"VHS Buildings... WIP" Topic

Vacant Housing Sites (VHS) locations in the old districts (11, 17, and the hole that is 24) are often a breeding ground for gang members, anarchists, and political refugees.

New contractors crews looking to impress the government often start out with patrol duty around these areas.

I dug out a pile of old VHS tapes and figuring that they might be useful for something so I started playing around with them. Of course I still need to figure out what detailing and covering paneling I need to add to it but I am happy with the idea and will be making a few of these as time permits today and over the coming week!

I'd love to hear any suggestions!
DZT

Nice use of "junk". I'm sure there are piles of these out there.

Some sort of external stairs might be good. Low-cost housing made of stackable modules and not needing anything in the way of internal passages. You could also put some sort exterior utility and sewer conduits on one side or in the rear. Once again, all making them look like stackable modules that can be plugged in as needed.

-Eli

Hmm. Time for a run to the local Rasputin's.

that is genius…..permission to borrow!

Out of time for the day to work on this so this is where I got. The painting is just to help me visualize where things might go and what looks right to me. The grid parts and the corner left part are both cut from spare VCR Tapes. I have been using Plain old testors plastic model cement.

Awning is HO parts and some evergreen textured card as is the pipe pieces.

Feel free to borrow… If you do, post some pics. I'd love to see what others have done.

Piping, electrical, AC and others bits to come later. Same with the door under the awning and I am thinking a stairwell on the side that is still bare black. Lastly still not sure about what I am going to do with the roof but it will have some details before I am done.

C&C always welcome!
DZT

Very cool! I still have a host of VHS tapes I need to get rid of. Now they may get transformed into something even more important than a recording of a 1989 ice skating event.

As an architect, cudos to you for the building idea. (Which I will most likely borrow!) I would suggest to keep adding vertical elements, like what you already have, to connect the levels together. (refer to your 4th picture posted above.) How about also adding some clear styrene for the appearance of windows, balconies on most levels for housing units, sunshades over windows, a raised lip on the roof as a 'parapet', A/C equipment on the roof, a small shed for the elevator equipment, other roof top equipment such as antennas and cable dishes, and external stair towers. (already mentioned above.) Also, try to rotate every other level 180 degrees to see if that does anything for your building.

Laslty, stand all your tapes vertically. Then try to add horizontal elements to connect all the units together, and try to add the detailing as I mentioned above. You may get a totally different look. Use two "towers" (3-4 VHS units), separated by about 6" and connect them with pedestrian bridges at the upper levels and a landscaped courtyard between them, perhaps a walled courtyard at the ground level.

David G.
gamerarchitect.blogspot.com

dglennjr – I am glad you liked it! Good ideas and I will try to add some of that into what I am doing. Right now this is mostly playing around trying to see what I like and what works.

I used a flipped over shingle to get a better scaled textured roof. Also I left the head on the tape to get a different look.

Better for the roof.

Getting some excess height and cap piece.

Different direction of tapes.

Sandpaper, glued on and then painted, makes a good, flat, textured roof.

I liek it more when you reversed a tape 18o degrees. For a tall building, do that to the bottom 1 or 2 floors, and the top floor, as a rule of thumb. Like a Greek or Roman column, the building usually needs a base (bottom), the column (middle floors), and a cap (top/penthouse).

I think you're definately getting somewhere.

Look at some of my other building ideas on my gaming blog, this one in particular: link

David G.

Genius idea.

TMP link

Updated thread.