My own dollhouse (Pt. 2)

Here it is! I've finished the building! The rest of my remaining sanity has gone with it :P

I told you last week that I was attempting to build a bathroom for every apartment. Well, I was too optimistic. If I was to build a functional WC for everyone, there would be no room for a single bed or anything else. After some experiments, I took a controversial decision. I would use a limited space as a shower as well as a latrine. So there would be a shower head and just a hole on the floor (that can be conveniently covered with a grid when used as a shower). Not a perfect solution, but well, let's assume that life in this district is not a bed of roses and space is a limited resource. As a matter of fact this kind of silly, uncomfortable solutions happen to be a recurring issue in sci-fi, just think of the apartments in The Fifth Element or the Serenity cabins, so after all this was not totally out of place. Besides, I still needed some space in the building if it was going to be minimally playable!

Using other MDF rests, I also built some shelves and TVs:

 

Totally functional apartment, even with a tiny terrace

 

I had to sacrifice individual kitchens, I'm afraid. Instead of that, I designed some common areas in the central rooms. First floor would have a couple of microwave ovens (or its 40K equivalent):

 

These are becoming high standard apartments

 

And a washing machine on the second floor:

 

Everybody wants to move over here!

 

With some transparent sheets I solved the windows and terrace doors issue and that was pretty much it. I was tempted of making some clothe lines on the terraces, but I finally discarded it under the perspective of seeing myself sculpting green stuff shirts and underwear. That was too much :P

Then I payed some attention to the ground floor and the overall outside aspect of the building. Everything was so tidy and clean that I couldn't avoid to do some experiments. Of course I dirtied everything with different primer sprays, as always. But it still lacked something... Posters and signs are widely used, so no mistery I would finally end up finding some wonderful resources after some google-fu.

 

For me that really adds another level to the building

 

Besides, I finally challenged myself to paint some graffiti, something I have been considering for a long time but never dared to do before:

 

Some random experiments here

 

I think these deserve some explanation. I started with no real ideas. I just begun to apply the brush and the first thing that came to mind was an 'L'. OK. Then an 'U'. Then I thought I really needed some purpose, not only random letters. That's how I suddenly came with the idea of 'Lux Mundi'. They are considered as a dangerous heretic cult, accountable for many riots and subversive activities in the past. Arbites are always trying to get a clue on them, and they have recently called the attention of the Inquisition, as some Tzeentch taint has been suspected regarding some prominent members...
Above that one you can see a classic quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchmen?, little explanation needed) and bottom left... a Golden Throne :D :D :D
Bottom right I couldn't resist a Fresh Prince tribute (if you can't read it, it says 'Fresh Emperor'). The red one on the top, 'Muelle' is just a local thing. Muelle is the Spanish for spring (the metal spiral, not the season...), and was the nickname of a famous graffiti artist back in the 80's. Lots (lots!) of streets got his signature, and somehow it looked suitable to me. 80's power!
The rest are just random stuff, some experiments I still have to develop a little more in the future :)

So this is the final aspect of the building:

 

Ooops. Right now I'm realizing I didn't make the floors fit together for this pic. Believe me, they do.

Still place for some action in the inside

 

I believe I can truly say this is a dollhouse :D Anyway, as much as I'd love to do this to every single building, I'm afraid it's a thing I cannot afford. If I'm ever to finish a functional board, I'm forced to build some hollow structures just for scenery purposes, or else I would be stuck recreating more dollhouses for the next fifteen years! :D

I guess I'll have to find my balance. In the meantime, the city is still growing!

My own dollhouse (Pt. 1)

OK, this got out of my hands, I must confess...

(You can expect anything when I'm starting this way...)

You can see that I got a bar for my board; I got a shop, a warehouse, even a police station... But what's missing on this city? Houses, of course!! People's gotta live somewhere!

I fell in love with the Sarissa Precision Centre Point as soon as I saw it for the first time. I believe that Colin from The Leadpile used it for his Ferrograd project, it's a beautiful piece. So I needed it for Besenval!

 

Ground floor and access to the building

I guess it's hard to tell from a pic, but the set is really big! It consists of this ground floor, another floor with rooms and the rooftop. I got an additional floor, so it gave the impression of an apartment building or similar. After some rough priming, this was the result:

 

Cozy two storey place!

 

Well. Then I got into problems. If these were supposed to be apartments actually inhabited by real people, then they needed some stuff to give that impression! What kind of furniture would I need? What's the minimum needed for this to look for the deal? (Leaving the apartments empty was totally out of the question, just in case you are wondering...)

OK. A bathroom. A bathroom and a bed was the least I thought I had to add. Hmm, easier to say than to do. I've seen some pretty nice furniture, both WC and bedrooms, but I didn't have the patience to place an order and wait (bad planification on my part!). I thought I could improvise something; by now I have tons of MDF rubbish from all these buildings, for sure I could give an use for all those tiny pieces (you see, having painted the A-Team encouraged my lateral thinking...).

 

These are gonna be shower heads. Yeah, I know Have a little faith...

Beds. A little bit tight, but they give the right-ish impression :P

Wardrobes? Fold-away beds?

