My take on several mordheim buildings

Hey everyone!
Now it's finally time to give something back to the community as a product of all of your stunning terrain pieces, and inspiration by a lot of you!

This post will serve as a blog, documenting my work, as well as progress with creating terrain pieces for our small 3-man campaign.

Thanks to all of you on this forum. You have been a great inspiration!

The first terrain piece I would like to introduce is - the shelter. (sorry for the blurry pictures)



I first created the plateau, as I wanted to create an elevated cemetery for a custom made scenario, but I quickly abandoned the idea. The idea was to use it as a cover spot with great use in multiple games, but found the elevation to be a too exposed area, so I decided to create a elevated house instead.



In our gaming group we allow models, who is stationary in a window, to be able to lean out of the window, and hereby be able to shoot warriors, who is right beneath the window still. I've countered this, by extending the house outwards, so it is possible to seek cover, if there is a camping warband in the house.



This is to increase excitement for H2H warbands, and to make shooty warbands more exposed, while still having a great advantage from being stationed in the house.







While constructing the building, I accidentally glued the second story floor, and hereby not making it possible to actually move models around on first floor (picture above). This forced me to think out of the box, so I implemented a slide system, where I could fixate the floor, in one of the building sides. Talking about accidental luck









The next step, is to model a roof, and place some gravel and other details. After that, it's painting time!

To be continued

C & C are more than welcome!

I don't think you'll get much in the way of critiques; it's just too BEAUTIFULLY DONE for criticism. As bit of advice, however, be sure that you can get at closed in areas with your paint brush before closing them in. It's a GREAT piece (Tavern?) with e TREMENDOUS amount of character & potential. Keep up the FINE WORK...and keep us update as it develops.

Hi Zero2Hero-DK,

like your building a lot. Thank you for not only watching, but sharing your work. I think your house is well done. You solved your problem in a good way.
The only critiques i have is, at the first floor the broken floor looks a little bit too much like rays of a star.
looking forward to see it painted

greetings

opaque

That's a brilliant building mate, well done!

Great job. I love the way the house juts out from the base. Good idea.

As opaque said,...

think of the broken floor as individual boards broken off on the ends. And possibly some broken ends of floor rafters sticking out a hair farther than the floor. Or not, it looks cool now.

Axious to see paint on your creation.

Great building, Inspirational!

That's the kind of building you need in the centre of a Mordheim board. A building where you have to take ages looking for warpstone/treasure chests so that all the other warbands can catch you and have a good old scrap!

nice looking building, one suggestion, the square path to front bottom of stairs, i cut the edges off my tiles before glueing down and then sprinkle gravel between them whilst still wet, time consuming but worth the effort makes it look more realistic. look forward to more buildings

Looking great so far! Looking forward to seeing it painted.

I dislike working with foam like that myself, because I can't spray paint it... I hate having to seal it first. :3

Looks good so far, can't wait to see the paint on it.

Personally though, I agree with some of the others - the broken ends of the floorboards do look a little strange.... But that could just be me -I'd rather do them as individual broken ends (or a similar effect). After all floorboards are not a solid piece, unless you look at some of the modern ones.

That, and good luck working with the foam as you have, I prefer foamcore myself, but thats partly down to having had bad experiences with polystyrene in the past.

DeafNala wrote:

I don't think you'll get much in the way of critiques; it's just too BEAUTIFULLY DONE for criticism. As bit of advice, however, be sure that you can get at closed in areas with your paint brush before closing them in. It's a GREAT piece (Tavern?) with e TREMENDOUS amount of character & potential. Keep up the FINE WORK...and keep us update as it develops.

Thank you so much! Really appreciated! Yes, I learned that I might have too tight, so that not even my paintbrush will fit.. Indeed a lesson learned! I'll call it a Tavern, much better thank you!
I'll keep you guys updated!

Opaque wrote:

Hi Zero2Hero-DK,

like your building a lot. Thank you for not only watching, but sharing your work. I think your house is well done. You solved your problem in a good way.
The only critiques i have is, at the first floor the broken floor looks a little bit too much like rays of a star.
looking forward to see it painted

greetings

opaque

Thanks! Yes, I wanted to create the floor in a cartoonic way, but I do see what you mean... I'll think about how to create it more realistic!

Qboid wrote:

That's a brilliant building mate, well done!

Thank you so much! I'm looking forwards to be seeing it in action!

Playtable wrote:

Great job. I love the way the house juts out from the base. Good idea.

As opaque said,...

think of the broken floor as individual boards broken off on the ends. And possibly some broken ends of floor rafters sticking out a hair farther than the floor. Or not, it looks cool now.

Axious to see paint on your creation.

