Hey all

as promised, here is a Project Log to chart the progress i make with my recently acquired CoD City Box.

ive been taking pics over the past couple of days, and saving them for when i actually have something to show you. i have just finished my first building, so here they are.

first, a pic of the opened box:


now the unpacked contents:


the walls and floors clipped off the sprues:


various accessories #1:


various accessories #2:


now thats a lot of sprue!


an AdMech cog, made from the new turn counters (blank side up):


the parts for my first building:
(the single intact floor tile was cut from the end of a strip)


my first building (a pump - front):


my first building (a pump - rear):


i had to cut down the large pipes (using my saw - cheers Culven!) and then sand them until they were exactly the right length. the corners were cut off the floor tile and the posts were cut off leaving just the little exhausts. all thats left to do now is base it, and then undercoat it. (my dad is doing all my bases for me with his jig-saw, so that will have to wait)

so, what do you think?

ive already got a couple more ideas for my next building (which i hope to start tomorrow): an intact octagonal AdMech building, a ruined 2 floor church, and a small intact storage building. there will also be simple ruins, a tower, my GW Barricades & Tank Traps etc, a walkway, and maybe a gatehouse too.

the idea is that the area is an abandonned derelict zone - not a wartorn ruinscape, so intact buildings are in-keeping. i want a good mix of terrain that provides cover to infantry & cover to Vehicles; terrain that provides a vantage point without giving cover & some that does; terrain that blocks LOS to Vehicles; ruins, sealed impassable buildings, and some intact ones that can be entered (Embarked upon).

comments and suggestions appreciated - cheers

~ Tim

Are you sketching them out first? I found that helps with larger buildings.

I may need to build more intact buildings since area terrain no longer blocks LOS.

Methinks someone is enjoying his razor saw a bit too much. Here you were planning to "hack at" various models.

I plan to build a few boarded up buildings to add to my terrain set in order to provide some more cover for various units. I have even considered a fire escape to provide some platforms and access to the roof for non-Jump Infantry.

LordMalekTheRedKnight wrote:now thats a lot of sprue!

I've previously given a few sacks of spru back to GW (at one stage they said they could re use it) I have a fw more sacks in the attic, because its handy when it comes to building walls, rubble, filling gaps in building seem lines, broken fence posts etc.. in fact theres not much that spru can't do on a small scale - put it somewhere safe for a rainy day..
Good luck with the big cityscape thing..Now in 5th ed they stand about as much chance of staying on the tabel as that smurf flyer thing (which is on the table for so little time I can't actually remember its name)
you know the rules- more terrain- more points- have you been back to that group again..have you managed to get another 100 points worth of models so you can play 500s (looks for emoticon for tapping foot to show that I don't want you slipping back after the progress we made )

cheers for the replies guys!

Ben wrote:Are you sketching them out first? I found that helps with larger buildings.

im not really sketching them (except to help explain to Kate what i am building next), but i am lining up all the sections etc on my work table (sometimes even test fitting using stickytape) to see how it will all fit. im pretty good at imaging things in 3D, so that helps visualise how it will all come together, too.

Ben wrote:I may need to build more intact buildings since area terrain no longer blocks LOS.

they dont even need to be intact - as long as the ground floor is made of solid wall sections (or has the windows boarded up) then even a ruin can hide vehicles.

Culven wrote:Methinks someone is enjoying his razor saw a bit too much. Here you were planning to "hack at" various models.

hehe.

the blade is proving just as useful too, as it has a narrow frontage (lets it get in between things without having to cut all of them). its easy to use too - i used it to cut my Amera stuff, and to cut that individual floor tile from a strip.

Culven wrote:I plan to build a few boarded up buildings to add to my terrain set in order to provide some more cover for various units.

have you seen th Fortified Strategem building at the top of p68 of the CoD book?

killmaimburn wrote:its handy when it comes to building walls, rubble, filling gaps in building seem lines, broken fence posts etc.. in fact theres not much that spru can't do on a small scale - put it somewhere safe for a rainy day..

yep. im going to use some instead of clipping beams to make the horizontal supports when i make these.
im also going to use it to add internal support to bigger buildings, and when im done, im going to try and buy a meat grinder to make rubble.

killmaimburn wrote:Now in 5th ed they stand about as much chance of staying on the tabel as that smurf flyer thing

heh. we are thinking of giving the buildings that can be embarked upon AV11 (so total 33, inkeeping with CP). might cause balance issues in certain games (Plague Zombies cant touch AV11), but we sould be able to work around them (maybe allow them to DS into unoccupied buildings, to prevent the enemy using them).

only about 1/3 of the buildings will be destroy-able though (the rest will be ruins/wont have AV or access points).

killmaimburn wrote:you know the rules- more terrain- more points-

no, this is going to be a terrain set for a 4' x 4' board, for CP only.
when i am ready to play bigger games (need the new IG Codex and a PDF army first ) i will probably do so at games clubs/stores, anyway (so i wont need my own terrain for that).

anyway...

after i posted last night i had another idea: make a ruin using the double-door section (with the big eagle on the doors), but cut the doors out and lay them on their side across the doorway as a makeshift barricade. i could take this one step further and combine spare eagle doors with the broken beams to make more stand-alone barricades (to go with my GW ones).

ive also decided what i am going to use for the roof of my octagonal building (normal CoD floor tiles wont fit): ive got some foamcore that is the perfect thickness. once the walls are together im going to draw around the inside line onto paper and then cut that out, make sure it fits, and then draw round it on the foam core. ive settled on the wall sections i am going to use (which include 2 of the AdMech window sections, which i am going to model as closed, using plasticard). i just need to pick a couple of accessories (lamps etc) and then i can start cleaning pieces ready to make it.

we have to go out this afternoon, but i hope to get started early this evening.

cheers

~ Tim

LordMalekTheRedKnight wrote:

Culven wrote:Methinks someone is enjoying his razor saw a bit too much. Here you were planning to "hack at" various models.

hehe.

the blade is proving just as useful too, as it has a narrow frontage (lets it get in between things without having to cut all of them). its easy to use too - i used it to cut my Amera stuff, and to cut that individual floor tile from a strip.
cheers ~ Tim

I use a razor saw to cut off the individual floor tiles. To cut out the doorways, I have an extra excto knife. I chipped off about 1/16" from end of an old blade leaving no point but a "chisel" type of blade. Turn the blade upside down and run the back of the blade over the outside of the door a few times to scribe it, and you'll have the door seperated in no time. Hope I described that properly.

