Materials

Foamboard - a sheet of expanded polystyrene sandwiched between two sheets of card. Light, easy to cut, and compared to just card makes sturdy buildings. Found in arts and craft shops and some model shops. It somes in a number of sizes of which I find the 5mm thick about right for all uses. Its an easy width to remember when measuring walls to allow for butt joints.

Thick card. I mainly use cereal card but a good quality smooth faced one and the thicker picture mounting boards have their uses and are less likely to warp.

Obeche wood for the timber frames, window frames and sills, doors etc. It can be obtained in various sized sheets and precut. I find 1/16" thickness sheet is about right to cut the frames my buildings, 1/16" square strip for window and door frames and 1/8" square for beams that project out of the sides of buildings.

Glue. PVA sticks the foamboard and wood without any problems. Superglue for most other materials.

Ready mixed household filler for the walls, applied with an old brush or knife and additional water. You could mix your own from powder but this is easier and is always to a consistent mix, unless you forget to seal the lid properly.

Building

I made my own plans for my low relief buildings drawn at full size. Having created a front elevation I then created a plan on which I had already drawn 5mm wide lines, this being the thickness of the foamboard used in the construction. The Drum being a medieval type house has its overhangs made by simply sandwiching six layers of foamboard together. The plan helped work out where the different wall levels would go and how they could be fitted together. I could then make full sized templates direct from my drawing.

I would suggest a basic box type for your first attempt at a full building but a Tudor type like the Drum need not be that much more difficult. In my model of the I wanted a lot of variations of bays and roof but it doesn't have to be so complex. Cutting out a second copy of the front and back walls of the upper storey only which is then glued to the original wall will give an overhang front and back. Adding the upper storey from the sides, remembering to take into account the extrax thickness of foam front and back gives you an alround Tudor effect. You can just keep going from there adding bays, out houses etc. Sometimes it helps to have a fully drawn out plan and all four elevations and if your drawing skills are not great try making these on graph paper where its just a case if inking in some of the drawn lines.

Over the years Wargameing magazines have often given out plans and instructions for making building which you are free to use and adapt. An advantange in modifying these is that the sizes for doors and windows and heights of floors have been thought out for you. There are rooms in my Drum that a human figure would have to be bent double to get into. As this is Discworld my error can be countered by saying that they are bedrooms for dwarfs. Once you have a plan that works ans looks right just keep adapting it, extend the length, height, move the doors and windows etc.as needed.

Walls Photocopy your plan and cut out to provide templates for cutting. Don't cut out the doors and windows. A simple 4 sided house will have 2 templates, one for the front and back and both sides from another. Unless the windows and doors are going to be the same place draw them in different colours, red for the front and green for the back. Lay your template on the foamboard and draw round them. Mark the positions of the doors and windows by sticking a pin through each corner leaving a pinprick in the foamboard. Remove the template and join the dots. Cut out the window and door openings first with a new sharpe blade in your scalpel or knife using a metal ruler to guide the blade. This gives you more to hold onto and if the windows are close to the edge of the wall you are less likely to bend and damage the wall. Then cut out the complete walls. Keep the off-cuts as they can be used for steps etc. or just to reinforce corner joins. You did remember to take into account the thickness of the walls that are butted together, didn't you - or are your building 10mm longer than planned?

Glue the walls together with PVA glue, using a setsquare etc. if you feel the need to have a perfect house. You can use some of your off cuts to reinforce these joins. If the building is to be handled a lot, i.e. its for wargaming use you could add any additional floors or shelves glued to at least two walls which will both strengthen the structure and give a footing for soldiers at upper windows.

Depending on the intended use of the finished building I would suggest that it is glued to a base of some sort. For wargaming a piece of picture mounting board would be adequate either triming to the house shape or leaving a 1/2"/centimetre surround to be landscaped. An irregular cut edge is better than a straight line. Groups of buildings can be put on the same base i.e. to form a courtyard, but unless you need to it is better to keep them separate and make lenghts of wall to join groups together. Texture the base in a similar way as your figures so that they look as if they belong together.

