Monday 2 May 2011

Generic Scratch-Built Buildings

Things have been quiet on the progress front lately, although I did attend Salute and make a number of random purchases, which should follow in due course.

I have been chipping away on several fronts though, including continuing my 20mm Britannia Brits and Afghans, Plastic Soldier's 1/72nd scale Germans and Russians and more Peter Pig US Marines.

One thing I have been keen to do is expand my clutch of scratch-built buildings with the aim of fudging their design so they could be generic in appearance and to a certain extent, scale. My intention was to be able to use them with both my fledgling WW2 troops as well as the 15mm Peter Pig stuff.


The structures had to be simple in design, utilise materials I already had lying around, and be relatively quick to build. The paint used is the typical cheap kids' variety matt-finished with commerical varnish to keep costs as low as possible.


Therefore, the endless pile of card coasters was pillaged, along with some old bits of foam board, cat litter, sand and balsa.


The finished version, which I based on Dave Graffam's 'Sniper Wall' from his  excellent card buidings range.


...and with a small force of Late War German Infantry manning its shattered structure...



The lack of any disernable windows or doors was deliberate to allow different scales to be accommodated as I don't have the resources (least of all, patience) to build specific buildings to various scales and scenarios.


I also knocked up a couple of smaller examples, again following the 'one size fits all' principle to eventually populate a small skirmish table based around a mashed-up urban area for use with the excellent THW CR 3.0 rules. The buildings' footprints are all based around the dimensions of the coasters that form their bases to allow them to fit in suitable numbers onto a table  as small as 2' x 2' if necessary.




 I shall continue to make a few more varieties of structure and terrain along with painting up some more Germans and starting the Russians concurrently. Who knows, I may even stick to this project for more than a couple of weeks...probably not though, as I have a wandering eye...:)

That's it for now!

Regards,

Monty

23 comments:

  1. Pretty good! It works well and we all know: a bit of good scenery really makes the gaming that much better!

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  2. Many thanks, I quite like the card models which are excellent, but don't quite look as nice as something a little more solid :)

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  3. Nicely done, I may have to go down this road for scenery.

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  4. Very nice!

    I like the idea of not being scale specfic as well. I am running out of space tp hav separate terrain for 15/20/28 mm figures so a "one size fits all" approach to terrain makes a lot of sense.

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  5. Thanks chaps - very kind; it is nice to have specific terrain and buildings, but I just don't have the spacetimemoneyenergyinclinationetcetc (you get the idea, I'm sure) :)

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  6. Really nice work. They may be low cost but look high end mate.

    Regards Paul

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  7. I agree with Paul....low cost but high end result. I´ll add...bloody excellent!!!
    The flooring on the top building, just great.
    Shows your skill as a modeller and painter..
    Cheers
    Paul

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  8. Also...you can kick my backside...I have just realised I wasn´t following your blog...sorry.
    Now sorted
    Cheers
    Paul

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  9. Thanks Paul - on both counts, mate! :)

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  10. Very good idea, very good result! I will copy this if you dont mind

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  11. Cheers Carl, no problem at all, go for it :)
    Regards,
    Monty

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  12. Great work! Really nice pieces Monty.

    Chris from Model Dads

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  13. Thanks Chris, appreciated!

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  14. Really nice terrain piece. It looks so good I think I may try this for my new WWII project. Thanks for sharing it!

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  15. More than welcome, Bard, thanks mate :)

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  16. Nice work there Monty!
    The floor ''work'' is really terrific.
    Will surely add your blog in my list!
    T.

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  17. Thanks chaps - much appreciated :)

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  18. Wow !!! Very nice work Monty !!!

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  19. Those are awesome, Monty! I love this stuff. And thanks for the kind mention. -D. Graffam

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  20. Really cool stuff! I am currently on my 4th "ultimate" terrain system for small area skirmishes and have given up hope of ever settling on one system :) My first attempt was like yours but on bases that were too small.. Your method has some really great results!

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