Pirexian's Scenery (WiP)

**Caution - This thread can be considered "Picture Heavy" - Watch it at your own risk **

Well, as any enthusiast new player, I've been reading and memorizing a lot of scenery tutorials over the past few months, and since I just finished painting my war bands, It's time to start with the crumbled buildings.

First, I made all the default scenery that comes with Mordheim's starter box. I added a bit of customization though I feel it still needs a bit of extra work.. maybe adding more rumble on the bases, and of course I'm planning on adding some rough texture to the walls and bases as well, but I haven't decided to just glue some sand or go for some cement, I'm looking for durable and rigid scenery, the buddies I'm planning on playing with can be a little clumsy maybe you can point me into the right direction here.

Here it is what I have so far:












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Now, as I said, I'm not content with the printed default scenery... it seems kind of fragile, and some of the buildings are too small to handle the minis inside (like the 3 storage house), so having this in mind, I want my scenery to be sturdy and durable, as well as easy to play with, this means leaving big open areas allowing our hands to move units (I don't really know since I've never played before >_
From what I can imagine.. I guess buildings with at least 2 or more storages are the ones fun to play at.. since they might offer a wider variety of tactics. That made me decide that my first building would be some sort of big house, with stairs and two storages, it would have 2 or 3 access points (the main door and maybe a crumbled wall or two)

So here it is.. my first ruined building.. from scratch...
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I remembered an article I read in this forum, about a way to make stairs "playable" and been able to place units on them without having them sliding down over the scenery, so I mesured the stairs so the minis' bases could serve as holders by hooking them half way through.



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This is an attempt of a fireplace... hey its gotta be cold up there at mordheim right? mercenaries gotta keep warm! ...also they say fireplaces can be good to rise up the spirit of the group (?)...



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Last shot.


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I'll try to keep this thread updated, I don't want to add paint yet.. I think I'll work on the rest of the scenery first... I have a long way to go still...

If you have any suggestion please toss it over, I'm interested on reading opinions about gameplay, my intention with my little project is to make a playable but good looking gameboard, so I'm open to any suggestion from you experienced folks.

Thanks for your time

I absolutely love your scratch built building, it looks great and will offer a lot of playability!

As for making the walls of the prefab buildings more textured: the easiest thing to do is put some textured paint on it. Also your prefabs could use some more rubble on the bases but don't overdo it coz it will be awkward to place mini's on it.

All in all this is a great start to your gaming board.

Wow. Very good work. I wish I had such talent and motivation

LOOKIN' GOOD! The customized GW buildings are a decided improvement over the "out-of-the-box" ones; a little removable rubble would be about all that is needed...the rubble pieces are a great way of using scrap material from scratch built stuff. AND your scratch built is TERRIFIC. It has a nice tavern feel to it that's VERY in keeping with the Morheim/Warhammer setting.
Waiting on painting might be a good idea: i.e., with several pieces completed you can work out your painting technique & have scenery to play wit in the meantime. Keep up the GOOD WORK!

Pirexian wrote:

This is an attempt of a fireplace... hey its gotta be cold up there at mordheim right? mercenaries gotta keep warm! ...also they say fireplaces can be good to rise up the spirit of the group (?)...

...and to draw the attention of the hunters of the night!
(perhaps some scenario idea )


but man you've got some nice looking scenery!

The stairs are particularly nice, if you have time to describe your construction method for those, and perhaps include measurements, I'd jump up and down until I fall over on something!

Great job on your scratch built. For wall texture, you can stipple in your paint highlights brighter towards the center, it gives a great illusion of texture and adds deptch to the model. Or brush on some glue and sprinkle baking soda.

We've been trying fine sand, and spackle paste for texturing walls. They both work pretty good, but I prefer the spackle. Sand can cause abrasions on the hands while playing, and isn't very difficult to rub off the walls.

Stone texture additive for paint (can find in most DIY stores) looks great for basing terrain, but I wouldn't use it on walls. If you overdo it as a basing material, it can cause cocked die rolls, and make your minis fall over so keep that in mind when using it for Mordheim.

