Plasticville Buildings

I have had these buildings for a while, although one has sat part-painted for a long, long time. Observant readers will probably recognise the Diner from some battle reports, but the Frosty Bar has only recently been finished.

Both were built from simple plastic kits from the Plasticville range, which also includes the church I  have (listed in catalogues as a Cathedral, I think) and the Aircraft Hangar which we use as  a warehouse.

I purchased these from Dark House Games, whose proprietor I have always found friendly and helpful.

Diner

This just had a simple spray coat of Bolt Gun Metal, with slightly more detailed painting on doors etc. When the paint starts to wear I will go over it to create more of an aluminium finish. At the front I had to glue some plastic-card strip over writing that said Plasticville which was simple enough to do.

In gaming terms I find it a nice size to block line of sight and allow speedy movement onto and from the building. The roof lifts off which is pretty handy.


Frosty Bar

The painting has been a bit more detailed on this, with more colours, dry-brushing and washes used.

Below where it says 'Frosty Bar' there was relief writing saying Plasticville, which was filed down reasonably easily.

This also has a removable roof. The Frosty Bar has yet to be gamed with, but I have a table set-up in mind that this will be perfect for! I have some fencing on order from Fenris which will be part of the game I have in mind...

Papercraft Terrain By Tommygun

Tommygun is a name I came across via Warseer. His paper-craft terrain output is prodigious and it is great to see how he has honed and continues to hone his skills, both with textures, but the construction side of his free paper-craft offerings. His site features something for everyone from the recent past, modern/contemporary and near-future eras. well worth a look and donation if you find a number of useful items.

His stuff can be found: here.

Sewers Terraclips (Sewers Of Malifaux - Terraclips 3D Terrain System)

A new buy for me; a new release from Worldworks Games and linked to the Malifaux tabletop minis game.

As usual, click on pics to embiggen them.

I have been planning to run some sewer set Encounters for Pulp City for a while now; I can envisage vigilantes chasing down Villains to secret lairs or stuff being 'lost' down below. I toyed with making my own or buying appropriate components.

Time prevented me building my own, and time, cost and finding exactly what I wanted stopped me looking any further with the pre-cast resin options (some nice stuff out there, just nothing ‘quite right’).

So when I learned of this set (and its companions) from Worldworks Games, I knew it would probably be my best option.

I haven’t bought it as a Malifaux player, but hope it may see some use eventually for generic pulp games, VSF, steampunk etc.

First Impressions
The box felt heavier than I expected after pre-ordering it. On opening the box each sheet looks tightly packed with pieces, so no worries about significant ‘wasted’ space on sheets really – I think they have crammed as much as practically possible in which is good news.

The finish of the card components is nicely matt – I had been worried about seeing a gloss finish to the pieces since that would create possible glare for photographs for Battle Reports.

The parts include floors (in two sizes: 3 inches x 3 inches; 6 inches by 6 inches), walls, archways and doors at 2 inches high and lengths to match the floors; all are double-sided. There are a number of counters also, balcony pieces and stairs for multi-level layouts.

Assembly
I tried a dry fit assembly using the separately available connectors. Popping out the parts was smooth enough for the most part, only some of the very small linking pieces were a minor problem.

Putting a layout together was pretty straightforward, although after doing so I would suggest maybe laying out the whole flat board and planning where you want any walls etc. to save messing around with any need to change connector types. I didn’t try out the stairs at this time or balcony – that will keep.

I found that you need to be careful with arches with narrow wall surrounds – the card would start to bend going into the snug connectors.

All told though, maybe 10 minutes or so needed for a first time layout of 12 x 18 inches, which I imagine will get quicker with familiarity.

The Good
A single pack offers me the minimum I need and a little more to create a useful Pulp City board for sewer-set games. The art is uniform, no parts stand out too much for any of the wrong reasons and I was surprised that as the layout grew, then the connectors appeared less intrusive than I first feared.

It is nice that all parts are double sided offering a lot of variety. It was certainly a great time saver over what I would have needed to commit to create my own sewer layout. For the time-strapped gamer this kind of product is a real boon.

There are a lot of options for multi-level playing areas which for a sewers with the risk of a flat area creates nice tactical options.

