Zona Alfa - New Terrain - Industrial

Original Draft 2020-12-04

Got a couple of terrain pieces from ttCombat via mightyape.

A 'distribution centre' and 2x 'distribution office's.

Something my scenery is/was lacking is 'industrial' genre pieces and also 'large' pieces.   This is/was partially intentional (storage) but for variety I think these three new pieces will add a bit of something.

The STALKER pc game often alternates between large 'islands' of structures* and very open 'free forest'. And the new items will add a large central point of interest for an industrial map.

   * although you're not actually maze-running, the long sides of the structures effectively determine movement, but you can also go inside buildings.

I can make various theme areas with what i have of course;

village - houses, barns, shops, shacks

military - outpost, fences, possibly the containers and/or adobe shacks

dockside - containers, barns, shop and shacks

but these are really all thrown together under a very 'rose-glasses' theme.

The big distribution building is definitely a better fit for a dockside warehouses,  or an armament/vehicle depot for a military base.  The offices similarly can add to those themes.

Alternately they can be the centre piece, then add containers, shacks, and plenty of fences to make a depot board.

The offices are design to (optionally) 'attach' to the depot, or you can use them stand-alone.

A project for the new year. I have this and the new forest to work on so plenty to do terrain-wise.

Then I absolutely MUST get these bits and bobs boxed. If I have a limited box storage volume and if it's full I'm hoping it will ease the temptation to get new bits.

Given this particular terrain set (all of what i'm building) is themed very much just for this game (i.e. no space-faring shenanigans) I'm considering adding some more detail on all the pieces. I semi-deliberately left most of the terrain quite bare, coloured, but no downpipes or signs or debris or anything like that, just so it could all be multi-purpose and work with different themed boards. But I'm hopefully reaching a stage where i have about enough of what I need and again, perhaps finessing the piece will keep me too busy to start more terrain projects.... perhaps... maybe... hopefully.

update 2020-12-10

This arrived just now. Final bit of mdf terrain action for the year (and hopefully for a while).

The bigger building is quite a large package.

Not going to start on this yet.

My hope is that these buildings will lend themselves well to babushka'ing some of the other bits I have.

Not going to get another storage box for it all just yet. Want to get the new trees done (a next year project) and have an idea on the overall size I need. Pretty much sick of doing up storage for x project nicely, only to subsequently get an extra y item that renders the storage pointless.

update ends

update 2020-12-11   [the next morning]

Well that was always going to happen...

Made a start on the two smaller buildings (offices) only. Takes time for the glue to dry so the whole process takes a good long while.

update ends

update 2020-12-14

Finished off the offices the following day. Don't mind them.

Next to a barn for size comparison. The barn is fractionally taller, but obviously the office has lots more volume. However there is a mezzanine in the offices so it's not all usable for storage. 

Started the warehouse. Both offices and the barn fit inside (that's before the gantry was put in though).

I'm hoping that the roof trusses are attached to the roof, not the walls, meaning all that space is accessible. Should look at the plans I guess...

update ends

update 2020-12-15

Assembly done. Overall, I think I can make it work on the table. They're nice enough pieces, again, a little more finicky than I'm used to, some parts perhaps a little delicate than my usual tastes, but yeah, it's decent terrain. 

Plenty of space inside. The only bits permanently attached is the gantry. I'm not sure whether I'll bother keeping the forklift, and I'm likely to ditch the pallets, they're far flimsier than the ones I made.

The trusses are attached to the roof, so score on that one. It's pretty but you don't really get to see it from a gaming perspective unless you i.e. put the roller doors up, so it's generally a hidden/lost feature. Anyway.

Speaking of, I've glued on/left on  all the small doors. none of the other terrain buildings have doors but i kind of like them with doors for a change. they don't open/close, so decision required. The roller doors do open.

So, this is the group.

And i think it will offer up some good options for positioning to get some varied cover/LoS blocking on the board. it's two action of 6" to move from end to end (plus some) so a nice big object to move around or through.

They are collectively going to need some plaster just to cover some edges/joins/holes etc, but not too much hopefully. Then on to paint, and i think a relatively simply scheme.

I deliberately left off some of the smaller features like external light and signage, just to keep the models a tiny bit cleaner/more generic.

update ends

update 2020-12-16

Bogged things up with plaster. Sanded them back. Mainly looking at the walls join etc.

All the outers are now rattle can'd  with grey filler/primer. Will also do the inside.

Based on a poll by my hobby associates I'm going 'dull/hammered metal roof (outer), light cream colour on the outer walls, and will do a 'split' with the lower 1/5 in green. Or similar.

Later: Everything now primed.

