The House - a Progression

 More like a bloody slow progression. Did this bit over Christmas but was too slovenly to post it until now. I have a good mind to complain about the alleged author of this blog and his lack of discipline.

 Right then, some pictures.

Assorted flooring installed. Still needs to be dirtied up.

 The flooring is cut from sheets of paper intended for scrapbooking. The red and tan bits have a texture that I hope will pop when I drybrush them.

Yeah, yeah, thats great. Where's the roof?

 As this is a multi-purpose ruin, I went for the boarded-up window look to give it that Last Man on Earth vibe. No garlic garlands or mirrors, though.

 I attempted to use a crackle finish medium to give the white paint a peeling look, but I either did something incorrectly or it has gone bad in the years it has waited to be used since I purchased it. My strong suspicion is the former. In any case I will be experimenting with it some more in the future. I ended up stippling white over the grey primer in varying strengths. It achieved the look I was going for (or at least close enough for now).

That meter might be difficult to read.

 Rear view. I was so happy I added a power meter (scratched from plastic tube, balsa, and pva/white glue) then I looked at this picture and realised I did not add a phone or cable box. Have to add that when I finally build the roof. And go back and add all of those to the store. Why? Because I'm just weird that way. I wonder if I can tie them all to a common ground? I wonder why I would even wonder that?

Those window treatments are all the rage this year.

 The roof and some other miscellaneous bits will be next. Probably some random furnishings as well. Stay Tuned!

Back to the Front !

 Thankfully it didn't take a month to get around to the other side of the building. Started posting some of this on various forums with the end result that it seems a bit less like shouting into the void. So more pics to peruse and inane text to read.

 Last time we had painted the very bricky finish on the sides and back, sort of like a mullet if that hairstyle had been made of brick. It would have made people's heads look very 8-bit I would think. In any case the front got it's due turn under the brush to go from a grey plastic model railroad building to a painted post-apocalyptic plastic model railroad building. Without further ado -

Not sure how "sparkley" the laundry is now...

Here is the "before" shot. Life was so much simpler then.

 A light grey treatment followed by some damp brushing on the wood bits with white, then a copious wash of reddish brown, followed by some dirt and rust.  I left the original signage but I will, eventually, craft something different. Perhaps several different sets so that this building can be many things to many people (ok, many things to the few people remaining).  Looking at it now it looks too clean but I was afraid of the ink running should I get the signs wet.

 Not to be forgotten, the roof had a repair added and the same type of dirt and rust treatment as the front.

Check out the nice neat worksurface.

 The now-traditional art board floor was glued into place after getting a coat of sandable sealer on both sides and drying about an hour. Not pictured (but use your imagination) - the abandoned house got a coat of gesso on the interior walls to prep them for painting. The outer walls will be my first experiment with peeling/chipping paint (crackle finish). About 10% of what I wanted to get done this weekend but thats 100% more than I usually seem to get done, lately.  Stay tuned! And have a Merry Christmas / Holiday Season / Grumbletime.

A Hiatus, and then...

...a burst of activity!

 Been a while since my last update. Real Life (tm) took over for a bit, but I have finally guided my focus back to VF.  Back to shouting into the void.

 Among the haul of buildings I procured at the model railroad show was a small shop - actually two shops in one building - from K-Line.

Oooh, only 22 clicks to make this appear this time!

Fairly basic, but mutants don't mind.

 Its a nice little pair of shops just waiting to be reworked into a reminder of what civilization used to be like. Soon, they will become any number of things. As long as those things involve scavenging and hardship and no electricity or email.

 First thing was to get the building structurally ready for gaming. I have to be able to put minis inside the buildings at times so that roof has to come off. Many times with these older model railroad kits they were assembled using unknown cement many decades ago. Often the cement was applied very sparingly and by now has let go, allowing the buildings to come apart with a minimum of effort. Did that happen in this case? No. So out came the hobby saw for a bit of judicious surgery. One of the things I like about this building is that the roof sits in a recess and allows the saw to be inserted into the actual glue joint. As we will see in some future posts not all buildings afford such a luxury.

The aftermath of The Saw. A bit sloppy (oops) but it worked.

  After carefully (ok, I still managed to gouge a part of the roof detail - arrgghh) sawing the glue joint around three sides of the roof it came off with a minimum of effort. Some of these old kits are a bit brittle so one must be judicious when it comes to prying anything apart.

