Malifaux Terrain: Frontier Town Part 2

 Once you have your roof constructed, it is time to put some shingles on. The job looks harder than it actually is and gives a nice effect. To start, get some cereal boxes and lay them flat. With a ruler and pencil, measure out some strips between 1/2" and 3/4". Use a razor to cut them out, keeping the edges neat and smooth.

With these strips cut out, take a pair of scissors and snip off pieces that are about 1/4" wide. These will be the individual shingles. For an even look on the finished project, keep all the shingles exactly the same size. For a more haphazard or rough look, vary the width and angle of the cut slightly. Make more than you think you will need, since each roof will use a ton of thses. I cut these by the hundreds and keep them in a dish for future use.

Take your roof and run a couple beads of glue down the length of it to start the first course of shingles. Put the colored side down as the plain side will paint up much better. They should overlap the edge of the roof slightly. If you push them down firmly into the glue you will get a strong bond pretty quickly. If you then spin the roof and work on the other side, this one will be dry by the time you get back to it. When ready, run a bead of glue over the top half of the shingles already laid down and another right above that on the roof itself. Start laying down the next course, being careful to overlap the gaps on the previous course. Repeat all the way to the top. For the top of the building, cut some shingles that are twice as long as the other, fold in half, and put them along the top of the roof.

Some buildings had tin roofs as well. This is a much easier technique. Cut some strips about an inch thick and glue them evenly to the roof. Cover the seams with a narrow 1/8" strip and you are done! To paint, pick a metallic shade that you like and then wash it with some brown ink to weather it.

Once your buildings are done, it is time to paint them and finish the interiors. I turned one building into a jail by making some cells out of rabbit-hutch wire. Another became a bar by adding a long narrow barrier inside. The general store has shelves and a counter. The hotel has a removable floor so models can be placed on the first and second floors. Use your imagination when constructing this stuff and put your scraps to work.

Paint prep:
Keep in mind that spray paint will melt all exposed foam. Take your white glue and a paint brush and paint over all the exposed edges. Make sure all glue is dry before spray painting.

To begin painting, take your buildings out to the garage and hit them with some black spray paint. Don't bother using your $15 GW Chaos Black here. Go to the hardware store and find something for a buck. Even if you use ten cans you are still ahead! Put on a couple coats and make sure you get everything covered. Once dry take them inside, lay out some newspaper, and get painting.

I used a pack of cheap brushes from the hardware store for most of this work. I started by covering all the exteriors with a coat of dark brown. You could also use a shade of dark red or sandy yellow. Now highlight with a lighter shade of the chosen color. Drybrushing should be fine as long as you follow the grain of the wood. For the interiors I went with some brighter colors: blue, red, and green. You can also download wallpapers from various websites online and glue them in for a fancier look.

Finishing touches:
I wanted some signage outside, so I downloaded some Wild West fonts an made up some signs on my computer. Having a color printer is useful. I printed them on tan cardstock and built a simple frame out of balsa wood, painted in the same fashion as the building. A little glue will stick it right on. I dressed up the porches with some barrels and other effects. You could put some static grass in the gaps on the boardwalk or glue some fines or bushes to the side of the building as well. More little details will add lots of realism.

Feel like a shootout at high noon?

Trees and fences came from a Christmas town set.

Easy, Huh?



-Maniple

Malifaux Terrain: Frontier Town Part 1

One of my first Malifaux projects was a Western-themed town. There is a lot of reference material on the web, so finding ideas wasn't much of a challenge. The techniques used in this guide can be applied to just about any type of building. Here are the tools and materials you will need:

Large T-Square

Ruler

Pencil

Hobby knife and lots of blades

Scissors

White glue

Medium Density Fiberboard

Several 1/4" foamcore sheets

Jigsaw

Craft sticks and balsa wood. Some will need to be 1/4" square posts

Miniature barrels, spindles, fences, etc...
Paint- Dark Brown, Light Brown, Blue, Gray, Orange, Yellow
This isn't a very expensive project if you already have the tools. You should spend around $50.

Basing:

Your first step should be to plan out the floorplan of your board and get an idea of how many buildings you want to make. I wanted two smaller buildings, two long buildings, one tall building, and one narrow building. Each building would have a porch out front and one would have a side staitcase, so I added a couple of inches on the front and sides where needed. I used the jigsaw to cut my MDF to the proper dimensions. Measure twice and cut once! The smaller buildings needed a base 5"x8". The long buildings needed a base 5"x13". The tall building with the staircase needed a base 7"x8". The narrow building would not have a porch, so needed a base only 4"x11"

Walls:

Foamcore comes in sheets that are 20" x 30". In order to maximize your materials, try to keep the dimensions of your buildings within those limits. Take a minute to think about the height of your walls. Normally I try to keep the walls at about 2.5" high. You may decide to keep them smaller or larger, but this works pretty well and also maximizes your materials. Cut one 5" wide for the two storey hotel. This will leave you with seven strips that will become the walls of the building.

Here is where you have to do a little math. If you cut a strip of foamcore 30" long, then you can score it three times, fold it, and make four walls. The interior dimension will be 30", but the exterior dimension will be 32" due to the width of the foam (1/4" on each side). To get a nice even set of measurements, account for this width when making your cuts. Use the T-Square to keep everything square. If you want a building to be 11"x5", then make the following cuts: starting with a 30" strip, make a mark at 4.5", 15", and 19.5". Score through the paper on one side with your first cut. With the second cut, cut through the foam without cutting the paper on the other side. Fold at your cuts and you should have a perfect rectangle. If your cuts are not perpindicular, the building will not sit flat on the base. For the small buildings, score the strip at 4.5", 10", 14.5", and cut it off at 20".

Optional-
You may have noticed that many western buildings have a high facade on the front that is often double the height of the rest of the building. When cutting out the initial strips, you may want to leave the facade attached. In this case, one of the shorter scored sections will be taller than the rest of the strip, resulting in an "L" shape. Careful planning and drawing out all your walls before cutting will help make the most of your material.

Assembly:

Once you have the walls cut out, fold them to shape and glue them to the base you prepared earlier. Have some masking tape or pins around to hold the walls in place while drying. You may have noticed that the act of folding the walls out leaves a 1/4" missing on each corner. Use your 1/4" square balsa pieces to fill in this gap. Cut them to size and glue in. Not only does it provide stability, but will also give a nice sturdy look to the building.

 Here is a picture of what your last corner should look like. The balsa wood post keeps the edge neat and strong. Before the paint went on I also constructed some shelves and a doorframe. In the background you can see the stairway I started on for the hotel.

Here are the first four completed. Note the extra length on the front of the base where the boardwalk will go.

With the buildings assembled I used some scrap for the roof. This is a triangle, held in place with glue and pins. Cool, huh? We will cover it with shingles later. At this point just make sure it fits snugly over the roof and is at a pitch that you like.

Here is a top-down view of the completed building. Notice the facade and flush fitting roof. Using balsa wood and some spindles I put together a few overhangs for the front of each building. A few touches like barrels, hitching posts, and window frames are also a good idea.

The most tedious part of this build was the sheathing with balsa wood. While watching TV I spent several hours with a pair of cutters and a pack of balsa wood. I made a whole variety of different sizes and then set to work piecing them together on the fronts of the buildings. Some I did horizontally, some vertically. I started with just doing the facades, but will go back one day and cover the sides and back as well. If you don't want to work with balsa wood, you can probably buy dollhouse siding that comes in plastic sheets. Whatever you do, have fun!

Next session we will look at shingles and paint.

-Maniple