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Because I was goaded Here begins the blog..

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Basic construction and painting technique
example: Country House 1
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I designed this simple template in Visio to facilitate the uniformity of the storey, door, and window heights needed to support 20mm (or 1/72) miniatures. I made a couple different standard sizes, but the measurements remain consistent. PM me if you would like the Visio file.



The templates are printed and cut and pinned onto 3" stock of 1/4" foamcore. I used a pin to poke through the corners of the doors and windows so that knife cuts were all nice and straight.


once squared, glued and pinned, you end up with a series of shells like these. 2 ruins or 1 intact building can be made from a single shell


Carving stone or brick texture into foamcore is quite simple, carefully work your sharp knife blade between the cardboard and foam and peel the outer layer off, then I use a sharp Sanford Uni Ball ONYX micro pen for all the carving, it still writes, no matter what punishment you subject the pen to, it still carves and writes!




Then I added the Balsa details and roof supports and fitted the open windows with metal mesh found on the clearance rack at a craft store, and carved the 1st floor stonework.


For the roof on this building, I cheated slightly and cut long strips of thin cardstock and roughly cut slits in them to represent individual roofing shingles (but they are all still connected in one strip)



Painting was done first by spraying everything black, then block coloring with simple, cheap craft paints



These are the basics. Hope it helps/inspires someone. Next up, advanced techniques...

well you even started this blog and made it as a tutorial! how cool can this become even further, eh?^^ i specially like the foam chimney! this really captures the soul of the house!
the wiremesh to go as windowspanes is a very good idea...stained glass could then be only one installemt away! be sure of my eyes being glued to the monitor from now own^^

Thank Vik! Well, I sort of took the pictures in this order, so it all works out

This is GREAT! i'll be here to check for updates all the time!

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Advanced Roofing
Example: Town House 1
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The basic shell construction and balsa detailing is the same


Again, using Visio, I designed a template for the roof dormer



For the roof, I used cheap self-adhesive vinyl floor tile to basically skin the roof bitz, this stuff is great for all kinds of construction work, especially basing, albeit a bit brittle if left unsupported. I didnt carve brick in this one, I used some HO scale textured plasticard, in hindsight, I like the carved look better, and it is much cheaper than the plasticard. The window sills, heads, and brick quions are just plasticard laid to give the details a recessed look, even though both stories are really at the same level.


Half-Timbering is approximated from glancing at this drawing from an old German-language architecture manual
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:L-Fachwerkwand.png

For the roof, I first glued down a piece of paper with a staggered grid printed to line up my rows

and I created these tiles by cutting strips of paper and using plastic scrapbooking pinking-type shears purchased super-cheaply at Michaels in the crackbooking section.

the scissors are pictured here



I then just trimmed off the excess. IMO, these tiles are by far the easiest, and fastest way of making a rounded, scalloped shingle look.




Painting is done in the same way as the first example


Next time: the Haus from Bree







Automatically Appended Next Post:
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Advanced Construction
Example: Haus from Bree
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The original design for this belongs to (I think) Wolfgang Jadtke, and I can't seem to find the website anymore, but he built this in 28mm Heroic Scale, mine is in smaller 20mm.
I just gawked at his wonderful pictures and sort of made my templates fit his overall shape. Basically, this is really just a bunch of angles connecting two separate rectangular houses. But was built using all of the previous techniques and incorporating a few new ones, namely individual shingles (which I don't think I'll ever try again)





.........and a new way to make window panes Using Granny Grating (or plastic cross-stitch fabric)









The painting is of course, done in the same manner as the previous examples
questions, comments, words of wisdom? (...ugh my old Government teacher in High School used to say that)



Automatically Appended Next Post:

Nightfall wrote:This is GREAT! i'll be here to check for updates all the time!

Thanks! Please do! I hope it is at least entertaining

Fantastic
thanks for the WIP and plans
Will scale up to 28mm
problem is the amount of current/all ready outstanding projects but very inspirational

well done


Automatically Appended Next Post:
ps Love the scalloped roof tiles

the scissors made me why didn´t i thought about something as simple as that myself...i even have a cutter with a blade like that...damn that is so cool out of the box thinking!
the house of bree is yet another wonderfull example of what you can achieve when you paint in layers and let said layers do the texturing of walls...this weathered look of the "fackwerk" is such an amazing skill and it looks well you choose awsome/gorgeous... personaly i have to say i like the individual cut shingles best but i fully understand why this is a task that done once no one wants to repeat^^ nevertheless you did and this should be honored!
by the way, thans for the how to of making a dormer... i think this is something i will definatly try out...
one thing i have to ask is that foam core material, you said you got it in an artshop? what pricerange are we looking at here? i think it is exellent as it seems sturdy yet thin enough to be cut rather without making too much of a mess and also when i work with pink foam (insulation stuff) it tends to get torn and stuff because it is way too thick... so the price would be a definite help here to get a hold on new material...also is this foam layered with some surface material? looks like...

the lower sections of your buildings has this amazing brickwork done, did i understood you right that you first cut the material with a knife and later then crate the crevices by running a pen through the cuts? this is how it gets done? i thought others used just the pen but this if true makes more sense and i have to try that out...

great work, hope to see more soon^^

cheers, vik

Foamcore, it's just 1/4" or 3/16" high-density foam sandwiched between two very thin clay-coated paper layers. It is typically sold as presentation board or used to stiffen posters and artwork for framing. (and is usually found close to matte board in the framing section of the stores). I usually buy it in 2x3' sheets, but it comes in a bunch of sizes , and you can get it in colors other than white if you want. I wait until Hobby Lobby or Michael's run a sale on it ($2-$3 a sheet) and buy a dozen sheets or so at a time.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foamcore

and http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-foamboard/
for buying in bulk

As far as the carving, I used nothing but a pen to do the carving, If you want super-straight lines, then yeah you should probably score it with a knife first, but I wanted the look of stone, so I just attacked it with the pen. This only woks if you first peel off the card layer. If you leave the card layer on and use the pen, you'll only get pen marks, no carving.

