Dave Graffam Card Buildings

Had another minor change of direction again and thought I would (casually) begin indulging in 28mm stuff, but cannot be bothered to scratch-build structures at that scale due to time/patience/ability constraints and so on. The compromised working solution for me is the excellent card buildings range by Dave Graffam.

I bought a few of the cheaper examples and have to say that I have been impressed - given the medium's inherent limitations - due to the low cost and quick turnaround it takes to build them.

The first example I recently completed was the Sniper's Wall, shown here in red brick finish. Most models come in multi-layered format, so you can choose which appearance to use, thus potentially creating many different looking structures for the price of one. The quality of the textures used are excellent and give an illusion of depth - a credit to the designer.

I did however, conduct one modification when building, which was to use foam board as the core of the structure along with stiff cardboard to create durability. The result is a cost-effective and sturdy model which took a short time to complete.

This example is scaled to 28mm, however, this can be easily reduced to any scale using your printer's output settings.

My fledgling Bolt-Action German para force scuttle around its 3 floors...

This was 'Exercise First Attempt' and there are a number of errors in its construction, due mainly to the use of foam board over the usual card stock, however, the resultant model is more than adequate for my needs and has an almost 'cartoony' look to it, which suits me perfectly. 

Next up, a quickly assembled example of the Low Ruins pack, which again, is a multi-layer PDF download; I opted for the 'brown stone' finish, again with a foam board core for strength.

Finally, an example of the Rustic Cabin, again which can be printed off in a number of guises and is simply to build.

Again, I used stiff card on this one to give it strength and a more 'solid' feel, and also added a little static grass to some of the grassed textures, which adds further depth to the model's finish.

Card models will probably never compete toe-to-toe with their resin, scratch-built or plastic counterparts, however, they offer a fantastic alternative and provide striking terrain pieces at a fraction of the cost and time expenditure, especially at larger scales and for that, they get my vote!

That's it for now, 

Monty