The interior. Indeed basic but its a great starter ruin!

 Some of the details (bushes) are molded into the walls and leave some annoying voids. You can ignore those or do as I did and attempt to cover them up.

Annoying voids.

Even more annoying - not having a decent pic of the covered voids!

 The inside of the roll-up door was a bit bland on the inside so that was covered up with a bit of corrugated card. There was also a small cutout at the bottom of the left rear corner for wiring that was also covered up with a small bit of plain cardstock.

 A few other details were added. The back of the sign received a bit of thin cardboard to fill in the largish void (with "K-LINE" in huge relief letters) and the skylight windows got a bit of "hinge" strip and a small "latch".  A strip of very thin plastic was added to the rear roof detail to cover some of my ham-handedness with the saw. The front door also got a small bit of plasticard to help define one of the door pulls. Its the little details that make your buildings not look quite so much like the recycled ancient plastic kits that they are!

It all seems so innocent now...

 Next up - The Masking of the Red Death. Ok, not that, but masking those funky green windows in the front. I debated trying to take them out but they had the best glue joints on the building. Removing them would have meant prying, cursing, and shattered green plastic. And enough shards remaining to make it tough to replace the windows so they got the tape and card treatment.

Coming soon - Bookstore of the Damned!

 I blasted everything with some $1.00 flat black spray paint from my local discount store.  Do I have a picture of the primed building? Of course not but you can use your imagination, right? So lets start with the brickwork.

 I started with a heavy damp brushing of Apple Barrel #2604 Barn Red. Yes, I use a lot of craft paints. Its what they were made for. Help them fulfill their purpose! It looks a little strange at first but we will fix that.

 Next I gave it another, lighter damp brush with Delta Ceramcoat Red Oxide. This brings out more of the "brick red" colour we associate with, well, bricks. Then when thats dry, a drybush of light grey (in this case Delta Ceramcoat Quaker Grey. Dont use Quacker Grey or it will look like a duck. But I digress.)  I also gave the windows and roll up door a coat of grey. Starting to look more like a building now.

Slightly out of focus. Sorry!

 The windows and doors were then given a damp brush of pure white followed by a brown Magic Wash and then stippled with some orange (Citadel Foundation Macharius Solar Orange in this case. Hey, I don't always use craft paints) to bring out the rust and neglect of decades without maintenance. The door control buttons were hit with a dab of green and red. They no longer work but they should at least look the part, right?

 Next time, we'll look at whats going on in the front of the building. Hopefully it wont take a month.

This Town Aint Big Enough...

It really is a bit on the smallish side, so far.  One partial house, some garbage skips, and an unbuilt firehouse. And some walls. So yesterday one of my gaming buds and I went to the model train show and procured more buildings.

Twentythree clicks later, the pic appears! Plus I finally learned how to do captions.

 From some friendly peddlers wares comes this selection of classic Plasticville and K-Line buildings in O scale. I picked up three HO buildings as well but those are for the future. In any case hitting the train shows and looking for used buildings can get you some decent town filler on the cheap. I got all of  those pictured for $50. Yes, they are missing some bits. Some need to be carefully cut apart at the glue seams (though some just come apart with a bit of gentle persuasion). They all need to be rebuilt and painted to make them suitable for gaming. But this is a selection of buildings I do not have to design, cut out, and assemble from scratch. I love to scratchbuild things but sometimes you need a bit of help. Ancient plastic model railroad buildings to the rescue!

 If you have never been to a model train show, do yourself a favor and go. Its pretty much like going to a gaming con except with (obviously) trains. You'll see some great layouts and there are vendors with new and used stuff. Everyone we spoke to there was friendly and helpful, even once we explained that no, we aren't really train people and yes we play with army men. Maybe it was the idea that they had an equally crazy but more socially accepted hobby than we do that caused them to not be alarmed by us. Its probably not often that the train nutters get to roll their eyes and say "Oh, check out those guys".  Always happy to do our part!