Windows My first efforts, in the Drum, to glaze windows was simply to paint them in black on the house wall, frame them and cover with gloss varnish. It didn't work. The method I now use is to cut out the window and glue a piece of paper over the hole on the inside of the house. You don't have to do this, but unless you built a complete interior the building will look un-natural. The rebated window area is then painted black. The glass is a piece of clear plastic card cut 1/16" oversize all round. The window frame is formed from 1/16" square wood strip glued onto the plastic. When dry this is glued over the window hole. Use PVA glue as this will not damage or mark the plastic. Add any additional frame work and then window sills from 1/8" X 1/16" wood strip. The sills should be a little wider than the window with the corners rounded off. For wargaming use just glue a frame around the holes you have cut.

I have been told that there is a car repair metal mesh that looks like the diamond framing of leaded windows but have yet to find anything like this in the local Halfords

Curtain and any material hanging can be made from foil which can be bent and folded to give the required creases. It is very fragile so only use this method where it is unlikely to be touched or damaged.

Doors If the door is to be closed do not cut out a hole but glue the door, thinned down with sandpaper so that it is recessed into the frame, frame, steps and any other decoration straight onto the foamboard.

For wargames again just glue the frames round the holes you have cut. You could however make a removeable door to add to your games. First cut out a piece of card the shape of the door way. Plank the door on both sides with wood strips. An alternative would be to cut the door shape from a piece of 1/8" wood and scrib planks or decorate how you wish on both sides. Add door furniture as required, card strips for hinges, pin heads for handles and wire rings for knockers. Base the door on the smallest triangle of clear plastic or card that will remain stable during games. With the point of the triangle at the hinge end you can position the door open or closed. Clear plastic just saves having to paint the base.

For an open door in a model create a small box behind the door opening and detail the hallway etc. This gives the viewer an indication of an interior rather than a large black void.

Stairs

Internal or external, like on the Drum, can be made from layers of foamboard which is about the right height for a step. You can either cut all the steps the same depth so that when glued to overlap on top of one another there is an open space underneath or you can cut the top step and glue to one end of a long strip of foamboard, Cut the strip to the depth of a step and then glue this piece to the end of the remaining strip. Continue doing this until you reach the height required and you will end up with a flight of steps with a solid block underneath.

Gound work

You can texture the surface will filler before decorating as your figures bases or you can go mad adding extra detailing. Tiles of cardboard make paving stones and can be regular or otherwise. Lentils or split peas make cobble stone streets etc.

Other types of Buildings

Ancient stone buildings, Inca temples and the like can be made from polystyrene sheet covered in plaster of paris or household filler. Sand can be added to the covering if the effect without is to smooth.

Ruins:- use any of the methods above but cut down. You can include parts of doors and windows depending of the height required. Add lots of gravel, cat litter, strips of wood around the base for the fallen rubble. If the ruin is old it will require plenty of vegetation where weeds etc have grown in it. If it has more than one floor have some of the flooring still present and possibly the stairs. Don't forget the old trick of having a bath hanging over the edge of a broken floor with the plumbing pulled out of the wall straining to keep it from falling.

Finishings

Timber Frames Cut a number of lengths from 1/16" obeche wood sheeting in various widths and stain it with a thinned dark brown paint or ink. PVA wood glue prevents staining so this has to be done before fixing. Without using a steel ruler as a guide a knife is likely to follow the grain of the wood if you try to cut it freehand. I therefore don't measure the widths but just cut what looks right.

The corner frames are fitted first by butting two pieces of wood together and trimming and cutting to lenght round the corner. Make one width wide enough to cover the cut foam end, this saves having to fill it if the cut was not clean. Cut edges of wood were painted before being stuck in place. The joins should not be visable on the finished model and will look convincing as solid squares of timber. The rest of the framing is marked out in pencil on the building after the windows and doors made as above have been glued in place. Wood for the framing is cut, painted and glued in place.

Plaster for full walls and between the timber frames can be done with the ready mixed filler and a brush. You can use more water to thin it down or add sand to give it a more textured surface.

Bricks and Stone work can be cut from plastic card or cereal box card board and glued in place to what ever design was common in the period of your building. Rough built stone work can be made by glueing irregular shapes on the walls. When dry small lumps of self hardening clay "Das" is pressed on to some of the stones to give a more uneven surface.

When all is dry brush a layer of household filler on to the flat card areas to give them a slightly textured finish. In a timber framed house it should be quite thin but thick enough to fill any gaps between the timber and the card. On stone the more informal the work is the thicker and the rougher it can be. Filler should also be used to fill and make smooth any joints etc in your work. The filler will give the flat areas a slight texture which will be picked out when you dry brush the building.

