Wednesday 12 March 2014

Built-Up Areas For 'Maurice - Part 2

Based on what bits I thought worked, and the comments of others, I spent five minutes with the printer and some glue this evening, and put together a prototype built-up area. It's still rough and ready, but I think it's looking good.

Basically it's the 'Town Square/Street look of the first photo from the previous post, but with a building section in the middle to break up the empty space. The section can be moved or removed during the game. I need to make the whole thing sturdier, though - our screen-door was open whilst I was taking these pictures, and the light breeze kept blowing pieces over. Our club-room is cooled with quite aggressive ceiling fans, so I need to take this into account in any design.



The 'rear' view is looking better; uneven roof lines help.


Troops in occupation. The central section has now been removed, and the streets barricaded. As part of any project I undertake I will make some proper 1" barricade sections.


11 comments:

  1. Yep like the idea, works for me, maybe a thin beveled edge bit of MDF as the base might stop the facades falling over.

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  2. I think lips for the edges and a heavier central square would probably do the trick. You could also put tinfoil inside the glued-together houses to stiffen and weight them.

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  3. This is very close to the ones that I made. The main differences were the bua was a hollow box . ie buildings on all 4 sides. I put in roof detail similar to Bob's and the central block was a little more complex ie a clock tower and church spire built into the central block. all 2 dimensional.

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    1. The buildings on Junior General do include churches and a tower, so I will probably add some of them to the mix once I get going.

      One thing I might do is reduce their height a little (10-15%), without changing the width. from an aesthetic point of view I still think that the buildings look just a touch 'skinny'.

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  4. I like your prototypes very much. They look good, are reasonably simple to construct - so no worries if one gets damaged, as it's not an expensive item - and capable of infinite variation in positioning to create a variety of BUAs.

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  5. Yes, the extra building inside the square looks great. Did you print the buildings on regular paper or heavier cardstock? Cardstock will make them a bit heavier and stiffer but you can still print them right out on a regular printer.

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  6. These test ones are just on regular paper. I do have some heavier paper that I will use for the real thing, if I go down this route. I might try and make a 'proper' setup for one or two areas this weekend, and see if I can deal with stability and functionality issues that I still have. Just so long as it doesn't eat into painting time - I started on the last batch of GNW Russians last night (the cavalry and artillery), so I could have two playable Maurice armies pretty much completed in the next week or so.

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  7. Neat concept, you have been busy! Perhaps fold-in tabs along the bottom edge of each facade would hold them in position under a weighted base (unless you make it all one piece, but then it's harder to store and transport)?

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    Replies
    1. If I make them no higher than the inside of the Risk box, they can be stored in it with the figures. The figures can sit inside them, so they should effectively take up zero space.

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