"Early WIP 15mm Favela" Topic

I have been looking at Favelas link
for a long time and I kept thinking it would be nice to make it into a game table. It screams fun to build to me.

The question of how gets a bit in the way. 15mm seemed the scale to do it in without taking up a huge amount of table space.

I started by making a wedge out of foamcore.
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Not to steep as I didn't want the miniatures to slide.

The foamcore I had on hand are old signs that I rescued from the dumpster a few years ago. They are small about 10x15 or so. I stacked them 2 high so roughly 20x15 on the wedge. It seemed too small so I though about making book-end buildings to add to the space, and help bulk the game area.

Mocked up on the left.(I will build 4 sides to enclose it in the end)
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Now the test buildings are just space fillers to gauge how many buildings I will really need.
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I will be be building buildings like these for the final build.
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Now comes the questions.

Would you think it better to build the buildings in little block and be able to stack the blocks togeather. Would you make the buildings freestanding for total customization.
Would you make them like stack able cubes so you can build as high as you want with them or would you make them to set sizes for stability?

I want to make sure that there are lots of roofs and walkways and I really don't want it to be so closed off that you cannot move over it.

This will be used with individually based 15mm miniatures, I am not interested in making interiors.

What suggestions do you have?

Thanks
DZT

Interesting. But may I ask why?

I've rarely seen structures in such 'comunidades' (that's the preferred term used by many residents these days) extend beyond two to three storeys. You will often find open roof space areas, which get used for the laundry and maybe a party area. Often these get a tin roof over them but open at the sides.

The most common form of adornment is a water tank, often but by no means invariably blue and with the words 'Fortlev' (a popular brand)emblazoned on the side . Satellite TV antennas are common. Festoons of illegal power cables are another really distinctive aspect.

Be aware that all such places are not the same. In some parts of Brazil you see wooden shacks as the main type of structure.

Good luck with the project, it's certainly unusual.

Thanks for the info,

As for the why part, a couple of reasons spring to mind.

1 I have never seen it made before. The puzzle is half of the fun.
2 The buildings allow for a eclectic mix of colors and materials and just seems to spark at my creativity.
3 The video game Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has a map that you can fight across and it was one of my favorite maps.
4 My favorite wargame is Necromunda and it is a giant stacked city and this seems like how they might build cities within the spires.
5 I have lots of free cardboard at the moment and don't have anything else to do with it!

DZT,

Is this one of the ones you mean?

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Dan

That's the one!

Ok, so what is the difference, if any, between a "favela" and a "shantytown" with occasional concrete block walls (other than that the favelas are in Brazil)?

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Dan

Doesn't seem to be much different other than I can make it on the side of a hill

(Bug text removed)

My nephew almost got shot twice for cutting power to a few of these shacks here (between the sea and the old city walls):

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We've been waiting for a strong storm surge to clean it up for a couple of centuries.

If you wait too long to remove them, they replace all the scrap wood and corrugated sheets with blocks and other more permanent stuff:

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Dan

CC, that a bug hit?

Wow. I thought that bug was dead and gone.

Anyway, is that better? All I did was hit the back button far enough to get to the text I really meant to have there.

Dan

Yea, all looks good. Those Pics are great! Lots of inspiration in them. Right now I am building the side buildings. The best part is I can just keep adding things and it still looks right!

Check out this other WIP though, again, on a single flat level:

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Dan

What's the difference between a shantytown and a 'favela'?

Short answer, the name. It's basically historical with the first hilltops slums, established by landless returning soldiers from the Canudos War. The first such slum in Rio was established became known as Morro de Favela. As many if not most of the slums in Rio are on hillsides, saying that someone lives on or is from the morro is effectively interchangeable with the term favelado (which is increasingly seen as perjorative). The name spread although in Salvador it isn't really used as some of the poorest areas are quite established areas not 20th century additions.

Longer answer. Contary to popular belief, many of these communities are quite substantial and well established. Supermarkets, stores, schools, local residents associations etc. The federal government has been plowing billions into normalising life in these communities, running water, electricity and other amenities. In Rio there has been a generally succesful policy of rolling out a police presence within the communities, where formerly there was none, a so called pacification process.

And contrary to popular image, the residents are not all gun wielding drug traffickers. I have friendsand family who live in them or what passes for them in different parts of the country.

Structurally, they can be quite complex but standards of construction are pretty poor. The 'bricks' you see are actually hollow ceramic tiles. Light, relatively cheap but certainly far from bullet proof. Actually this is what most structures are made of in Brazil. They even clad multistory apartment and office buildings. The difference being those tend to get rendered. A friend of mine one showed me the effects of gunfire through the wall and described how her family had taken to sleeping on the bathroom floor for safety. In Rio you might recall there were terrible floods not too long ago and quite a large number of dwellings were swept away in mudslides. This is a big problem, the building on the hills has denuded the natural vegetation and made a number of these places quite unstable.

Malandro,

That is great information. Thanks for sharing that.

Dan