Ruined Religious complex.

Following on from the Abbey in the last tutorial, this one is following on in the same vein, but adding different building types with different levels of de­ struction. This build is for a number of buildings and terrain pieces to be used in a demo game.

I wanted the piece to represent a small preceptory, something that has seen a lot of damage, but is still being held by humanities last chance.

I started off thinking of a large piece almost an ab­ bey, but instead decided on separate pieces, making it more modular for want of a better word.

The piece was to have some kind of damaged tower, a cloister to act as a redoubt if needs be, a church section and various other buildings and walls.

I started off by sketching rough plans of what I wanted and then set to work with the corrugated card. This is where a template comes in really handy. This allows you to make opposite sides of buildings the same if you want them to be. I also used the corrugated card to make recessed arches by cutting of the top layer of the card and leaving the lower layer. This will only give you a very shallow alcove, if you want deeper ones you will need to make a double thickness of card.

I started by making a tower. This was to be ruined, but have floors on 2 layers. I met my first problem here as it looked good but wouldn’t al­ low my hand inside. I overcame this be ‘destroying’ most

of the back wall, allowing access to the floors. Inside. All walls etc were taped to hide the corrugations.

Once this was taped I set about doing the cloister. The outside wall is 9 inches long; the inner is 5 inches giving me a 2­inch corridor around the central section. This walkway was covered with cereal box flagstones. Because of the way I intended the piece to look the flagstones went from one side of the outer wall to the other. Originally I wanted to have a roof and ruined bits in­ side the walkway, but instead decided to make the inner wall separate, allowing it to be removed and act as another building. I made the centre open to receive a small statue (of a former grand master possibly) this was a D and D animated statue (or something like that) I made a plinth out of some MDF circles, one larger and two smaller. These were glued together with the figure stuck to the top.

Other small ruined buildings were made in the same manner as the others. Once all the pieces were taped I added piles of rubble by using some off cuts of Kingspan covered in filler and kitty litter rocks. I then mixed up some black exterior paint with added builders sand and a bit of PVA. This was painted over all of the pieces and left to dry. Any bits that needed extra layers were cov­ ered. By this I mean tape lines were showing, bits were bare etc. Once the pieces were dry they were dry brushed in progressive layers of grey up to a final very light covering of off white.

The tower window was coloured with glass pens. I went for a simple gold and purple pattern; my original

plan was some kind of stained glass windows showing heroic deeds! I then de­ cided that my artistic talents would be a little stretched and chose the easier op­ tion.

Once I had made the buildings I decided to add some rubble piles. These were made from 3 mm wood covered in chunks of Kingspan covered in filler. The filler was mixed with PVA glue to make it more fluid. I added this with a brush. Pieces of Hirst blocks were then embedded in it. I also added kitty litter and G.W. modelling gravel. These were allowed to dry for 24 hours. It is always a good idea to knock off any of the protruding bits of filler, because if you don’t any that

get knocked off will show the filler colour through the paint. I then used the black exterior paint to cover the whole piece. Once dry the rubble piles were dry brushed to match in with buildings. I painted the statue with the same black paint and again dry brushed it. I then made some posters using some Necropolis images and some random bible quotes which I stuck to the buildings.

The next thing I wanted was some form of wire entan­ glements. So again I went for some 3 mm wood cov­ ered in shaped Kingspan with wooden dowel embedded in it. I wound some thin wire around a pen and this be­ came the wire itself. If I had been able to find my thin­ ner wire I would have wound this around the thicker wire giving it a more barbed wire look. Unfortunately this was found after the piece was finished. I left some gaps in the wire with holes cut into the Kingspan to act as craters, either be­ cause of mines or artillery etc. One of them was to have a bit of an unfortunate individual smack bang in the crater (well what was left of him in the crater).

All of the pieces were covered in the pva/filler mix and allowed to dry. The pieces were painted black and covered in what was left of my flock. The craters were painted brown, leaving the black showing through for scorch marks. The unfortunate GW zombie figure was glued in place (well 3 places!) after being painted. I decided to go for plain brown wooden posts. If they

had been there a long time the wood would have turned a grey colour. So these evidently are treated pieces of new wood. The wooden posts and wire were covered in an ink wash to blend them together and to make the wire a little less shiny. The wire looks okay, but be­ cause of the flock it doesn’t match in with the grey of the buildings. Hopefully the base­ board will be green!

