Looking at rooms for 'actual' buildings

The first building I'm looking at is the upper floor of a Sarissa City Block building - this one doesn't seem to be available any more.

As you can see, it's a bit crowded. The bedroom is actually scaled at about 12' x 12'.

Looks like a crowded living room.

Likewise, bedroom looks a bit cramped. Thing is, even if 'accurate', I think bigger rooms would be more practical for gaming purposes!

Very rough prototype Mk 1. Slightly bigger than the interior it's based on, mainly due to differences in the thickness of the card I used and the mdf of the original. This is a good thing - slightly more room for the action.

OK, Who put the windows the wrong way round? Oh, that would be me. Silly boy.

Things I've 'learned'. Firstly... well, apart from the windows thing... probably best not to try and match the interior with the exteriors too much. In this case I've tried to cut windows and doors to match the size of the exteriors - in future I'll just use the windows and doors I have in stock. Also. room layout - by going too much with the original the wall that has to be cut out may not be the best wall in terms of furniture layout - for that, I suppose back to the original separate walls model. Horses for courses - whichever ever model suits the particular purpose.

One final point. Not a concern to me, but the card of the walls has a tendency to push the ends of the outer walls out a bit. Easily fixed (if  I'm bothered) by pulling the walls together with a card strip at the top of the walls. A quick fix, did it here just to make it clear - probably depends more on making furniture look better - ie, eliminating 5mm gap between the top of the furniture and the wall!

Lots of things...

 I do tend to work on several things at once; unusually the current lot are related!

I tend to get some stuff, especially for birthday/Christmas presents, on the assumption I will be using them in future projects. Things I'm doing now I usually buy now! This lot of furniture are Frontline I've had for a couple of years from their 25/28mm Range. The figure is a cheapy 1/50th scale figure roughly 35mm tall -fits quite well.

More pieces including 1/87th, 1/75th and 1/48th scale figures. For these, the bed really only suits the 1/75th  figure!

And more 25mm furniture...

 

Still plenty more stuff to paint!

 

I admit it seems strange working at least 3 figure scales - but for this project it is 'needed,. They all have their own uses.

For a start, you can't get all the furniture you may need in one scale. This picture shows the difference between 1/50th and 1/87th. Happily, these stock figures are cheap. If you are feeling mean you can get all you need over three scales for under £20! 50 painted 1/50th figures cost £11.99... though I did repaint (quickly, badly) the faces... Likewise, 100 1/75th cost £6.99, with 200 (badly) painted 1/87th going for £11.19. Granted, that's more than £20, it's also for 350 mainly painted figures!  Just google model figures...

Of course, monsters are usually around 25/28mm these days - this guy will fit with the 1/50th and 1/75th figure, 1/87th? - not if you look on it as a Batrachian/human hybrid, but can see it as a random monster not related to humanity!

But then you get something like this. Against the 1/50th figure - not really scary. Against the 1/87th - no contest as to which I would use in scenarios using the 'big' monsters. I've already got two different 'scales' of town anyway - the Fairport ones are roughly 1/87th railway hobby buildings, plus the 28mm Newhaven buildings.

I'm also continuing with trying out rooms. This is a first attempt at a library - I've made it as a fixed 3 wall room using wallpaper and floorboards from the internet (From Small Stuff's Printmini). Actually, these are so quick and easy to do - the room is made the same as I have always made chariot cabs - that I think I'll just use this method in future. Making two or three separate rooms with different walls missing is quick! Note the books on the bookshelves - difficult to paint due to deep incuts, but you can't see the badly painted parts when in use, just when you take photos from slightly above!

I will need a better range of doors though - windows not an issue - as the only doors I currently have just suit the 1/75th figure.

 As for more furniture, just ordered some 1/87th. Faller building interiors - 227 pieces for £26.55 from Osborn's Models!

 Next nominal task - see how practical it is to sort rooms that fit with some of the actual buildings I own, and possibly build whole houses!

Not sure whether to do a step-by-step post of building a room, it's so simple that I would almost feel I'm insulting people. Incidentally, you can buy downloadable rooms, etc - for example, Mean Sets are US based downloads from The Virtual Armchair General.

Name change for Seaport?

 Quick post. Having settled on the name Seaport I've thought of a possibly better name. Fairport.

Reason? Fan of Fairport Convention since the mid 70s (first saw them live in Liverpool. Couple of us went to a Genesis concert, wall of sound drove us out, walking down the street and went into a folk club. Must have been between female vocalists  - my main memory is of Dave Swarbrick bouncing on and off the stage playing his fiddle - I'm sure that stage was higher than he was!)

