Terrain Challenge: Zombie Sub-urbs

Luckily I have a few weeks of of work. The missus still needs to work for a week and the kids have some activities in town.

So I can make some progress on this thing.

I adhere to Indiana Jones’philosophy of making things up as I go along. This resulted in a building thats over a foot long and almost a foot wide for my 9 square foot table. I’m glad I put doors in every wall, so models can move through them.

Today I started with some colomns and an altar. I didn’t stick them in place yet, for ease of painting. They provide some interest in the interior as well as cover.

Next, the roof.

I first made a skeleton. Nothing fancy, just functional. This will often be put aside during gaming and I’m not going to fancy up the inside.

Then I had the shapes for the front and back.

I allso added a layer of card to work as a foundation for the shingles, which is gonna be a &%*&(*&*( of a chore. Not looking forward to that.

So, apart from the shingles. I still need to add some steps to the doors, a tower and then hide all the seams/decorate.

I also decided against the windows. I’m going to use balsa wood for the doors and windows. This will make the church less distincly christian. I will ad a magnet above the alter so I can place an Icon of my choosing to adjust to the game I’m playing. Allowing me to use it in warhammer/40K or C’thulu if I so choose.

With a bit more disposable income availableI resisted the temptation many of us are all to familiar with, to buy more miniatures.

This time I bought a hot wire cutter and an airbrush. I”m planning to do some serious terrain building. Osprey games has recently released the last days rules.

I have been waiting for these zombie rules for a good while now and I intend to make a gaming surface to do them justice. The plan is to make a 3×3 suburban table. This will be modular and will, among other things, include a church, gunstore, gaststation and motel. Along with various scatter terrain.

As soon as I had my hotwire cutter, and some Styrodur (a styrofoam with higher density. It’s very suitable for terrain making as it has only the texture you give it. This taxture can be added with varous techniques) I gor cracking.

I started with the church, which I’m kinda regretting now. It’s probably the most difficult of the buildings. The biggest and the one I really want the most details on. It’s kinda like starting with the centre piece.

The good news, it allows me to really get used to the material and tools.

These are the first steps. Walls, and floor. I used crumbled up foil for the texture

After putting it togetter with PVA, it’s time to hide the seams, as well as making the model a bit less flat. I created some corners and cut them up to size. Then I stuck each piece on indivually.

I also created some reinforcements, to make the sides a bit more interesting

Next step will be a bit of interior. Mainly some pillars and an altar. Pews will be added at some point probably, but not before the rest of the entire project is finished. I allso want to be ably to move them around, so I can furnish the church as either a survivor hide out, or use it in another game in current day setting or even infinity, with everything intact.

I’ll also ad some steps on the outside. Then there’s the roof, a bell tower and I have yet to decide wether to have closed wooden windows or add stained glass, but I’m kinda inclined to do the latter.