2 Mar 2012

City on the horizon!

Hello guys, today, I've got some bad pictures for you. I am sorry, but the sun was shining trough the windows in the dining "room" and I couldnt do much better. Well, looking at the pictures now, I could at least put the chairs away.

However, last few days, I've been toying with cork again a bit. I had some problems realising my plans, but that is just how it goes when a man plans on one level and builds on a different one.

What I got new are two little "row houses", each for one family. Floor plan is 10x10 cm (roughly 4x4 inches, i guess) and it ain't enough, heh. They look nice, will be nicer once I make the roofs, but I think I wont build second floor, because I dont see any good spot for staircase. Then again, neither i see it on the first house I've build, so i might leave it out all together. I think I could use them as small houses in suburbs or a motel in more urban table...theyre big enough to represent a little rooms, no?

The second building is horrible failed apartmen building you see next to them. I wanted to go with half-apartment on top, to make a terrace, but that would give me 15x7.5 cm floorplan and I went with 15x10, leaving next to no space for the terrace. You can see there are almost no windows in the building. That is because i've failed to decide how the staircase will run (plan is to make each floor a 15x10 apartment and leave 5 for staircase / hall).  The third, and last, for now, problem is that floors in every buildings are 7.5 high, which leaves my "small urban house with a garage" looking too large. I will fix that by painintg it darker colours and probably not using it too much wih my apartment building(s), hah.

Here is a quick layout I made after I got hit today in the morning, that I must see how much can I fill my table. What is missing  in the corner is a "box" retail store, something like Lidl and Hofer here, I think Wal-mart is built on the same prinicples. It is practicaly a box that looks like a warehouse on the inside, sells mostly its "own" products pretty cheap. When they've became popular in Slovenia, people counting themselves "high class" avoided them, as if those are stores for the poor, but that is pure bs, because much of the stuff here is the same as in "better" stores, except for nice packagin. By "same" I want to say they're produced by same company, same product in different package. Well, back to the table. I've put some cars on the middle of the board to show you where I've imagined a road to be in this certain setup. Then I've parked some cars on the parking space between apartment block and (planned) store and some in front of the houses. I've learned parking space is a) a cruel reality and b) nice filler.
 Below is a different angle, I, again, apologize for the horrible pictures. It wasnt that dark inside in reality :P.


I've also built some extra miniatures, this time leaving arms off altogether. I will simply pin them once I sculp the body.  I've bent those wires in most unrealistic way...I don't have any feeling for scales at all. But well, that is why this is called a practice, no? Oh, and they're zeds-to-be, call it a broken bone and we're good. Will draw some concept "art" now probably, not that I could possibly follow it, and not that I draw that nice (I, alike Bryan, only TRIED to be a graphic designer, but more about that some other day, hah), the purpose of my concept art will be more to give me some rough points of what I'd want a finished miniatures to look like. From far. And with a fast glance.
 While I was making the armatures, I've figured I could also use a ruler to actually measure them, not just build them by the eye. My "patient zero" is 28mm tall, as you can see. And he is still missing a head. Not too bad, should probably sculpt him as a basketball player to fix it, lol.
 The patient-to-be is 25mm high, which is much better. You can also see I've not cut the arms off, I will just try to fix it as I go, if nothing else, to remind me of doing it next time.


Thanks for taking the time to read it all again, lol. Talking too much and jumping from a topic to topic is my RL problem as well...but nothing I can do, it all just relates!

14 comments:

  1. The city is looking good. The armatures are progressing nicely too. Keep up the good work

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    1. Thanks Brummie, hopefully I'll have some muscles or clothes to show till next week. Just made me some tools as mine obviously won't come any time soon :P

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  2. I'm always impressed with what other people can pull together for building cities. Well done.

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    1. Thank you Adam. Did you think about your city already, or you're still just at miniatures? I must say that after I've set them up for pictures above, it really seemed like I made some progress. When I see them in drawer, where I've put them, they look pretty miserable :P

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    2. Mathyoo I am just at miniatures at this point, but they are starting to add up.
      I do need to tackle the city and while I orginally considered both cork like you and cardstock like Vampifan, I am most likely going to buy the more expensive but time saving digital cut boards from Sarissa Precision and DemosLaser Cuts. To be honest, I would likely never get to the playing stage if I had to build everything myself.

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    3. I totally understand that. Sarissa's buildings are actually very nice. I guess I can afford using cork for now, as I got much free time due to faculty. Once the job comes, I'm with you on premade buildings, hehe

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  3. If you can learn from your mistakes then that's good. You mentioned in a previous post that you thought some of my buildings looked too big. Well, there's a very good reason for that. If you're going to use figures inside your buildings that are mounted on 25mm diameter bases you have to take this into consideration. You have to make allowances for them.

    You've already made one classic beginner's mistake in not allowing enough room for a staircase. As a general rule of thumb, staircases should be as long as they are tall, plus you need to allow an extra inch or 25mm at the bottom of the stairs. If your walls are 2.75" tall you need to allow 3.75" of floor space to fit a staircase in. On the floor above, make sure you allow space for the top landing of the stairs (again, at least 1" or 25mm). The hole in the floor for the stairs can be slightly smaller than it's length. In your case maybe 2" long. If you are making multi-floored buildings you need to think very carefully about where to place your staircases. It's all part of the learning process, Mathyoo, so don't feel too badly about it.

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    1. Yes, I am keeping bases much more in mind now. Those 10x10 "motel" buildings are way too small. Will probably just make roofs to make them look a little bigger.

      Bases are really big once you put them in such a small places, they represent miniatures "private space" after all. It keeps bugging me, because I want to add some space, makes it 25 -> 30mm and if I want 2 miniatures to stand together, that is 6cm in a blink of an eye.

      I will do some calculations and will try to adapt your advice in existing apartment building and if that won't do it, I will just use it when I'll build another one. I am aiming for "true" downtown, but that is a lot of apartments...eventually! I will go for variety now, still thinking how my clinic and a police station would look like.

      Thanks for advice!

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  4. That layout is coming along nicely. It's good to allow plenty of space for parking and roads. Cars become useful for cover and blocking line of sight. I like your sculpting, too.

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  5. Thanks Joe, your city was quite an ispiration! I agree, cars are good scenery, and I would add some trees and gardens eventually, but then again, 4-5 buildings seem a bit little for a city :P

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  6. Your set-up is progressing in leaps and bounds and looking good l
    already ! Well done.

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