Basic Building Techniques and a Tutorial

Hello gamers!

We all put hard work into our little toy soldiers and we want our terrain to be equally appealing. If you're like me, you try to do this without breaking the bank. Some commercial buildings can cost up to 50 or 60 dollars a pop. That's crazy. Here is a short tutorial on how to get some good looking buildings with a little work and some foamcore.

Materials:

Foamcore/board
Cardboard (Optional)
Ruler
Ball Point Pen
Razor Knife (Mine is Self Retracting)
Hot Glue Gun
Glue Sticks
Skinny Sticks (Skinny Sticks are sold at Wal Mart and they are long/thin rectangle shaped wood)
Granny Grating
Some Paints

That's it. All of these things can be gathered cheaply. The total cost of materials shown was $10. I can make usually 4-5 buildings with one sheet of foamboard, so the cost is $2 to $2.50 per building. Pretty good way to make terrain without killing your wallet.

Step 1: Laying out the structure.

Once you have the shape of your building settled in your mind, begin tracing out the walls on the foamcore. Use a ruler and be precise. Putting in the extra time to make sure everything is straight and level will save you a great deal of headache later on. I try to draw along one edge so I know at least one side is perfectly straight.

Once you've sketched the outline of your building, layout where your windows and doors will go. I use a figure for reference for this. This may not be the case everywhere, but one thing I've noticed in my home is that the tops of my window frames are all level with the top of my door frame. I ignored that rule here, and paid the price ;{.

Step 2: Cutting and Gluing

Once that is done, cut out all the individual pieces but leave the doors and windows in for now. Foamcore has the peculiar ability to dull blades extremely quickly. It may be a good idea to have a few spares before starting. Once you've separated the pieces, cut out the doors and windows. The four corners of the window can be hard to do neatly, so poke out the corners with a sewing needle or other similar tool. This is what you're left with:

Before you get all glue happy, read Step 3 for Scribing. It is easier to scribe before you glue the building together, so if you wish to do this then do Step 3 before Step 2 (I forgot this time, but I always scribe before I glue).

 Now that you've scribed (or decided against it), proceed to glue your building together. First, cut a small groove where two walls will meet, this will hide the inner foam when the pieces are joined. It will look like this:

In the this picture you can see how the outer layer of paper will hide the inner foam when the two pieces are joined. This isn't necessary, but it looks much better this way. 

Now simply squirt some hot glue all over one piece and hold it on the adjoining piece. This should only take about 30 seconds. Be sure to remove any excess glue on the outside of the building. I like to add a second layer of glue on the inside to help strengthen it. Glue your two roof pieces together as well, but don't attach them to the building, unless you want them to be permanently on. Now you have this:

Step 3: Scribing

This is the really tedious part. Scribing is a great way to model stones, planks, bricks, and shingles. Begin to gently peel the outer layer of paper from your foamcore. I start at one corner and slowly work my way to the other corner. This can be very hard, if it doesn't all come off, don't gouge the foamcore trying (unless you want some bullet holes or explosion damage)

 For this building, I'm imagining the outer layer of the wall to be stucco, which was applied over grey stone. With that in mind, I drew shapes where I wanted the stone revealed:

Once this is done, trace out the object you want to model. Make a very light impression with the ballpoint pen. You will notice you can carve the surface of the foam this way. Once done, trace over your design several more times until it really pops.

Step 4: Painting and Detailing

I forgot to take pictures of the detailing stage but they are visible in the paint stage (sorry). Take your craft sticks and cut them up to use as door frames, window frames, and half timber. This is fairly self explanatory so have fun and throw on some detail. With that done, we can break out our granny grating. This is optional, but I like to use it in my windows because I like how it looks. Cut a square of granny grating and glue it inside your building, so it will show in the windows. Should look like this:

Now, before we begin painting, there is one critical stage here. Get some black wash (or really runny black paint) and get it in all the crevices of what you just scribed. This is super important, it dramatically increases the look of the scribed sections. 

Let it dry, and then paint your building to taste. I went with Black Cherry for the roof (Every building I make has this color roof). And a Chestnut Brown for the walls followed by Cocoa for the wood. The stones were painted Pavement.

After that you can detail further with some washing or dry brushing. The end result should look like this: 

This isn't the greatest building I've ever made, or ever seen. However, I'm pretty proud of it. This is a good way to get buildings for your games, and it comes with the added satisfaction of knowing that you made it. Best of all, it is easy to do, and very cheap. 

Let me know what you think either here or on TMP. 

Thanks, 

Ethan

28mm TANKSSSSSSSS

Hello gamers!

I recently finished up some armor for my collection. All the models depicted are 1/48 scale Revell Combat Crushers. They are $10 snap tite kits marketed to kids that can be turned into some real gems if you give them some time and love.