I'm thinking that i might hand paint these. Even though there's a lot, I want to keep the same feel as all the other buildings, and those were all hand painted. I need a couple of pots of paint which I can pick up on Monday.

update ends

update 2020-12-17

Started colours. Floors all covered with a lighter grey. Took a while but worth it I think - brush throughout.

update ends

update 2020-12-21

More colours. outside is getting a two-tone thingy. Top will be done in screaming skull. Then a bit of washes and details and whatnot. I'm thinking that I might do the outside surface of the roof screaming skull too. will give the buildings a unified feel.  

Inside is light floors, dark walls and just the leadbelcher on the gantry and sticky-outy bits. Washes etc.

Getting there.

update ends

update 2021-01-16

Yep, a flash-forward...

I mentioned this project to my local gaming compadres and asked for colour scheme recommendations.

The first will start looking real familiar real soon....

And the second from someone when it jogged their memories of Counterstrike...

Both comments welcome and helpful.

update ends

update 2020-12-23

Progress has been made. Just slowly.

All the main colour areas are now blocked in.

The outside walls, being quite light, are noticeably blotchy (below).  My plan is use a sponge to dabble area and hopefully camouflage the differences. I don't mind it all being 'nonuniform' but at the moment it looks a 'painted'. Some areas are quite solid. Screaming Skull is a bloody horrible colour, the consistency of it is invariably abhorrent - actually the colour it self is incredibly useful which makes using it that much more irksome.

So I need to do 'detailing' before I can move on to washes. Walls as above, also where the two-tone meets - some of them a sharp others are rubbish (above = rubbish), I could potentially sponge-dapple these and have it as wear... but I'm not planning on doing lots of weathering on these pieces.

The gantry needs detail brushwork, I've done the easy bits but the connections to the wall, floor for example need painting. similarly the roof trusses. 

I'm hoping to have this done over the xmas break given we're not going anywhere. Am actually keen to see this on the board for a game soon.

update ends

update 2020-12-31

Last update of the year I'm thinking. I finally got all the base colours blocked in. Took a while but there was taping to be done, plus big surfaces and lots of waiting between coats. So I did many little sessions, nut it just took a while to get through it all. I would probably baulk at doing more items of this size.

Far from perfect, there are still paint spills and ugly spots but it probably counts as 'consistent enough' with my existing 28mm ZA terrain to be happy with it.

I did the ramp and shelves, just base metal, and didn't bother with the fork lift, may get that done once the buildings are done but couldn't be bothered with it to be blunt.

So, next up is some washes and then clear coat. don't think I'll bother with dry brushing and definitely not looking to add lots of weathering - it will be a relatively clean piece and I can always go back and revisit all the terrain for weathering later. For now I just want it available for the table.

update ends

Update 2021-01-09

This all got a wash of null oil today. Looks pretty splotchy and ugly (just as planned). Will require a dry brush to lightening it all. But not today.

update ends

Update 2021-01-16

Done. I drybrushed/scrubbed practically all the non-metallic surfaces just to lighten the tone.

It still has plenty of grimy, dirty patches which is pretty much what I was after. Models included to show scale (and sometimes prop open the doors).

The 'roller doors' on all models are openable. All the 'small doors' aren't. They could be but I figured it was neater/easier to just leave them all closed up. 

Generally, very happy with how it turned out. There's not a lot of detailing or fiddly modelling; debris/signage etc. Might revisit this at a later date.

The smaller buildings are very bare inside. And that can be written off by the phrase 'stripped clean'. A lot of terrain modellers now days are into debris and detritus in the models and it definitely has its place. Rather than gluing on sticks and rubbish everywhere, I'm thinking of getting some extra (or I can use the existing) barrels or drums or pallets to just fill a corner here or there.

Realistically these pieces are going to be 'roof on' the vast majority of the time, except if there's a mission objective inside etc.

The larger building came with some internal details which got bare minimum treatment. I did make a tiny effort with the floor and gantry in here, adding some washes and on the floor some scuffed and worn hazard striping (which is engraved on the floor anyway... so why not).

Open doors... looks perfectly fine from a game-use perspective, if not from a diorama/modeller/art perspective. 

Looking forward to setting it up on a table, but glad it's finally done. Despite the modelling job done on it being very simple/basic there was still a lot of time/work to get it to this level.

update ends

Update 2021-01-09

So this morning i was trying to babushka the depot bits together... see what else i could cram in there. Not as much as I'd hoped but some. The office buildings have the whole mezzanine thing which blocks some space, but most of the stuff 'out' is larger items anyway.

So i was thinking about boxing it up etc. Occurred to me that i still have 3 industrial containers underway and someone just donated me another factor.

The goal of having a finite amount of stuff to box seems illusive.

update ends

Until next time...