The Bad
The price – it isn’t cheap, especially factoring in the cost of connectors which are compulsory to be able to change the layout at all with some solidity of build. It is cheaper than say some of the resin options out there, but probably more expensive than foam and MDF materials to create my own layout. That cost is mitigated by the fact that the only work needed is assembly. However the cost is compounded by the need to buy the connectors.

While for Pulp City this cost is contained since the required playing area can be thankfully small, it looks like one set will only make a 24 inch x 36 inch square (or permutations thereof) at most. Some creativity with negative spaces blocked by walls may increase that a little further, but the point is that larger areas are going to need more sets, such as the standard Malifaux 36 x 36 inches – it seems curious that the packs have been devised in such a way that two are required to play the game they are linked to. For games using 48 inches x 48 inches as a standard playing area (such as Anima Tactics), then with three or four sets needed I think cost looks to be prohibitive.

Also be aware that care needed with linking some of the finer components, both in handling and what to fit where as there are two widths of sewer channels to work with.

Finally, there is a grid-like approach to things on the board pieces; add in knowledge of wall lengths and application of a little mathematics (thank you Pythagoras!) and games that preclude pre-measurement of distances will be hamstrung by using this product. Just an unavoidable fact I guess.

Overall
I feel it is a product suitable for my needs, and I look forwards to getting in some gaming using the set, but I advise caution for anyone needing more than one set as the cost will be a big investment. I am satisfied with this purchase and will be buying a second sewer set, but won’t for instance trade up my current urban board terrain if ever a city-scape type of set was released.

Sarissa Precision City Block Buildings (II)

I received my first order a few days ago and even though I have no new pictures (no need until I start painting them up I reckon), I though I would offer my thoughts after dry-fitting my first building.

Packing/shipping: very sturdy and secure - no damage in transit; the items were delivered pretty promptly and Sarissa offered excellent notification about delivery.

Components: nicely cut and on the whole fit well together, although interior pieces have very tightly snug tabs. The floors look viable to be able to be assembled in a way to allow for separate units since they have guide tabs to help locate them. Better yet the floors act as a shell meaning as you lift it up you can get a model eye view without intervening walls.

Size: after my dry fit I was happy with size/scale and think they will do well for my modern gaming. I think they should suffice for any gaming from the 20th century onwards in westernised urban areas.

Conclusion: if these had been available before the Ziterdes stuff, I think they would have been the primary source of my modern terrain. As it is I can well see myself buying more Sarissa terrain, and I hope they do follow up on producing some roof-top accessories. Highly recommended.

Sarissa Precision City Block Buildings

This is a small but growing modular range of mdf buildings from Sarissa Precision. Link to City Block products here.

I haven't tried/purchased any of these yet, but I may well consider doing so in the future. The buildings offer a variety of frontage options and can be stacked with additional floors, so a lot of customisation options before any other considerations.

For a 3-storey building (single extra floor) they look to be around £20 GBP for the smaller footprint building (155 mm x 105 mm footprint; top picture), or £28 for the larger footprint (200 mm x 155 mm; middle). I think the larger footprint building would be just a little smaller than the Ziterdes Apartment buildings I already have. I can imagine that they would be able to use the core designs for stuff like a factory etc. in the future.

There is a residential City Block coming (right) with fencing and steps, and apparently a warehouse too, so the visual profile of a mix of buildings should be nicely varied. The only downside for me is the integral pavement pieces, since that won't fit with my city boards. But if playing on table of a black or very dark grey it would give instant pavement and therefore road layout.

Billboards

I made these as some extra 'rooftop scenery' for my Pulp City games. I cannibalised some Tamiya 1/48 Road Sign sets to provide the basis for the billboards, and mounted a couple onto the sides of Ziterdes Apartment Buildings.

The Pulp City Pirates are the American Football team that Dead Eye was linked with before his fall from grace. I try and think these things out, you know! Even added a little ® symbol for extra 'authenticity'.

I made up a sheet of 8 different designs, so keep an eye out on future battle reports for alternatives.

Little Ben

With a lick or two of paint. For Salute I used a basic clock face print out over the 'window'; until I can find a more satisfactory solution it will remain without clock face, so any suggestions or suggested links welcomed.