 Seriously, when you go, take the time to talk to the guys who build the really pretty layouts and likely you'll pick up some good techniques and tips. We stopped to talk to a gentleman who had some absolutely beautiful HO scale buildings for sale - some just buildings, some little vignettes that would look at home in a museum diorama - and he explained a technique of using alcohol and bit of acrylic paint as a stain. He said it works best on real wood but can do well on other surfaces. His results were impressive so guess what I'll be experimenting with when it comes time to paint some of the new construction in VF?

 Some of these buildings were like old friends, despite my never having owned them before. They are featured in a series of articles over at http://combatzonechronicles.net/table.htm . That is one of the sources of inspiration I have used in my approach to creating Valhalla Falls. Well worth a peek if you haven't already surfed over.

 Another thing we saw at the show was a series of prepainted and detailed buildings that looked great. Definitely a cut above the previous generation of useful "pre-built/pre-painted" model railroad buildings that have been on the market. They had a price tag to match but they were indeed on a different level. Now, am I going to pay $150 for even a largish O scale building so that I can cut it open and make it ready for gaming? When I win the lottery, but probably not before. But they were impressive. I tried not to think about the fact that they may have been built and painted by political prisoners in a gulag somewhere. My buildings are built and painted in my own personal one-man gulag, so definitely far more green and sustainable and whatnot.

 The short version - go to the train show, young man.

Welcome to Garbagetown...

Life has intervened to keep me from working much on anything VF related, but I have managed to get a few bits done over the last week or so.

Above - A bucket of resin goodness. Various items I picked up at a con from the fine gents at Recreational Conflict.

The first of the garbage skips. (As an aside - what is it that causes blogger to sometimes post a pic on the first attempt and then for the next it takes 23 clicks without result?)

Just noticed that some giant kitty left behind some random fuzz. Keeping them off the painting table is a pleasant dream, sort of like "What would I do if I won the Powerball?". Its about as likely. Pests :-)

More to come, soon, I hope.

The first house on the block - now with the great taste of bacon!

 Ok, no real bacon in this one. Sorry. When we left off, we were starting to place the siding on the exterior.

 In this case, I used a new (to me) product in place of my usual Plastruct or Evergreen sheets. The JTT sheets come two to a bag and are much lower priced...something that made a huge difference the day I went to the train shop. This was about half the price of the other brands, so I celebrated the savings by picking up some roofing material at the same time. Since this is a simple home, some basic clapboard siding was chosen. You could just as easily use brick or whatever else strikes your fancy. Remember Bob Ross.

  Note that this says HO scale, but I am working on an O scale project. Remember what I said about "looking right"?  In this case I just liked the size of the boards better than the actual O scale sheets.






 I started by cutting out the sections I would need, along with the door and window openings. These were traced on the backside of the sheet and carefully cut out with a (sharp) hobby knife.

**IMPORTANT** These sheets have a definite directionality. Make sure you have the piece correctly oriented before you start cutting. You may not notice that the siding is upside down now but I bet it will be rather obvious once you put some paint on it later. The tape is on this piece so that its one less thing to fiddle with during application.

 The pva/white glue was put on as shown, then spread out so that is a thin coating. You only want it thick enough to form a good bond with the siding. Too much and it will warp the foamcore. Make sure you have a good bead of glue around any window and door openings, along with all outer edges of the wall. This will help ensure that a good strong bond and lessen the chances that you will catch the siding on something and cause it to separate from the foamcore.

 Once you have it positioned where you want it, gently tape it into position until it dries well. Today that has taken about an hour, but your mileage may vary. At this point you can also apply the white glue to any exposed edges of the foamcore to prevent damage from the spray primer later on. But if you want to take a little extra time to fancy it up a bit...

 Add some wood or plastic strips to the framing of all windows and doors. Yes, it takes a bit of time but unless you are in an extreme hurry the effort is worth it. This really defines the openings as windows and doors instead of just a hole in the wall.

 It is also useful for covering up unsightly joins on the interior walls. Next up - installing a floor. That will do double duty as both a place to put a rug and as a means to help strengthen the structure.

 Sort of related - finally got a proper frame and hung up this inspirational poster that my daughter got me a while back. A bit of art always brightens a dark corner. Even in an apocalypse.

The first house on the block.

 Finally got around to working on the first of many buildings that will become VF. Started with something fairly basic, a small L-shaped ranch style house.

  Wall sections cut out. Or at least some of them. I originally was planning a rectangular shaped house, but once I test fit the pieces it was apparent that it wasn't really house sized. More like a large shed. So I cut out more sections to make something a bit more roomy.