First up is the US Shermans. These were given a flat OD Green paint job, followed by a light spray of a lighter green to break up the OD. The camo netting is a rubber shelf liner (Which I bought for $1) cut into pieces and sprayed green. The foliage is a mix of Clump Foliage, Tufts, and Oregano. The mud is Brown Paint mixed with Baking Soda to a tooth paste consistency. Slather it on and let it dry, then brush on some Army Painter Quick Shade to add some color. Anyway, here they are:

The German Tanks were done with a clean coat of Panzer Dunkelgelb followed by stripes of Dunkelgrun and Dunkelolive. I added a brown wash to pop out some details, and glued clump foliage all over them, which I do with all my German vehicles. I still have to give the German tanks the mud treatment and paint the commander. Here they are:

All in all, I really love these Combat Crusher kits. For 10 bucks (US) a pop, you can't beat the value for 28mm vehicles. They lack some finer detail to be sure, but with a little work you can get some pretty amazing results for very little money spent.

Let me know what you think!

-Ethan

Command Decision IV Game: "When Olympus Trembled"

AAR by Ethan Tichenor
Game by Victor Gregoire

Hello gamers, I had the opportunity to go to Vic's house today and play a CD IV game based on part of the Invasion of Greece. The game was awesome, with a stunning Greek Victory. Here's the turn by turn:

Objectives: Germany must capture the road leading to Athens, the level 2 hill, and the town of Akiras.
The Greeks must hold Akiras OR the level 2 hill.

The Germans

The Greeks

The Table

Turn 1.

Deployment:

The Greeks started with one rifle company in the town of Akiras. They also started with two stands of pathetic Railroad Security Personnel stationed anywhere along the railroad, up to 6" away at any point. Being the Greek Commander, I opted to deploy the railroad security troops 6" from the midway point, to guard the bridge leading to the level 2 hill. I left the rifle company in Akiras as per scenario deployment conditions.

The Germans started one company off in trucks, and deployed on the Road to Athens. The other German company stayed off board, awaiting support on turn 2 before driving on Akiras.

The first turn of movement went to the Germans, and the company on the road shot off in their trucks and turned toward the bridge housing my reluctant railroad security speedbumps. Against all preconceptions, they destroyed both platoons of trucks and HALF of the German company in Op Fire.

Much cheering ensued from the Greek side. In General Fire, the Germans failed to hit the boasting railroad security troops, and in the morale phase, the remainder of the German company fled, forced back and demoralized.

Turn 2

The Artillery Phase begins! German and Greek artillery do nothing, since both of them are drunk and their phones are dead.

German Reinforcements arrive on both flanks. A company of Panzer 2s and 3s drive into Akiras and begin laying fire on the dug in Greek Company.

Their fire has no effect, and the trucks containing the German rifle company and 20mm aa gun have no room to enter the board. Having no chance of damaging the tanks, the Greeks dig deeper holes and begin praying.

 Over on the other flank, another German Rifle Company enters the board and drives towards Athens. They are stopped by a cleverly placed Greek roadblock, and their movement ends. They deploy two field guns and some infantry, as well as a forward observer along the road and among the trees.

Now the Greeks have their turn. Heroic Greek soldiers race onto the board towards the Germans and set up a defensive line near the roadblock stretching from a river embankment to an orchard across the vital road. The Greeks open fire on the lead halftrack and the exposed engineers clearing the roadblock, destroying both of them.

Things begin to look grim for the Germans on the road. Just as all begins to settle down the Heroes of Greece (The railroad employees) charge forth and close assault the German Forward Oberservers, killing them. Even more cheering and laughter ensues on the Greek side.

Turn 3.

Back at Akiras the Greeks take their first casualties, mounting fire from the Panzers wipes out half of the Greek company entrenched there. The survivors break and flee deeper into the town. The Germans move their tanks towards the level 2 hill, and the infantry dismount to cleanse the heroic Greeks from the town

Back on the Road to Athens the Germans move up their final company and deploy them behind the trucks. The Greek move sees the last of the Greek reinforcements arrive, and they concentrate on the level 2 hill facing Akiras. With this, the German Panzer company stands no chance of taking the hill. On the road to Athens, the Greeks are emboldened by their wild success thus far, and begin charging the Germans, sweeping up their entire line.

 The game is basically decided at this point, but we go one more turn anyway. Not much happens. The Greeks finish off the remainder of the Germans on the road to Athens, and the Germans fully clear Akiras.
The Panzers make no move on the hill, knowing it would be suicide. In the end, the Greeks lost only 3 stands, and no vehicles. The Germans lost almost every single transport on the road to Athens and 10 infantry stands, not including the 4 stands who surrendered or fled off the board.

All in all it was an extremely fun game. After some discussion, it was decided it was an equal game in terms of chance of success, and the German loss was attributed to the Panzers not moving on the hill on Turn 2 (before the Greeks dug in on it) and some pretty bad dice rolls. The game was ruled a Greek Victory. The highlights including the tanks shelling my poor Greeks to death, a crazy double eliminated artillery shot, the unpredictably invincible railroad employees, and the German Battalion Commander driving off the map rather than dying.

As always Vic was an excellent host and the game was awesome. He will be running this game at HAVOC on Friday night, if you're around jump in, he's a hell of a GM and his games are always fun. 

Stay tuned Gamers!

-Ethan