Saturday 26 November 2011

Carpark 0.1

Well it's Saturday today, which is nice. I have recieved a very small order from Crooked Dice only a set of the 7ombie TV cards. Again which is nice and order to delivery only took 2 days which I'm very happy with, it's another thing ticked off for the game  and really fast delivery.

Anyway it's cold up the shed so wrapped up warm I start work on the battle board. Here is a quick pic of where I left it yesterday.

AS you can see it has been painted grey  for the ground. You will additionally decern that I only have room to lay half of it out flat at a time. If I put it on the floor it WOULD end up with foot prints (both human and animal) on it. The Flash has made the grey look a little lighter that it actually is. But still you get the idea.

When I measured the interior space it turns out to be just over 21 inches wide. Using the Cars as a rough guide each parking bay need to be 5 inches long and 2 3/4 inches wide, 3 inches if we want space for doors to open or figures to move between them. In an ideal world I would have liked the board a few inches wider and about 6 inches shorter, but who lives in an ideal world. At this stage I have 2 choices for parking bay layouts. I could keep them square to the wall or I could put tham at 45 degrees. The second option would make it harder to park, but would allow more bays. So I'll keep it square to the walls instead. The drawback of this is that the centre can only have one depth of parking space.

The Next stage is to drop some "support columns in place. As a broom handle is actually cheaper than dowelling and as I had one ready to hand, not attached to a broom I hasten to add. I cut some short stubby pillars, short enough not to go above the edge of the paste table. I now realise I should have made them taller as they could then fit into the void above when the table closes up. (Oh well live and learn).
Nice shot of my work bench.

I then marked out the osition of the pillars. A single row down the middle, spaced at 7 inch centres.
As mentioned above only enough room to really work on 1/2 the board at a time. I was going to screw these on, but settled for PVA instead, PVA is actually a resin (resin w to be precise), I made sure I put enough on. So with a parking grid spaced out, but not maked out I then knew where the roads should be and thus where the entry and exit ramps should be.Made from balsa wood, simply because it was to hand and easy to work. I'll sealthe wood last thing tonight with watered down PVA. so It should be dry and ready for paint tomorrow.

Lastly for today here are the cars I have been using to gague distances. They were originally bough for 20p each at a boot fair last year and then repainted for a zombie car race game "DEADRACE 2010" which I never got round to finishing.

Friday 25 November 2011

Underground car park model

Well those that have come across from the Crooked dice forum. Know That I have a tight deadline (less than 3 weeks) to create a Christmas game for two wargames clubs. So for ease I have decided to start the games compleatly from scratch, mostly because I'm stupid and can't think to recycle old projects.
So the game is going to be set in an underground car park, mostly because I thought it would be a bit different and pretty easy to construct given time and of course budget. yesterday I went and bought the components, not all of them, but enough to get started.
For the baseboard I went and spent £9.67 in Wilkinsons to get a paste table. I figured the basic wood and hard board would come to close to that anyway so it's not a big problem.
Today I have stripped out the legs (with a hammer a pry bar and a smile on my face, why is destruction so much fun?) Because it's an underground car park I'll have to put a ramp in so the cars can get in and out. I'll also have to add a service and customer elevator. And am considering putting a recycling area (bottle banks mostly) in as well.
That can wait a few days though as eager to get started I have painted the interior of the paste board dark grey. I used ready mixed pain from the Works, costs £1.49 a bottle. As they don't do a dark grey I added white to the black stirring as I went to get a consistent colour. Be aware you only need a little white, I would say 1 part white to 10 parts black.  Suprisingly it does look like old tarmac now which is a pleasent suprise. I mixed about 1/2 a pint in all and added a splash of water to make it a bit more runny.
 The texture on the hardboard does not look out of place, if anything it looks like block paving. While it is unlikely anyone would (in real life) go to the trouble/cost of putting block paving in an underground car park it looks ok and most wargamers will tolerate things like that as long as the game works ok. I know the rules work having tried them over the weekend but for now back to the scenery.

I have been offered some toy cars (of the right scale) for the game. I think, from memory, the paste board is wide enough for 4 parking bays and two roads, I'll have to measure it once dry to be sure. So once the tarmac floor is dry I'll paint the "walls" (the battening which encases the paste table) in an off white colour, and probly add some staining. but more of this in the next episode....COMMING SOON.

Post script, no photos yet as batteries are low in the camera... and did not want to walk back into the house with muddy shoes.But I'll try to get some done for next time.

Thursday 24 November 2011

Pilot.

Hallo and welcome to my Blog. In this space I shall be talking about all things wargaming with particular regard to Rainham Wargames Club but also touching on Sittingborne club (MHWC) and maybe Walderslade Club (Medway Wargames Club). However being egotistical I shall mostly be waffling on about what I'm working on from a Wargames point of view with making and painting and playing games.

I have many balls up in the air at the moment, but yesterday I was tasked with creating a Christmas Game for the Sittingbourne club. The basics can be found here.... http://www.crooked-dice.co.uk/forum/Blah.pl?m-1322064290/ ..... Yes I know it's a lot of mucking about swappimg from one website to another and then back, I'll try to focus it a bit more as I go along and get more confidence with what I'm doing. Well while it's not a good start it is at least a start. to be continued......