Wednesday, November 18, 2020

4Ground Samuel's Garage



A year is an incredibly long time, and that was the last time I actually posted an update to the blog. So first and foremost, I hope that you and your families are all safe and well in these absolutely crazy times - what a year.
 

To say it has been difficult to actually turn the computer on and update the blog (I've actually had several posts in draft mode, and even one since back in January) would be an understatement, so thank you all for sticking with me during that long down time. I'm not sure if I want to go into any real detail on the goings on of the past year as we've all had our own struggles to work through, but the most important thing for me right now is I'm hobbying again - and actually quite a lot! If I can stay motivated to keep the blog updated a couple of times a month, I easily have plenty to post about for months and months ahead from the work I've been doing (I've been hitting Star Wars and Lord of the Rings pretty hard, as well as quite a lot of terrain) since August. Now if only I can get a better camera - apologies for all the awful phone photos.


So we'll start with a kit I went back and revisited a few months ago, Samuel's Garage from 4Ground.


This is one of my favorites from the guys at 4Ground and I'm really glad that I decided to go back and do a bunch of improvements on my initial build.


Just from a quick look you can see I completely re-worked the entire kit. From layout, to details, and most importantly weathering.


One of the first things I decided to do was to weather the entire building, inside and out. As the signs are a real focal point of the model I really made it a point to weather them in a realistic way with a heavy rusted look.


It was actually a lot of fun and makes the model really have a lived in feel to it now.


I also painted the wood along the bottom of the building in a green to match the Sinclair signs to give it a little more of a uniform look. A simple addition that really improves the overall look of the model I think.

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I added a lot of new details around the front garage doors. The doors are probably my favorite feature on the entire building and one of the main reasons for reconfiguring the aluminum overhang over to the left side was so that the doors could now be seen. With the overhang positioned where it originally is supposed to be you'd never see the doors unless you were at eye level with them, which honestly probably would never happen on the tabletop.


By moving the overhang I've opened up the entire front of the building and also created a really neat covered feature on the left side of the building.


It's funny how such a simple change improves the entire model - along with all the weathering and additional signs around the building.


All of the little detail pieces are both O scale train accessories as well as some 28mm boxes, fences and crates from 4Ground.


I decided to go all out and really put a ton of detail pieces into the inside of the garage, for no other reason but "why not?".  And truth be told, I went overboard lol!


All the work benches, shelves and stacks of tires are all O scale resin model railroad accessories from Rusty Rails


There were a ton of details to paint on these but it was fun and adds so much to the overall chaotic feel of the garage.


I threw the Mantic truck from TWD game with a ton of 4Ground cardboard boxes (with little custom made shipping labels on them) into the bed in the garage. One thing I completely forgot to do, and was a total head slap moment when I was editing this post was to dirty up that floor - how the heck did I miss that?!


I also weathered the inside walls as well as added some studs to give the walls a little more detail.


A giant Coca-Cola sign on both the front and back walls completed the interior.

If you're still here, again much thanks! And also a big thanks to all of you whose blogs I follow for giving me something to read and look forward to during my absence. It helped in ways that can't be measured.

Finally, a quick shout out to new follower Planet Mut, really appreciate you hitting the 'follow' button - hopefully the next month or so will make that follow it worth it 😀

As always, thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Ivor

28 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Cheers Michal! And congratulations again on your new addition 😀

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  2. Hi Ivor!
    Sorry to hear that you’ve had a hard year, but glad to see you blogging again and that you’ve had some hobby time over the year in order to relax, which is really the most important part. There once a time when we all did our hobbies without worrying about blogging about it. 😀
    The garage though is truly a stunning piece of work and all the details that you have put into it really make it pop all over the place. The Coca Cola sign i see in the garage is something straight out of an American Pickers episode! 😀
    Wishing you a better time ahead.

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    1. Much appreciated Stew! I'm really happy with how the garage turned out. It was your blog that really helped get me back behind the computer screen again - talking about the little community we've each created within our blogs and the conversations with other people. I consider everyone who follows my blog a friend, and I've missed my friends for a long time now 😀

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    2. I’ll happily take the FULL credit for your triumphant return to posting. 😀

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  3. Hi Ivor, its been a bad old year right enough but good to see you hit the keyboard & what a wonderful bit of eye candy you give us, a fantastic bit of work mate :)

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    1. Mate, it certainly has! And like I mentioned above to Stew, I consider you all my friends and I've missed talking hobby with you. So on to creating more gaming goodness 😀

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  4. Amazing attention to details, wow!!