Miscellaneous stuff

 

But I realized I was building houses, not homes. You see, this is what I was talking about when I said this got out of my hands, the moment I begun to think that way... A real home would need a touch, something personal, something that says 'hey, there is actual people living here'

 

Pics of your beloved ones!

 For sure this must make the difference! :D

I'm still on it, I hope I can show you the rest in a few days... :)

Home of the Arbites

You may remember my Adeptus Arbites Force. They will of course have lead roles for my Besenval Port project, I can think of a couple or scenarios in which they would fit in ;)

But of course I thought that they cannot simply appear out of nowhere, can they? Life on the neighbourhood can be rough, you never know when a riot is about to break out, when the harbour unions are marching on strike, when the mutants decide to rise or even if you are going to have a Besenval Tea Party. Wow, you really need to have some Arbites permanently stationed over here! :D

The solution came from Sarissa Precision once again (yes, I made quite a purchase, and this is not even the last building I go from them!). Their sci-fi helipad was just what I needed.

 

Should have taken pics of the process, but I totally forgot! My bad.

 A beautiful, lovely kit, as everything they do. I tried to be coherent with what I already have, hence the black colour with the yellow stripe. I also added the Arbites shield on the wall:

 

I used a decal for the fist. It totally flaked off and had to paint it, just what I was trying to avoid!

The final touch was a proper sign above the entry door. I went for the easy ride, no complications:

 

Just a spare MDF piece coming out from all the kits I'm building

I glued it to the handrail and made the simplest text I could make out. It had to be in proper Gothic, obviously. Vicus is Latin for district and statio for... well, station!

I must confess I took some risks with this set. I wasn't sure at all of the size of the building and specifically of the helipad itself. But the Emperor is merciful and granted me a building with the exact measures for my Arvus Lighter to land on top of it:

 

For the skin of the teeth, but well, it fits in!

Glad I didn't use a Valkyrie or an Aquila Lander!

 

So now we have the last stronghold of law within the perilous district of Besenval. Still working on the people and buildings, all the stuff that makes it perilous! Stay tuned!

Port warehouse

I have a port, I have crates, now I have a canal barge too... Until I get a crane, I think that what I'm missing here is a proper warehouse ;)

Sarissa Precision make this wonderful one:

 

There was some assembling needed previous to this pic

Why white? I don't want everything to be totally rusty like the bridges or walkaways you've seen before. I thought it could be cool to make this piece look old and rusty, but still keeping its original colours. Some decayed style but still looking appealing, if that was ever possible.

Unfortunately I totally forgot taking pictures during the process! (D'oh!)

 

Thanks to my time machine, the aging of years was achieved in just a few hours :D

 

I thought of painting the inside and making it playable. But I wasn't quite sure of what to do, and I still have lots of buildings and stuff to do, so I have left it this way for the moment, waiting for inspiration to come. I'm using the inside just as a box for storage purposes (dealing with all those ladders and handrails is a real pain when you try to storage these buildings!)

 

OK; I know, I said it before... I need a new board!

 

Another piece of scenery done, let's see what comes next...

Bonus piece (Ship V.2)

Hiya there!

This is but an extension to the latest entry ;) I got some interesting feedback on the forums regarding the canal barge, and in fact I got a couple of ideas that I could easily see (and implement!). I was accused of a disturbing lack of skulls (it's an improvement! I tend to be accused of lack of skills! :D You see, every letter counts!). Though this was supposed to be warhammerized, I consciously avoided the use and abuse of skulls. But I was suggested to add some cherubs, and I immediately saw that!

I don't have any baby model to which I can stick up a pair of wings (or, for that very issue, any actual WH40K cherub), but I have a few of the cherubs from the WHFB Imperial Chapel. I have done this tiny experiment:

 

You can always find a place for this

Besides, I was also reminded of how dangerous life can be for underhivers and, well, dwellers in general of the vast Imperium of mankind, wherever they may be. So a guy living on his boat, smuggling or just trading along cities and perilous shores must for sure count with some extra firepower on board!

 

Easy and effective!

So with just these two small additions, suddenly the barge happens to have much more personality!

 

I should have thought about this from the beginning

So thanks for the ideas! Much appreciated! I'm currently having a look at toy stores trying to find a (cheap) industrial crane. Everything looks too pricey for what I humbly pretend, but there are some nice options out there. I'll let you know...

Sailing through the river

Some more scenery for the Besenval port project. I may have a harbor and some crates, but I definitely didn't have any ships! Of course I had to put an end to this senseless blody mess.

As part of all the stuff I purchased from Sarissa Precision there was this lovely canal barge:

 

It is supposed to look like the image behind

 

Once again quite an intuitive set, wonderfully designed and in which every piece fits in just perfectly.

You know me, I tried to make the rear space open and detailed in the inside, but this time it really made no sense:

 

There is no actual space for a mini!

 

But if this barge was to be set in a RT-esque atmosphere, the least I could do was a little customization work! I tried subtle additions, nothing too flamboyant. A few tech pieces (not too much), a gun (being a merchant can be dangerous out there!), some purity seals showing that the barge has the official Adeptus approval, maybe even the letter of marque merchant ready for inspection when required.