Dimensions are approximately 4" deep, 4" wide, 12" high.

Ziterdes - Tombs of Darkness

I really like the Ziterdes stuff a lot; it doesn't weigh much and can be used as-is or painted according to tastes. It may not be the cheapest range of products, but it suits my needs for gaming.

I ordered these from Wayland Games and they were priced at £6.75 GBP which I thought was good value. They arrived in a basic grey colour, so suitable for gaming immediately, but I decided to go with a bit of painting, washing and dry-brushing to add a little extra. With minimal efforts they were finished.

I recently received some of the back-in-production Apartments. They are very cleanly cast, which makes me think that if I see something new that I want from Ziterdes in future, I will try and order it early as the casting may be crisper. That said, I still remain satisfied with the products I have had so far.

Little Ben - Gargoyles/Grotesques Or Not?

Took these today to gauge opinion before going ahead with undercoating/painting.

All (quick) feedback on the question in the title is welcome.

The 'gargoyles' are dry-fitted for now, so I can either go with them or the flat inserts. Still aiming for a sandstone type of colour.









I'd like to get it readfy for undercoating tomorrow or Sunday, ideally.

Scenery

I have had a couple of parcels arrive with scenery this week. In that vein I thought I'd post a couple of pics for size comparison etc.

First up, trees; these will do for areas like Settlers Park and woods around the ruins of Ashville Asylum. They will do for any number of other games as well of course. I picked these up as they are not flocked so won't 'shed', and so should store and game okay. They are from Tablescape (click for link) and can be bought singly or in packs of 5. The trees are mostly painted - the underside of the foliage is unpainted, and 5 minutes with a brush and some green paint rectified that satisfactorily. The trunks screw-in and are made from plastic or resin, and the 'foliage' is made from a hard expanded foam.

Next we have a Ziterdes (click for link) Apartment. I have included two pictures ('after' and 'before') to show how it looks on arrival, and how a little painting can make it look a little nicer (hopefully!).

The painting was done with Vallejo paints; Neutral Grey (stonework), Buff (trim, roof), Field Blue (fire escape ladder, roof-hatch), Mahogany Brown (bricks) and Dark Sea Blue (windows). No shading used, since the minis should be the focal point, and the painting isn't too precise as they are mainly gaming pieces.

The Ziterdes apartment is made from a hard foam material, so is pretty durable, but apparently can be cut etc. I think they were designed for Heroclix games originally (which would account for the squares on the roof areas of the Apartment, Bank and Abandoned Factory).

Ziterdes Factory & Bank

I have ordered some more new buildings from Ziterdes to help grow my own urban cityscape. I have a few of the Ziterdes Apartment buildings, as well as the Victorian Townhouse (both seen in my Battle Reports) already, and as I soon as I learned of the new products I wanted to add them to the collection. The products are in this part of the Ziterdes web store.

Ziterdes Factory

Ziterdes Bank (3 floors)

As soon as I get hold of them I need to think of some re-paints; but that said I'll try a little summary review of the products on arrival.



Images copyright © Ziterdes.

Paper Terrain (papercraft scenery) 4

I have mentioned Tommy Gun's work before, but he now has a handy sub-section of a website collecting his work together (link here).

It is all freely available, and makes great use or recognisable and not-so-recognisable images and textures. There is tons of stuff suitable for contemporary or near-contemporary gaming, as well as sci-fi.

I love looking at pictures of his work and cannot recommend enough to anyone to check it out.

In-game & Scale Pictures Of The Ziterdes Apartment

As I don't yet have the Ziterdes Townhouse, and following a request from Andy, here are some shots to hopefully show scale (Pulp City minis are mostly 32-35 mm to the top of the head for a tyical human; the bases are 30 mm and 40 mm).

Ziterdes - Apartment & Townhouse

I have had some of these Ziterdes Apartment buildings (left) for some time, and find them very useful in my Pulp City games. I think they were originally intended for use with Heroclix, but I feel they work well on a Pulp City board, which of course means they should work equally well for pretty much any superhero and supervillain tabletop gaming, or any tabletop gaming in a late 19 th Century urban milieu onwards. They come as two products - a base and roof and an optional upper floor extension. What this means is that as many levels as desired can be added to create buildings of a suitable height.

