WWG 7-Eleven Store

One of the buildings that I was desperate to include in my Mayhem City collecetion was a convenience store. Every city, town or village should have one. Now World Works Games don't make one per se for their contemporary setting but Joe Spears (aka LuckyJoe) submitted an addition to the Mayhem garage as a kitbash. It was a single storey shop and it was this that formed the basis for my convenience store. The first thing I did was replace the Mayhem Petroleum Corporation logo with that of the 7-Eleven logo. There are no 7-Eleven stores in England, but I know that they are very popular in America, so I Googled their logo and a few advertising posters and I was ready to begin my latest project.

I wanted this to be a two-storey building, with the store on the ground floor and the owner's living quarters above. The exterior walls for the store came from LuckyJoe's kitbash, whilst those of the upper floor came from the Mayhem Armoury set.

I also wanted the building to have a sloped roof. Again, I was fortunate that there was a kitbash for sloped roofs. It contains two types - a shallow slope and a steeper slope. I chose the steeper slope for this building.

The roof kitbash comes with a choice of two roofs, two different side walls and two front and back walls. I cut about a half an inch off the bottom of the four walls as I did not want them to rise so far above the upper floor.

This lower side wall comes from the Mayhem Armoury set and replaces the one that came with the kitbash. The problem with the "official" wall was that it was covered in writing proclaiming the shop to be the property of the Mayhem Petroleum Corporation, which would have looked odd on the side of a 7-Eleven store. So it had to be replaced.

Here we see an overhead view of the ground floor. The stairs at the back are hidden by an interior wall and they come from the Mayhem Armoury set, with the risers repainted to blend in with the wall colouring. The floor tile comes from the Optional Elements folder of the Mayhem Armoury set.

The two shelves against the rear wall come from the pet store in the Mayhem Mega Mall set. The three shelves in the centre of the floor are from LuckyJoe's kitbash. Sadly room restrictions meant that I had to cut one of them in half just so I could fit them in. Also, note that these come with sloped sides as they are based on the ammo shelf from Mayhem Armoury. I got rid of the slopes so that they took up less floor space. Mine are only half an inch wide at the base, instead of an inch.

The three shelves next to the front door at the top left of the photo above also came from the pet store in the Mayhem Mega Mall set. The posters on the wall by the cash counter are ones that I downloaded from Google images of 7-Eleven. I'd like to draw your attention to the rack of sunglasses next to the front door. In LuckyJoe's kitbash, this was a simple box shape with four long sides and a square top and bottom. I liked the idea of a stand for sunglasses but not the shape, There was too much white space on display. So I divided each side into three equal parts and made reverse folds for the centre two lines I'd pencilled in. This gave me a box shape with arms radiating from each corner. I cut as much white as I could from the four arms to give them the curved shape you see above. I stuck the whole structure onto a small white plastic counter. I'm immensely proud of that conversion and it's my favourite piece of furniture in this project.

The liquour cabinet by the front window is part of LuckyJoe's kitbash. I printed the neon sign that sits on top of it out twice so that it could be read from the front and the back. The cash counter has been converted from the one in the Mayhem Armoury set. I got rid of the drawers and made it a simple rectangular shape instead of an L-shape. The cash till that sits on top of it is from the pet store in the Mayhem Mega Mall set. What I particularly love about this particular cash counter is the sawn-off shotgun hidden underneath it! The owner of a place that is such a magnet to hold-up criminals needs some sort of protection.

Once again, the pet store from Mayhem Mega Mall provides me with another two shelf units, as seen against the far wall in the photo above. You can also see more clearly how the sides of the centre shelves are straight not sloped.

And so we move upstairs to where the storeowner lives. I've divided this floor into three rooms - bedroom, bathroom and living room/kitchen. The wooden floor tile comes from the Optional Elements folder of the Mayhem Armoury set. The blue carpet in the bedroom comes from the Mayhem Police set, whilst the cork tiled floor in the bathroom is a free downloaded from Jim's Dollhouse Minis.

The railing next to the stairwell is from the Urban Grind set, and fits in very well. The table with the chess board is from the Fantasy Interiors set - Pubs and Inns. The chairs either side of the table are from the Shellendrak Manor set. In the bedroom I added three small boxes or crates from from the Ebbles Ambient Elements set - Storeroom. In the bathroom, the bath also comes from the Shellendrak Manor set, such a useful source for furniture! Note the air-conditioning unit sticking out of the window to the lower right of the photo. That is part of the Mayhem Armoury set.

The wallpaper in the bathroom is another free download from Jim's Dollhouse Minis website. I made the two white doors in the interior wall myself. Against the far wall of the bedroom is a scratchbuilt cupboard and a bookcase from the Mayhem Police set. Moving back to the living room, I added a washing machine underneath the wall painting. That also came from Jim's Dollhouse Minis website. Next to it is a wall cabinet from the Mayhem Police set that I'm using as a stand for the TV set that comes from Mayhem Armoury. Once again, I have changed the picture on the screen. It shows a scantily-clad young lady on a motorbike. (Cue lots of males left-clicking to get a closer look!)

Either side of the A/C unit are kitchen furniture items from the Mayhem Armoury set - a fridge to the left and an oven and sink to the right. The single bed in the bedroom can be found in the Mayhem Police set as part of the police cells furniture. I guess the owner is single, perhaps widowed.

Against the far wall in the above photo are a drinks cabinet (from the Pubs and Inns set) and a battered leather settee (from the Mayhem Armoury set). The two paintings hanging on the wall above the settee came from the office furnishings of the Mayhem Industrial set. Finally, the toilet in the bathroom is from the Mayhem Police set. I would dearly have loved to have added a wash basin to the bathroom but there just wasn't enough room. Bummer! The box in the bedroom is one of the three that I mentioned earlier.

The next time I run an ATZ battle report, this building will surely feature in it. It was a lot of fun to make and it took me a couple of months to complete. I was in two minds about making the upper floor the owner's living quarters. My other option was to make it into a large storeroom for keeping excess stock for the store below. It's an idea I'll very carefully consider next time I make a two-storey shop.