Doors, windows and other accessories

Hi,

I recently had my first stab on making some terrain/ buildings for Mordheim and got nearly everything covered. Found some tutorials on utilising this Styrofoam stuff, bit of balsa wood, lots of glue and cardboard and all seems to be good (even for people artistically challenged for lack of better word that is suitable to publish...).

The thing that i got slightly stuck is silly but annoying. I need doors, and windows and similar stuff. I found some on eBay but when i saw few quid for single door i fought that they are having a laugh. Found plenty of plastic gravestones and bases but i cannot fins any clutter like door and window frames/shutters etc.. Any chance anyone can advise on some cheap source in UK? I know i can try to play with balsa, cardboard etc. but as I mentioned already i am new to this sport and rather artistically challenged.

All help/advice will be greatly appreciated.

I'm in the same boat when it comes to being new to this and my skill is not of high standards. But I will say Balsa wood has still worked for me well for windows.
if you do have any spair windows/door frames from other building projects you can use Instant Mold to duplicate them.
Another option is if you want stone looks and want a little more creativity of your own you can try Magic Mold. I find this stuff is great and has really no waight. It only takes some time to dry and to me thats not a problem.

If you find making the doors & window daunting, try to find a shop that sells model railroad or doll house items; O gauge railroad pieces work nicely with 28mm minis.

The no windows/no doors look is something that has always bothered me a bit as well. Even in a completely blasted town, I figure there'd be at least a few, or remnants of a few.

I also looked into shops for this, but quickly found it expensive; you can duplicate them, but you will wind up with all doors and windows looking the same in your city. With that in mind, here is what I've found works for me: for doors, I've been using balsa/plasticard, plus some bits of jewelry (from DIY jewelry shops). It's dirt cheap, and you can really get some nice details. I bought the smallest piano hinges I could find, cut them in half to fit the scale, and I can even make working doors by scoring the inside of the foamcore and inserting the hinge with a drop of superglue. A bit of work, but it turned out ok on the first test I did.

The windows were the tricky part, but I experimented yesterday with car mesh (example here), and I'm happy with the results. I bought it at a major retailer that sells tools/etc for construction. A 25/50 cm sheet cost me 14€ (unfortunately they were out of the smaller sheets, since this is more than I'll ever need) and I just cut it carefully with pliers and inserted them into the windows. It looks brilliant, and they have several sizes for variance. It works particularly well for my buildings since I'm mostly doing half-timbered Tudor-style stuff. I wish I had a picture to show you, but I can only get my hands on a camera around next week.


Anyway, that was my solution, looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Yesterday spoke with guys at the local wargaming club to see what they are doing and one of them sent me a link with lots of various clutter (Here. Looks like perfect place, windows are cheap (from £0.21) and there is a lot of of other stuff that may be used. Unfortunately they currently run out of stock on the window but i will keep looking.

Lendro, idea with jewellery supplier is in all honesty quite brilliant. never thought of that. Weekend is coming so i will have a look. Bit worried about trying this with balsa but well, it looks like the only option. Do you maybe some nice little tutorial or bit of advice for it? I got the general idea, few thin bits of balsa, maybe glue to carboard, or maybe cut door size and then make some little dents but I would gladly look at bit more detailed instructions.

I find that you can make some adequate doors and windows from scratch pretty easily. Agharti, I love the accessories from the company you linked. Those would look fantastic and are reasonably priced for use in highly detailed pieces.

I use a stencil to cut all of my windows the same size. Then I pre-cut strips of wooden coffee stir sticks to be the same length of the window. I also cut match sticks (I buy them in big packs from the wood section of Hobby Lobby) slightly longer than the width of the windows. All of this pre-cutting speeds the process outlined below.

I glue a stir stick section to the inside of the lengthwise portions of the window I've cut out. Then I insert a vertical glazing bar by shoving a toothpick into the bottom of the window and then back up into the top portion. This would work with cardboard, foam board, and Styrofoam. Finally, I glue a match stick section on the outside of the window along the top and bottom of the window.

For doors, I again use wooden coffee stir sticks. I lay out a bunch of stir sticks next to each other until I've gotten a width that is about equal to the length of the individual sticks. Then I glue additional sticks across the sticks that I've laid out with a spacing such that two perpendicular sticks would be within the size of door that I wanted to make. I allow that to dry thoroughly.

To cut out the individual doors, I simply cut between every other perpendicular stick and then cut those sections lengthwise to whatever width of door I want.

To attach a door to the door frame, and make it a "working" door, I first glue a small strip of fabric to the inside of each door along the side that will attach to the frame. Half of this fabric strip should hang past the edge along which it is glued, creating a "tab" of sorts along the side that will be attached to the frame.

For durability, I glue a strip of stir stick over this fabric on the back of the door, and two more perpendicular strips on the back side of the door with ends that but against the strip laid over the fabric. To attach the door to the frame, I glue the protruding fabric "tab" to the outside or inside of the door frame (depending on how I want the door to open), and then disguise it by gluing another strip of stir stick over the fabric tab.

