The Dead Road Part 11

As regular followers of WAR ART know, I have been spending a lot of money this year, well over a thousand  dollars as of the publication of this article, to build up my TOMORROW BLACK Terrain. 

One of my Christmas presents to myself was a large order of raw plastic materials and a few more HO Kits. I am going to make a beautiful little strip-mall as one of the stops along The Dead Road, and this lovely Drive-thru Bank kit was one of the last models on my long list. Every time I had the money for it, the kit was out of stock...lol...merry Christmas Joe, it was in stock this month!

I am almost able to complete The Dead Mall now,  all I need is a Taco Bell, or some other fun little establishment, and a few more shop buildings. I will of course post a detailed article on the construction of this complete environment in 2012.

This is a big project, near and dear to my wretched black heart...it is going to be a very fun challenge...and I am almost ready to start!

Joseph

Further Down The Dead Road

I am adding these new building kits to The Dead Road.

Modern Strip Mall
Drive-Through Bank Kit HO

These are going to give The Dead Road a great look I think. I love the idea of making a large parking lot with these buildings and other details all round that eerie open space...

Joseph

Tools, Toys, and Paint!

I just ordered a bunch of fun goodies; Micro Files, more HO Scale Buildings, and Vallejo Paints, Washes, and Primer. I need the files to better clean the Masters. The new buildings are a part of a project that I have wanted to do for years. These will be used with part of The Dead Road Terrain.  The Vallejo supplies are going to be the real source of work, as I have not done any painting in years.

Joseph

THE DEAD ROAD Part 10

I have posted a lot of Articles about my intentions for this project and all of the raw materials that I have purchased to make this Battlefield a reality.
Now it is time for me to get more work done on this project, since I am about to actually have my own models in hand.
I laid out much of what I have for this tabletop this evening, to see just what it might look like. I am not to disappointed with it. I think I still need to buy a few more vehicles, to really set up that "Here are the Ancient Remains of a Failed Mass Migration from The Dying City of York" look.
I also need to pick up a few more detail items like Street Lights, Static Grass, and some more Trees.
I am going to make the crappy trees used in this Dry Run Layout as a stand, with the nice trees mounted as Stand Alone items to pretty up the odd spots. I am going to get silly with these and sculpt roots and little animals like Crows and Buzzards for the Eye Pop treatment. I still need to finish that damn annoying Anitomicalley Correct Skeleton too...
I am not going to use the little foam roads either. I am going to sculpt the roads in place so that I can get nice cracks and sink hols on them.

I need to pick up a few more cork tiles also. I have some, but I want to use them on every floor tile now, so that I can have a nice coarse canvas to glue my grasses to. I can also add little blasted areas, by simply breaking out parts of the cork to make a depression. This will work great for representing mud puddles and little streams too. This approach will also give me that nice damaged pavement that looked so good in The Road and The Book Of Eli environments.
The last thing to buy yet for this and all of my Battlefields is the New Table. I will have to do that later, so it may end up being my Halloween Present.

So this is what the East side of The Dead Road looks like. The West side will have The Overpass and more abandoned vehicles and trees.

What I see here on this table, and what is in my head have a long way to go yet before they colloid, but I am further along with this then I was last year say...

Joseph

THE DEAD ROAD Part 9

I received the new Trees and some more Modern Lamps last week. I can now arrange all of the main components and do a dry run for the complete layout. I am including images of some Cutting Mats that I am going to use for parking lots. I am also including my M1 Tanks and an APC to give everything scale.

I think these trees are going to make The Dead Road...live. The Mats are a great way to get large areas done without buying expensive Plasticard, or using card that will rot over time.

Joseph

THE DEAD ROAD Part 8

I took an inventory of my HO & 1/87 scale vehicles last week and decided to get a few more. I plan to have some of my roads full of long abandoned vehicles, and to make it look good IMO you need a lot of these neat little toys. This order just came today.

I nearly fell out of my chair as I browsed an on line seller of Hobby Trains, that actually had Modern Waste Dumpsters in Glorious HO Scale! I love these things! I had looked around for them and never found the right style, in this scale. Now I have two...lol...Hot Damn!

