Project -Street Work
 

Hey,
Ok this isn't really a How to, more of a work in Progress thread of a project I am working on and i thought I would share with you guys. I had this idea about 5 months back, that I wanted to execute. Part of this is because I wanted to get into set building and secondly because I wanted a good street scene dio that I was going to use in the A-Team Comic Book story I plan to do. :)

Ok so the basics are simply theres two brothers, they own a gunsmiths shop in town. This shop was handed down to them by their now deceased father (been in the family for generations). Ok so thats the requirement. I found my Gunsmiths shop and worked out a small plan in my head.. which eventually turned out to be something I could transfer to actual physical buildings.

The Gunsmiths fits between 2 other shops. An Insurance Brokers and a Bookstore. See below for the main index of images.
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Street Work Main Index

Street Work Project Folder @ Flickr - this has all the single shots as well as the comic book pages from the progressive story.

Street Work. - Comic Book Story
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

update
 

Ok so we know of the materials. The Red Bricks I'm going to use to decorate the exterior of the bookshop. Inbetween the bricks i'm going to mortar/cement. The Fieldstone I'm going to use on the Insurance brokers, once it's on i'm either going to paint it white/grey or an offset creamish colour. I think they'll have a black door with a gold number on it.. with a classy sign on the side.
This is how the set currently looks


You'll notice I put up the family signs for the gunsmiths on the shop and i'm so hoping that the seller on ebay sells me those cabinets for inside the shop i think with those cabinets and some crates etc it would look very cool with a counter.

Finally a shot before the next Work in progress pictures.

Microman calling for help on the setbuild?? or is he callin for more supplies??
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Just a brief update. I began placing bricks onto the bookstore last week, only recently i've noticed on the kitkit box i've been using, the barcode and data in black seem to be getting in the way, as a result it threw off some of the brickwork
It didn't look too bad, I was going to keep it, but then Boss Hogg shown up and wanted it re-doing (boss hogg is my alterior ego for wanting better) i do have the figure and could do a story on this alone.. but i have much more to do.

So.. I got thinking, I wanted the free kit kat box to use as my bookstore, but how could i effectively draw out with pencil or biro without it clashing with the data and barcode on the box? I was getting to this stage when I realised it would be an issue, Next time you have a free candy box with a barcode on try writing on the black bit with biro and you'll see what i mean.. (you cant tell the lines apart as they are the same colour).

So i stripped the bricks off and started again, Microman helped me paint the box white.. so effectively its like a sheet of white paper to draw the brick lines on.

I cant wait to see how it comes out. I want to do something like this myself sometime soon.

Building
 

Yeah man, Building sets is something i've gotten into recently. I'm new to it all and i'm a progressive learner. If you do decide to do a set please email or PM me and let me know what kind of set you do. :) You might come across materials,ideas etc that I havent thought of using and its always good to share ideas. :cool:

Update
 

I thought I'd drop by this thread and update my latest work and pictures of the set.

Including the brokers that has gone from unpainted to painted.
Before.

After


You can't really tell in that 2nd picture. So i done a close up.


Moving onto work on the bookstore. Whilst I was working the other morning (Slightly at 45%) I accidently cut off a side panel to the right window :(
I should of rested up and waited until later. I couldn't really figure out a better way to fix it so I decided to board it up on that side and flip the box over to start all over with this particular building.
One thing I did learn during the process is that if you do the brickwork first then as you get to the window/doors to mark it out.. it looks far more accurate and detailed. Plus it seems to be easier to work out the line of each window/door as in symmetry with the brickwork on the building.
I guess sometimes we have to take a step back before takin a step forward eh?

I've papered over the kitkat bit to give me a white base, i've pencilled in the brickwork and begun to apply the bricks in formation to match the structure. I've marked out the door and cut out one of the windows.


As much as an update this is.. i'm already ahead on this, I just havent charged my camera yet.. so these are updated/outdated pictures and my gun cabinets arrived for the gunsmiths shop this morning! Woo hoo.

More coming soon. I promise.

Anything else done yet, I am going to start on some interiors of a few buildings next week when I have a short vacation.

Update
 

Yeah. I have done some more work on the set/street scene. I've been battling my crohns illness for the last week and half, so my time spent on my projects has been tough. :(
I've managed to get the sign on the brokers and most of the bricks are on the bookworm bookstore. I'll get updated pictures of the street soon. :)

you can get those bricks just like that at Hobby Lobby, in the doll house section. Thats where I got mine. They also have a sheet of bricks attached to semi-flexible backing.

Thanks TT :( I just checked the site they do not have one in California and don't sell on line

Bricks
 

I got mine from Minaco GB off ebay.co.uk
I'm sure you could find some kind of hobby or diorama place in the US that does a similar deal? :)
The other alternative would be model builders supply online, i dont think they do bricks as such but they definately do sheets that look like brick. :D

Update
 

I've finally begun to 'perk up' most probably due to the fact the tablets are beginning to kick in and i'm keeping some foods down. I've slept alot, and watched alot of tv. As a result this morning i woke up at 4am and had nothing else to watch on tv. So i decided to take some updated pictures. The Brokers has come along nicely since set picture 3 and the brickwork is finished on the bookstore. I just need to mortar it in and paint it. I also need to complete the window frames and glass for both the brokers and bookstore and finish the sign for the bookstore too.







I hope you enjoy seeing these pictures in full development as each new stage is added. I'm hoping that by the end, you will see a result from standard mail and snack boxes, how i've turned them into a full street scene diorama to use with your figures. Where possible I'd encourage you to think up of your own materials and ideas and obviously switch out buildings etc. You'll probably think of better placements etc than me!

I hope to have another update once the mortar work and side brickwork are completed on the bookstore and once i've got the frames and windows in. :)

Wow now this is coming along nicely

Hi Guys.. brief update..
 

Hey Guys.
Brief update. This mortaring is going to take a while to do' but keeping in tradition with what I promised. I've updated the storyline to the project and its now available to view here at Joe Dios link via my website at Yola (formerly synthasite).

I'll hopefully have some stand alone pictures of the street to view tomorrow or maybe in two days time.

Part 3 Published
 

As promised some single shots.
Street Scene - Work IN Progress

Street Scene - Brick & Tack
As you can see this is the brick and tack work i'm doing on the bookstore. It's quite an extreme closeup. You can make out the imprints as i've been sculptin the tack to imbed between the bricks.
The tacking process involves taking a roll of tack under a ruler and rolling it into thin strips to place between the bricks, once its placed its a case of molding it in between the bricks and flattening it out.

Street Scene -Snide & Co - Insurance Brokers
The brokers is almost done. I think the window frame and pane looks great.

To help as part of the story and included in Part 3 of Street work is also a brief how to on the window frames
Street Work: Part 3

I'll have some more story updates and single shots as soon as the guys have done the work on the bookworm bookstore.