Ideally, the fabric strips should be roughly as wide as two stir sticks. I like to use ribbon for this purpose as it eliminates the need to cut fabric to the correct width, and there's no issues with the edges fraying, although they will end up being glued anyway.

Finally, if I want the door to be additionally detailed, I add any detail that I'd like.

Although I haven't tried it, this process is probably almost as easy as making a mold of a door and casting copies of it, unless you made a really big mold. Plus, it has the advantage of being dynamic, as you can easily vary the size and shape of your doors depending on where you glue stir sticks and how you cut out the individual doors.

As quick and dirty way i tried to cut a flat bit of balsa, approx 5cmx2.5. Then i used one of small screwdriwers (the ones that are very handy with screws in glasses) to make small dents and shaped door frame and boards. Then i took a bit of green stuff to make hinges, cut a bit from mesh fencing that i had left over from securing dog pen (2cm long and very flexible wire) and wrapped it around screwdriver mentioned above to make something round shaped to look like medieval door knob. Showed this into a bit of green stuff, cut to size and we have door handle. Looks fairly good (but hey, it is my first building ever, plus i am artistically challenged). If i wont forget tomorrow will make some picture. Took me 15 minutes and acceptable doors are fixed on the building.

Agharti wrote:

As quick and dirty way i tried to cut a flat bit of balsa, approx 5cmx2.5. Then i used one of small screwdriwers (the ones that are very handy with screws in glasses) to make small dents and shaped door frame and boards. Then i took a bit of green stuff to make hinges, cut a bit from mesh fencing that i had left over from securing dog pen (2cm long and very flexible wire) and wrapped it around screwdriver mentioned above to make something round shaped to look like medieval door knob. Showed this into a bit of green stuff, cut to size and we have door handle. Looks fairly good (but hey, it is my first building ever, plus i am artistically challenged). If i wont forget tomorrow will make some picture. Took me 15 minutes and acceptable doors are fixed on the building.

That's the spirit! See, there is no such thing as artistically challenged, that's just what artsy folks want you to think


As for a tutorial, as I mentioned I don't have a camera atm, so I can't provide one, but you can check an example of the door in question in my sadly defunct terrain thread. Nevermind the crap-looking building and shoddy paint job, you can see the hinges and door well enough I think. That's a piano hinge, which I should have cut into three pieces instead of two. What I did was take an x-acto #2 blade by hand and make a cut on the inside of the doorframe (so, just after the card covering the foamcore). I test-fitted the bit of piano hinge, then put a drop of superglue and shoved in there. With that complete, I made a two-part door out of bits of balsa wood, glueing the hinge in between the two "plates" of door. The knob was thrown together from a bit of wire (should've used green stuff like you, you can see the hole just above it) and a little round trinket from the jewelry shop. It's quite sturdy, and functions.
Each piano hinge cost me about 0,40€. The trinkets from the jewelry shop are usually about the same price for a bag of multiples, numbers depending on the type of object. By the way, they're a super way to add detail: I've bought wine glasses (engraved!), sewer drains, mugs, chains (different sizes/coloration), bells (skaven!), you name it. I've yet to use most of the stuff, but they'll add great atmosphere, I'm sure. I've also got my eyes on some pieces for a fountain, I'll see how it turns out. Mmmmm, fish!

As for the Antenociti windows, they do look great, but if you notice most are a bit small... I've check them out, but they never came back into stock that I noticed. A shame, really, as they do look rather smashing. I'd definitelybuy a whole bunch, even with the crazy posting they charge to the EU.

I'll see about posting a picture of the windows I made, IMHO they look pretty good. It's a chance to get working again, and posting again. Good luck with your buildings, and keep us posted!

Lendro, your doors look great, and working hinges are in my opinion brilliant.

Ok, i managed to get couple of pictures (quality is poor, done with mobile).

Front door


"Kitchen" entrance


And one of the windows


Please, bear in mind that I am utterly fresh in this hobby and this is my actual first building for Mordheim...

First attempt or not, the windows & doors look good. WELL DONE!

Sculpey sells a kind of modeling clay that, when baked, is flexible and almost rubbery. I've used it to make molds of lots of thing, using epoxy putty, or even more sculpey, to make the pieces. That's what I plan to do with the window and door pieces from the Mordheim box for my buildings. I've done it before with shields, skulls, etc.

And those are some fine-looking doors and windows! The only thing I would change are the score marks on the front door: I'd make them wider, since front doors are usually made to look more imposing. Still, top job, especially for a first run. I also love your idea for the windows: most medieval windows weren't glass at all, since that was expensive. So, they usually just had wooden shutters (like you), or at most a glazed pane. Many were also mounted on a groove, and were slid away in the summer.

Some ideas you've given me, which while intensive in terms of time should not be difficult to make:
- cut two strips of balsa, the same thickness as the window shutter. One should be wider than the other, and they should be glued together. Glue one on top of the window frame (extending beyond it) and another in the bottom. Instant sliding window shutter (it'll slide in a clunky way, but it should be doable).
- wood paneling! Slap some more wood on those doors. Either the traditional Z pattern, or an exterior outer pannel should spice things up.

I'll definitely be trying to do these in the future. Anyway, have fun! Looking forward to seeing the entire building