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SW1's Scenery Project - Buildings on the way!


SW1

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Hopefully getting boards chopped up at the lumber yard this morning and also picking up a load of polystyrene sheeting.

 

If I get 5mm thick board it will be rigid enough to avoid warping and 25mm polystyrene will allow depth for recessed details. The mesh matting is just over 3mm thick which will work with the mdf tiles as well.

 

Things seem to be falling into place. :D

Lol ... He's wanting me to make the board double thickness and have a hidden maze underneath the boards surface with the tiles removable where there's a recessed section. It would be cool but I don't have the time or energy to do it as I wouldn't then have time to do my own board or the walled sections.

 

My brother is autistic along with a few other health issues. Trying to convince him it's not happening is not going to be the easiest thing to do.

Your terrain is coming along and I have avoided the thread for one reason.... if I get sucked in I will abandon my dolls and start devoting all my time to terrain as well smile.png

You could always look at your board as a "now" project and then work on your brother's board together over a longer period of time.

Do it 200plus, join us! 

 

Best of luck to you on both boards mate, I'm looking forward to seeing it all. I don't know how you have the energy for the work you do! 

 

A question for you that may or may not be related to my scenery project, have you got any console type workstation scatter scenery? I'm needing to fill my control tower with banks of them, and I know you have all kinds of cool stuff

@ 200plus - even though it's more work ( double the size of my table and a zone mortalis board hidden inside the main board). It'll probably be quicker to knock out my brothers board as it's not going to have as much detail on it for example the ribbing on the walls and other bits which will take quite a while to build masters for. I've had a look at how much insulation has been bought and there will be enough to do it without forking out any extra cash which is a bonus.

 

@ Altis - I've got plans to do some but the getting around to it part is a bit lack lustre at the moment trying to do way more than the number of hours in the day will allow.

 

Looks like my brother will get his own way with the scenery. But I have a few plans to try and cut down the work load by modularising everything so I only have to make a few masters and then replicate. There will also be a lot of rock so I don't have to make as much stuff of the ZM section. ;)

What are the chances I'll get some hobby done before work this afternoon?

 

Hmmmm ... Depends on my darling daughter having a nap and me not needing one at the same time.

 

The GS tool came in the post along with the mdf squares so there's plenty to get in with. But sleep also seems like a good idea.

Last night I went through a load of bits and there's nothing that really fits the bill of what I want the consoles desks to look like so I'll be havin a go at scratch building some up. For banks of monitors and such I did find some landraider bits that should work. I also got the gs tool out and found that my supply of gs isn't where I thought it was. Stayed up till 1am looking for the blasted stuff while watching The Unit series. Think I might try basing a command squad on the guys from the TV series. Something I've never tried before so should be a laugh.

 

Went to builders merchant for the mdf and ended up getting it in 12mm rather than 6mm as the thinner stuff was all warped. Was going to buy some manageable sized sheets in 4' x 2' which were just under £13 each and then noticed te price of the bigger sheets, 4' x 8' was £18!!! And to top it up there was free cutting.

 

So the board cost just over 1/3 the expected price.

 

Ended up going for 8 boards (600mm x 600mm) rather than loads of the smaller boards or a mix of the two.

 

Should have something to take pics of rather than just plans soon. ;)

Trying to work out the best layouts for the recessed sections and keep coming up with ideas for my boards rather than my brothers. I can see the need to cast up a LOT of tiles for this project.

 

Phone battery is a bit low to take and upload pics so will have some in the morning instead.

First of the masters for the tiles:

 

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee214/SW1-SWC/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsfedfe629.jpg

 

I also managed to convince my brother to reconsider the board design. It's now going to be a flat board with some recessed details behind the square mesh material. So no hidden zone mortalis board underneath a fully functioning board. However there will be some access tunnels or hatches dotted around the board and in the long run there will be a separate board with a ZM design that can be accessed via these hatches/openings. I'll also be adding some surprises for him to find.

The only one I'm not sure on is bottom left one as the little square tiles don't quite line up/run square. So I'm likely to ditch the use of that for this. Maybe if I could get it so there was a similar gap around the edges?

 

The next tiles will be more detailed and the consoles should be fun to do as well.

The tiles have a very slight bevel to them and as long as I got all the masters the right way up (I really hope I got that right) there will be a very slight gap between each sheet of decking.

 

I also have no plans to cast up 1,152 tiles to cover the boards and will include as many recessed details as possible without interfering with the new idea I've got for walls (yes changes are afoot for them aswell). I'm on the look out for some similar matting with different sizes squares. As the current stuff is more rectangular and only works when used to cover a 100mm x 200mm area which drops the number if tiles required by 8. Doesn't sound much but it'll add up over the boards.

 

The other funky thing to look at is if it's easy/not too expensive to add lighting to some of the recessed areas?

Played around with the matting to see if I could get any more usage out of a sheet and think I may have come up with something. Spent the afternoon chopping up a matt or three while waiting for calls in work. One design won't work with my idea for the modular walls but will drop the number of tiles required on a board by 50.

 

When I get in I'll give the layout a whirl directly on top of the boards (minus the insulation) to see if it works.

 

Also been chatting to a colleague about using LEDs as he mods cars an has some spare bits I can have a go with. They'll be a bit too bright for use on a board but I should get the hang of it with them.

Well I managed to trial out a few ideas. Really need to do it when I'm not tired. Here's the first ideas:

 

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee214/SW1-SWC/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps2c36f2b9.jpg

 

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee214/SW1-SWC/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps9d81124f.jpg

 

Didn't have enough bits cut to complete the lay outs but you get the rough idea. Lol ... Trying to decide the look of the first board is harder than I thought it would be in a fun way. :D

If I included the idea I've got for integrated walls the smaller mesh squares in the top pic of the above two would be the location points for wall supports. So the mesh bits wouldn't be located there. Instead there would be removable tiles which would allow columns to be inserted. Then walls can be slotted inbetween the columns.

 

This idea would limit the designs I could use layout wise and where I could place recessed areas, but I think it would be worth while.

 

Really need the weather to improve so I can start making moulds and start casting ASAP!!!

Started making plates to cast up to go behind the smaller squares of grating. They will just have textured sheet details behind them rather than recessed details. Decided to stick with the dimond tread plate in the 2 different sizes for this. I'll also be casting up a bigger sheet to go behind the bigger squares of grating. These will have a hole in the centre where one will be able to view the recessed detail through. When making the moulds these sheet details will be really be quite thin, so getting them to cure well will be a little bit of a challenge. One way around this is to pre-warm the moulds and another is to have curing/pouring points. These are pre planned deeper parts of the mould where the resin will be of sufficient thickness it'll start heating up and curing well by itself. It can be a throw away bit but I plan on sticking it on the same mould as a tile as that will be more than thick enough. This will be connected via channels to the rest of the mould and the curing reaction will move from the deeper bit along the channels and into the thinner pieces.

 

Think most of the work on this project is prep and getting things ready to cast up. Once that's ready it'll be pretty quick to assemble together.

Forgot to mention in yesterday's post ... Work were replacing a lot of signage so I offered to help recycle the boards. They're dense foam board with a plastic coating rather than card coating. Bit more flexible than the normal foam board bu also much more resilient to damage. All of a sudden I have the answer to what to use around the edge of the insulation on the boards for free!!!

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