Sunday 12 June 2011

WWG TEUs and Construction Dumpsters

Here we are in June and incredibly, this is my first World Works Games (WWG) review of the year. You'd be forgiven for thinking I haven't made any card scenery this year but you'd be very wrong! My last two batreps have shown quite a few new buildings and scenery pieces that I've made since my last WWG review.
I'd like to do a review of the Mel Ebbles Folding Structures Units, which come in four different sizes but I'm holding off until they become available to buy again. Currently, they are not available for sale. For those who don't know, Mel (aka Christopher Roe) has closed down his webstore and gone to work for WWG. Once WWG get their new webstore up and running (sometime soon, apparently) a lot of Mel's back catalogue of models will become available to buy again.
So, I'm going to have a close look at some TEU models and a couple of construction dumpsters. TEU stands for Twenty feet Equivalent Units and can be seen anywhere nowadays but especially so at docks and large distribution centres. In the top right hand corner of the above photo are two TEUs, one blue and one orange. These are simple models to make, consisting of four walls, a roof and a floor in a rectangular box shape. The green TEU without a roof, that can be seen in the bottom left corner of the above photo is also part of this set. This is slightly harder to make as it comes with an insert for the interior walls. Roofless TEUs are used to carry the likes of coal. I used it in my last batrep to show the interior of a TEU as Team Vampifan explored and fought zombies in them.
For those of you who want to make a stack of TEUs and you can't be bothered to make 18 individual models, (which even I would baulk at) WWG comes to your rescue by producing the TEU stack, which dominates both photos at the back. This is a kitbash of the set reviewed above and is simply made up of four walls and a roof. You could add a floor to it but I didn't because when I'm not using it in a game I turn it upside down and use it as a box to keep the other models shown here in (plus some other WWG scenery items). It's a clever idea but my only criticism of it is the three TEU designs are repetitive. I'd like to have seen more variety of designs on it. However, this is a very minor complaint of mine and in no way is meant to denigrate a fine and worthy product.
Finally are the two construction dumpsters, shown in the centre of the above photo. Both are based on the single green roofless TEU but are not as tall. These, as their name suggests, are meant to be used as dumpsters on a construction site for clearing away vast quantities of rubble. One of them, the blue one is a clean version with the name Johnsons stencilled on its sides. The other one is covered in graffiti. As you can see they come with printed interior walls.
Scenery items like these are great for populating your gaming board. The stack works best if you're game board represents a docklands, a construction site or an industrial park. The other items could be found almost anywhere and I'll certainly be using them again in my ATZ campaign. If you fancy making a lot of TEUs, I have a great idea for using them. Create a walled area to use as your players' base with the TEUs forming the perimeter of the base. They'd make for very sturdy walls that should keep any but the most massive of zombie hordes out. It's something I may do in the future because Team Vampifan doesn't have the most secure homebase at the moment.
All three sets were submitted to the WWG store as kitbashes and it is under the Urban Kitbashes part of the webstore that you'll find them. The TEU set and the Construction Dumpster set cost $2.00 each, whilst the TEU Stack costs $3.00. Excellent value for money, in my opinion, considering you can print out as many as you want once you've downloaded the relevant files.
EDIT: I've been asked to provide a size comparison photo with a figure next to one of the TEUs, so here's a shot from my last batrep, showing Team Vampifan beside the short side of the TEU stack, where the doors are.

23 comments:

  1. Looks to be quite decent. And it is certainly useable.

    Well done mate. Could you take a pic with a miniature beside one of them?

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  2. Very nice. I especially like your open construction dumpsters. Those look very well made and also useful. I'm a big fan of these TEUs. I used them a while back to make a 15mm Survivor camp. I ran the print-out of the walls through a crimper and glued them onto polystyrene blocks for an added 3-D element.

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  3. Very nice! I would never have guessed that they're made from paper printouts!!!

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  4. Excellent work Bryan.
    I'm curious about a comparison with some miniature too.... :)

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  5. @Johnny. Consider it done, my friend.

