Terrain Tips

I posted this over at TMP and thought it good enough for my blog as well.

Laying out the buildings, I can't recommend enough of using a thick cardstock for your basic shapes like the walls, roof ends, roof, windows, and doors. I also tend to make a rough sketch of what I want to make so I don't stray too far off. I ended up resizing my Livery Stable after I wasn't happy on how it was turning out.

For all my roofing needs I use left over cereal boxes and open them up carefully to get max use out of them. I cut them in strips and start off with the lower run first. I cut the strips half way and bend each tile the opposite way then smooth it out before glueing.

Once the first strip is glued I use a pen to mark the follow on cuts on the next strip. I always stagger these, like a normally shingled roof. The next run is then placed halfway down the previous run up until you reach the apex. Once both sides are complete, I take a final piece of card stock twice as wide as the shingle strips and bend it in half and glue it down.

If I want to do a simple flat tin roof I just cut out on big
piece of card stock and add some thin strips spanning the whole roof.

I also put the shiny side out for paintable cardstock and use the dull brown side when I want to mount a sign.

For scribing the ends of boards I selected a straight edge and just marked every other board then did the same on the opposite side of the building.

You can also recycle barbeque skewers for round stock or adobe poles or make a whole fort out of them.

I used 1/8 inch thick balsa for all my buildings including the roofs in order to make a more solid piece.

Originally I was going to drybrush the buildings but immediately found out that was a waste of time and simply sloshed on as much paint as could done.

Hope this helps have fun building.