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    1. Thanks a lot Phil! I probably went way overboard for it being a gaming model but what the heck lol! Hopefully the guys at 4Ground will like the changes 😀

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  5. Nice to see the blog again. That garage looks superb!

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    1. Thanks my friend, it's been quite a journey to finally get here again, but glad I am!
      Pretty well chuffed with the end results to say the least 😀
      Hope you and your family are keeping well!

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  6. What's this ... a post ... a real honest to god post! :-)

    It warms my frick'in heart to see so much excellent scatter terrain :-) LOVE IT! Well done good sir! Nice to see someone getting ready for some Chicago Way gaming.

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    1. Lol 🤣 Thanks Jay! Yeah, this one was a lot of fun to mess about with and I'm pretty happy with the end results. Funny enough I took this set up to our club a month or so ago and ran a Chicago Way game for the club owner - only have a handful of photos though, as I always forget to take pictures while playing, so I'm not sure if I'm going to put a post up about it 🤷‍♂️

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    2. lol ... need photos! Must have gamer crack! Damn, finishing projects and playing games ... you're coming back strong! :-)

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    3. Lol! Baby steps, baby steps 😂

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  7. Very happy to see this post. Was thinking about calling you a couple of times in recent months to check in and make sure you were okay, but realized I didn't have your phone number. Stay well, friend, and welcome back to the blogosphere.

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    1. Cheers Joe! It's great to be back and interacting with everyone again for sure 😀
      I have your number so I'll shoot you a quick text so you can save mine.

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  8. Good to read some news frow you Ivan !!!
    Hope everything is ok from the other side of the ocean.
    Keep going it's such a great source of inspiration
    cheers
    Tristan

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    1. Thanks a lot Tristan!
      Still plugging along over here, hopefully we will be moving in the right direction very soon 😀
      Hobbying quite a bit so I hope to continue to update the blog on a more regular basis showing the prepping for some future events and games!

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  9. Hi Ivor good to see you back at it. And what a good return. I'm not a massive fan of mdf in its raw out of the packet state but you've made a huge improvement on that. This looks excellent, the added detail is fantasic, it would be nice to see the pictures of tge game you mentioed, even if it's just a series of pictures so we can see how this piece fit into the board as a whole.
    Welcome back

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    1. Cheers John! This kit was a lot of fun to add all the extra details to 😀
      We'll have to see about the game photos, unfortunately there just weren't enough taken to help retell the story, maybe I can come up with something. But I basically used the building as a front to move illegal liquor - basically think the beginning of "The Untouchables" movie where the police raid the warehouse 😀

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  10. It was well worth the wait to see this delightful rendition of Samule's Garage, the internal detailing is simply amazing, such a shame that the inside will be hiddena lot of the time in play.

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    1. Much appreciated Joe! A valid point about the interior, maybe I'll always have to put an objective in there so the roof can be off 🤔

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  11. Nice to see you back Ivor, and with such a lovely piece.
    Now I have to make an update myself, as the Blog has been awfully quiet the last half year or so

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    1. Thanks a lot Joakim! Hopefully you'll get some motivation to update the blog, believe me I know how difficult that can be, especially these days. Cheers 😀

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  12. I checked your blog so many times for an update during your sojourn, I was worried you'd moved onto flower arranging or stamp collecting instead.

    Glad that's not the case and a year of real life yuck is over with mate. Heck knows last year was a toilet for the average bloke, let alone potential more impactful crap that obviously plagued you.

    So now I'm behind on keeping up with your posts! At least I have lots to read and if this beauty of a garage is anything to go by, holy heck mate it's great to see updates on your blog once more! All the details you've added to this thing are frikken amazing! I can only wish my own terrain could look as good.

    Will this be for a Zombie setting? Or something else?

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    1. Cheers Dai, appreciate you sticking with me through the absence 😀 It certainly was quite the year, and it's great to see you back in the blogsphere as well!
      Yeah, this one is definitely a favorite of mine, and I've used it for a gangster game (a cover for transporting illegal alcohol) but I really want to use it in a Walking Dead scenario from Mantic Games too - we'll see what the future holds.

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