I use many different materials to build buildings. I base them one 1/4″ MDF board cut into different sizes, but the buildings themselves can be made out of many things.
I got this thick plasticard from another warham; I think it’s 1/8 or 1/16th of an inch thick. It’s very sturdy, but also hard to cut.
Foamcore is the standard for lots of people. It’s relatively easy to cut, but it can be flimsy and it tends to warp.
The 1/2″ pink insulation foam is great because you can carve lots of stuff into it, and cut it into lots of shapes. The downside is it has almost no structural strength, and it dulls knives FAST.
Finally, I use .030″ plasticard for surface details. I’m fortunate enough to live nearby a plant that manufactures it, so I get huge sheets for next to nothing.
The big metal ruler has a felt backing, which is important to keep it from slipping when making cuts. The transparent T-square helps keep lines straight, and the sharpie marker will write on just about any surface.
Clothespins make great impromptu clamps while waiting for glue to dry. The elmer’s white glue is great for most surfaces, but if I’m bonding plastic to plastic I use Methyl Ethyl Ketone. The rubber cement comes in handy a lot, too.
Finally, I’ve been using a utility knife a lot recently. The blades are cheap and pretty durable, which helps make it better than the standard X acto knife.
Next, I’m going to go over the steps I take to cut out a building. This is probably very basic for anyone else who does terrain, but I’m including it for complete newbies. Accuracy is important, and I also like to minimize the various steps I take. Trying to cut out each piece seperately takes forever, and you tend to end up with different sized pieces. This makes assembly difficult. I guess if you’re building Ork stuff that’s fine, but I’m fond of my imperial buildings.
Once you’ve figured out the measurements of your building, you’re going to add them together like the picture shows. This way, when we cut, we’ll end up with all our pieces the same size. Don’t cut yet, though, just mark the dimensions on the foamcore.
The next step is to mark out our windows and doors. Since all the big pieces are still lined up, this will make sure that everything lines up. In a one story building, it’s not a huge deal, but if you’re doing several stories it will look better if everything lines up.
After you’ve marked all the doors and windows, all the lines can get confusing. I like to use different colors of pen to mark things so I don’t cut the wrong thing, and I mark the pieces to be removed with an X.
To minimize the time spent cutting, cut all the way across one line first, making sure to skip the spaces in between. Be careful at this point, but it’s not the end of the world if you end up with a window that’s double width every now and then.
Once you’ve got all the doors and windows removed, you can cut out the big pieces. Again, it’s much easier to do a few big long cuts. I do the longest big cuts first, then the shorter cuts last.
Here is a building I’ve been working on this week. The base is made from foamcore, the bricks and door are from a cut up cereal box. I used spackle on the edges to hide the bare foam.
Next, the base. The base is built from a lot of different parts. I started with a base of MDF board, 12 x 6 inches. I had a big piece of foam about the same size, from some kinda packaging, so I glued that on top. Then I realized I needed a way for models to get up and down, so I built the ramp and glued that onto the side. I had originally planned on stairs, but didn’t have enough room.
One of the big problems with using foam is even after you paint it, it just looks like foam you slapped paint on. The solution is to cover the surface with something. Anything. You can use sand, spackle, paper mache, anything. For this, I used all three. I put spackle over the surface to make it flat. To fill in gaps and cover the joins between the ramp and the foam, I used paper mache.
The ladder on the backside is just bent florists wire, stuck into the foam.
The brickwork is easy to do, and looks great once it’s painted. First, I covered the foam with spackle and let that dry.
Then, I took a Dremel tool, and carved in the shapes of the bricks. Finally, I sanded it down to remove the texture and any rough edges.
I did this on the top and the sides of the big base.
Finally, to make the pink foam look more distressed, I airbrushed Acetone onto it. The Harbor Freight airbrush lets me spray a little or a lot, and since the acetone dissolves the foam, I could slowly distress it further if I wanted.
The next part of the building I made out of foamcore. I used cereal box cardboard for the edges. To do the textured plaster, I stippled the surface with an old paintbrush before it dried.
The framing around the upper window is more pink insulation foam. You can also see how I used spackle to fill in the inside of the windows, so you couldn’t see the seam and the exposed foam.
Finally, the building needs a roof. I used the thick black plasticard to make the basic structure, then cereal box cardboard to do both the wooden planks on the ends, and the shingles. The shingles look a lot more complicated than they are.
Test fit everything to make sure it looks good.
Next, I wanted to even up some areas, cover some seams, and make sure the distressed areas looked good and busted up. So I glued sand onto certain places, and let it dry.
After that, it was just a simple matter of painting. I used an airbrush to apply the base coats, and did so in several layers, lightening and darkening the color with each layer so it wasn’t a smooth perfect shade. Some thin black paint made a perfect wash, then a little drybrushing to highlight. The final step was gluing on the flocking, then some dullcote for protection.
