My first scratchbuild ruin

[Stug]

Hi. A few days ago, I started working on my first ruin using a cardboard box. At the beginning, I was just making a test but I was happily surprised with the result. It’s not finished yet. Still lots of work to do. I have carved the cardboard to make it look like a brick building. I also glued another type of carbon at the base and I will paint this base grey to make it look like concrete.

One question, what should I do with all the other windows? I dont want the players to be able to shoot from every direction so I don’t know if I should still carve the other windows or painting dark in those windows. What do you suggest? I dont want to be able to build a frame for all of those windows.

Thanks!

[Don Glewwe]

…what should I do with all the other windows? I don’t want the players to be able to shoot from every direction so I don’t know if I should still carve the other windows or painting dark in those windows

If the objective is to not allow troops in the building to fire then there shouldn’t be any windows – needs will must, as they say.  If there isn’t a floor for them to stand on then just painting them on would work game-wise, but -visually- would look odd for a blown-out building to have intact glass?  The work you’ve done on the ruined side looks very good, and not matching it with the other walls would, I think, detract from it.

[Darkest Star Games]

Not every wall needs windows.  If you feel you need a reason to not have the windows then perhaps one end of the building has elevator shafts on the exterior wall, no need for windows into/out of there.  Or, maybe the old windows were bricked-in because another building was built against/up close to it.

Really though, just build it how you want to, no need to worry about the “whys”.  (I struggled with this very thing, as I do architecture and had a lot of trouble separating the need for realism from “hey, it’s just for a game…”)

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

Very nice.  What’s the source of the floor’s texturing?

Mick Hayman
Margate and New Orleans

[willz]

Cool, simple and effective.

[Mike]

If you need to cover up those window etchings / marks…

Boards/Shutters?

 

 

[Stug]

Don Glewwe wrote:

…what should I do with all the other windows? I don’t want the players to be able to shoot from every direction so I don’t know if I should still carve the other windows or painting dark in those windows

If the objective is to not allow troops in the building to fire then there shouldn’t be any windows – needs will must, as they say. If there isn’t a floor for them to stand on then just painting them on would work game-wise, but -visually- would look odd for a blown-out building to have intact glass? The work you’ve done on the ruined side looks very good, and not matching it with the other walls would, I think, detract from it.

Here is what I read in a book from Mel Bose the Terrain Tutor;

« Don’t think all your buildings have to have the maximum number of fire points. Changing the amount from build to build, or altering the side of the building they’re on, can make a building easier to defend from one direction than another. This adds tactical considerations to make gameplay more interesting. Thing about creating strong sides and weak sides. »

Darkest Star Games wrote:

Not every wall needs windows. If you feel you need a reason to not have the windows then perhaps one end of the building has elevator shafts on the exterior wall, no need for windows into/out of there. Or, maybe the old windows were bricked-in because another building was built against/up close to it. Really though, just build it how you want to, no need to worry about the “whys”. (I struggled with this very thing, as I do architecture and had a lot of trouble separating the need for realism from “hey, it’s just for a game…”)

Thanks for the tip.

Aethelflaeda was framed wrote:

Very nice. What’s the source of the floor’s texturing?

I have cut tiny pieces of cardboard of different shapes (mainly little rectangles to mimic bricks and long and narrow pieces of cardboard to represent wood boards, pipes …

So after dropping lots of these tiny pieces of cardboard, I sprinked a little bit of ballast and some clay. When I was happy with what I saw, I prepared a mix of around 50% white glue and 50% water. Then, I used a dropper or eardrop (I don’t know if it’s the proper name) and drop the glue on the floor with all the debris. Because it’s made of cardboard, I have been very careful to let it dry completely before adding more debris, more glue …

When everything was dried, I took a paintbrush and add a layer of black primer on those floors. Once dried, I just used a smaller paintbrush and added some colors to the debris (like reddish-pink for bricks …). I should have put more debris in the corners of the buildings but my building is not finished yet.

I hope this help.

willz wrote:

Cool, simple and effective.

Thanks.

Mike wrote:

If you need to cover up those window etchings / marks… Boards/Shutters?

Sorry, my first language is french. What do you mean exactly? If you have a picture it will help me understand 🙂

[Stug]

Hi everyone. A few weeks ago, I began to play with the rest of an Amazon cardboard box. I then decided to try to build my first 6 mm wargaming building. In fact, it’s a ruin.

I used cardboard for the walls. I then tried to scratch the surface of the cardboard to give the impression that those are brick walls. Then, I measured and cut the windows, created some destruction on the building.

Then, I cut a small piece of balsa wood and glued the ruin on top. For the painting, I use a brush for the first layer and a little sponges for the other layers of different colors. I had to be extra careful about not using too much water during painting because cardboard and water, well not so great.

I also used pigments to remove the brightness from the walls, dig some little holes to mimic machine gun holes on the walls and added lots of debris around and inside the ruin. For the debris, I just cut very small pieces of cardboard and added small gravel. Once this was in place, I added white glue everywhere. Before the white glue was dried, I sprinkled very small rectangular shape pieces of cardboard to make it looks like bricks and some clay on the glue.

Materials used for this building;

– cardboard
– balsa wood
– small gravel
– clay
– paint
– pigments
– white glue

Cost to build this building; almost none but it took me probably around 20 hours to do.

Here are a few photos of the finished ruin. What do you think?

[Konstantinos Travlos]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Great work. Don’t worry about fire points, you can rule that it has none.</p>

[Darkest Star Games]

That really looks fantastic!  I love the weathering on the brickwork, looks very realistic.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Mike]

Yeah the bricks are proper nice.

[Stug]

Thanks guys. I think the thing that helped me the most is that I have built a few model railroad N scale  buildings. When I want to build a new structure, there is a list of things I have to do to make it looks more realistic.

Example;

– Before building the structure, apply texture so it’s not flat.

– Fill the joints between walls.

– Choose your colors wisely. Use neutral tones and avoid danger colors (primary and secondary colors).

– There is no such thing like orange rust.

– Apply wash everywhere.

– Apply pigments in some places.

And a lot more.

[Author]

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