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Interior detail from the superb Curia Hostilia building from Troy Wilcoxson. In this part Troy explains how he made this impressive model. |
Materials
This building was made of ¾ inch foam board insulation. It is cheap and carves well with a sharp razor knife. I also used ½ foam board for floor sections. Other items used include:
Method
Building the base
As in all construction, the base is the most critical if you plan to use the piece for a while. I glue a layer of ¾ inch foam board insulation onto the ½ sawdust board using wood glue. I find that wood glue bonds stronger than standard PVA glue and works well for areas that will be painted. Once the glue was dry I cut the board, with foam attached, to the appropriate size. For this project 24x36 inch. The cuts were made using a circular saw with saw guides to ensure the edges were crisp and square. Large enough to dominate the battlefield but small enough to be used multiple ways. I then used a marker to draw the foundation of the building onto the foam-board complex already created.
Next I cut several layers of ¾ foam for the building foundation and to slightly elevate the basis building. By cutting progressive layers and reducing each side by 1 inch you can produce steps that models will stand on. At this point I marked all the base areas, not covered by the building foundation with a grid of squares. I use the width of a ruler to save time. I then used a SHARP razor knife to cut "v" grooves where the grid marks were to simulate concrete sidewalk area. The key to this step is to have a sharp knife so that you do not tear the foam. Helpful tip 1: I keep a sharpening stone handy and I sharpen the blade every dozen cuts or so.
The bay window and domes
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The next step was to build the bay windows and domes. The idea here was to have corroded brass railing and window framed domes. This makes great looking battle damage and increases the light levels to see inside the piece. I used the floor plan of the building that was drawn onto the base as a guide for the pillars and wire areas. |
I used the pillars as the vertical supports for the balconies. I then cut pieces of the rabbit cage wire to fill in between the pillars as window framing. I cut the wire oversize and then drilled holes into the pillar sides to insert the wire ends into with a dab of superglue.
Once I had the diameter distance of pillar-wire- pillar-wire etc. that I needed I gently bent in the circular shape for the bay windows. Some re-gluing will be necessary. Let everything dry. Then glue the frames onto the foundation at the proper place. If PVA/wood glue does not have the holding power you need (this is likely the case for gluing plastic pillars and such to foam) try this: Helpful tip 2: glue paper or thin cardboard to the foam with wood glue first and allow to thoroughly dry. The paper will become one with the foam and provide a barrier for epoxy. Then use epoxy to glue the foam and plastic together. I find it helpful to position and mark pillar locations prior to cutting the wire. I then simply measure the distance between each pillar and ensure the wire piece I use has enough pointy ends to fully poke inside the pillar sides. Also ensure that you leave about 8 inches of excess sticking up from the top to build the domes later. This is lot easier to do than it is to describe.
Walls
| Once I have a skeleton of pillars and wire for the building I begin to fit the wall pieces. I made the wall pieces the height of the pillars then I used a piece of ½ inch foam board for the second story balcony area. I then added additional wall sections above the balcony floor. |  |
I repeated the process for the roof piece but I did not glue the roof piece on until the entire building was completed and painted. By leaving each floor piece ¼ inch wider than the wall perimeter I provided addition detail for stonework carving later. Next I began the process of carving the brickwork into the wall section. I first used a marker and ruler to draw the wall patterns. I then cut the grooves as I had for the base.
Domes
Making the domes came next. Each bay window had excess wire at the top. I snipped the wire vertically and created a bunch of spine shaped lengths that I hand shaped into a dome. Ensure that you do not clip off the side spine pieces, as you will use them to make the horizontal window frames in the dome. I first took the pieces adjacent to the wall sections and the centermost piece and gently bent them to the diameter shape that I wanted. Then I bent, fitted, clipped and superglued each spine piece creating the dome. Lots of superglue and patience is needed here. Helpful tip 3: Use a superglue instant bonder like Zip Kicker to drastically reduce the gluing times. I then built the doorway frames and glued them in place.
Adding damage detail
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Now the fun part, I blew it up! Actually I added damage to make the terrain more game friendly. If an area was hard to reach then I put a hole there. I like to have a good side and a bad side to my pieces for pictures and to give a sense of what once was. Use the damage cutouts for realistic rubble in that area. To make the rubble even better looking try this. Helpful tip 4: Carefully cut several bricks from the area following the stonework groove you have already cut. Break, not cut, these in half and you have jagged, broken bricks to add to the rubble area. |
Helpful tip 5: Not all damage stays as rubble. Much becomes dust so use about ½ of the damage cutout to make big pieces of rubble for that area. The fine rubble is added next. I pour a healthy amount of PVA/wood glue into the rubble area. I use an old, large paintbrush and dab glue all over the large rubble area. Do not cover the total rubble area but leave some character. I use a rubble can for this step. Helpful tip 6: I have a coffee can with sand, small pebbles, cut up sprues etc. I simply spread newspaper under the terrain piece and dump the mixture on the liberally applied glue. I then turn the terrain over and dump off what did not stick. This all gets recycled back into my rubble can.
Updated: August 2002