I've been bitten by the ATZ bug lately. After finishing 500pts of Hiberno-Norse for WAB, I was looking to do something else. I got myself some matting board and an exacto-knife and cut some up. I've looked at other folks sites, like TMP or Matakishi (SP?) Teahouse for ideas. I pretty much followed what Matakishi had on his site, only I used mat board and cut no where near the square corners he did. These are no where near the quality, but they fit the bill for me. 7-0 and go, baby.
I think it took me about an hour or so to cut one out. Each of the buildings (minus the corner building which is 5 inches square) are multiples of 6 inches in length. Walls are about 2 inches in height, with the false fronts as high as 3.5 inches. I did a strip mall that's a foot long with a burned out store, and a few more that were 6 inches long. The bases are mat board too, with an extra inch on one or more sides for a sidewalk. I took the doors I cut out, and glued them on the back as the back door. No interior work on these things, but you can remove the 'roofs' to put figures inside. I could at some point come back and redo the insides, but that will require the miniature gaming industry NOT to release any new products for the next 6 months, AND for Lord of the Rings Online not to launch. Oh crap, and I'm getting deployed again, well TCS to another post. Looks like they will go without insides for a bit.
Painting each building took about a hour tops to do. I sprayed them black with the evil empire's primer. Still my favorite well after I stopped buying their fantasy and sci-fi games. After that dried, I gave them a quick coat or two of grey paint. I wasn't very careful and used a big dry brush to do the job. I got just enough on to give it a dirty look and brighten up the other colors I used. For the rest of the colors, I just made it up as I went along. I had no plan what so ever. I had no clue what the building would be until I started putting the final colors on. About the same time as those last few colors, I came up with the business names. I chose names/hobbies from people that I served in the Army with, or have known for a long time. I've got some more buildings that I am cutting on right now. I'll victimize more folks I've know over the years when I finish the new set. The great part is that some of them are gamers and will be like "Dude! Cool! I'll be in a Zombie game". Others will be horrified to learn their names are attached to "a bunch of geeks that push painted dollies around in their parent's basement". Either way, the victims are all good friends so it's all good.
The figure near the buildings is a Gripping Beast Irish figure. He's there for scale purposes. I would have used a zombie or some survivor, but I don't own either. What I want to do is line that Irish figure and 11 more of his mates into a mob near one of the buildings and title it "What's in your wallet". Right now, my wallet has a fiver and a few ones. Payday will come.
