WWG Basketball Court

I thought that I had reviewed all of my WWG buildings and scenery that I've made so far but I was wrong. Somehow, this piece, my Mayhem City Basketball Court, had been overlooked. So I'm going to take a short break from reviewing my WWG vehicles to show off this piece.

The two ground tiles come from the Mayhem Marina set. I prefered them to the concrete ground tiles in the Bits of Mayhem set. I drew the basketball grid onto the tiles with a pencil, ruler and compass, then I painted over my lines with Citadel Skull White acrylic paint. I did it freehand and was not too bothered by the shaky, uneven effect that I've ended up with. I figured the lines were painted on either by the youths who use the court or by a council worker who clearly does not take pride in his work. It adds flavour to the fact that I see this as part of the slum district of Mayhem City, a place where street gangs hang out and decent minded people steer well clear of.

Note the two hoops on the basketball support stanchions. They and the stanchions come from the Bits of Mayhem set. The hoops that you get in the set are basically drums, with the netting around the sides and a black "lid" for the top and bottom. This seemed like an odd way of making them to me. So, I printed out four sets of hoops instead of two. I cut off the top and bottom "lids" and stuck two side sections back to back to form a cylinder. You must admit, it is a more logical solution and it surely looks better. Now, you actually can drop a ball (or a zombie's head!) all the way through the hoops.

The fences also come from the Bits of Mayhem set but not in this format. I cut out all of the chainlink fence sections, just keeping the framework. I replaced the chainlink with pieces cut out from a sheet of thin aluminium wire mesh, which I ordered from Antenociti's Workshop, a UK-based supplier of wargaming terrain. A 10"x8" sheet cost £1.80 and I ordered two. Other websites and stores sell it and what I like about is that it is very light and very easy to cut. Indeed, it can be cut with a pair of scissors. I reinforced the front and back of the framework with thin strips of mounting card and sandwiched the mesh in between. I used thin strips of card to hide the joins along the tops of the framework and along some of the sides (the corners and both sides of the entrance). Using a double thickness of mounting card to reinforce the framework not only gave it considerable strength but made it easier to glue the fences to the ground tiles.

In the lower left hand corner of the above picture is a drinks dispenser from the Bits of Mayhem set. I chose the one with the shattered glass front, as I reckoned it would be the first thing to get vandalised by the unruly youths who hang out here.

The six orange seats came from the Mayhem Rail set. They help to hold the framework in place, as did the drinks dispenser described above. I used those same seats in my Mayhem Park build and I find them a very useful prop for outdoor seating.

The only other prop in this build that I haven't mentioned so far is the litter bin found just next to the entrance. That too, came from the Bits of Mayhem set.
Let me give you some advice if you fancy having a go at this model. You could build it on just one ground tile, but if you do, just add one basketball hoop. Also, when it comes to reinforcing the framework, I found it far easier to cut out thin strips of mounting card and gluing each one in place rather gluing the framework to a sheet of mounting card and cutting out the bits where the mesh goes. That's too wasteful of mounting card. I made all of the upright sections first, then added the top and bottom crossbeams. Note that for the two short end pieces of framework you can omit reinforcing the outer two uprights. The thickness of the long side pieces will be more than adequate to make up for their omission.
This is a useful piece of scenery to use in zombie apocalypse games like All Things Zombie. It can be a cage for any zombie who ends up inside it. If your survivor character is outside next to either of the short sides or the long side opposite the entrance they are effectively safe from any zombie stuck on the other side. Most zombies lack the intelligence to climb over the fence or turn around and head out of the entrance. Sometimes the terrain can be your best friend!