Tiny pieces here and there

Some painting work later, the barge had this aspect:

 

Too clean maybe?

 Who would sail this beauty? I had the perfect answer ready for this moment. When I told you about the Goblinaid Snorklings I said I had the Kev Adams self portrait. This was the moment:

 

C'mon, tell me he doesn't have the looks for it!

My original plan was purchasing some other sailors, but until I get them, Capt. Adams will be the guy in charge :)

 

Moving goods from here to there. Different fees depending on wether the Authorities are to know or not...

When on the canal, it looks like this:

I will carry you, your pet or your merchandise... for a price

I'm trying to look for a proper crane for the port. For the moment the Fenris' Ichabod is the only thing I've found. Lovely and gorgeous as it is, I fear it may be too big. Anybody out there does already own it and can share any experience? Or do you know any alternative?

Thanks! Hope you like this!

Building bridges for the new year

2015! New year, new projects... same resolutions, i.e. keep on painting and building stuff!

I hope everything is going well for everyone. Between nougat and marzipan I've sorted a way to keep on building scenery for Besenval Port. Houses of marzipan were a cool idea, but didn't work, I ended up eating all of them. So I went back to the Sarissa MDF buildings I had pending. I chose two bridges. The first one:

 

A bridge too far

The manufacture is wonderful. Solid, easy-building and utterly appealing. Couldn't resist this model. I covered all the vehicle transit surface with sand to depict the pave and painted the rest trying it to look awfully rusty.

 

Oldschool vehicles fit in perfectly

I thought that having one bridge would be enough. But then I saw this other model:

 

Sooo beautiful...

I thought of painting it with some more vivid colour, but then it wouldn't fit in the rest of the atmosphere. I extended the lenght of the bridge so it could fit my board, but apparently the addition looks well enough to pass unnoticed.

 

You understand me? How could I not get this beauty?

Modern vehicles might experience some troubles

This is how they look on the board:

 

Now you whistle the Bridge on the river Kwai

 

So 2015 is here, we are on bussiness again! My most immediate projects will involve (apart from this board, of course, which I hope to have ready for this year!) getting back to HeroQuest (stages 2 and hopefully 3... shhh... I'll explain in time...), recovering that gem which is Battlefleet Gothic (about time!) and I have a Hobbit project in mind, because something needs to be done after the pain of the Peter Jackson movies. Be sure to expect some board games too, of course, I'm not idle at all these days ;)

Happy New Year everybody!

Cheers

A wagon for a merchant (Pt. 2)

I've brought some paint on the merchant's wagon :)

I used the same palette that I had used for the mini, for coherence purposes (I love it when the word 'coherence' can finally be applied to me :D)

 

Despite the choice of colours, no, this is not going to be an Ork Wagon

 

I kept on using the pedlar idea and finally came up with this:

 

Dr. Gosherian. Remedies & stuff. Blah blah blah

According to Google, it says 'doctor' there. Didn't find how I coud phonetically write 'Gosherian' in Arab

So the basic wagon would finally look like this:

 

Square, shabby and barely functional... OK, that means Warhammer 40,000

 

But of course the wagon needed some kind of stuff here and there. I would have loved to have some pans, flowerpots and stuff like that. But all I had at hand was this:

 

Well, at least looks like a traveller

The front axle can actually turn, BTW

Yup, I love adding plates to vehicles

Wanna trade?

 

No need to say, this is quite an eccentricity on my urban/civilian project, but anyway I find it terribly fun and really believe it adds some flavour.

I still have tons of pending scenery, so I guess I will work a little on that. Or in different stuff, you already know how I disfunctionally work :D

A wagon for a merchant (Pt.1)

While the scenery grows, I cannot but keep on the side projects regarding this little insanity ;)

(Yup, my mind scatters again and I need to be involved in too many things at the same time)

I purchased some cool items from Sarissa Precision a couple of weeks ago. Seriously, the stuff there is awesome. You will be seeing it all, but for the moment let me begin with this... unexpected model.

 

'And what the hell is this' I hear you ask

You remember this guy?

 

Abdul Gosherian

 

You saw him last week alongside other guys. Well you saw him if you came here. If not, that's why I put the link :P

That merchant needs something else, doesn't he? If he is to be a proper pedlar, he for sure needs a local shop. I thought that a wagon should fit in well. Sarissa have a couple of Gipsy wagons which are wonderful, I was really tempted, but I finally opted for this smaller one from the Victorian ranges, I guess it works fine as well.

'And this is leading to...?' I hear now ;)

I had this silly idea in mind of merchants in Old West movies, selling miscellaneous stuff from town to town. I thought it would be funny if I depicted this guy in that way, but with a slight ethnical touch.

But of course this wagon is no good for sci-fi settings at all!... Not at all? What if, instead of horses, I find a few tyres and a couple of other random pieces and mix them all?

 

Your scepticism is still justified, just give me some more time...

I needed to extend the axle because the tyres are too big to fit beneath the chassis. I think I still need to add some more stuff, but nothing apart from tiny details for it to be more Rogue Trader oriented. Haven't decided yet. I'll put some paint on it first and will see what it needs as I'm on it...