Thanks! Yes that actually sounds like a great idea! This will also give me an excuse to actually use some of the broken off floor boards in a mess below the collapsed side of the Tavern.

The Yak wrote:

Great building, Inspirational!

That's the kind of building you need in the centre of a Mordheim board. A building where you have to take ages looking for warpstone/treasure chests so that all the other warbands can catch you and have a good old scrap!

Hehe yes, that could be an epic battle over the chest! We usually play 3 players, so I could imagine the blood that this Tavern may be having on it's floor boards in a few matches I might create a special scenario based on the building... say, an abandoned mansion perhaps, where every room has to be searched, for treasure or something.. could be awesome! I'll keep you posted!

Shanks wrote:

nice looking building, one suggestion, the square path to front bottom of stairs, i cut the edges off my tiles before glueing down and then sprinkle gravel between them whilst still wet, time consuming but worth the effort makes it look more realistic. look forward to more buildings

Thanks a lot! Oh you mean the already-glued-down-tiles in from of the pathway towards the plateau? I was acurally thinking of spraying some flock between the tiles, to make them look overgrown, and thought that it was most clever to glue the tiles down first. I'm not sure if I'm following you on the "Cut edges off tiles before glueing.. could you give me an example or perhaps a picture reference? I'm very curious of what you mean :-D

Milliardo wrote:

Looking great so far! Looking forward to seeing it painted.

I dislike working with foam like that myself, because I can't spray paint it... I hate having to seal it first. :3

I agree, I hate the Polystyrene as well - I've melted a completely fine building, ignorant of the consequences... I'll post the building another day, so you can see the damage..

Ghostbear wrote:

Looks good so far, can't wait to see the paint on it.

Personally though, I agree with some of the others - the broken ends of the floorboards do look a little strange.... But that could just be me -I'd rather do them as individual broken ends (or a similar effect). After all floorboards are not a solid piece, unless you look at some of the modern ones.

That, and good luck working with the foam as you have, I prefer foamcore myself, but thats partly down to having had bad experiences with polystyrene in the past.

Sadly I haven't had luck finding the foamcore in Denmark, and believe me... I've search quite a few places! I guess I'll have to import the stuff!
I've found a solution though! I seal it with a mixture of acrylic paste (for isolating bathrooms) watered down, and plaster powder. This creates a nice surface, with texture. I'll post a tower I've created later, explaining the results

Wauw, with all of this nice input I can't wait to get my hands all glued up again!

Zero2Hero-DK wrote:

Ghostbear wrote:

Looks good so far, can't wait to see the paint on it.

Personally though, I agree with some of the others - the broken ends of the floorboards do look a little strange.... But that could just be me -I'd rather do them as individual broken ends (or a similar effect). After all floorboards are not a solid piece, unless you look at some of the modern ones.

That, and good luck working with the foam as you have, I prefer foamcore myself, but thats partly down to having had bad experiences with polystyrene in the past.

Sadly I haven't had luck finding the foamcore in Denmark, and believe me... I've search quite a few places! I guess I'll have to import the stuff!

Ah, I see - I do know what you mean though - I remember just how pleased I was when I first found a foamcore supplier - Still, if you ever find yourself in Nottingham give me a yell, I'm sure we can send you home with a suitcase full of foamcore.... Though customs may have a question or two

Zero2Hero-DK wrote:

I've found a solution though! I seal it with a mixture of acrylic paste (for isolating bathrooms) watered down, and plaster powder. This creates a nice surface, with texture. I'll post a tower I've created later, explaining the results

That sounds terribly messy... and great fun I look forward to it - always willing to give a new technique a try

Hehe thank you - yes I could imagine the customs when they open the suitcase "Hey... what?"

Actually you can control the curing time by altering the amount of powder you add, as well the thickness of the mixture. Use a small speckle to spread a bit on the surfaces, and when it dries up, it's ready to be spray painted

Hej Zero, great job so far, now paint it!

About foamcore, i know that there is a 1a store near sölvtorvet in köbenhavn, they used to have the biggest range of modelling accesories, well, lets try and find out, hope i could help, regards, floedebolle

floedebolle wrote:

About foamcore, i know that there is a 1a store near sölvtorvet in köbenhavn, they used to have the biggest range of modelling accesories, well, lets try and find out, hope i could help, regards, floedebolle

Wauw thanks! Even though I live around 300km away from Copenhagen, I'm bound to take a trip before the summer - especially with the potential of being the owner of some foamcore! Man that would increase the building output as well as detailing
Really appreciated that you all give such good advice. Thank you

wow wonderfull work really like the house and good idea to prevent camping ive expiriences some of that recently (not nice) keep up the good work hope we can see it painted soon!