 The techniques were basic. Figure out the size of your walls and cut them out. Calculate the appropriate height and width of your doors and windows, and mark out your locations. Cut some out and test against one of the figures who will be using the building. Beyond all other arguments/concepts/theories/formulas about scale the biggest things is "Does it look right?".

 I could make an example of the (mostly) 20mm vehicles sold by a certain company alongside their range of 25mm infantry (that didn't mix well with anyone else's) and how obviously incorrect they looked together. And I could point out how silly it was that said company engaged in damage control of the criticism by pointing out how dumb their customers were, because "the math is right". This being the same outfit that said that the pre-painted figures done by machine were "better than what  the majority of people game with"...but Im not going to have that rant about that certain company. The one that pissed away their opportunity with Starship Troopers. Or their modern combat game. Or any of their other miniatures projects that some of us actually enjoyed and were angry when they withered on the vine because they made fun games and we liked their stuff. **cough cough Mongoose cough* So, the takeaway is - make your stuff look right and I guarantee that nobody will play in your games, stop to make measurements and calculations and pompously announce "the math is wrong!".

 Though if someone does, just throw their dice out the window and see how they like THAT math.

 Here is basic carcass of the house with all windows and doors cut out, walls joined with hot glue and buttressed with a small bit of masking tape. Some of the locals have come to compare calculations using tape measures and slide rules. The outer walls will be covered with siding so the tape won't be seen. You could also use pva/white glue and pins to join the walls, but I cannot find my pins - dressmakers pins are the best for this, they have a large "T" shaped head, much easier to remove when the glue is dry. So hot glue and tape it is.

 Another overhead shot to show how roomy it is. That living room. And the natural light! Too bad you'll probably have to board over most of the windows. And place sandbags in the firing positions. But a pit of paint and some nicknacks and it'll be so homey you'll never want to leave. Until your supply of tinned soup runs out. And then the dog food. And *gasp* the peaches. Not the peaches! *quietly sobs*

 Ahem. Here is a sot of a section of siding glued in place and braced with whatever was handy. More to come as I glue it all in place.

Wall Painting - A quick and dirty tutorial.

So, we have built wall sections, and now they need to be painted. Here is how I did it.

Cheap spray paint for primer. In my case, some $1.00 flat grey from the local big box store. Its cheap, it works, and if there is a problem with it I can return it for another can with pretty much no hassle. Compared to any of the expensive boutique/hobby sprays its no question which to buy, IMO

 Once you have sprayed a few light, even coats on all faces of the wall section, let them dry thoroughly. With flat paint this will not take more than a half-hour, generally.

 Now the sections are grey, but in my case, very light grey. And very flat. To make them look a bit more "real", we'll give them a black wash to define some shadows. There are many ways to create a black wash. My preferred method is to mix up a bit of black acrylic craft paint with a suitable amount of "Magic Wash". If you don't already have some Magic Wash, its easy to make using a 50:50 mix of water and Future acrylic floor polish. I make it without pigment so that I can mix it with whatever colour I need to make an appropriate wash. But use whatever wash works for you. If, after it dries, you find it still too light for your desired result, apply another wash. Compare the sections in the pic below. On the left is the freshly primed section, on the right is a section after an application of black wash. I ended up applying it again to further darken it up (as well as hit all those spots I missed!).

 After the sections have reached your desired level of dark greyness, make a 50:50 mix of medium grey and white or just use a very light grey. Apply a heavy drybrush to the high edges of the corrugations to really make the edges pop. At this point you can use a sandy tan colour to dry brush the wood bits, this will pick up the grain and really accentuate the weathered wood look.

 Now to further dirty up the "metal" parts of the sections, mix up a brown wash. A brown with a bit of a reddish cast works best to bring out a rusty effect. Apply in blotches and also along all edges of plates or sheet edges. As you apply it, quickly wipe off any that covers the high points/light grey highlights to keep the contrast between the high and low areas. I just swipe my finger across it, but a paper towel works too if you are more inclined to be neat.

 You could just call it good at this point, but if you are so inclined you can also add a final highlight to the "metal" bits - a drybrushing with silver. This will really make the edges of any "repairs" pop.

 All thats left is to finish the basing. But thats for another day.