My local store sells a sand texture paint additive, but I haven't tried it yet.

Excellent work on the scratch-built building, Pirexian. I too am interested in how you did the stairs (although a link to the tutorial you followed my be sufficient to sate our curiosity).

In regard to rebasing and sprucing up the cardstock buildings from the game box, you are doing what we did to our a few years back, and it looks like from some of the pictures you may be making a mistake we made - specifically, not cutting the bases for the building large enough so that that the base's edge on all sides is large enough to take a figure's base. If the edge isn't wide enough, models cannot huddle next to the walls easily. (On your scratch-built building, it looks like you have specifically made allowance for this purpose). If any of your edges are too narrow, it might be worth cutting a new base. We didn't think about it until they were all based, rubble had been added, and they had been painted up. Then, the first time we played with them after that...

Looking forward to seeing your progress!

Good looking stuff! Really like the scratchbuilt ruin! Once you add a little more debris and rubble here and there along with some paint these will look awesome!

Nice work. Welcome to the forum!

My only quibble would be with the attempted fire pit. The only reason to set a fire on a wood floor is to burn the place down. Those wood frame houses didn't have poured concrete floors. The lower story has a stone floor so the fire could go there. Or make yourself a ruined fireplace similar to the one provided in the card scenery. Often the last thing standing when an old frame house goes is the chimney. Used to see them in the back country where old farm houses used to stand.

That said until you said it was a fire pit it just looked like rubble so there's no need to change it.

Thanks everyone for your comments

Mithras wrote:

As for making the walls of the prefab buildings more textured: the
easiest thing to do is put some textured paint on it. Also your prefabs
could use some more rubble on the bases but don't overdo it coz it will
be awkward to place mini's on it.

Yes indeed, I've thought of the texturized spray paint, but I'm afraid
it would melt part of the foam on the scratch building.. of course I
can always coat the foam with some white glue or cover the edges with
white cement or blocker, but I havent decided yet (I though of covering
the flat surfaces of the walls with white cement anyhow.. so that might
help). I've seen tutorials of other very interesting techniques, like
the basic "kindergarden" use of glue and toilet paper hehe and that looks awesome if done correctly.

Thanks for your suggestion man, I just need to decide one of the options available.

DeafNala wrote:

LOOKIN' GOOD! The customized GW buildings are a
decided improvement over the "out-of-the-box" ones; a little removable
rubble would be about all that is needed...the rubble pieces are a
great
way of using scrap material from scratch built stuff. AND your scratch
built is TERRIFIC. It has a nice tavern feel to it that's VERY in
keeping with the Morheim/Warhammer setting.
Waiting
on painting might be a good idea: i.e., with several pieces completed
you can work out your painting technique & have scenery to play wit
in the meantime. Keep up the GOOD WORK!

Man.. I've been thinking the same thing! I didn't plan it like a
tavern.. but as I was making it I felt some sort of resemble to one...
so you just helpped me decide that this will be my table's tavern
rawr! now I just need to name it and ad a sign post outside the
building!

Funny story, my girlfriend was watchingme drool over the keyboard
watching some tutorials of how to make crates and barrels (yes I was
already thinking on filling that tavern with some supplys Wink ) and
today she surprized me completely... she went to a "dentist suppply
store" and bought some REALY cheap molding wax for dentists (they use
it to mold teeths) and she molded some AWESOME crates and barrels for
me.. hell.. she just siged as my scenery slave from now on ! (I'll
post pictures of the models she made later).

dalanshin wrote:

The stairs are particularly nice, if you have time to describe your
construction method for those, and perhaps include measurements, I'd
jump up and down until I fall over on something!

