Glynn_Sean's mordheim terrain

Preamble
So I’m getting back into mordheim  after a bit of a hiatus, I’ve done a thread for my warband conversions and my guide/build as well so feel free to check those out for some context. Anyway, I’ve almost finished making two buildings so far so I’ll showcase those and go through what I’ve done but in the future expect more incremental pictures. I’ll also price things as I go as bets I can.

I have a pretty roundabout way of making these sort of things so it should hopefully make for some varied experiences and stuff to share.

Idea
So I wanted to make a bunch of buildings with multiple levels to keep the game 3D, I hate the idea of buildings just being used as obstacles to walk around and I didn’t want to spend a fortune on some models and I like the idea of making it exactly the way I want to.

Tools
*Will add tools on each post as they come if there’s more

Hobby knife kit
Plywood plant
Plywood sticks (various)
1mm plasticard
5mm foam core
A pen
Pva glue
Decorative sand
Tile scored plasticard
Kitty litter
Random trash from my house
Gap filler
Water
Cup
Brush
Textured roller
Vaseline

Building 1: Tavern (3 levels)





So I did this building pretty free-form way since it’s the first building and I wanted to experiment with materials and such, I drew out what I wanted the 1mm pvc card and cut windows and such out before starting, I drew a rough crumble shape for the top of my wall and cut along that, I then flayed the edges slightly to help round them off, I used balsa wood as the skirting in the inside and out of the building and windows




I then glued it all into a mdf board and started the floors and detailing. I used more balsa wood for the first level floor and an off cut of pvc for the top, I scored the bottom base as if they were planks of wood and hopefully when painted the indentations from my pen will help catch my wash enough to fill the gaps. I started making little rubble piles out of cutoffs to flesh the scene out more.





Then I came back to the walls and started to wash them with a paste made out of gap filler, water and the decorative sand to make them look stucco. Later I changed my mind and I wanted the bottom level walls to be stone and the top to be stucco, I did this with a textured roller I got off eBay and some Vaseline, I used a spare piece of mdf board and rolled the walls out on there and then cut them roughly to the sizes I needed to fill in the gaps, I wouldn’t recommend this if you want a uniform look but for the broken mordheim building this was fine, I’ll keep things less cluttered until after I roll them next time though.




I did the bottom section near the small corner all at once, I wanted it to look like the floor had collapsed onto the bottom level, I cut some Balsa into roughly the same sized planks as what if scored into the first floor and stuck them to the board, I added some rubble and part of the roof support beam that would’ve fallen down.



The roof support beam is a good Segway to the roof I wanted to have the support beam falling down the building help divide it in two, I used the first fallen piece as a sort of in built ladder from the second to third floor, and then made a half collapsed roof. I did the roof frame/ fallen support beam by Criss-crossing burnt batch sticks over one another. I make a hole in the roof with the different lengths and cut tiles out of the packaging from my super glue, finally I put a stone on the top floor on a pile of rubble to make it look like a piece of the wyrd stone meteorite had fallen through the ceiling, maybe I’ll green stuff some crystals onto it to add to the effect but for now it works fine as is.






Then I started the final detailing. I put some of the stucco mix on the board and the walls again. Some dollops of pvc glue, then I got my square scored pvc board and snapped along the seems to make little sections of paved tile and put them around the place to make the floor, I put A few more matchsticks and rubble bits around and stuck the long angular extension to the broken second level support beam in the center to help with the splitting of space and because I love the 3D dynamic style having these sort of angular jutting bits adds and it helps with my first building being somewhat of a box as I wanted to play with techniques here.




Anyway there’s some final details to do like signage at the front and maybe furniture if it doesn’t take away from game play but as far as structure goes it’s looking good. I tried to build something that’s got a little story behind it and that should stick.

Bonus pic of my slayer about to jump down onto my noble



Next is the tower that I’m halfway through doing.

Sneak peak of the beginning structure



Let me know what you think!

You have aSPLENDID start o a GREAT LOOKING board. The buildings have a classic Mordheim feel to them. OUTSTANDING WORK!

Good stuff- can't wait to see it painted.

Excellent beginning

Cool looking buildings! I especially love the broken beams! I'm curious to see them painted, I'm not sure about the wall texture from the pics but I'm sure it'll look great with some colour slapped on it! Do keep posting!

Firstly I'm glad you guys like the first one! On the painting note I'm a bit worried about that actually but if anyone has some tips and/or ideas I'd love to hear them. Especially for the jutted wood and details that would be tricky.

An update on the tower today, it's come a fair way since the last post.

So I’m like four fifths of the way there I think. I want the tower to be a centerpiece of terrain so it’s nice and high and offers a good strategic location to take, because of this there’s probably going to be a lot of fights here so I need to take that into account when making this building so it’s the most playable building it can be. I love the idea of this being a tower a bunch of warbands have taken refuge in and done their best to fortify as they come and go so I plan to add some exterior platforms around the outside as if they were a makeshift shooting platform and some repair work as if someone had tried to fix pits and pieces.





Anyway here we are so far, I drew the shape I wanted in some 5mm card and cut out the windows/doors, then I scored half way through the card with my hobby knife so I could bend the sides and not have to cut them off and glue them back on. This was much easier than cutting them out individually like I did with my first building. The gaps between the bends were the perfect size for me to slide in some of the last bits of the skirting plywood I used on my other building to make the frame.



I made the second level base floor out of balsa wood I cut into strips with my hobby knife and flayed the edges, I think this looks like a sturdy wooden floor to hold up our tower now. Where I had the building rubble I put toothpicks into the foam core as if they were structural supports exposed as the building collapsed. Toothpicks are underrated, they are so easy to use with foam core and really easy to get a hold of. I stuck some foam core into the ends of a couple to look like rubble still sticking and tried to shape them with some meaning and relevance to one another.