Roof A simple V roof is made by cutting two sides out of card so that they overhang the buildings walls by 1/8". Cut at least three triangles of foamboard to brace the inside of the roof join. Use the top 2" of the wall template with the gable ends on to get the angle right. If the building is for a wargame glue the two outer triangles so that they fit snuggly between the end walls. This will keep the roof steady during play but also allow you to remove it when figures enter the building.

Tiles can be cut from most thicknesses of card. Cut the card into 1/2" wide strips and then cut indevidual tiles out of various widths, from 1/2" to 1/8". Don't measure just cut. Cut a corner of some to represent broken tiles. Put a layer of glue along the bottom of your roof and start sticking the tiles on, Don't go for a uniform line but have them finishing at slightly different levels with some gaps between them. The next layer of glue will be over the top half of the tiles and the card roof on to which the next row of tiles will be stuck. Other than staggering to ensuring that joins on the previous row are covered each additional row should be just as irregular as the first. The tiles should overhang the roof card at the bottom and the sides. The sides can be trimed when dry to a straight edge or left with an irregular one if you wish. If you want a perfect roof do what you did at kindergarden. Cut strips of 1/2" card and then make 3/8" cuts along one edge every 3/8" and glue on as above overlapping the gaps. When each side of the roof is finished allow to dry. For the ridge tiles cut longer lenghts of card in the various widths you have used for your tiles, fold them in half and glue together the top 1/16"-1/8", this will be the ridge along the top of the roof. Place on the roof so that it covers the tile gaps on either side, trim both ends to a suitable length and glue in position. I find that this size of tile looks about right and doesn't take to long to build. You can of course make the overall size of the tiles larger, for a slate roof, or smaller depending on the finish you want.

If you don't like flat tiles model railway and dolls house suppliers have commercially produced tiles in plastic sheets of various styles which you just cut to fit the roof card. You may however have difficulty in finding tiles that are in the correct scale for your building.

Thatch I knew no one who had ever done thatch when I made the Drum and had to resort to reading model railway books at the local library. They all suggested similar methods using a thick wool soaked in PVA glue. It didn't work for me but by the time I realised it would have caused to much damage to remove and start again. The method I now use, and is shown on Granny's house, is to glue a layer of bristles from a cheap clothes brush onto the roof card. The ridge, overhang and overlap half way down the roof are then all modelled in Das and blended in.

All my chimneys have been made by having the basic shape constructed from layers of foamboard. They are then given a thin layer of Das and the stone or brick work scribed in with a cocktail stick. A rectangle of card forms the flat top and the pots are cut from a lenght of tube.

Extras

Additional details and decorations, carved trim, window shutters, statues, vahrandas, pillars, fences, etc. can be added. They can be built from wood, card paper or from kits. A old figure painted the same colour as the wall becomes a statue. If the statue is in an alcove leave the back wall slightly darker, don't drybrush, as this will make it stand out more. My wooden out-houses are only foamboard walls covered in wood strip. It is easier to paint these extras before gluing in to place.

A fancy window for a church or temple can be made from a paper doily. Find an embossed doily with a suitable design for a window and cut out the area required. It is easier to find the doily and cut the window hole to its shape. Being paper it is better to support it either on clear plastic if it is glazed or card cut for the main solid areas of the doily. The embossing will allow dry brushing to produce a good effect. The clear plastic can be painted with washes of paint or inks to produce a stained glass effect.

SF buildings can be build in the same way, it's just that doors and windows and general finish will be different, smoother to represent the greater use of metals with items like gun slits, air conditioning trunking and vents, communications equipment, antennas. In place of timber add smooth card frames at the corners for reinforcements and to hide the joints.

Tubes and Pipes: Copper wire and brass tubing Storage tanks have pipes coming out of the sides, tubes running up the side and entering the roof, and in all manner of places. Paint pipes which enter the tank white to simulate a cold-storage product like nitrogen, which is cold and causes condensation to freeze on the pipes. The thin coloured wiring used for telephones can represent electrical wiring and is used in motor kits as hydraulic cables after it has been tightly coiled. Strips of paper can be used for joins on pipes and strap on boilers and the like. Don't forget to add guages for temperature and pressure. Decals for model car's dashboards provide suitable dials which look right.

