First Foamcore Building – Work In Progress
I finally got around to working on foamcore buildings! In a few hours last night I was able to get the first story of a simple building put together using foamcore, matchsticks, and popsicle sticks. I still need to add some stuff to it, including some framing, and it will need to be painted of course. I was going to use some of the new cardstock printouts as base templates for my building, but after fiddling with getting them printed out I decided I would just try it by making my own pattern. I’m pleased with the progress I made so far, though the popsicle sticks didn’t want to cooperate last night.
For those of you playing along at home, here are the materials I used:
Foamcore board
Matchsticks
Popsicle Sticks
White Glue
Craft Knife
Tape Measure (for measuring to make my pattern, you can also use a template)
Pencil
The first thing I did was trace out the pattern to cut out. I used the tape measure to measure out three 4″x2″ sections, and then cut one edge short to make it look ruined. I decided on 2″ tall because of the climbing rules for Mordheim… 2″ is about right for a single story (and it’s the size of one story on the official cardboard buildings that came with the box set). You can also just print out some patterns and and trace them instead.
After tracing… cut out the pattern. For the corners you can either cut them clean off and attach them later with glue or do as I’ve done below. I cut the corner piece, but not all the way through. Then I was able to simply bend the foam and it was all still attached. I just need something to fill the gaps in the corner now, which I’ll probably end up doing by putting some sort of wooden framework with matchsticks or something similar.
After I got this set up I realized that the one side looked weird with a full wall with nothing attached to it. I decided to just trim it down some to look like another ruined wall.
Next up was adding some doors and windows to the building. I didn’t have a lot of space so I decided to go with a single door and a single window. I traced out exactly where I wanted them and what sizes before doing any cutting.
After that I grabbed some matchsticks and cut them down to make frames for the door and window. The matchsticks worked perfectly for this.
That was pretty much it for the first story. I went to work on figuring out how to do the second story floor. I considered cutting out another piece of foam for the floor, but decided to try out popsicle sticks for a wooden floor. I put a group of them together, marked out the pattern I wanted, and cut them down to the right shapes and sizes. I tried to glue them side by side, but it wasn’t very strong. I ended up having to glue some beams on the bottom to hold them together.
I gathered up all the extra clippings from the matchsticks and popsicle sticks to save for later. They should make some good rubble or something.
I stopped there for the night. I didn’t attach the floor to the building yet, but here’s what it looks like sitting on top.
Next up will be creating the second floor walls, adding the frame to fill in the gaps, attaching it all, and then getting it painted. Does anyone have any suggestions for painting or texturing the walls? We still have the textured spray that I could use and then paint over, to give it a more rugged, textured look instead of being so smooth.
Tags: Buildings, foamcore, How-To, Terrain, Work In Progress
For texturing foam buildings I use acryllic paints with some sand mixed in, since the spray cans could possibly melt some of the foam.
That’s a really good idea. Thanks! 🙂
Protip for building materials: I’ve always had good luck using straight pins to attach foamcore to itself. It’s like itty bitty nails.
A few days ago you had some great paper-buildings on your websites. Are they now offline? Where can I find these stuff now?
Regards from Germany,
Yitu
Dave, the creator of those buildings, had given us permission to host them originally but he contacted us recently and ask that they be removed. I believe he is going to be looking into selling them soon.
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