I also found a very nice Modern Billboard and some fun furniture and other bits while looking for new vehicles. I am going to do a scene with several Police and Rescue Vehicles for my Dead City boards, so I snapped up a few Cop Cars and Vans at a great sale price of $2.50 each...nice!

The Dead Road Tabletop just might be a neat place to game when I am done...

Joseph

THE DEAD ROAD Part 7

I took a little break today from my sculpting and finally got to work on the other side of The Dead Road Battlefield. This is the 24Hour Stop that is going to be next to The Hotel.

 The Pump Island is one of the best HO Scale Models I have seen recently. I love this little bit of detail.

The Store is a fun model too. I am going to put all kinds of detail on this building.

The inside is a pain in the ass...lol...I have a lot to do to this area. I am going to keep the top free so I can have little explorations and fights inside. I have to fill in the floor, and do a good bit of inner wall work, such as more shelves and loose debris...the fun stuff.

I will post more on this project soon.

Joseph

THE DEAD ROAD Part 6

I have the basic bridge dry fitted now. I wanted to see it lain out. I am happy with the results of this little dry run. I decided to order larger sheets of Plasticard, as shown in my last Dead Road update. The new 7"x12" Plastic Boards are exactly what I wanted. You can see that the three Plastic Bridge pieces that came with the Rix Kit are nice, but they will not give me the large Overpass structure that I want. I am going to get good use from these pieces however, in another terrain Project, which I will discuss at a later date.

Now that I have laid the bridge out and dry-tested it for size, I can actually build this large structure with confidence that the finished product will do what I want it to do on the Battlefield.

I have started the damage and weathering process on some of my HO (1/87) scale die cast and plastic vehicles.
So far I have simply added bullet hits and other damage to the glass, along with scratches and dents on the bodies.

I decided that I want to add an abandoned house in the woods along the interstate. This will add another element of cover for advancing troops, and also I like the idea of having a house setting quietly in overgrown woodlands. With little skeletons and rusting vehicles, and the vines and other fun details all around. Baby, you sure are sexy...lol.

This house was a very simple little kit to assemble, and so I an not showing the entire process of assembly, which took only about an hour to complete. Now the real work comes, in aging and weathering the structure.

I will post more updates on this project soon.

Joseph

THE DEAD ROAD Part 5

Hail Brothers Of The One Five!

I had a little unpacking adventure and after I dug out a few of my BIG Boxes of Raw Terrain Materials...well...I discovered I needed more goodies...Oops.

I suppose I could just use what I had, which is considerable, but I want The Dead Road to look absolutely realistic, which meant that I had to drop another $60 on this project. Below you can see what I ordered last week.

I have thought about it, and decided to be happy with my beloved Overpass...well...I am going to have to augment the RIX Kit. This was the main reason (along with the Sidewalks) that I purchased the new Plasticard Sheets, and put off working on it for a bit until the new supplies came in. I also discovered during my Closet Dig, that I needed new Plasticard Strips and Corners to finish off the Hotel's False Floors (I use these for the actuale construction process, the details of which I'll share with you later).

Well other than the Skeletons I am sculpting...I have all of the materials I need and can really build these structures now, the way I want them.
The skeletons are important becuase I am going to have areas of high detail all over my terrain, similar to what I am doing for my Miniature Bases.



I will post more on this project, and preview the Skeletons set soon.

Joseph

The Book of Eli...A Must See Film!

Hello Brothers Of The One Five.


I just watched The Book Of Eli over the Holiday. Believe it or not, I had yet to see this film, because I was waiting for it to come out in an Extended/Special Edition. I knew from seeing the Trailers, that this was going to be a film to own. While it is available on DVD now, I am going to wait a bit longer to buy it in the hope that it does get released in a grander form.
I am an odd fellow in this regard, as I will happily wait for Special Editions of truly great films before I add them to my DVD Collection.
The Book of Eli is a truly great film.
I think it is rather odd,  that I gave in and rented this film, just as I have started to finally work on some of my dearest Terrain Projects, such as The Dead Road.
Needless to say...The Book of Eli (along with The Road) have truly inspired me to do the very best work I can, as I endeavor to build the world of Tomorrow Black, for the 15MM tabletop.

If you have not seen The Book of Eli...I hope you do, because it is a story worth experiencing.

