WWG Mayhem Warehouse

The warehouse featured in this review comes from the Mayhem Industrial set. Like a lot of Mayhem models (Bank, Mega-Mall, Police, etc.) this is a modular build, which means you get to decide how big you want to make it. The default setting in the instructions for this building is 14" by 14" square or two ground tiles by two (a ground tile being 7" by 7"). I've kind of adhered to this suggestion but instead of making my warehouse square I've made it L-shaped and made use of the outdoor loading bay tile in the fourth corner. There is no right or wrong way in the size or shape of warehouse; just go with whatever works best for you.

The set comes with seven signs to choose from to name your warehouse. I chose the John Dragon Cargo and Transport sign as a nod to the days when I ran a Feng Shui rpg campaign. The heroes of that game belonged to a faction known as the Dragons. If only I had this scenery way back then! As with just about everything else on this model, the sign is stuck to mounting board (or matteboard as it's known as in America). The only parts not reinforced with mounting board on this model are the doors. They are all stuck to thin card of the kind found on cereal packets. This makes the walls thicker than the doors, which is only logical in my opinion.

What is very noticable about my roof are the ventilation ducts. There are twelve in total, four per roof section. Each roof section has four small white squares printed on them to represent small air vents. I decided to stick these larger vents over the smaller ones. Someone asked me, when I posted pictures of this warehouse on my battle report for St Trinian's and the Living Dead (see http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/2009/06/st-trinians-and-living-dead.html ) what was inside the warehouse that would require so many air vents? I honestly have no idea! I stuck them on simply because I thought a) they looked good and b) that they would provide plenty of cover for anyone who got on the roof. Note that the roof is further reinforced with foamboard cut slightly smaller than the roof outline so that it fits snugly within the walls when put in place.

There are four upright posts along the wall with the two large doors. You can see three of them in the photo above, topped in yellow. I cut them out of the wall section, stuck them onto thin strips of mounting card, then glued them back in place. this gives them a more 3-D appearance and is a technique that I often use.

There is something that I have never mentioned yet about reinforcing my outer and inner walls with mounting card that should be noted. I never make use of the tabs affixed to the walls, props or whatever. Tabs are useful if you're making your models out of cardstock or heavy printer paper but totally unnecessary if reinforcing your printouts with mounting card or foamboard. So, if I was to make a 7" square building I'd cut out the four outer walls. To reinforce them I'd cut the mounting card for the front and back walls 7" long but for the two side walls I'd cut them about 6.96" long. The outer side walls would overlap these pieces by 0.02" inches on either end. All four inner walls that I'd printed out would also be trimmed down to 6.96" to take into account the thickness of the mounting card. Yes, this means losing some detail but it's such a small amount that I've never found it a problem yet. The thickness of a piece of mounting card is enough to allow you to glue it to another piece at right angles without the need for tabs. This can considerably slow down your build time as you have to measure each piece very carefully and always allow for the thickness of the mounting card.

Here is an overhead view of the interior of the warehouse. The pile of crates to the left came from the Chunky Dungeon set. Although designed for a fantasy setting, a crate is pretty universal and these fit in well in a contemporary setting. They are glued in place but don't have to be. The large black boxes that come with the Mayhem Industrial set would make perfectly adequate replacements. You are not short of props to use for cover with this set, as you also get wooden pallets (which can be stacked as high as you want) and plenty of barrels (either singularly or in groups). I'd also recommend looking at Mel Ebbles' Ambient Elements set - Storeroom for more boxes, crates and barrels to fill your warehouse with.

Looking inside from the front, you'll immediately notice one big change that I've made to the instructions - my office is not on the ground - it's raised up. I thought that placing the office on the ground would waste space, space that could be better served for storing stuff. After all this is a warehouse. Also, with a 7" square footprint I felt that the office was far too big. The only furniture it comes with is a desk with a computer, two chairs and a set of filing cabinets. You don't need that amount of space to fit them in. I made my office 7" by 3". I chose 3" as it is a handy measurement, as it is the length of the filing cabinets and the width of two platforms placed side by side.

The floor of the office came from the Mayhem Police set concrete floors with the 1" grid printed on. You'll have noticed by now that all of my WWG models use the gridless floor option. To me, this looks more realistic and makes the models less of a gaming accessory. However, for the office I wanted a tiled appearance so choosing the 1" grid suited my purposes ideally. Note how the filing cabinets only just fit. If you click on the pictures for a closer look you may notice a number of Bruce Lee posters dotted around the office. With the owner being called John Dragon I had to make him a Bruce Lee fan. As before with the portraits of the lawyers in my four-storey office block, I did a search in Google Images for Bruce Lee and just printed out the first page of options at A5 size. Then it was a simple matter of choosing the four or five pictures that I wanted. There is, of course, an Enter the Dragon poster.

The raised platform gives the warehouse even more storage space. As for the two large rear doors, they swing up to open. Keeping them open is difficult as there is nothing to keep them in place when opened. I did toy with the idea of including the garage door track that I used on my Mayhem Garage (see http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/2009/07/wwg-mayhem-garage.html ) but chickened out as I knew it would add a considerable amount of time and effort to finish this project. I think this may well be the only example of me not going the extra mile! Yeah, I know, slapped wrists for me! I took the easy way out! For the photos that I took for my St. Trinian's and the Living Dead battle report when the girls opened the doors I kept the doors open with a couple of juduciously placed pieces of Blu-tac.

There are a number of items printed on the interior walls, like step ladders, medical stations, fire extinguishers and the "clocking-in" board. These are all cut out and glued onto mounting card before being stuck back in place. As I mentioned with the four exterior pillars this gives the items a three-dimensional appearance that only helps to enhance the model. They look like separate props rather than being just a part of the wall.

I enjoyed using this building for the climax of the St. Trinian's and the Living Dead battle report. There is a lot of floor space to utilise. It certainly won't be the only Mayhem Warehouse that I build. I already have plans for at least two more, one smaller and one bigger.