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Post by morbius on Oct 23, 2016 1:29:37 GMT
The Flame Tank topic made me question a couple of assumptions I had when I started planning a layout for a city street. I would eventually like to be able to set up a battle between Martians and tanks (of all types) in a city. How wide are people making their city streets (from building to building, not from curb to curb)? I note the Mark IV (with the turrets on the side) is a beast. I am assuming that the new Flame Tank will be only marginally wider, but likely the widest of all the human vehicles fielded so far, excluding the Ironclads and Goliath. 2 Lane roads in HO scale are meant to be about 3 1/2 inches, but may vary from highways or other types of roads. This forum has a lot of info on the topic, but isn't designed with wargaming in mind. I note one fellow speaks of his street being 45 feet wide, from building to building, I gather. Regards, Craig
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Post by loyalist on Oct 23, 2016 22:20:12 GMT
There's a large variation in street width even with only two lanes, depending on whether it's a residential street or in a heavy traffic area. In my neighbourhood (built in 1917) they're 30' wide at most, so with cars parked on both sides there's barely room for cars to pass each other.
For gaming purposes they should be wide enough for tripods and MK IV tanks to move along them. 3.5" should be a minimum imo.
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Post by hardlec on Oct 23, 2016 23:12:08 GMT
Railroad models are very strict with scales. This is great for what they are: Displays for trains.
Miniatures games keep scale in mind, but utility comes first. I share Loyalist's observation, 3.5 to 4 inches, or about 10cm.
Keep your eyes open as around halloween through Christmas there are lots of little Christmas scenes available. This is a good time to buy vinyl sheets embossed with a cobblestone pattern that can be cut with scissors and make appealing roads. Another good material for roads is asphalt roof shingles.
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Post by terrance on Oct 24, 2016 19:04:17 GMT
For the city scenarios in the Story Arc Campaign I made the roads 4 inches wide and 1 inch wide sidewalks. The 4 inches was decided based on 1 inch lanes each way and 1 inch space for curb parallel parking. But like loyalist says there can be great variation in street width with older cities possibly having narrower streets, at least off the main drag. Also, having some streets in a city too narrow for Mk IVs is not all bad. It would add interesting tactical issues when trying to get those big tanks through.
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Post by morbius on Nov 4, 2016 15:44:54 GMT
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Post by boxholder on Nov 4, 2016 19:16:30 GMT
Four inches building-to-building will accommodate the base for a Harvester. However, all those tentacles take up more space. Of course, that is a good tactical reason to be careful about where you try to take them.
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Post by madmorgan on Nov 7, 2016 20:07:20 GMT
There are a huge variety of width displayed in the 1900 cities we 'play' in. Most of the conversion to cars was just occurring and a majority of the cities and towns were laid out with horse & buggy or wagons in mind. The standard for street width was a more modern invention. So, I'd think a good mix of narrow lanes and maybe one or two wide main drags would be the norm. You could count on the area in front of major government buildings to have large areas and at least a large unloading area for wagons from a train depot or warehouse district. Of coarse, the feeder lane off that area would narrow back down to a wagon track or slight larger size.
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Post by terrance on Nov 7, 2016 21:52:06 GMT
From watching documentaries and reading historical narratives I get the impression that having a wide main street was a source of pride for cities. It showed how modern they were. The side streets might still be very narrow, though.
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Post by morbius on Nov 8, 2016 21:33:09 GMT
Looking through the old photos, I noticed something we don't seem to replicate in the city boards that we set up. Many of these wider streets have trams, cable or streetcars.
This has led me to start looking for a suitable (and affordable) source of a generic streetcar or tram for my setups.
Craig
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Post by madmorgan on Nov 9, 2016 14:03:45 GMT
Agreed a major city with a tram would be a possibility, I do believe I've seen some examples of both tram and track in Walters train catalogs. There are a few other miniature vendors that might have these and they'd look great with Old Glory 'Chicago' figures.
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Post by morbius on Nov 10, 2016 11:37:24 GMT
When you look at page 171 of the rulebook, you see the tram line in Memphis in 1910. I get the impression, trams were in nearly every major city.
Craig
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Post by Quendil on Nov 10, 2016 12:12:32 GMT
My street width are 2 7/8th" wide including pavements on each side
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Post by hardlec on Nov 10, 2016 19:12:20 GMT
I have been working with a rather surprising material: Polyethylene feed sack "cloth." I have found that a high temp hot melt glue gun tip gets hot enough to "seal" the cut edges so they won't fray. I have painted a section but as expected, paint does not stick. It is possible to melt hot-melt glue, high temp, into the weave and I need to dig out my high temp glue sticks to see if I can Iron on a layer of hot glue. Glue comes in colors and it does take paint. Alcohol markers also work on the material.
My idea is to make some strips, 2 feet long and 3 each of 2 inches, 4 inches and 8 inches wide. The 2 and 4 inch wide strips will be blue on one side and brown on the other, to be streams and trails/road. The 8 inch wide pieces will be rivers, I may color them gray on the other side. 8 inches is 66 feet, the width of a 4 lane divided road highway and then some.
I already have a tree to build, so I am going to be a busy boy.
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Post by scottwashburn on Nov 11, 2016 12:52:04 GMT
I think that the terrain needs to be set up to accommodate the game and not vice-versa. Basically streets should either be wide enough to accommodate vehicles (all vehicles and tripods) or only wide enough to let people on foot get through (alleys). You decide which is which. Also, you can have rules for vehicles smashing or blasting a path through buildings that are in the way.
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Post by morbius on Nov 13, 2016 3:13:55 GMT
Walthers make some interesting kits for detailing streets:
And this one for trains or trams: Has anyone here had any experience with these kits? Thanks, Craig
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