A trip to the train store...

 Yesterday I made the trek to one of the few places remaining in my area to buy model railroad bits, mainly to buy some suitable siding and shingle materials for what will be the first residence in Valhalla Falls. I say "mainly" because I always skulk around the entire shop in an effort to discover what treasures may be inside that I previously had no idea I needed.

 This is just such a discovery. Now, being a confirmed follower of the 20mm cult, I normally wouldn't hang out over in the O gauge section. These may be really old news to some, but they are new to me.  These are from Tichy Train Group right here in North Carolina. They also have a load of other bits in various scales that may be useful to minis gamers.  www.tichytraingroup.com

 They go together very quickly with a little Plastruct cement. And they look great.

 I primed them grey, and once dry, heavily drybushed them with a sandy tan colour.  You can see the progression even with my slightly washed-out photo below.

 Quick to assemble, quick to paint. Affordable. Whats not to like?  I'll post some pics of the barrels when I get around to actually painting them.

Walls - A basic construction tutorial.

 This tutorial assumes some basic familiarity with the materials used and the basic techniques needed. If you have specific questions feel free to ask. This a very "Bob Ross" style tutorial. It is really set of suggestions that you can follow or not as you see fit. Hopefully it will at least give you some useful ideas.

 I began by cutting the bases out of cardboard. Use whatever materials you prefer, I used this particular cardboard because it: (a) is easy to cut with EMT scissors, (b) a fairly durable weight (think tablet backing or similar), and (c) it was free.

They are lozenge shaped so that the base will not interfere if you need to set up two straight sections as a corner, or if you would want to make a 3 or 4 way intersection of walls.

 Next I cut out the foamcore wall sections for each base. I allow a slight overhang on each end, to further clear any intersecting bases. Use a SHARP blade for this, and don't try to cut all the way through in one pass. Make each cut with three separate strokes. Cut through the outer paper layer, then cut through the inner foam, then finally through the paper layer on the underside. If you start to drag or pull out small bits of foam or paper, get a new blade. Using a hot glue gun I affix the foamcore to the base, and then affix a section of wood coffee stirrer to the three exposed edges of the foamcore. I use a low-temp glue gun as I always end up getting glue on my fingers - having burned myself with the high-temp stuff once I learned it sometimes pays to not use something similar to napalm as a glue. Note that the wood framing is optional - you could easily cover the exposed foam with pva/white glue and just paint over it. Or you can use whatever other material you might like instead.

 After your basic wall section is attached, and framed in, attach your corrugated card sections. Below is the tool I used to create them.

 A 3"x5" card fits almost perfectly, a bit of experimenting will show you the best way to guide the card through. This one is a "Tube Wringer" made by the Gill Mechanical Company, Eugene OR. Its original purpose was for wringing tubes of paint.  It or another like it should be available at any well-stocked art supply store. As I recall it wasn't very expensive.

 A basic wall section with a section of card attached will look something like this:

 You can apply one section of card, or cut up smaller sections to apply with a bit of pva/white glue for a scruffier patched look. As Bob Ross would tell us, its your world, you make it the way that makes you happy. Bob was a nice guy. We could probably all stand to be more like that. But for those times we encounter people who are just being mean, we have walls. So back to building those. Make sure you apply enough lines of the hot glue to really hold the card down. This becomes important in the next step.

 Next I painted a coat of sandable sealer onto the base and the entire corrugated section and wood framing. This is the kind I used, it was $16.00 at the local DIY big box store. Shake or stir it well. It applies easily and cleans up with water.

Apply a very light coat to the corrugated paper, too much and it will encourage warping of the paper itself. This is more evident if one does not glue the corrugated bits down well enough. As I discovered. *Ahem*

 If this happens don't worry. If the warping isn't too severe you can just leave it as some sort of damage or shoddy construction. If it is severe (or you don't like the way it looks - remember, its your world!), you can use a hobby knife to cut through the center of the warped bit, gently hold each side open and apply some pva/white glue or superglue or whatever under each side, then hold them back in place until they stay down. Glue a suitably sized scrap corrugated bit over the cut and voila, lemons to lemonade. Thats what eventually happened to the rather warped piece shown above. Bit of minor surgery and its ready for some paint. But that will be our next tutorial. Happy building!