19 Feb 2012

First house "built"

Hello everyone!

I was thinking a lot about the size of my buildings since I was asking around about it last time. I've checked Vampifans buildings again, and found out that while they look really awesome, they are somewhat large. Then I rechecked the Matakishi's sizes and found those too small. I was drawing some plans and eventually, I've figured it is best to just start building and I will fix things with experience I'll get.

My first building is "typical" suburan house, one story building with attached garage. I've decided to go with 25 cm long, 10 of those being a garage. The house thus measures 15x10. The building itself seems large to me, but when I check the floor plan, and imagine where I'd put interior, it becomes too small. I was wondering how I'd model a living room and a kitchen in the ground floor, and honestly, still didnt came to a conclusion.  Considering I've cut out the french windows (at least I think that is how those big windows are called), I've even figured, I could make it a shop with apartment upstairs. The inner walls should probably be made with thick cardboard, because cork would take too much space. I have drawn lines for windows on back wall of the ground floor, if I decide I'd need them, but didnt cut them in case I settle for a shop. Probably an arms shop, like Vampifan has it, hehe. Can't think of better family business for apocaliptic town, really.
Here is the picture of the building as it is at the moment:
The roof on garage can be taken of (I have put the glue on it, but remembered just as I put it on -.-). It is made of carboard and has sand on it. Making shingles would take forever, and I think sand could give me a nice result. And that is when it wraped. I will probably make it out of thicker cardboard or plasticard. I went with cork for basing as DIY store I was about to pick hardboard from, was out of 3mm, of course. I figured 4mm is too big. And honestly, I prefer cork, it is much easier to cut and I don't want to go out in that cold to cut the hardboard with a saw.


On this picture, I've deattached it. This gives me the ability to play inside. I plan to make the opening doors and fill the windows with some plastic (from blisters or similar), but honestly, I rather wouldn't think about it just yet, heh.
Here, I've put a car in a garage and placed the minies inside to give you better sense of scale. The garage should be wider. Which I planned, but I lost that idea somewhere. If whole building would be just 2 cm wider (12 from 10), I think all would simply look better. But this ain't bad at all. Most of the cars shown in previous posts fit inside. The door seemed big at first, but when mini is placed in them, they're perfect. Thanks for scaling guys. I guess they really seem big just because I've made building small.
Thats the last picture, to show you the floor. Garage could be wider and a bit longer to fit mini inside without crowding, floors are simply too small to give me the ability to model whole aparment inside, but if I don't make it a shop, I could make a living room/kitchen downstairs and a bigger bedroom upstairs. Except I dont know where I'd put start. Thats why I didnt cut anything out yet... So many things to think about, heh.

I will probably only cut the triangles for the roof and then leave the building as it is for now. I'd like to build a smaller retail store now, will just make a box. And then Ill probably have problems with interior again, heh.

Leaving the modeling aside, I am still thinking about setting for my outbreak. I was thinking UK, just so it isnt USA again. And I thought about USA, just because of the availability of the miniatures. Then I talked to Vampifan about placing the outbreak in Slovenia, which would be easier to set and all, because that is the place I know and it could work better. I am a bit reluctant about making it slovenian...it just seems wrong to write "Banka" instead of "Bank" on a building, for example. I can't really explain. The thing is, rules are in english, blog is english...it makes sense to build the buildings english as well. I think I will just think of a name for a city and will place my campaing in totally imaginate country. This also gives me the availability of using the minies I want and the way I want them. It simply gives me more freedom of choice. For example, I can paint more than one people black (I apologize if anyone finds the term offending, it is not meant that way. I could say "african american", but "american" doesn't really fit.), because in Slovenia, you can see about 1 in what, 200 thousand?

Oh, by the way, my zombie horde was dispatched yesterday, I expect them to come by friday the latest and I will come back then with a review.

Ah, I might as well add that my local WGS got great -50% deal on Urban Mammoth miniatures. I've ordered me a pack of female militia with pistols, as those are the only ones that I saw fit for survivor / ganger role. Those with rifles and males not so much.
I also wanted Land pilot (female), but it was out of stock. Thats a shame, its a nice mini.

8 comments:

  1. Nice job on the house. I think its a good size. I always want big houses to be able to play the interiors, but then the houses take up too much room on the table. Nice blog. I saw it on Vampifan's and I'm following you now.

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    1. Thank you!
      And yes, Vampifan's blog is the best advertisment around :P

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  2. Absolutely a great start on this house!!! You are on to something good here mate.

    Looking forward to see the arrival of the horde.

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  3. You've made a very good start here, Mathyoo. I wouldn't worry too much about the interiors. At this stage, making the exteriors is more important.

    When you get the I,Zombie supplement for ATZ, you could follow Ed's advice regarding building interiors and draw them out on paper or card. This way, you can make your interiors much bigger than the exteriors, much like Doctor Who's Tardis!

    Making furniture for buildings may look good, but it is very time consuming and you have to allow enough room to fit figures in. You'd be surprised at how much space figures take up when you stick them on 25mm diameter bases.

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  4. Looking great the interior idea that Bryan suggests is a good one I may steal that myself

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  5. Good looking building so far.
    As for interiors I would suggest initally having a minimalist apporachfor practicality, I'd suggest having a look at Lucky Hoe's excellent Sarissa buildingsfor inspiratin. Some internal furniture can be bought commercially too.

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  6. Thanks for the kind comments guys.
    I will probably only build the triangles for roof on 1st floor (as I have done it for the garrage) and will move on to the next. I think it is best to just build the shells as long as I have ideas for what to build. When Im done with that, I will go on exterior detials and that should give me enough time to decide on interior itself. While I like the idea of drawing plans for bigger buildings, I think I'd rather go with some less realism and just put a couch, a bed and a TV in buildings, making one story = one room. Just for the picture, hehe.

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  7. I really like you're buildings, I think I will steal some of you're design!

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