The pre-paint isn't great, but I guess they will take paint well enough. They are constructed from a hard-foam, and they have a few defects, but nothing particularly distracting for me. The range has now had the addition of a Victorian Townhouse (see image right), which even if it was available before, is new to me at least. The Townhouse is available with a couple of different roof options, and can be stacked in the same way as the Apartment, but has a larger footprint on the tabletop.

I have ordered the Victorian Townhouse, so I think I know what to expect when this arrives. The bottom image shows a version that has had some attention with someone's hairy sticks. I hope to eventually paint up some or even all of my Apartment buildings to create some colour variations on the tabletop, and maybe the Townhouse as well.

These are not the cheapest terrain option, but I like them, and given the dearth of non-paper craft modern Western (North America and Europe esepcially) urban terrain, they are well worth a look.

Paper Terrain (papercraft scenery) 3

Just a quick update.

Germy, who I linked to in the first of the paper-craft terrain posts, has updated his site very recently. It can be found here: Germy.co.uk. It is nice and easy to navigate, and the 25mm section (most applicable for Pulp City of other modern/near future miniatures games) is neatly laid out under the 'Paper Models' tab. Worth a look and the paper models are free to download for personal use.

Not free but maybe offering an interesting future proposition is Taylor & Smith. They are starting at 15mm and 20mm scales, but when I briefly spoke to them at Salute they made it very clear they are open to suggestions regarding future products.

More Street Furniture (2)

A handful of street furniture models and a couple of cash bags useful as objective markers.

(Left/centre) - trash cans, mail box, concrete bench; all Megaminis
(Left) - cash bags; bonus bits courtesy Pulp Monsters (not in current production)
(Middle) - blue newspaper vending machines; RAFM USX Moderns range
(Centre/Right) - mail boxes, fire hydrants; Black Cat

Of the Megaminis, RAFM and Black Cat stuff, the Megaminis is easily best for quality of sculpt and casting, and does well for value also, so I highly recommend them. RAFM suffered for mould slippage and lack of surface detailing, while the Black Cat stuff was all badly cast (the mail boxes are resin, the fire hydrants are metal).

See the small image (left) for scaling of the Megaminis stuff alongside a couple of Pulp City minis.

Street Violence/Zombie Buildings Blog

I stumbled across this blog (here) today, and I am glad I did. The guy's stuff is great to look at and in time I hope to be able to emulate some of his work for my own modern urban gaming.

For anyone interested in such gaming buildings, it will hopefully be a good blog to follow.

The same blogger has a separate blog centered on his Old West-style buildings, which is more comprehensive and just as inspirational in its own right (link here).

Urban Battle Boards

Any miniatures-based tabletop game needs somewhere for those battles to be fought. This blog post is intended to describe how I built my own urban battle boards, particularly for use in Pulp City games, but the principles can be applied to any urban setting, or easily adapted I feel to historic or sci-fi gaming.

Above: gaming/battle boards, miniatures, scenery, tokens and elbow are all Pulp Citizen's own.

Now the most important disclaimer - I can't claim credit for this idea. Rather, that belongs to Larkin Vain, another Pulp City fan and Herald and a Moderator on the Pulp City message boards. His thread (here) and that of Hjelmen, another board member (thread here), are what inspired me.

The basic materials are:
- plywood sheets (12" x 12"; 6mm thickness); picture 2
- cork sheets (12" x 12"; 5mm thickness); also picture 2
- PVA glue and glue stick
- thin card (160-200 gsm)
- Rustoleum Textured - spray paint (Aged Iron)
- paints (I used Vallejo Neutral Gray and Light Gray with some browns added for washes for the lighter parts; German Grey for the darker areas)
- Ready Grass vinyl mat

Step 1
Decide how many tiles to make, and roughly what configurations of public squares (raised to pavement/sidewalk height), straights, t-junctions, crossroads and corners you want. I drew the placement of lines for pavement/sidewalk edges (cork cut to size) - see picture 3. In doing so, I made certain the width of all inner road sections was the same, a uniform 6" since the ply boards varied in size but up to 1/4" to 1/2". Cork was glued to ply with PVA.