Ladders and Catwalks: Small tubes, balsa strips, and pieces of card can be used to build the various types of ladders and catwalks.

Lightning Rods: A length of heavy wire running down one side of the building into the ground with card and pin heads for the fixings.

Damage: Bullet holes can be gouged out of foamboard walls. For leaks let glue run down from the leak, use plastic or PVA for different effects. Paint or add paint to PVA to finish. You could also use a thick gloss varnish.

Sheets: Cut card, paper or plastic, to various sizes to simulate any sheet metal construction.The skin of a tank is welded plates of sheet metal, while good painting can simulate this, index cards glued onto the sides at intervals really get the point across.

Painting

Painting buildings is the same principal as figures, paint the base colour, dry brush with lighrter shades and wash with darker ones.

Wood Items made from wood are better stained with inks as you build as this retains the effect of the grain which doesn't show as well in paint. For non-wooden wood most brown shades can be used to represent wood. A dry brush with light grey or white ages the finished article what ever it is made from.

Brick Bricks can be many shades. Undercoat with white and then dry brush the bricks in various shades of terracotta and red, leaving the white for the mortar between them. Bricks are rarely a uniform colour so pick out a few in slightly different shades of the colours you have been dry brushing. Do a final dry brush with the base colur to which a touch of white and/or yellow has been added.

Tiles Tiles are similar colours to bricks but use a black or brown undercoat to make them darker.

Slates Undercoat in black and dry brush with dark grey. Add further dry brushing with light blue and white added to the grey base.

Thatch Thatch can be any shade of yellow to orange but don't make it to bright. Mine start off yellow but by the time they have had a few washes of orange and browns and then dry brushes of sand and white the yellow has all but disappeared.

Stone Stone comes in many shades. If like me you will always paint it grey, but if you look around at the buildings near your home you will find that they range from white through shades of yellows, reds, browns to near black. If its a true fantasy building there is no reason why your stone work cannot be any colour paint you have. Under coat in black, dark brown or white depending on whether the stone will have a dark or light finish.

A typical stone wall will have a dark brown under coat. The first coat of medium grey will be dry brushed on leaving the brown in the joints. Dry brush with a lighter grey and then off white. Mix yellows and browns to the greys to make them warm and natural, rather than sticking with black and white only greys which look cold and flat. A thin wash of khaki can be used to stain some stones and to represent patches of mud and mould at the base. Twisted fuse wire can be used for the roots of plants.

Grey stone is highlighted with white.

Light brown stone is highlighted in yellow and white

Dark brown stone is highlighted with a lighter brown or sandy colour.

Plaster Plaster covered buildings can be any colour although most are done in pastel shades. The plaster in timber framed houses was usually white when new but looks better with a touch of brown or yellow added to tone the brightness down. Paint in the shade required, darken with a wash round the windows, door frames, etc and highlight the central area. Finish with a dry brush of near white to bring out the texture of the filler.

Metal

Metal work is rarely new so start with a light colour and and add darker and darker washes to give a worn look. If there are separate sheets or parts, paint the base coat in different shades to represent repairs and the different lengths of exposure to the elements.

Patterns

Patterns and borders on walls etc. should be drawn in with a light pencil line, using a ruler to keep the lines straight, when the main colour is fully dry. Use an artists type masking tape if you have some. Paint the border in a thinned down paint adding additional coats until the colour required is reached. When dry rmove the tape and rubout the pencil line.

Weathering

Weathering effects are better painted with a stippling effect which gives a less dense finish and doesn't rely on raised areas as dry brushing does. Don't use a good brush as it will quickly be ruined with this method of painting.

Water marks can be shown by stippling a dark grey or black in a line where the water has run. For moss and litchen I usually dab a little glue in the area and add model railway grass flock. This is then painted in shades of green and yellow.

Chipped stone work will be lighter where the new stone surface is on show. Burn damage is best stippled in black as is smoke although washes work as well.

Most stone and old brickwork work in my home area have a common characteristic in that there is a lot of moss especially on the lower surfaces near the ground. Washes or dry brushes of green will represent this.

Rust use a chestnut or a mixture of orange and brown paint or ink in a wash applied when rust would form, i.e. tube joints, dents and cracks, around rivets and where water would run or drip.

A light brush of white will give a weathered look to most finishes.