    @Luckyjoe. I reinforce all of my card scenery, buildings and vehicles with mounting board, or art board as I believe it's called in America, so not only do they look strong but they are strong. I like your tip about the crimper. What a great idea!

    @Ray. Yep, they are made out of paper printouts but they look great.

    @Fabio. See my reply to Johnny.

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  6. I like your idea for a survivor's camp. A freight-yard full of containers seems very defensible and would be a great place to ambush a zombie mob.

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  7. @Drew. Agreed. The only thing you need to consider is how your team gets access to the site.

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  8. These are excellent Bryan and a great idea. Some guy opens one and its jammed full of zeds, ha ha!

    BTW art board as you call it, is basically a cardboard, right? Do you get any warpage? Because you certainly cant tell from your images.

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  9. Thanks Bryan!! :)
    BTW, I like the 2 horrorclix kids you separated and painted... I definitely need some myself! ;)

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  10. Great work Bryan. They are really nice models and you've done a superb job with them. You've reminded me to get one withe something similar I downloaded a while back. I wondered how you'd done the pics. Could you theoretically make a standard unit without a roof and use two interiors, overlapped at the bottom to make up for the height difference? Am I over-thinking it? :)

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  11. @Roger. Mounting board is a very thick cardboard, so named because it is used to frame photos that are mounted on a wall. It does not warp unless you're in a very humid climate. Living where I do, humidity will never be a problem! Regarding zombies being founs in them, it's a possibility and , indeed, it happened to Team Vampifan in my last batrep. They'd searched two without any problems but in the third one they checked out, there were three zombies inside. The ATZ rulebook says to treat them as a single room for the purpose of finding other humans, resources or zombies inside.

    @Gnotta. Thanks. I like those Horrorclix kids as well. They come apart very easily. I used them mainly because I wanted to show that Hasslefree aren't the only company to make great child adventurers. Not that I have anything against the HF child adventurers. They are top notch sculpts.

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  12. Nice work my friend, you should consider selling constructed pieces or does this violate copyright?

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  13. interesting take on the subject, i like the way youve painted the pieces. followed

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  14. @Fran. Yes, that would be a breach of copyright. It's like file sharing. It is frowned upon but it still goes on.

    @Breakingbrokers. Hi and welcome aboard. The secret to making a card model look "real" is to paint the edges. Nothing screams "model" more than white edges.

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  15. @Adam. Apologies for not replying to you sooner. In theory, what you suggest is viable. if the textures match up then I see no reason why your suggestion shouldn't work.

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  16. Nice review Vampifan, I've always wanted containers, would love to spring a zombie trap on some of my gaming friends (hope they haven't seen Resident evil 3, hehehe).

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  17. Thanks for the shot! Only now do I realize you have already used them! DOH!!!

    Well done mate

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  18. @The Extraordinarii. I know the scene you're talking about from RE3. Imagine the chaos you could cause if you filled the container unit with Ragers instead of zombies! (Insert sound of evil laughter!)

    @Johnny. I can't criticise you, mate. I recently thought Zombie Ad was talking about a shotgun when he was actually refering to the car in the background of the pic of the busty blonde girl I recently posted. It must be the onset of old age!

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  19. Thanks, Biff. I'm glad you like them.

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  20. Great work as usual Bryan. Can't wait to see what you show us next.

    As for Mounting Board if its what I think it is, it is also called Mat Board, a sheet of about 30"x40" can typically be purchased for about $8 at places like Hobby Lobby. It also comes in different colors, such as various shades of Whites, Greens, Yellows, Blues, etc... and you can also get it with either a white core or a black core for some of the colors (white is the most common color for the core).

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  21. Doug, you won't have long to wait to see what I'm doing next, as I'll be posting later today.

    Mounting Board comes in a variety of sizes and colours. It is about 1.5mm thick or just under 1/16th of an inch. If that equates to your Mat Board then that is what it is.

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  22. No worries Bryan, and thank you. Good to know.

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