It’s going to be something…

My wife pointed out that I had nice looking buildings on the lower area of the layout, where there was the majority of sewer access points.  So, the slums have moved a bit and are now going across the lower section of the layout.

The added benefit of this is that the slum buildings are shorter so open up the view of the board more.

That leaves the question of what to do with the area that I had originally planned on placing the slums on.

Anyway, some progress of my slum build.   Just spray painted at the moment.  I will add more detail when work permits.

I managed to free up some time to start painting the slums.  There is nothing too fancy here, with lots of stippling and washes using a cheap paint brush from the hardware store.  I used different colours for these buildings as I imagine they would have been built with cheaper red bricks and wood cladding.   The aim was for a dirtier feel than the other buildings I have in the Victorian setting.

There is still plenty of work to do on them before I can tick them off as done, but they are getting there.

I also included a seedy pub amongst the buildings and a few arched passageways.  I am going with black window frames on these houses as they just feel like they suit the poorer more ram-shackled-looking buildings.

The hint of brickwork rather than complete brickwork walls I think works well to show the poverty of this part of town.   I still have to do some doors and will probably do a mixture of solid wooden doors and others.   I also have a few ideas to help create a more lived-in feel, but will keep those under wraps for now just in case they don’t work out.

There has been little progress due to a change of work and other commitments slowing things down. I am a little concerned that I may not get as much finished by the deadline as I had planned. We have a family holiday coming up soon that pretty much wipes out all of December for me on this. Anyway, some progress, as small as it is, is still progress.

A bit more work has been done on the slum area.  Still more detailing to do, but it’s starting to blend in more with the rest of the layout.

I have added a factory/warehouse/industrial section to the layout.  My thoughts are that the people living in the slum area can get to the warehouse via the sewer network and avoid the disapproving glares of the other townsfolk.  Anyway, there is something distinctly fishy about the people who work in those factories anyway.

The layout is coming together nicely and is somewhat larger than I had originally planned.

From the outset, I wanted multiple crossings and ways of getting around the table to try to minimalise the choke points.  When you are doing a town board there will always be some, but I wanted to avoid the scenario where everyone was trying to get up the same stairs or across the same bridge.  I wanted to be able to have outflanking manoeuvrers possible so that if a player does decide to try to hold one bridge there were still ways of getting behind them.

A little street plan

Red arrows show stairs up and down between elevations.

Blue circles show access and exit points to the sewer system, which can also allow access to the upper and lower elevations.

Green rectangles show crossings from both raised areas and passageways between buildings that may or may not be immediately identifiable from the other images.

This also does not take into account that a lot of the buildings have both front and back doors that can be exploited.   The large Aeronef station for example has a fully playable interior with 2 lifts for access to different floors withing the structure.

I also wanted to be able to play over multiple parts of the table for different scenarios.  Most skirmish-level games use a smaller board than 6′ x 4′ and I wanted to be able to set up the entire table and then have different things happening throughout the layout.

There are a few distinctive districts that are noticeable, all of different shapes and sizes.  This is not to say that a scenario could fall between the different areas and incorporate parts of two or more sections.

Orange – Industrial

Blue – Market

Pink – Aeronef Port

Yellow – Slum

Then of course there are the sewers that run around the outside of the table and also expand beneath the table in different areas.   However, if I plan on running a sewer game other than the sewers around the edges, I will leave all the buildings off to allow access to the layout beneath.

Of course, this is just using the one layout of the terrain tiles.   These are all modular and can be taken apart and reassembled in a completely different set-up if needed.  I can then completely change the look of the whole table.  Maybe I want just a central raised area and the rest at a lower level, no problem.  Maybe I want the sunken road area and with no bridges, no problem, I can do that too.

At the moment I have just had this all set out in one configuration for the photographs, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

I wired up some lights today and took the opportunity to take some pictures of the Victorian Layout as it currently stands.

To-do list.

• Factory district to paint up.
• Another corner building for the smaller raised area.
• Market goods.
• Street Scatter and rubbish
• Internal lighting and wall-mounted lights for the Victorian buildings.
• Elements to give a ‘lived-in look’.

I have started working on some of the little bits that will add character and give the feel of a lived-in space.

Washing lines seemed like a good idea to give the impression that people live in these houses.   They were simple to make using simple clothes draped over some twisted wire.   I kept the colours pretty drab to help keep the feel of a poorer part of town.

After that a few dustbins to scatter around.  There are tons of guides for making and modelling trash cans on YouTube and they really do add a bit to the table, plus they could also come in useful as a bit of cover during games.  I also added a few rats around the place, although I have not painted them yet.   I am pretty sure that every city or built-up area has its fair share of rodents hidden amongst it.

I will add some bin bags, boxes, crates and other general junk to scatter around.   Not just in the Slum area but also in the raised area too.

I am slowly adding a few more bits and bobs to this layout.

I finally got around to adding another corner building to the smaller raised area and decided it needed a sign or something on the front to add more visual appeal.   I went with the Miskatonic University.

I also painted up a load of barrels, sacks and other general scatter pieces.  Basically, I am painting up anything I can find to add a sense of life to the layout.

I found some cheap plastic birds that I roughly painted up to look like pigeons.   I want to add a few stray cats too.

I dug out some Victorian-era Hanson Cabs that I have had ever since the Empire of the Dead Kickstarter I don’t know how many years ago and assembled them.  I’ve designed some bases to match the road layout and have started to paint them up.

I have a few more carriages from the range that I may add if I get time.   I like the idea of carriages as terrain.

Some of the piles of ‘stuff’ have lamps on top of them which have had little flicker bulbs installed which will give an extra way of lighting both the sewer and industrial areas.

My initial factory/warehouse didn’t feel right so I made another.   That also didn’t feel right either, so I made a third and I’m much happier with this one.   It does of course mean I now have an excess of warehouses in my terrain pile.

Happy with the new design I decided to quickly do the wall grout so that I can hopefully finish off the building tomorrow.

Next, I decided to set the building in place and plug the lights in to make sure I was happy with the direction it’s heading.

I hope that this build is getting close to capturing that dark smoggy 18th Century London vibe where the likes of Jack the Ripper and worse stalk the dark places.

The idea is that the Victorian Setting will be much gloomier than the fantasy setting, and I have tried to use muted tones to help emphasise the poor and miserable feel of city life in the Victorian era.