Cool stuff, and a little increase in sizes one could make these work for 28mm gaming as well.

ah ok so i missundertood that technique of yours... i too want when i go into house building that random look of individual stones...

that stuff generaly gets used by architects, am i right... i will try to look for that stuff because i think it is pretty grande^^

When I carve with the pen, I carve bigger stones, then bisect them into smaller stones. It looks funny on the individual stones, but like painting you have to be patient and finally it will pop! to your eyes once you have an entire wall done. Yes Architects used to use it, but I don't know if architects even build models anymore, I think software has that job nowadays.

Good stuff matey , and nice one vik for encouraging / goading
more talented chaps to display their wares.

Thank you sir, really...Vik posted his carved bricks and one thing led to another.....

and BTW, thanks Vik!

i think i would have been a sore looser if i hadn´t urged you to your newest blog... it will be the benefit of many... the key point of this board i think is that it is a brainpool... if you sit all on your own at the pool...nothing like stale water... but getting more peeps to join in ...= fun and knowledge and ideas...winwin all over!!!
by the way... the carved bricks of mine and the dio will be in a presentable state tomorrow i guess...

I can't wait to see Vik

^^

Those are looking really nice, and that idea of 'granny grating' for windows works really well!

Looking forward to seeing more!

amazing work!

The carved bricks are just awesometastik!

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Advanced construction
Example: Howard Johnson's Ice Cream Parlor, Rock Ridge
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The next installment is an experiment of mine. The previous examples produce some lovely buildings, but as far as wargames go, they are little more than LOS blockers. Good, playable terrain needs to allow for the movement of miniatures, provide cover, and allow for a tactical advantages, at least in a shooty game.

I want to build a set of terrain that has every bit of the Spaghetti Western theme to it for use in Desperado or Flying Lead games.
so, I have started with everyone's favorite Mel Brooks Western Classic comedy, BLAZING SADDLES for research. The set for this film was actually re-used multiple times for other western films before it was used for this epic.



I cut the entryway window and door facia from a HO scale Walthers building kit, it seemed to fit the prototype well.


Construction of the building is the same as before, (except the plastic bit) using the single storey templates, however, I want to make the buildings modular with removable roofs, so the first example is a simple 1 storey shop. The foam board shell is built exactly like the previous examples, except it is skinned inside and out.


Outside, I used some Basswood sheet that has a clapboard siding pattern milled into one side, and trimmed with matchsticks and balsa, but the really neat-o bit IMHO is the wooden sidewalk. It is built from flat pine stir sticks I found at Michael's in a large bag of 1000 or something like that




I also found bags of random rectangular wooden offcuts at Michael's, one of the sizes in the bag was 1"x1/2" ...perfect for my standard door dimensions, so I carved panel patterns in them with a scratch awl and stained them with these ChartPak alcohol-based stain markers. The door knobs are just straight pin heads.


Here is the full outside mock-up complete with signage.


The back of the ice Cream Parlor is film-accurate (in my mind's eye) "Right down to the Orange Roof on Howard Johnson's outhouse" although it isn't painted orange yet.


The inside is skinned as well. I found a pic of a repeating wallpaper pattern online and resized it to scale and printed it on a color laser printer. I then trimmed the room simply with more of the stir sticks (corner trim is balsa) and stained them with the markers.




Here it is as it is now, still some work to do though.

Nice work can't wait to see more

Cool
Hope that is a One Flavor Ice Cream Parlor a la Blazing Saddles!

These are all really impressive! I'm definitely inspired to try some of these techniques!

Thanks for al lthe praise guys, very much appreciated. I didn't know anyone would be interested in this stuff. I hope it does inspire.

Freaking awesome! I love the Ho-Jo's! And in the finished pic of the first building, if you had a path leading away from the front door, it would be hard to tell it was a mini! Great job on all the buildings!

Oh and I need to mention a little bit about the 3-in-1 advanced craft glue in the pictures...this stuff is amazing, out of the bottle, it is like hot glue, but instead of being activated by heat, it is activated by air. So it works just like hot glue (strings and all) but once it is dried, holds like hot glue.

dsteingass wrote:Oh and I need to mention a little bit about the 3-in-1 advanced craft glue in the pictures...this stuff is amazing, out of the bottle, it is like hot glue, but instead of being activated by heat, it is activated by air. So it works just like hot glue (strings and all) but once it is dried, holds like hot glue.

What are the advantages to the hot glue?

FearPeteySodes wrote:
What are the advantages to the hot glue?

very strong hold, quick set time, and it seems like the only thing that works on spongy things like Woodland Scenics products without falling off the first time you bump it.

are we talking about something like liquide nails or what ?

a western town? now ths is as close to being unique as you can get in that admitedly repetive hobby^^

as i said in my own thread i just love the walpaper... looks so stuffy and gives the air of a saloon in so many ways^^

and the celebrating toilet goer is the icing on a perfect cake^^

HAHA, actually I think that figure is supposed to be gettign shot, but I suppose eating nothing but beans and drinking black coffee would do that to a guy lol

No not liquid Nails, it's called Beacon's 3 in 1 Advanced Craft glue