For public squares at pavement/sidewalk height, cork was simply glued straight onto ply (picture 4). Careful use of the cork across the various boards means you will need less sheets of that than the ply. I would advise making more boards than needed for usual gaming just for variety.


Step 2
To give some basic surface detailing beyond that of the textured paint, I used the thin card to create a vaguely paved effect. I wasn't worried about scaling here, just that it 'feel' right, since at the end of the day the minis are the focus, not the battle boards. There was a gap of approximately 1-3mm between pieces of card.

It is possible to create a more scale-appropriate effect if desired, time permitting of course! The card was glued to corked areas with glue stick, but PVA should work also. I left an exposed edge where the 'kerb' is of about 5mm. The public squares just used 4 larger pieces of card, with a slightly larger gap. Both the public squares and the pavement/sidewalk areas have card running up to the outer edges.

Step 3
The boards were all spray undercoated outside (needing good weather, of course) with Rustoleum. I haven't used this stuff before, but bear in mind:
- it needs a lot longer to dry than acrylic model undercoats
- it took 1 can to undercoat approximately 6-8 boards

The finish is tough and rough, just what is needed. I wasn't too worried about complete coverage, especially on the cork, as with the cork it has a rough texture also.

Step 4
The raised areas (pavement/sidewalk and public squares were painted first with Neutral Grey, then some occasional washes of Neutral Grey with various browns, then some light dry brushing with Light Grey).

The public squares probably got more attention in the form of washes since there is less surface and colour variation, but you don't need to go overboard since terrain is going to be placed on top anyway.

Step 5
The roads were then finished with German Grey. At this time I haven't added road markings, but I may do so later.

Step 6
I also created some park areas using a plastic-backed static grass sheeting (I used Ready Grass vinyl mat - see right). To make these I just constructed a board with ply and cork, and then added the sheeting, gluing it in place with PVA after roughing up the back (plastic side) with sandpaper.

Ready-to-play Shipping Containers

I ordered these ISO shipping container models from TableScape recently. They come in a pack of three and are ready-painted, which is a good thing for gamers like me with limited time for various activities. The packs come with all three colours of containers as standard. I only bought one pack initially as I didn't have any concept of scale or size, so I have included an image alongside a couple of minis to give some reference.

Having handled them they need a little paint touch up, but that will be just a few minutes work, so on balance I am pleased with the purchase, and will buy more. They are made from some kind of foam I think, so are very light-weight. Dimensions are 112mm (w) 52mm (h) 50mm (d).

In games I can foresee them serving two purposes, both to block line of sight as well as being something to throw around the battlefield. I can imagine them around a docks area, or around a warehouse or factory.

More Street Furniture/Scenery

Here are a few painted up example of stuff I use in games which can be picked up and thrown as well as being used as cover. There are also links to sellers.


This dumpster is from Old Crow Models as part of the Ainsty range that Old Crow acquired. It isn't currently listed in the catalogue, but you can always contact Old Crow by email and Jez should reply within a couple of working days. For those who may be curious, the dimensions are (h) 36mm (w) 40mm (d) 28mm.


These vending machines are also Old Crow/Ainsty, under the Vacant Lot section (codes 5922 and 5923). I didn't trust myself to do freehand logos so they are a little blank for the time being.


It may not be apparent immediately, but the green fronted machine is bow-fronted (2 in a pack, code 5923); (h) 32mm (w) 19mm (d) 13mm. The other two - red and blue - are flat-fronted (2 in a pack, code 5922); (h) 33mm (w) 19mm (d) 15mm. The Old Crow stuff is generally well cast with often little cleaning of mould lines etc, so I am always happy to buy from them.


These crates are just simple resin pieces (with separate lids for the larger ones) from Atenociti's Workshop, an online retailer focused on offering all sorts of scenery bits. The crates may look old fashioned for an 80's set game, but they offer something quick and easy to both place on the table for a modicum of cover as well as improvised missiles for Supremes able to throw stuff around. The small crates are (h) 14mm (w) 14mm (d) 14mm, the large are (h) 19mm (w) 20mm (d) 20mm. There is no detailing on one facing (the 'bottom').