Thanks a lot! Oh you mean the already-glued-down-tiles in from of the pathway towards the plateau? I was acurally thinking of spraying some flock between the tiles, to make them look overgrown, and thought that it was most clever to glue the tiles down first. I'm not sure if I'm following you on the "Cut edges off tiles before glueing.. could you give me an example or perhaps a picture reference? I'm very curious of what you mean :-D

if you check out my scenery on mordheim empire scenery in the scenery section on this forum you will see examples, basiclly all it involves is cutting into squares and cutting the edges off each piece, gives it a more realistic worn look, i glue them onto a bed of pva and whilst still wet sprinkle gravel in between the slabs

Bimbi wrote:

wow wonderfull work really like the house and good idea to prevent camping ive expiriences some of that recently (not nice) keep up the good work hope we can see it painted soon!

Thanks! It might be a while before it gets painted - I have a lot of detailing to do, so it's work in progress still

Shanks wrote:

if you check out my scenery on mordheim empire scenery in the scenery section on this forum you will see examples, basiclly all it involves is cutting into squares and cutting the edges off each piece, gives it a more realistic worn look, i glue them onto a bed of pva and whilst still wet sprinkle gravel in between the slabs

We were actually thinking of the same spot And yes, thats where I want the overgrown effect on the tiles at the bottom.

Ahhh I see! Of course - that is indeed something I'll do in the future! Then they would have a coarse polygonal shape, interesting and indeed an improvement.. I might as well pull of those pieces, or try to shape them with a precision knife. Thanks for the tip Shanks! Please keep them comming!

I promised earlier to post yet another of my creations. This is my first attempt on a building actually. Its a kind of gatehouse, without the gate mind you :p

The idea was to create a building in which there is a lot of combat possibilities! My first idea was to have two buildings joined by a small bridge, but then it evolved (yes, once you get started, the ideas keep come flooding) to be one large building.

I saw a tutorial for making the impression of bricks in foamcore, so I had my go with the polystyrene I'm limited to sadly *sigh* - the great tutorial can be found here if anyone is interested - http://gidian-gelaende.de/Material_HP/Wolfgang/Tut_Vampirburg/album/

I had a hard time, making the details as good as those on the tutorial, because of the material of course, but I think I managed at creating a great feel of the brick-wall-look. Here's some pictures BEFORE the accident...



I was very satisfied with the brick work *Sniffle*





AAAANNNNDDDD.... Here I was, a happy little school boy, so happy about my creation, and anxious to see how it looks painted! I went jolly bouncing with a acrylic paint spray can and began spraying away. All happy imagining the result, spraying away. DO NOT USE THIS ON POLYSTYRENE - BECAUSE HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED!





*Quietly sobbing*


*Making cursing arm gestures, reaching towards the skies* "Why? WHY!?.."


"Details,... my precious details... gone... ALL GONE!!

So please do not make the same mistake I made... now that I think of it... why the hell didn't I try it first on an un-sculpted piece of polystyrene... oh well... I'll never do that mistake again!

I will try to paint it, I might be great... after all - Mordheim is in ruins, so why can't the buildings have melted walls?

An update on the other building is on its way, so stay tuned!

Spackle... lots of spackle and filler!

ohhh nooo!

Yes, that is a problem, you have to find the spray that can be sprayed on the foam... I believe it is water based?

The building is really nice work and you did a REALLY great job on the brickwork

That can be salvaged though, I'd give it a try with the same way I did the texture on the first barn type building I did (Here)

Basically:
Using your fingers, roughly smooth on a layer of filler/spackle onto the surface, then with an old toothbrush, stipple the surface with the bristles to give the texture.

May not be as nice as the bricks.. but the building would still be useable

Very nice work! Thumbs up from me!
It looks very promising! I hope to see more! Keep us posted.

AAAAAAAEEEEGGH! The problem with spray paints, other than some of those made for floral pieces, is the propellant...it eats foam. I've had some success reclaiming a couple of "eaten" pieces by coating the damaged areas with Woodland Scenics Foam Putty.

Thanks for the link to the tutorial...VERY INSPIRATIONAL. Wolfgang makes it look easy, perhaps deceptively so.

Oh No! Gutted for you. If it makes you feel better I saved 2000 words of a 4000 word assignment to an e mail link the other day and woke it to find it GOONE!!!! So I know the feeling of rage you must have went through.

On a positive note at least you can save it with the technique Ghost Bear recommends and you at least know how to sculpt cool brickwork... and how not to paint it!

Make sure you finish the building off as it will be a nice two fingered salute to the tin of spray paint. Never surrender!!!!

I just prime my styrofoam building parts with a paint brush. Takes longer but it is safe for the foam, as long as you use water based paint.

Yes, they have water based spray paint. I've tried it but I was not too impressed. Use a brush.