Well, basically I used lollypop sticks since they seam to have the
right size already (balsa wood would do fine as well) actually the side
supports have the original stick whith, so it saves some effort and
time, you just have to cut the round edges. each stair is separated
about 2cm - 2.5cm from each other (as you can see on the picture I was
doing it wrong at first, so I had to flip the stick over)

I'm sorry I can't be more specific now, but I promise I will be on my
next set of pictures (Hell I'm planning on making more stairs for the
following buildings, It does look good and must be fun to have them
around here and there for sure).

mweaver wrote:

In regard to rebasing and sprucing up the cardstock buildings from the
game box, you are doing what we did to our a few years back, and it
looks like from some of the pictures you may be making a mistake we
made - specifically, not cutting the bases for the building large
enough so that that the base's edge on all sides is large enough to
take a figure's base. If the edge isn't wide enough, models cannot
huddle next to the walls easily. (On your scratch-built building, it
looks like you have specifically made allowance for this purpose). If
any of your edges are too narrow, it might be worth cutting a new base.
We didn't think about it until they were all based, rubble had been
added, and they had been painted up. Then, the first time we played
with them after that...

This is great feedback mate, I appreciate it.

thanks to your suggestion I'm seriously considering switching the bases
on the premade buildings, also because one of the bases is already
"bent" and I havent even started painting yet.. so... yeah that's not
gonna go well later on, it will look awkward, it will be annoying to
play on a building that "moves" and I'll regret it greatly... I'll try
to get a more solid material... maybe compact wood or some styrane
plasticard or something..

Etrigan001 wrote:

Good looking stuff! Really like the scratchbuilt ruin! Once you add a
little more debris and rubble here and there along with some paint
these will look awesome!

I agree, those bases need more ruble and debris! right now they don't
look very "ruinish".. but I'm planning on adding some stone blocks
first to give some volume and texture before adding everything else..
actually I'm inclined to applying a tutorial with some glue, toilet
paper, rocks and wood to emulate craters and debris (
http://www.miniwargaming.com/content/N7QRVUL80tSf ).

Von Kurst wrote:

My only quibble would be with the attempted fire pit. The only reason
to set a fire on a wood floor is to burn the place down. Those wood
frame houses didn't have poured concrete floors. The lower story has a
stone floor so the fire could go there. Or make yourself a ruined
fireplace similar to the one provided in the card scenery. Often the
last thing standing when an old frame house goes is the chimney. Used
to see them in the back country where old farm houses used to stand.

Mhhh that sounds logical actually... I'll totally consider it, maybe I can set the fire place on the first storage

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Well, I'll try to post later about the stairs, and I'll try to take a
picture of the crate and barrel my GF made Very Happy! she's great!

Great beginning for a new guy! I really like your flooring addded to the cardboard buildings. they make a big difference. I agree with you that playability is the most important aspect of a building. The next thing for me is simplicity of construction. I will be watching for future post and I may make an attemot at cloning your building. (If you don't mind )

Orrlak wrote:

Great beginning for a new guy! I really like your flooring addded to the cardboard buildings. they make a big difference. I agree with you that playability is the most important aspect of a building. The next thing for me is simplicity of construction. I will be watching for future post and I may make an attemot at cloning your building. (If you don't mind )

Of course mate, no worries, Internet'z for Porn & Pirating , so yeah, feel welcome, take what you can bud.

So, here's a picture of the Dental Wax my girlfriend is been working on, looks pretty damn good to me O_o!!




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And finally.. some stuff I found at somebody's trash can haha!
They will become towers.. for sure.. maybe a mage tower, dice tower or something, who knows...

KEEP THAT GIRL...she's a GEM! They look PRETTY DAMNED COOL to moi also.

The future towers prove that one man's junk is another man's treasure...sort of.

Promising indeed!!!

Like that you can have the model stand halfway up the stairs.

Oh and fire....in Mordheim....at night....deathsentence!!! It atracts the wrong crowd. Better to freeze!

Pringles tubes can be worked into scenery as well. What you found there has a lot of opportunities (Spelling?) A wizard tower, with a little yard and broken down stonewall.

