly above the entrance, you can see the stairs, which although a bit wrongly angled (see first ground floor picture) are sturdy enough to support figures. The door with a '2' on it, is from the Mega-Mall stairhead; where it leads will be something for another post in the future ...  I added the door next to the reception window as the door I had put on that room was blocked by the stairs - D'oh! that's what happens when you change somebody's design without thinking it all the way through!

Bored with the ground floor, Zombie-Me decides to
look for food on the first floor

Next is a photo of the extension looking from the front. You can see here where I have cut the windows out after having assembled the building ... I think that I've decided to be undecided about windows! However, I'm leaving the doors as they are as the internal walls are 2mm thick card which is hard enough to cut when it's flat and a straight line will be damn near impossible now the walls are all stuck together. Anyway, I added the extension to hold office space as there are none in the original design. From this side you can see the Director's office ...

errr .... but then decides to look at the extension instead!
[Continuity Alert!!]

And from this angle, looking from the back, you can see that the other offices are 'Finance', 'Personnel' and 'Records'. I'm going to make up office furniture for the Director's, Finance and Personnel offices and filling cabinets (lots of!) for the Records office - all from from Tommygun's site.

Realising the script said "1st floor" Zombie-Me leaves ...

Below is a pic of the 1st floor (or 2nd for people on the other side of the pond). I realised,(after assembling it) that the room signs in the design had "Room 201", etc above the doors - certainly not acceptable for a British medical building! ;) - hence the new signs. On the right, is the door I added that opens onto the extension roof, after all what's the point of all that roof space and no access to it?

"Spleeeeeennnn!!  Kiddd-eerrr-nneeyysss!""
Zombie-Me's essential nature re-asserts itself ...

I decided to leave out "Room 13" as I didn't think many experimental subjects patients would want to use it! and I changed "Nurses' Station" (IIRC) to "Control 1" to give a sinister feel (IMO!)

No food here, Zombie-Me carries on up

As the stairs appear in the file they look very complicated and hard to assemble, so I kept putting them off, but when I finally came to doing them, I found they were much easier than I had expected! and having no vertical bits (are they called risers? not sure ...) the gap is greating for holding a figure's base in place, as you can see in both the picture above and that below. Below is a pic of the 2nd floor and as you can see it's identical to the first

Any food here? nope, none here either ...

Again, I changed the signs otherwise it would have been rooms 31, etc. You can see at the bottom of the pic the poster I created for the clinic. I'll probably do some variations on that and put them on the other sides. As designed, there is no staircase on this floor, but I added it to give access to the roof - again why have it if you can't get up there to shoot zombies?

Eternally hungry, Zombie-Me decides to try the roof ...

And finally we have the roof. I made a bit of a bodge on this, so I edged it using plain black card, and I'm quite pleased with how it looks. As I said earlier, the stairhead is from the WorldWorks Games' MegaMall set, but I re-skinned it with bricks from this hospital model and replaced the door with one from the hospital. Apart from giving the models access to the rook, it's also a handy thing to grab to lift the roof off.

Still no food! Zombie-Me decides to try another build;
will it be the Food Market or Federal House? wait and see!

So that's the Stoelzel's Structures' Hospital, or my chopped and changed version anyway! In the set there is a bunch of furntiture, including beds, wardrobes, etc., which I intend to furnish the building with. However, when I printed the beds out, I was surprised at the size of them - they seemed quite small to me. I have no doubt that they are properly scaled , but with miniatures on thick bases, I've found that that can make things seem out of scale when they are not. Anyway, I tried printing the beds at 120% of their actual size and was pleased with the results. In the pic below you can see (on the left) the bigger bed and (on the right) the standard bed. I have no doubt that the standard bed would have looked better if I'd put the head and foot on it, but as I'm not going to use it, I couldn't be bothered tbh!

Time for a sleep? Nah! I'm a zombie!

That's it until next time. It will probably be another Stoelzel's Structures build - either my version of 'The Federal House' or the Food Market.