24 February 2022

Underwurlde

As the zombies close in and Earl discovers he's out of ammo, he thinks back to those Friday night 40K games and finally knows how his Blood Angels felt when they were overrun by poxwalkers.   

I had the idea for Underwurlde months ago, probably around late December. I was thinking about getting more buildings, and painting one as an FLGS was an obvious choice. I was stuck for a name until I remembered Underwurlde, the awesome computer game by Ultimate that I played on my ZX Spectrum+ back in the mid-80s. It's the perfect name, and months later I finally got around to making it.

The kit is again by Atomic Laser Cut Designs, and is Store Front BC001 from their Big City Streets line. I chose it because I wanted a one-storey building with a largish front window to fit some logos in.

As per usual, construction was a doddle and it was sprayed with grey texture paint and left to dry overnight. While it dried I got all the logos I needed printed out onto one sheet of paper. I also cut the windows out of the plastic sheet and gave the doors and frames a coat of primer because I forgot to spray them (duh). 

Once dry it was brought up to the kitchen table to be finished. I thought about painting it black, but as I did that for the record store I decided on purple instead, using Concord Grape craft paint. The interior was painted with black craft paint to hide the emptiness and I used the grape paint on a bunch of coffee stirrer sticks to get them ready. 

The grey texture paint works way better than the sand colour as you can actually see any bits you've missed.

The whole building was plastered with homemade black wash and then highlighted with a mix of Concord Grape and Granite Grey. The roof, which was still separate, was painted with Pewter Grey craft paint and highlighted with more Granite Grey. I stained it with black wash and Sepia Tone.

With the black interior paint dry, I started cutting out the logos. The Reaper and Games Workshop ones were actually not that difficult to do with a new blade in the X-Acto knife. I glued those to the inside of the window with matte Mod Podge and then used superglue to stick the window in place. The smaller logos were stuck to the inside of the door glass and that too was stuck in place.

The sign was done using a Celtic font with a drop shadow, printed out and stuck to the MDF piece with a glue stick.

The doors and frames were also painted Concord Grape and highlighted with Vallejo Blue Violet and stuck on, and then the roof was glued in place. The coffee sticks were added to each corner, and finally the pavement was painted the same way as the roof and I added some tufts to represent weeds.

The coffee sticks were too new-looking, so they got a light drybrush with more Granite Grey to make them look worn and better match the building's paint.


Ooo, graffiti time! I thought I'd go for some apt mural-type images this time, starting with a really bad Ork and their classic battle cry. Yes, the W should be closer, but apparently I can't do kerning, leading, tracking or alignment of type without a computer so we're stuck with it. The Ork is... well, it's there. And I have a feeling Orks spell STARFF with one F.

I decided on Batman for the other side and did a very basic shape in black, but then the issue of what do put next to him came up. Instead of adding another superhero, I just painted the Joker's classic line from The Dark Knight and added a twisted smile to Bats.

I wanted another 40K image for the back, and what's more 40K than a Space Marine? Given I freehanded this chap I'm amazingly proud of him, even if his bolter's magazine is a tad banana-y. He was originally shooting at a cutesy cartoon daemonette, but she went totally wrong so was painted out. I wondered what else would annoy one of the Emperor's finest, and the words just popped into my head.

So that's five buildings done now, and although I know my fan(s) want a shot of them all set up, you're going to have to wait till I've finished the sixth one :-)

15 comments:

  1. Oh this has to be my fave building of yours yet, Matt. Not sure if its the marvellous Purple colour, the superb wall art or the tie-in to Ultimate's Sabreman. But I absolutely love it!! "Ultimate - Play the game!" :-)

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    1. Thanks, Simon! It's always nice to shout-out to obscure 80s pop culture references LOL!

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  2. Excellent work Matt, can almost smell the stale sweat that you'd get emanating from that shop ! LOL The graffiti is perfect for the shop, and you get better with every go at it. Now hurry up and finish the last building, so we can have our street shot ! LOL Don't forget rubbish and newspapers littering the street is a must.

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    1. Thanks, Dave! The last building is almost done, it's just dragging out more than I thought it would. You're right, I need to make some trash to add to the pavements, and that'll be done before the group shot.

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  3. This'll always be the best shop on the high street. :)

    Love it all mate - the murals/graffiti are just smashing.

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    1. O and I had a zx Spectrum too, tho only the 48k rubber calculator keys version. Laser Squad was my fav game :)

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    2. Thanks, Dai, the murals were equal part fun and infuriating LOL! The Speccy+ had hard plastic keys but was still impossible to type with!

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  4. That's a nice building! The grafitti are inspiring, I like your approach and how they turned out!

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    1. Cheers, Suber, I appreciate that! Murals were the way to go with this one, I just wish I was a bit better at it.

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  5. Another smashing building mate, the colour is perfect and the graffiti is inspired. You just keep getting better and better at these!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks, Roger! I feel I am getting better at these buildings, especially in terms of planning them out in advance. I still end up sitting around for ages stuck for graffiti designs though LOL!

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  6. For a FLGS, it very dark and foreboding, really fitting in with its wonderful name and sign; loving the very inventive graffitti too !

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    1. Thanks, Joe! I'm well happy with the graffiti/murals as normally I cannot freehand a straight line LOL!

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  7. The graffiti is just fantastic. I think you're getting better and better at it as you go. I love this idea for your next building as well. You have to have a gaming store on the tabletop! :)

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    1. Christ, I totally missed this comment, Jeff! Sorry! Thanks for the compliments on the building!

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