"Oh and fire....in Mordheim....at night....deathsentence!!! It atracts the wrong crowd. Better to freeze! "

I think staying in Mordheim at night - fire or no fire - would be a real bad idea!

The barrels and crates look good. Having things like that scattered around a table always looks good. I also like having abandoned carts and wagons scattered around the streets.

wow! man those building look GREAT! I love your "pimped" out of the box scenery and the big tavern type scratch built building!

Sweet!

And your girlfriend sure has TALENT!!

Does that wax harden by air? or do you have to bake it?

Its hard already from the start... To mold it you have to use some dentist tools O.O! (one is like a small knife and the other one is like a hook. The thing is that it's a very solid material... and it won't melt on hot weathers, actually its very durable.

I like the barrels and the tavern. Are you using balsa for most of the woodwork or popsicle sticks?

I would also love to see a detailed tutorial or measurements on how you made the stairs. I have been a bit lazy and haven't made any stairs yet for my scenery...

After I finished with the basics of my tavern (I still need to add some ruble and debris to it) I started working on a Chapel (what's mordheim without a Sigmarite chapel hey?!)

Of course I wanted to picture my chapel as a small stronghold, a defensive building that would offer high cover (if that makes any sense..) to any warband that gets a hold of it, so the idea is to have only one entrance, a few windows to shoot from the inside and maybe a second storage to offer better sniping possibilities.

Here's what I have so far:

I made an elevated ground (about 2cm, from an styrene sheet) This is the front view. The size of the chapel lingers around 20x28cm (at least the core building's base, those measures does not count the foamcore's width) and 18cm height including the 2cm from the base.


I'm still thinking where to put this little Bell I found in a random hands craft store. I glued 2x2cm tiles to emulate some masonry or brick work on the floor.


I haven't glued all the walls yet, but closely this is how the whole building's shape should look in the end.


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About the second storage, I wasn't sure to add just a regular Ladder to save time and effort.. or make some nice well made pop-stick stairs like I did on the tavern... my decision took me make the Stairs.. so I'll be making a small tutorial to how to make 'em soon enough since some of you folks asked for it


Remember I said that I wanted a "solid" barely damaged chapel, but I'm planning on leaving most of the roofing off (maybe just a little bit of it at the front and back walls) But I also have this hole at the side of the chapel.. that's for looks mostly.. since I'm planning on adding some wooden planks to block the way, like if some desperate warband used time and effort to defend the chapel 'till the end.


A close up on the second storage, I still need to add some railing on the edge, I don't want snipers falling down by mistake
Now, what I'm really eager to add to the chapel is some color glass patterns (like art deco or gothic vitrals) on the windows and on this balcony, of course it'll be broken in some areas allowing the units inside to shoot any foe on the outside. But that'll have to wait for now, I'll post some more pictures when I have something done.


This is how I reinforced the balcony, I didn't want to make it with a foamcore base, so its made only with popstick wood. Maybe this balcony wasn't part of the original chapel, maybe some warband came and tried to reinforce the building, making it easier to defend it and built this balcony.. who knows..

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And how could I make a Mordheim chapel without Sigmar's twin tailed comet.
it will be a nice addition to the inside of chapel's back wall.


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And that's it for now, I'll keep you folks updated.
Oh yeah, I'll be adding the tutorial about the stairs soon enough.

Here's another picture of the stairs mounted.



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And thats it for now
**Here's the tutorial to make the stairs: https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/tutorials-f18/how-to-make-wooden-stairs-t3648.htm#53736
Cheers.

Wow!

I've been wanting to make a nice chapel for quite some time now; though I'm not sure if I have enough space to store something this size) - seeing this, I may just have a go anyway!

Truly impressive stuff, Pirexian. My only complaint would be that the style you've used for the windows seems a bit modern, but it is your scenery AND the Old World in Warhammer is not historical Europe (contrary to what many people may say or think); so do whatever you think looks best!

Cheers!

The chapel is shaping up nicely!

I do like your stairs.