Terrain Build: Ruins pt.1

An important part of playing wargames is having terrain to set the scene.  My gaming table has been a bit sparse for a while, so I thought I would take a break from painting for a bit and make some exciting new terrain!  No battlefield is complete without a few ruined buildings, and ruins fit my board's theme rather nicely.

I started off by making a couple of "blueprints" in Adobe Illustrator.

an example of a "blueprint" I made.  These were designed to be built using 1/4" foamcore.

I printed out all of my blueprints, and then spray mounted them to my foamcore using a photo mount spray.  These can usually be found in any arts and craft or office supply store.

Taking a sharp Xacto knife, I cut out the windows, doors, and floors.  I used a pencil to sketch out how I wanted the building to be broken, then used PVA glue to assemble the walls and floors of each ruin.

These are far from complete, but they are really starting to come together.

Following my blueprint, I was able to make two ruins out of each plan due to large corners of the buildings being cut off.

I wanted to play with different amounts of levels, internal walls, etc.

These can be used to make one large building, or they can be spread out across the battlefield.

All in all, this was a fun distraction for me to work on.  They add a decent amount of character to the board, which lends to more cinematic moments occurring during gameplay.

These still have a bit of work to go on them before they are finished.  Next up, I will add some texture and details using cardstock and adhesives.  Once that is complete, I will basecoat the ruins, add the fine details and then finally paint them.

I'm still undecided as to whether or not I want to add a larger base under each section of ruins.  I have a feeling that I will, so I can add more rubble, as well as help clearly define the boundaries of the terrain pieces.

Hope this inspires a few of you,

Stay tuned for more progress!

-Josh