Scratch building plog

[inunn]

My main army is death grand alliance and I've got the idea that I'd like to put together a board and a collection of terrain to play home games in the realm of Shyish.

So I had a go at building a small house from scratch. The idea is that I'll eventually build enough houses to represent a tiny human outpost scratching out a living in the realm of death.

First of all I bought some foam board from Ryman and put it together in a pretty simple house shape. I wanted a medieval feel so I jettied the first story on two sides. The roof is made from bits of cut-up cardboard. Everything is stuck together with unmixed PVA glue.

After finishing off the basic structure and the roof I rendered the foam board with polyfilla, spreading it with a putty knife to give it a nice uneven texture. I cut out a base using the citadel wood base as a template, stuck down a wall made from discarded bits of foam board and (eventually) rendered the base with polyfilla too. Then I started work on the timber beam layout. I bought a few bass wood strips from one of those model shops that specialises in trains. The wood was cut to length with clippers and where I had to make the strips thinner (for windows etc) I just cut it with my craft knife. I was pretty rough with my measurements for the timbers because I didn't mind if they were slightly uneven - it suits the aesthetic I was going for.

After all the timber was stuck on I used superglue to stick on a few of the spare parts from the citadel woods kit for detail. Then I glued on some sand to the base as well as some model railway ballast for variety. I sprayed the whole thing with black primer and then grey.

I've nearly finished painting it. I'm going for quite a dull grey to suit the Shyish theme and to match the basing on my death army. I've done a pretty simple paint job - just basecoating the colours and then doing a terminatus stone drybrush on the timbers and praxeti white on the roof tiles and base. I've had a go at some lighting effect for the brazier near the door, which isn't very sophisticated but I think gives the right effect. All I need to do now is give the same treatment to the other sides!

I've really enjoyed building this so far and I'm hoping to expand my scrathbuilt terrain collection in the future, time allowing. 

[Ademo]

Looks great! Are you planning on adding any weathering?

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[inunn]

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

I think I will apply some weathering, but I haven't decided the best way to go about it. I guess I could stipple some dirty brown/grey colours to the rendered parts, but I'm not sure how to approach the tiles or the wood.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

[Lysandestolpe]

Hey man,

Great house, the torch is a very nice detail.

I tip from someone who is doing these things as well. Get some Masonite boards for bases. The cardboard or foam will eventually swell/ warp and will make your nice piece in managable. Masonite has proven to be more sturdy in the long run.

[inunn]

Thanks

I get what you mean about the cardboard. When the stuff I used to render the cardboard base had dried it warped so that it curved upwards, which I've had to gently correct.

I think I'll put a Masonite/hardboard base underneath the cardboard on this one to limit future warping, but for future pieces I'll skip the cardboard completely.

[Lysandestolpe]

1 hour ago, inunn said:

Thanks

I get what you mean about the cardboard. When the stuff I used to render the cardboard base had dried it warped so that it curved upwards, which I've had to gently correct.

I think I'll put a Masonite/hardboard base underneath the cardboard on this one to limit future warping, but for future pieces I'll skip the cardboard completely.

make sure you take the glue and make an X mark on the back and circle around the outline on the base. Then when that is dry to the touch you glue the base on the other side. that should prevent the cardboard from pulling the masonite to a warp as well.

[MightyQwan]

Really love this. For Father's day my wife bought me some materials to make a nice table. Now I need terrain so love the step by step posts to give me ideas on how to do my own.

Now for a silly question. Is MDF and Masonite the same thing?

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[inunn]

I think Masonite is a brand name for hardboard, which from what I can tell is like thin MDF. I know places like B&Q in the UK sell hardboard in fairly big sheets for not much money.

I'm glad you like it, I'm starting to think that building terrain is actually one of my favourite parts of the hobby! How are you surfacing your table?

[Lysandestolpe]

yup. Medium density board (MDF) is what you want.

[RuneBrush]

No such think as a silly question  

I shall now put on my anorak and be geeky   As @inunn says Masonite is a brand name for hardboard (or biscuit board as we called it at school) or HDF - high density fibre board.  It's a bit tougher than mdf and less susceptible to water, it's also slightly safer to work with as mdf is more fibrous when you cut & sand it.  However it's tougher to cut and sand by comparison.

Both work find for model bases however!  So pretty much whatever you can get your hands on