Residential Building

I did manage to get some more long rubber bands, but couldn't find the spring clips I was after in any of the shops I looked in - the pound shop, Asda Home Living, Staples, Halfords, B&Q (who did have some very, very big ones but not the size I needed) and Maplins. I guess I'll have to take a trip to 4D Modelshop who definitely do sell them, but that can wait until I order some more buildings.

While I was in Halfords I did pick up a can of grey primer. The B&Q visit was also useful as I found some dark grey self adhesive floor tiles which would be great for doing a city playing surface. One pack is 305mm x 610mm, the other is 455mm x 455mm. I didn't buy any of them as the packs are a little bit weighty when you don't have a car and it's a 400 yard walk to the bus stop you need. I might make the effort tomorrow as I also want to pick up a paste table so that I can take the buildings outside to do the spray priming (assuming the weather stays sunny).

After my return from shopping, I started work on the third building. This was the residence and had some fiddly bits to do. The lack of clips did mean that I couldn't work as fast on this building as on the other two.

I forgot to show any rear views yesterday:

Broken down to show the different levels and the internal room layout:

Which is removable:

It sits on top of these corner posts when used as the ground floor, so you could hide objectives, plot points or even gangsters in the basement. It doesn't actually come with doors - I cut out the bits from the sprue which were in the right place.

It does fit in the upper levels as well....

....but it doesn't line up too well with the middle windows. This pic also shows a boo-boo I made when gluing the window detail panel to the front wall. I focused on getting the alignment with the sides and bottom right and forgot to check it was the right way round!

I might ask Sarissa about doing some alternative layouts. The building only comes with one. I might also ask about alternative rear faces for the upper levels which have more windows.

Fitting the dividing wall between the two halves of the building was a little tricky as it had no support. Until I came up with a cunning plan:

Yup, I propped it up with the "doors" and used some marker pens to ensure they were level.


Some pics with the other buildings now.

Those steps were right fiddly blighters to assemble!

Charlie "Cautious" Moran shoved the door part-way open and burst into the room. He didn't have time to appreciate the irony of his moniker, as Tommy "The Gun" O'Rourke got the drop on him from behind the door:

The great thing about these buildings is that the smaller ones will stack inside the larger ones, which will help with storage and transport:

I'm still deciding what buildings to add to the collection. I'm thinking 3 of the small commercial buildings, another large one, a second residence and the warehouse. That should give me a decent layout for big games as well as qualifying for the 6-building bundle. And some extra floors for some of the buildings.

Oooh, and maybe an out-of-town hideout as well for when the heat gets too much.