cardboard ruins

8/13/2019 Cardboard Ruins

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Cardboard Ruinsby Craig Hardt

Every so often on the terraindiscussion forums this

question comes up: "I needto fill my entire gaming tablefor Wargame X for a gamingsession in two wees but Idon!t have any money tospend What do I do#"

$o solve such a dilema Idecided to set about finding apro%ect that met the followingcriteria:

& easy enough for thebeginning terrainbuilder

' creates a lot of terrainquicly

( is fun and useful on the game table

) ine*pensive to build+ yet durable

, uses common tools and materials found around the world

- can be reused in a variety of gaming worlds and settings

.ote that "lots of detail" or "historically accurate" is not on the list $his is a pro%ect meantto cran out as much useful terrain as possible on a low budget and tight schedule

I decided that if I could only build and use one type of terrain it would be ruined buildings/cross all gaming worlds+ fantasy settings and far future sci0fi lands there are almostalways buildings 1mall ruined walls can be used as barricades+ the individual buildingsrearranged into fire bases+ create ruined city blocs+ or recreate a medevial villageravaged by war

Materials and Tools

2or those who might be using this as a guide to their first terrain pro%ect I!ve included

everything you would need $his is by no means a set "recipe" and you!ll want ad%ust thetools and materials to those you already have on hand

Corrugated Cardboard0 If you can find it use the double0corrugated cardboard in heavier shipping bo*es 3oo at the crosssection and you!ll see two layers of corrugation When the double0corrugated isn!t available I find it is worth the time to mae my ownby gluing two layers of single corrugated cardboard together1ingle0corrugated cardboard can be used but I feel it loos lesssubstantial in the finished buildings $he picture on the right showsthe double0corrugated cardboard cross section4top5 and single0corrogated cross sections4bottom5

Thin Cardboard0 $his can be found by saving product bo*es frombreafast cereals+ cracers6biscuits+ bacs of notepads+ etc

Plastic Tubs and a Plastic Spoon0 $hese are needed for mi*ing glue+ filler and paint


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3/4" or wider masking tape0 $ape is used to cover the e*posed corrogated edges andto add strength to %oints in the buildings

Paint0 /t the minimum you!ll need blac and white paint 7lac will be the primary basecolor and using blac and white you can archive a variety of shades of grey to do the drybrushing with /ny dar color will wor for the base coat I was lucy enough to find pintsof acrylic blac+ medium grey and light grey paints at the hardware store in the mis0tinted

section for a few dollars per pint so chec your local storeMini Hot lue un !and lue Sticks0 / small glue gun is actually quite ine*pensiveand will save a lot of time $he hot glue holds very well+ hardens fast+ and can be used tofill gaps 2ind a model mared "low0temp" so you can use it with styrofoam and the lowertemperature glue also won!t burn you as easily

#hite lue0 /lso nown as 89/ glue+ Elmerstm;


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Walls are nice to have on hand when setting up a table to fill in gaps and provide cover inblan areas where you don!t want a full building Duined corners have lots of cover valuefor their small siAe and usually have an area for models to fire from an elevated position3arger ruins tae the longest to build but also can give you the best places to fight over8lacing a critical ob%ective inside a large building is always fun

2or your own pro%ect you!ll save time by creating several buildings at once Duins don!t

require a lot of planning but you do want to thin about the types of games they will beused for I lie to have at least (" between floors so players can more easily reach in andmove their models 4and for easier painting5 eep an e*ample model on hand so thatdoors+ windows+ and areas of cover are large enough to accommodate the types of modelsyou!ll be using 1torage is also a factor 0 don!t mae the buildings so large that you can!tstore them easily

In the first part of this articlewe discussed the various tools and materials that we wouldneed In this section we!ll cut out our parts and assemble the basic structure of thebuildings

,ases

$he first tas is to roughly design thebuilding!s siAe and cut out the base1ometimes I!ll %ust cut out some bases andthen create buildings to fit them 2or my threebuildings in this e*ample I!ll need a long+narrow base for the wall+ a triangular shapedbase for the ruined corner and a rectangularbase for the multi0level ruin

Cutting +ut the Parts

Fnce the bases are ready it is time to cut outthe walls from the corrugated cardboard1ince these are ruins you don!t have to bee*act but you do want things to line up moreor less ?sing the metal ruler layout yourdesign and mae sure to cut out items such aswindows and doors before gluing the walls tobase

Fnce the parts are cut out they usually don!tloo quite "ruined" enough ?sing the utilitynife hac out chuns of cardboard along theedges and remove the first of the two layer ofcardboard to create indentations
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-ssembl$