Anyway then I made my side stairwell. I was worried that I hadn’t thought about where things would go in the building but luckily I had the perfect amount of mdf board off to one side to make a staircase. I had fun trying to figure out how to do this in an easy way. I settled for cutting mdf into bits roughly twice the size I wanted the steps (okay so theses were the squares of my windows that I cut out, I just cut them in half again and that was roughly right) then I put the end of a toothpick into one of the short ends so I could stick it into my wall, I did this with a stack and then made my stair one piece at a time, gluing as I went.





Then I build the connecting platform for my stairs and my base doing more of the same with the balsa wood floor planks and more toothpicks to form the supports for these planks.



Then onto my overhanging walkway. I just stuck toothpicks into my foam core walls to shape out where they’d go then super-glued them in place and started placing my pvc card wooden planks around the frame, then I build some support frames to highlight the open ends where ladders and runs can be placed in game. I wanted the supports to give more space on the other levels and make it a 360 degree platform. I love how rickety the platform looks, I’ll add some bracing supports soon.





I did the floors to the third and fourth floors with balsa half the thickness of the balsa on the first floor and tried to make it look like the floor had collapsed on one side. I also added some repair detailing to the first floor support so it looks like part of the floor has been repaired, I love how rickety this makes the foundation of the building look.







Then onto the top part. I wanted the crows-nest of my tower to be wider than the shaft, I used some other thinner wooden planks as the base for the roof to represent a different material, then I made this wall for the top level out of two types of balsa stick that I think worked well. I like that it looks like they could shoot down the side. I also started the first stucco layers of the walls and began to roll out the stone for the base level.



Finally the roof. I love the roof of this building, I’ve been making toothpick crisscross sections while I’m sitting on my balcony and I used each of them to shape my roof, it just became a free form thing, I knew I wanted a hole in the top and a four way slope but I just started sticking and this is the end result! It’s nice and high for the middle of my map. Again I just used packaging for the tiles and I did them just in squares this time.





Some pics of the fence detailing I added to the platforms and stairwell corner, these are made out of the ends of incense sticks after they've been used. Also just a bunch of detail pics.

















My cheap cobblestone roller from eBay is shaping up to be a solid 7/10 as far as greatness is concerned, but with a bit of filing back of the shallow grooves and some gap filler I think I can make it work well enough! I also found a much better way to skirt my windows by placing the balsa on the inside instead of around the hole like I was, I use half as much and the joints are much better looking.

Let me know what you think. I think I'll do a graveyard next just to break up the monotony of doing buildings over and over but after that I'm open to suggestions, we'll see how many people are around. More soon!

The images aren't showing up for me! Please do fix it, your text has piked my curiosity!!

Lendro Furioso wrote:

The images aren't showing up for me! Please do fix it, your text has piked my curiosity!!

Same here. Like your Dwarf conversions the pics just aren't visible to me.

Hey guys, I changed the way I host my images and it turns out it doesn't work! I'll fix them as soon as i wake up tomorrow as it's a bit of effort. Sorry!

Glynn_Sean wrote:

Preamble
So I’m getting back into mordheim  after a bit of a hiatus, I’ve done a thread for my warband conversions and my guide/build as well so feel free to check those out for some context. Anyway, I’ve almost finished making two buildings so far so I’ll showcase those and go through what I’ve done but in the future expect more incremental pictures. I’ll also price things as I go as bets I can.

I have a pretty roundabout way of making these sort of things so it should hopefully make for some varied experiences and stuff to share.


Let me know what you think!

Really like the rickety nature of these buildings - and the extensive use of debris. As one other forum member pointed out in another thread, alot of Mordheim buildings tend to not have a whole lot of debris (including my own!). Looks great!

Lendro Furioso wrote:

The images aren't showing up for me! Please do fix it, your text has piked my curiosity!!

Let me know if that's fixed it now!

Wonderful stuff! I love the rickety walkway and the roof section especially! I imagine the tower as being the base of several Reiklander warbands successively, each fortifying/rebuilding it bit by bit! Also love the stairs, very easy technique with the toothpicks! I also use them quite a bit, they're cheap, sturdy, consistent in size and usually pretty straight!

I'd slap some colour on that if I were you, then take pictures and show us!

The towering ruin is a WONDERFULLY crafted creation. The building has an appealing style all its own. It was well worth the wait. OUTSTANDING WORK!

Glynn_Sean wrote:

Lendro Furioso wrote:

The images aren't showing up for me! Please do fix it, your text has piked my curiosity!!

Let me know if that's fixed it now!

Fixed - and we're all glad it is, because it looks great

Like the others I really like the rickety nature of the buildings- they really suit the Oldworld vibe.

Agreed, some very nice progress, especially on the wonderfully rickety tower.

Also, CAT!

mariner2011 wrote:

Glynn_Sean wrote:

Preamble
So I’m getting back into mordheim  after a bit of a hiatus, I’ve done a thread for my warband conversions and my guide/build as well so feel free to check those out for some context. Anyway, I’ve almost finished making two buildings so far so I’ll showcase those and go through what I’ve done but in the future expect more incremental pictures. I’ll also price things as I go as bets I can.

I have a pretty roundabout way of making these sort of things so it should hopefully make for some varied experiences and stuff to share.


Let me know what you think!

Really like the rickety nature of these buildings - and the extensive use of debris. As one other forum member pointed out in another thread, alot of Mordheim buildings tend to not have a whole lot of debris (including my own!). Looks great!

yeah I need to add some to my tower, I just feel like it helps add a story to the game a bit more and I want it to look "realistic"ish

I like the idea of the burnt matches, nice work