So, interested in comments, but it's certainly the front runner in my mind at the moment.

The Sea Raiders

 The coast was in panic. People disappearing off the night time beaches, fishing boats lost at sea. Even the boats operated by members of the Church of Dagon stayed in port... amid rumours of something evil in the shallows...

At Seaport, the army patrolled the coast...

Patrols peering towards the sea for clues or dangers...

Patrolling the beach and scrub-covered rocks.

Checking the shoreline...

A strange noise... 'Bill... no reply. Bill had vanished into the dark night.

Calls for help, attracting the rest of the soldiers.

Then silence as the soldiers reach the rocks...

Something there...hidden in the dark and the rocks...

Sounds of shouting and gunshots, a frantic slashing of bayonets at the unseen foe...

Then the unseen enemy is gone, back to the darkness of the sea.

'Over the following weeks there were further attacks down the coast. On the last day of June, Mr Egbert Caine, an artist, bathing near Newlyn, threw up his arms, shrieked and was drawn under. A friend bathing with him made no attempt to save him but swam at once for the shore. This is the last fact to tell of this extraordinary raid from the deeper sea. Whether it really is the last of these horrible creatures it is, as yet, premature to say.  But it is believed, and certainly it is to be hoped, that they have returned now, and returned for good, to the sunless depths of the middle seas, out of which they have so strangely and so ysteriously arisen.'

Not everything I do is inspired by Lovecraft... there have been quite a few others... And if this one is not familiar the clues are there!

Harbour area finished

Took a while, but eventually got all the brickwork finished and sprayed. In some areas the spray didn't quite cover 100% but this effect actually made it look a bit more realistic.

Certainly all the elements of the harbour seem to fit well together. Still boats, etc, to paint or finish painting but the whole lot is quite workable.

One thing I was slightly worried about was making steps. Needn't have; the simple idea of layered sheet balsa worked well.

The working dock area is liable to change on a regular basis. Apart from anything else it's far too clean, tidy and uncluttered!

Although I have added some 'depth' to the town chances are any action concerning the harbour will not spread beyond the first line of houses.

 So that's it. It will always be a work in progress and probably never look the same two scenarios in a row, but it is certainly workable.

Royal Mail having problems?

 Being very (very) rural, the Post Office system of collecting parcels/letters from your home is very useful. Especially since a spate of stolen post boxes in the area included the one near our house. However, the system itself seems to be down:

'Sorry, collections cannot be arranged right now. This service will be available again shortly, so please try again later.'

Bit awkward. (Though update - spoke to postman and he didn't know anything about - still willing to collect parcels)

Meanwhile, as for parcels sent out, 24hr delivery tracked, collected 2nd May (!), gets the message on tracking: ' Sorry, your item went to Stroud DO in error, so we re-routed it immediately. More information will be available as it travels through our network.'

Not what you would call the most reliable service at the moment...

Seven Sisters and two towns

Getting my energy back a bit after London... After London we went Brighton for a few days. First couple of days of Brighton not much fun. However, had one interesting day out after those first days...

The Seven Sisters are chalk cliffs. Easy to get to from Brighton on the 12A or 12x buses. Quite a pleasant walk down to the beach.

To be fair, the Seven Sisters were the 'Sandra' part of the day, though there are a few military vestiges lying around - I assume these were old WW2 defences!

My main reason/intersest though were a couple of other towns we stopped off at. In this case, the bridge leads into the town of... Newhaven! Yes, there really is a town a few miles up the coast from Brighton that is called Newhaven!

The scum filled waters around decaying woodwork do give a suitably atmospheric feel to the place.

It's a working port - not very tidy!

The paraphenalia of a fishing port is laid out for all to see - nothing 'attractive' about this area.

Houses facing the river frontage are generally new but have a look that would not be out of place in a Lovecraftian Newhaven.

The storage areas away from the river are also pretty new and just look like garage blocks.

However, Newhaven does seem to have a thriving marina.

In between the Seven Sisters and Newhaven is another town. Seaford. Namewise, equivalent to my Seaport even if Seaport harbour is totally based on Seahouses harbour in Northumberland.

There's really very litle of interest in Seaford apart from this little cafe.

The inside is devoted to WW2, including pictures, maps and fake uniforms. Actually the food is OK as well!

The seafront and esplanade at Seaford. Pebble beach, no harbour so little of interest in many ways. Useful pictures if doing a beach invasion I suppose. There is, however, a Martello Tower just visible at the far end of the esplanade.

So, an interesting day out that, if nothing else, gave me a couple of ideas and meant I can honestly say 'Of course Newhaven is real - I've been there'.