With the wall and floor sections cut out tae the hot glue gun and masing tape 0 it!s timeto assemble all the buildings >ou!ll need to cover the e*posed cardboard edges with thetape and then assemble the floors and walls 1ome parts should have their edges coveredfirst before gluing so you can reach them more easily

$o cover the edges lay a piece of masing tape alongeach e*posed edge If it has lots of curves along the

edge+ tae a pair of scissors and cut slits in the tape asshown in the photo to the left When you fold over thetape it will go around corners much easier after you!vecut the slits /s you finish covering the edges on eachpiece start using the glue gun to put the walls andfloors together

/s the buildings start totae shape the thincardboard can be addedfor some e*tra details onthe buildings I!ve hot0

glued some windowheaders in the twowindows in themulti0level ruin$hese reallystand out laterwhen thebuilding is

te*tured and painted >ou don!t need to spenda lot of time placing these+ %ust put a few hereand there to add variety to the ruins

Here is the ruined corner fully taped andassembled In this case I!ve attached the ruinto the base since I can still reach everysurface with the base attached $ae care not


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to attach the base too early if doing so will mae the ne*t steps difficult or impossible

It may not loo lie much now but in Part 3I!ll show you how to add the te*ture to hidethe tape lines and it!ll start to loo great >ou might not want to attach your building to abase quite yet if you can!t access parts of the building with the base attached >ou!ll needto reach every inch of the building to apply the te*tured finish and for painting

Having completed the basic construction in the previous part of this articlewe will now add alayer of filler to hide the tape seams and add a rough+ ruined0looing te*ture to thebuildings $his same te*turing technique wors well on foamcore and 1tyrofoampacaging buildings as well

-ppl$ing the &iller

$e*ture 1tep &:


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how in the picture the brush is aggressively pushed into the filler @on!t be afraid to pushtoo hard+ you can always add or remove more filler if you don!t lie the effect /fter youfinish a building set it aside to dry and start on the ne*t one Fnce they!re all dry the ne*tstep is to sand the filler te*tureG6td

Sanding the &iller

$he result of all the brush stabbing is a lot of fragile peas that loo a bit strange and willbrea off too easily when handled / quic once0over with the sand paper+ however+ andall the little pointy bits will be gone and you!ll be left with a nice te*ture >ou can also varythe amount of sanding to leave different te*tures on different parts of the building 2ore*ample+ in the images below we see a window header before and after sanding

.otice how the area around the header was left relatively rough and I sanded the headeritself down to a smooth finish .ow the header stands out more and loos as if it mayhave been made of a different material I lie to use medium or even rough gauge sandpapers since they add additional grooves and lines to the filler!s te*ture E*periment withdifferent amounts of sanding and see what you lie best >ou can!t go far wrong+ these areruins after all 0 you can always add more filler

In the final part of this articlewe will paint and finish the pro%ect

Having te*tured our ruin in the previous part of this article+ we will now add a sand te*ture tothe bases and paint the buildings

Sand Te%tured ,ase

/ rough sand base loos more or less lie small rubble+ is easy to apply+ very durable+ andpaints quicly with dry brushing techniques 1tart by brushing a thin layer of 89/ glueover the entire base and add a generous layer of sand /lso add the glue6sand te*ture onfloors or any other areas you want to use it 8at the sand down lighlty with your hand andthen gently pour off the e*cess 3et this dry for about & hour and then tap the bottom ofthe building while holding it up0side0down to release any loose sand $he final step is tocoat the sand with a layer of ,=6,= water and 89/ glue mi* to seal the sand te*ture
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Painting

$he first step+ and most tedious+ is to give allyour buildings a solid+ dar undercoating4blac in this case5 $his can be sped up by

using spray paints but these need to be usedoutdoors and can tae overnight to dryproperly Even with the spray paint it it hard toget into all the little noos6crannies and youmay need to touch up with brush0on paint /tip for getting the paint into all the tightspaces is to thin the paint with plenty of water

Fnce the base coat is completed the paintinggoes quite quicly because from now on it!s alldry brushing $he first color+ dar grey+ isheavily dry brushed over the blac undercoat

In the picture on the right you can see a wallwith a blac undercoat and then in the picturebelow 4left5 what a wall loos lie after the


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dar grey has been applied

$he ne*t step is to follow up with a light grey drybrush 4below right5at which point thete*ture really starts to stand out

Fne final painting detail I did on thesebuildings was to add scorch mars $his isdone by carefully drybrushing blac paint inlimited areas on the ruins

$he last tas 4optional5 is to spray thebuildings with some acrylic matte sealant toprotect the buildings during gameplay

&inished.

In the image below my 1aven warbandsearch amongst the ruins of Bordheim $hethree e*ample buildings constructed in thecourse of this article are shown in theforeground with additional cardboard ruins inthe bacground


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cardboard ruins

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