4Ground Mall (Mostly) Complete!

01.03.2022

After 2 years all of the stores for the 4Ground Mall are assembled! Maybe not populated, but assembled.

I took the time to put everything together to see how it looked, plus get an idea of what's missing. Somehow I managed to not include any interior contents for anything on the second floor, while the only thing lacking on the first floor is tables and chairs for the food court.

I'll readily admit that having a second floor is impressive, but if it ever comes to playability I'm not really sure how it'll work. With the 2nd floor added, only parts of the main walkway on the 1st floor are accessible, and even then support pillars, stairs, and elevators take up plenty of room. This is why we can have a 1 story or 2 story mall.


4ground-mall

4Ground Mall Bathroom

12.23.2021

Since the Food Court was the last addition, it's only fitting that Bathrooms be the next.

Not a lot to say about putting this one together. It was pretty straight forward. I was pleasantly surprised that the interior walls were blue (as shown in the box preview pics). I'm not sure why I thought the walls were going to be the same neutral/cream color as the rest. The one big mistake I made this time was not paying attention when I put the sinks together. Somehow, I managed to put the tops on backwards, so the decorated front of the counter is facing the back, with the unfinished back now facing forward. A trip to Hobby Lobby presented a fix - amazingly well sized mirror tiles. While I doubt a real public bathroom would have mirrors at waist level, it works well enough in a miniature setting.

And with that, all 2 stories and 20 "stores" (can a bathroom be a store) are constructed, a mere 26-ish months after I started buying all the parts. The vast majority still need interior clutter, but honestly I can put together what most people think of as a modern, sad mall now. In fact, that will be coming up shortly. But populating those stores with clutter is the next part of this project - for next year.


4ground-mall

Food Court

12.07.2021

The 4Ground Mall now has a food court! No tables to eat at, but there's a food court!

Now that the actual building (of buildings?) for the mall is nearing the end, the food court got details included during the build instead of just walls and windows. This worked out well, as my meaty man fingers would have had a lot more problems gluing signs in kitchen areas once the walls were glued together.

In keeping with "things I remember from malls" motif, the 3-kitchen food court features Chick Fil A, a food court staple around here. A Sbarro, which I only recently learned also exists outside of malls. Burger King made the cut because I still end up going there when I go to Opry Mills. I haven't been to Opry Mills since Feb, 2020 but I'm pretty sure BK is still doling out double cheeseburgers without me.

I tried to have a little fun with the entrance sign. The obviously-Googled "Food Court" logo is printed on vellum and glued (around the edges) to a wooden nickel, courtesy of Hobby Lobby. I was trying to see how much of the wood would show through the vellum, and I think it's "just enough" to make it interesting.

I left the columns and support beams in the dining area un-glued. Thinking again of my meaty man hands, when time comes to play it would be a lot easier to just move that stuff out of the way. The slots they fit in are tight enough for support and to keep things from falling over.

The one thing, or things, left for later are the dining area table and chairs. From past experience I know the 4Ground table and chairs, and furniture in general, requires patience. With 4-7 tables, and 4 chairs per table, to glue together, I need to save up some patience before I start.



The lone remaining mall building to make is the bathrooms. That one may get finished by the end of the year, but realistically I'm in no rush to get it all done. My Black Friday order of extra stairs/elevator/walkway bridges arrived too.

And then there's all of those stores that are in need of some clutter to sell...


4ground-mall gaming miniatures hobbies

Nothing New To See Here

11.21.2021

The only true, new addition(s) to the 4Ground mall is an elevator (or lift, as they say on the product page), stairs, and support/pillars to help hold up the 2nd floor walkway & bridge. The real reason all of this came together was to check if there was anything I needed while 4Ground is having a "25% off for November" sale. It turns out I need more bridges. Honestly I thought I initially bought more than 1, which is just what I do.

While everything (that's not in progress) was setup, why not take some pics and make a filler blog post?

And yes, those are meddling kids loitering (from Foundry) in the mall.


4ground 4ground-mall Foundry

4Ground Mall Loading Bay

11.02.2021

It's been a while since a build went quickly without incident. Maybe I was due? The 4Ground Mall loading Bay has to be one of the quickest things I've put together. It's just the standard kit with some extra Google Image'd work safety posters. The only thing I messed up on was the cross beams that support the garage door had some small grooves for the runner/guide and I, not paying attention, glued those cross beams in backwards. Luckily it doesn't appear to make a difference as the garage door can open and close easily.

I took a little extra care in dry fitting and sanding edges this time. There were few enough edges that I felt more inclined to take extra care - plus gaps/dried glue spreading out messed up the security office a little.



Only the food court and bathrooms left to build for the mall, but I think I'm going to take a little break and work on something non-MDF before I get in a "I can see the end coming" rush and not both take proper care while building plus enjoy it. In other words, don't expect another Built Update in 3 days!


4ground 4ground-mall gaming miniatures

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