Pump house looks good. All it needs is a "settling pool" next to it to pump all that great toxic sludge into. Something like this http://www.hirstarts.com/pipe/pipe.html (scroll down to the sediment tank)

Keep up the good work, can't wait to see more!

timewizard wrote:Pump house looks good. All it needs is a "settling pool" next to it to pump all that great toxic sludge into.

"pump" was probably the wrong word (it was like 3AM and i had been breathing in a lot of glue fumes ) - its a pump only in so far it pumps out waste gasses etc from underground factories: it doesnt pump liquid. maybe "chimney" is a better word.

you remember that episode of the Simpsons where homer vents radioactive steam into a farmer's field? like that.

Kate and I were discussing it last night (our pillow talk is fascinating ), and we agreed to make it Dangerous Terrain to any unit moving over it (Jebikes, Skimmers, Jump Packs etc), to represent the risk of it venting something nasty as they pass above the chimney.

(ive found 5th ed really is giving us an excuse for more interactive terrain )

timewizard wrote:Keep up the good work, can't wait to see more!

cheers!

~ Tim

Cool start you've made there

LordMalekTheRedKnight wrote: after i posted last night i had another idea: make a ruin using the double-door section (with the big eagle on the doors), but cut the doors out and lay them on their side across the doorway as a makeshift barricade. i could take this one step further and combine spare eagle doors with the broken beams to make more stand-alone barricades (to go with my GW ones).

Thought you might like to see it done - bottom middle of the photo. I supported it in this case with some pebbles glued together to lean them back on. The other half is one of those eagle-headed stantions IIRC (model is stored away at the moment).

On a related note: I've got random cheap bits from B&Q where they had damaged plumbing bits etc on sale for anything from 20p up to a couple of quid - great for decorating AdMech buildings (in this case it connects to the back of the industrial fan section).

LordMalekTheRedKnight wrote:its a pump only in so far it pumps out waste gasses etc from underground factories: it doesnt pump liquid. maybe "chimney" is a better word.
you remember that episode of the Simpsons where homer vents radioactive steam into a farmer's field? like that.
we agreed to make it Dangerous Terrain to any unit moving over it (Jebikes, Skimmers, Jump Packs etc), to represent the risk of it venting something nasty as they pass above the chimney.
cheers!
~ Tim

Ahh! "I-cy" said the blind carpenter as he reached in the freezer and picked up his hammer and saw!
When you get the chimney (vent) finished, you might want to stick a piece of cotton (or a hunk of one of those fluroscent green wigs!) on the top to represent the "toxic fumes". Just an

EDIT: @Baragash - Nice looking ruin! I like the "stepped back" building levels, gives firing platforms on the inside and the outside of the building. I might have to steal that idea as well. (I wonder if I can sell all these stolen ideas on ebay? )

Baragash wrote:Cool start you've made there

cheers.

Baragash wrote:Thought you might like to see it done - bottom middle of the photo.

cool - thanks for the pic. thats the sort of thing i was thinking of (just on a separate base).

Baragash wrote:On a related note: I've got random cheap bits from B&Q where they had damaged plumbing bits etc on sale for anything from 20p up to a couple of quid - great for decorating AdMech buildings (in this case it connects to the back of the industrial fan section).

i keep meaning to go to my local DIY shops (unfortunately they are a busride away). will have to see what i can do (and remember to ask if they have any damaged stock!). cheers!

timewizard wrote:When you get the chimney (vent) finished, you might want to stick a piece of cotton (or a hunk of one of those fluroscent green wigs!) on the top to represent the "toxic fumes". Just an

yes, i was thinking of cotton wool (we already use it in our games to represent smoking craters/wreckage etc). cheers mate!

for the base, i was thinking of making it extend 1" all the way around the whole structure (i hate it when you have gorgeous scenery but you cant get models to stand up anywhere near it ). i think i will continue this with my other CoD bases too.

cheers

~ Tim

Good start there Tim, nicely done. Most of my city sprues are still in the box, so far this is all I've built:

Spack wrote:Good start there Tim, nicely done.

cheers mate

i am just going to have something to eat and then i am going to get started on the octagonal AdMech building.

Spack wrote:Most of my city sprues are still in the box, so far this is all I've built:

looks good - should be able to find some inspiration there.

cheers

~ Tim

Nice going there Tim, all I've done with my large box is cut everything off the sprues..

Are you going to make some super large building or lots of 'normal' size ones?

In coal mines here they have a pump house that pumps out water and a fan house that has 15' fans that pull the coal dust and methane laden air out and a separate one that pushes clean air in.

Ben wrote:In coal mines here they have a pump house that pumps out water and a fan house that has 15' fans that pull the coal dust and methane laden air out and a separate one that pushes clean air in.

I had an idea to do something like that with some old computer case fans that I found. Now I'll have to get off my donkey and get to work on it!
Thanks a lot Ben!