Any self-made buildings?

[Tulkas]

Me and my friend are making plans for making our own buildings. After all these years the cardboard buildings are starting to lean a little bit (agreed, all very much in character, but still) and we're making plans to make our own from most likely, plasticard. But I was wondering have any of you tried this before? What I would like to see are the more durable of the self-made buildings. Houses cut out of cereal boxes are cool and functional, but that's not what I'm looking for. I'm talking about the stuff that's near good enough to sell on E-bay. Also, does anyone know if those cornerstone and support beams that come in the original Mordheim box are sold seperately somewhere? I'd really like a big bag of those!

[Toadius80]

Your best off using foam core. Can easily brought at most craft stores. I.e hobby craft.
I made a city fight battlefield and a massive church years back out of it and it lasts for years. To the point when I moved I donated it to a local club. Church was literally about 7 years old when I donated it.
Basically its two sheets of card with a thin layer of foam in the middle.
A good tip is to make a template from a cereal box for the windows so they are all the same size etc.
Get the foam core and cut all the windows then cut into wall sections. Glue it all with pva.
You can add extra features such as block work etc with either scoring the foam core itself or by using thin card etc glued onto it. Sonera of mine I added stiff wire to the windows as bars, door frames, window shutters and that. One of mine was an armoury so internally had rifle racks, shelfs etc and externally sheet metal cladding, just card stuck to wall, on outside ground floor, barred windows and a doorway from a necromanda sprue.
Floors are as easy. Glue a strip (sprue size) of foam core around the wall for support and then the floor onto that.
Once done give it a coat of watered down pva (so pva looks like milk) then when dry spray and paint. For that extra detail add some fine sand to the pva/water solution for a bit of texture.
For a quick paint, and that's what I did for 90% of mine, choose a selection of different sprays and after spraying the dark under coat give them a dusting of the others. I used grey and browns for the outside and dark reds and blues inside.
I also based some of mine with foam core bases using cat litter, bits from bits box, old wire and off cuts of foam core to give them a better look and increased stability. Should have done them all but I wanted them built quick.
All in cost me about £20 and a few evenings and I had a 6x4 city.
Though I believe it would cost possibly double now as a 2x2 of foam core is about £5 and that will do, what, depending on size 2-3 buildings?


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[Lord 0]

The beams and stuff used to be able to be purchased from GW, but I can't seem to find the sprue there any more. Could still be there, I am not the most observant of people.

I made mine with plasticard and the plastic beams that come with mordheim because plasticard glues to the plastic beams very strongly indeed as they are made of the same plastic (styreen). In fact, you will find it cheaper not buying plasticard, but going to an industrial plastics place and buying an A1 sheet of 2mm styreen for about $30. You will then have more plasticard than you need for a whole table of building for a lot less.

[bosky]

Seconding foamboard as an easy, durable replacement for cardboard. It cuts easily with an exacto knife, handles paint well, won't sag, and is relatively cheap. I buy mine from Michael's craft store which is a common shop up here in Canada.

I made two simple buildings with it about 12 years ago and they've been doing well so far. Basically glued the pieces together, sprayed it with texture spray paint and then black + brown + green and voila:

As you can see they mix pretty well with the Mordheim buildings.

[Kirth]

Textured plasticard would be better for buildings. I am contemplating making my own modular buildings. By graphing out the parts and making templates you'll find you can make some fantastic buildings that don't warp like other materials and buying textured plasticard will make the outcome that much better.

[Zekk05]

the stuff we use, we ve built from scratch using hirst molds. its much more expensive than the cardboard cutout terrain, and it certainly takes more time to build, but after playing on all sorts of different terrain, i can tell ya honestly that this stuff looks and feels the best.

we re still in the process of painting, so most of our buildings arent totally painted yet. id say another month and the table should be done.

[Kirth]

I saw a blog the other day related to the Hirst molds. I thought that was fantastic. Any advice relating to Hirst that you can educate us with?

[Whitesilk]

Plasticard is ok.

For me I don't like the paper look of it...the thinness of the walls. Foamboard gives the impression of a solid wall. With careful handling you can have those buildings last ages.

Hurst blocks, way to expensive. If you commit to the hobby and know that you'll always want to make terrain, then I guess it could pay off...in years down the road. Also its heavy to transport.

Here are some of my Foamboard buildings and some buildings made from cardboard but have a covering of spackling.




-Silk

[Zekk05]

go big or go home.

there are budget ways of using hirst molds, and my buddy and I tried a few of them. ya know that saying, 'you get what you pay for' ? well, with hirst molds, thats an understatement. you cant cheap out on the material or tools as it will Definitely show. plaster of paris is too brittle to use, the mold release agent is a must, and buying/building a vibrator table will prevent you from hating your life.

Its also not something you can just pull out and do for 15 minutes and put away. this stuff requires a work station.

That... and if youre planning to under take some sort of project, it would be good to research and invest in making your own molds. Some of the molds only make 1 or 2 pieces of a certain type of block that you will (more than likely) need 80 of. making your own mold will take a 10 hour job and turn it into 1 hour. we had to do that for a few pieces and it saved us a **** load of time.

[Brother Fenix]

go big or go home.

there are budget ways of using hirst molds, and my buddy and I tried a few of them. ya know that saying, 'you get what you pay for' ? well, with hirst molds, thats an understatement. you cant cheap out on the material or tools as it will Definitely show. plaster of paris is too brittle to use, the mold release agent is a must, and buying/building a vibrator table will prevent you from hating your life.

Its also not something you can just pull out and do for 15 minutes and put away. this stuff requires a work station.

That... and if youre planning to under take some sort of project, it would be good to research and invest in making your own molds. Some of the molds only make 1 or 2 pieces of a certain type of block that you will (more than likely) need 80 of. making your own mold will take a 10 hour job and turn it into 1 hour. we had to do that for a few pieces and it saved us a **** load of time.

I have thought about buying 4 or 5 of the flagstone molds, I think it would be enough to build some ruins, or act as the bases for some foamboard buildings. I don't have a vibrating table, but I could try the washing machine while it is washing clothes.

These are my foamboard WIP's.

[Zekk05]

theres ways to build your own vibrating machine. namely a batterypowered massage tool, strapped onto a piece of plywood. works just as good!

[Erazmus_M_Wattle]

Or get a box picture frame. Hang a piece of ply wood inside with springs. You then attach a small electric motor on. You attach a rod onto the spindle but make sure it's off centre. This makes it wobble. When your moulds are sitting on it the bubbles will shake out.

[NealRC]

http://www.terragenesis.co.uk has some fantastic ideas for making your own stuff cheaply

[Brother Fenix]

Or get a box picture frame. Hang a piece of ply wood inside with springs. You then attach a small electric motor on. You attach a rod onto the spindle but make sure it's off centre. This makes it wobble. When your moulds are sitting on it the bubbles will shake out.

I don't have a motor, but I do have an electric hair trimmer that vibrates, that would probably work with the plywood trick.

[Zekk05]

if you plan on picking up molds to use for the bases of buildings or a game board, make sure you get one that ISNT in tile format. get one that interlocks with jagged edges. (cobblestone, new flagstone mold). reason is, the tiles are 1" in width, and if you use all tiles, players will be able to count how many tiles they are away from the enemy model and know ranges before measuring.

with the jagged edges molds... the lines are much better hidden once painted, and this issue doesnt occur.

[Novrain]

A friend of mine has recently been bulding some Mordheim buildings:

http://miniaturemiscellany.wordpress...gory/mordheim/