Altogether I made 5 ruined buildings, 3 rubble piles and 4 lengths of wire. Not to mention the hill to add height too. I decided on a hill early on with the intention of having a building on a hill with cliffs on at least 3 sides and a narrow path leading to the building.

The hill was made in my standard way; basically I make a plan, start the build and completely change what it looks like part way through…

I wanted the hill to be big as well as tallish. My original idea of a 5­inch high hill was very quickly squashed when I saw how big that would be. I then went for a 3­inch high hill. This was made from 1 inch deep pieces of Kingspan A small hill just didn’t look right at this height so I made it a bit bigger. It eventually ended up being 22 inches x 19 inches

I laid the pieces out in what I thought would look good, then played around a bit more. Ba­ sically I looked at it from certain angles and it just looked wrong. Which is why all the changes occurred. Once I was eventually happy with the placing of the pieces I started to carve the cliff faces. Something still looked wrong and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Luckily my wife came to the rescue and pointed out it still looked too angular. So a bit more hacking away with a modelling knife sorted that out. I then stuck some 1­inch card­ board tiles Instead of a second ramp to the top layer I decided to add steps instead. These

were gouged out with the modelling knife. To the upper level to act as some form of man made structure base. Actually I found the statue worked rather well up there. I then mixed up some filler with PVA and slopped it all over the piece, covering some of the edges

of the tiles but leaving the majority clear. Whilst the filler was still wet I embed kitty litter and modelling gravel. I put most of the kitty litter into the base of the cliffs to act as a

rubble field.

Once everything was dry I coated everything in the exterior paint I used on the buildings. Once dry I set about dry brushing the cliffs grey and painting the ground brown. The brown areas were

covered in diluted PVA and then covered in flock. It was at this point I realised I was running low. Luck­ ily for me it lasted. As this was drying I set about adding different shades of flock, various small bushes, reeds, tussocks and in fact any vegetation I

happened to have in my stuff. I even shoved a climbing rose in one of the crevices…

Once again this build was nothing different to what I have done in the past. The only real difference was the amount of stuff I made in the time given. I really went to town on the textured paint and tried to cover all evidence of tape.

I must admit I was really pleased with how the hill came out. I think adding different types and colours of flock made the difference. This is now my wife’s favourite terrain piece. It was the dig site, but that has now been relegated to second place.

Of all the pieces I made this time I think the wire was the one I would redo if I had the chance. Basically it is down to the colour of the wood. It looks wrong, and in my view

stick out like a sore thumb. As I wanted to get it boxed up and sent, I decided to leave them the way they were. As for cost…

This build, because of the number of pieces, took most of a roll of masking tape. The card was once again free, and I had plenty of off cuts of Kingspan. The main hill itself took quite a bit. But this came as an 8 feet by 4 feet sheet and cost £17 so in terms of how much it cost ­ not that much.

I need to replace my tub of flock, this costs about £5 but is good for many builds. You can get cheaper stuff than the GW flock, but on Shetland that’s all I can get without mail order. I did however order a pile of stuff from Germany, part of this lot was the tussock and climbing rose stuff and to be quite honest I am rather impressed by them. I have decided to add some higher resolution photos of the finished pieces so that if you blow the page up they don’t pixelate.

This was a fun build to complete, It was made to order which always adds a little pressure. What I envisaged is hopefully what the recipient thought it would look like. I think I might have made too much, but luckily I ran out of time otherwise there was another hill planned as well as trenches too! Beardy Steve Signing off.

Quick Build Instructions

Mock up the building to make sure it fits together okay

Cut the card to make your buildings, lots of windows? Use a template, makes things a lot easier in the long run.

Tape all the edges and then glue the pieces together. Tape over these joins too.

Paint a base colour using paint and sand I used ‘Sandtex’ black exte­ rior paint with loads of sand added. I did between 2 and 3 layers to hide the tape. The colour you use at this stage will dictate your final colour.

Dry brush the piece to the effect and colour you want. Add in any final details you require.