Joseph

THE DEAD ROAD Part 4

I have The Hotel base model assembled.  I can now concentrate on The Damage and Detail work, which has been started.

I am leaving the back wall off, for now, so that I can work inside, adding false floors for the broken areas of the outer wall.

I am going to add a lot of little details to this model, such as Building Debris, Furniture, and Skeletons (Which I am currently sculpting).



There is still a LOT of work to be done...but it is coming along reasonably well.

Joseph

THE DEAD ROAD Part 3

Now that we have seen The Overpass, here are the supporting structures in this Terrain Drama.
These models balance out The Dead Road Tabletop. I am going to have The Overpass extending across one end of the Game Board. The 24 Hour Convenience Store and Hotel will be on the other end. Between these ruined ghost there will be a dual lane highway, with vehicle hulks, trees, rusting light poles, and other appropriate detritus.

The 24 Hour Convenience Store will be more or less in tack, for good ground cover. The sexy little Modern Gravity Gas Pumps (Oh baby...baby!) and a few long abandoned vehicles will be set in front of the structure, on an overgrown and time worn paved lot.

The Hotel will preserve game balance, more so than the 24 Hour Stop, and make a fine bookend to the Overpass. With this large model in play, opposing forces will each have good high ground to deploy their Long Ranged and/or Heavy Weapons in.

It should be very fun to have ranged boxing matches, so to speak, as heavy weapons lining the overpass trade blows with their enemies firing from the hotel windows and rooftops.

I purchased The Store, The Gas Pumps, and The Hotel, from Hobbylink.

I searched high and low for Modern Gas Pumps, and Hobbylink was the only game in town. They are a solid company.

Well there you have it , other than the road, the vehicles and the skeletons (which I am currently sculpting),  that is pretty much everything. After six months of web-hunting and saving up the fun-money, I have amassed all of the components I need for this Terrain Project.

Now all I have to do is build everything...

Joseph

THE DEAD ROAD Part 2

That SEXY Overpass...Lordy Have Mercy!

Ha, ha, ha! This is The Star Of The Show. I have always loved the idea of gaming around a structure that spans the entire width of the table. Not only does it give you high ground and good cover, it looks great on the table IMO.

I built something like this years ago, in my 28MM gaming days, and it was almost cool, but this time I can really DO IT RIGHT. I am going to keep the structure in tack for the most part, because I want to have troops and vehicles able to move across the full length of the expanse.

For Brothers Of The One Five, I can not recommend this rare jewel of a model highly enough. It was designed to be a converters dream. You have to assemble the model in three independent lenghts, and all of the support piers are seperate too.
Assembling this model is going to be a little arduous, but you have great control of how to lay the pieces out. For example, you really could do the broken and half standing bridge arrangement, with segments of the structure on and above the ground. It would be a simple matter of assembling the model in pieces, rather than as a complete structure.

I purchased a pair of these RIX kits, becuase I want to be able to make a large model. This was a little expensive, but you could do well with just a single kit. I got mine from Walthers on sale for about $30 each.

Other Component's for this model include: Double-Arm Tear Drop Lamp, Guardrail, and Concrete K-Rail Barrier.

Now I  own all of these goodies, and I have started to clean up the parts, and dry fit them. It is going to be a job to do this right, but it will be great (I hope) when it is done.

This is where The Fun Starts...

Joseph

THE DEAD ROAD Part 1

After posting three Sculpting Projects this month I think it is time to post about one of my Terrain Projects. I have just started working on a 3x6 Battlefield, which I am calling The Dead Road. 

The concept for this Battlefield is to have a long rectangle area to game where movement will be an important part of the scenarios. For example Search & Return, Pursue & Capture or Seek & Destroy missions would play out well in this environment.

I found myself becoming very inspired to start The Dead Road, while watching The Road last year. This film may of been a disappointment to some Apocalyptic Action Junkies, but for me it did not disappoint, certainly not in the way the film makers presented the atmosphere and look of the world.

I have collected several raw components for this project over the last six months. It was a fun little mission just to find these models. Now I am ready to start working on this Sexy Terrain,  as sort of a little respite from my many Sculpting Projects.



I will post images of the models in their own topic.

Joseph