Part Constructed Buildings II

Finished the first pair of part constructed buildings for Beaverlick Falls.

I've based them on 2mm mdf that's been textured, flocked and 'planted'.  I won't go into detail on the basing as I'll most likely do a post on that later.  Lumber stacks were added and for variety between the two buildings I added some planking to one to give the impression of ongoing construction.

Part Constructed Buildings

As Beaverlick Falls is an expanding town I'm planning to have a number of buildings that are still under construction.   They are reasonably quick to make, add interest to the table and provide less cover than complete buildings which helps with gameplay.

Having tried to build the frameworks out of basswood, I quickly realised that they would take as long as a solid building unless I found an alternative method.  There are MDF kit versions available but as my goal is to scratch build as much as possible I looked at 3D printing.

 Tinkercad is a free to use online CAD program from Autocad.  It's relatively easy to use (compared with other CAD programs) and a few hours spent 'tinkering' will get you a basic understanding. The advantage of using CAD is that once you've done the basic building, it can be amended and reused, either as a whole or in part.

I'm not going to go into details of how to model in Tinkercad or how to 3D print as there are plenty of forums and blogs out there that will tell you how to do both.  I will however recommend those interested in 3D printing take a look at this article Matakish's Tea House.

Plan view of components in Tinkercad.  This is my basic design for a small building that I've used to create a pair of houses under construction.  By printing it flat like this, rather than as a fully 3D assembled house I have avoided a lot of clean up and it's given me more flexibility for future builds, for example a building that's got a side still to be built.

Components parts printed ready to be assembled . . .

. . . and the assembled components. The roof lifts off for ease of access.

Assembled and painted building with an additional floor made of balsa sheet with pencil line floorboards. This will be added to a base board with lumber piles and other small items at a later date.

Land Registry Shack

This wooden fronted tent building is the first building I made for Beaverlick Falls.  The construction is a basswood frame with balsa 'boards'.  The boardwalk front is made of coffee stirrers and the door and frame are balsa.  The floor is a sheet of balsa with pencilled floorboards that is atop a 5mm blue foam base.  I use the foam to give dimensional stability and reduce the chance of the base warping.


View from the back showing the construction of the roof former before adding the linen 'canvas'.  Green and yellow card is old supermarket price signage like art board (but free) and the grey trusses are PLA 3D prints.  The roof is removable and just sits on top of the framework.

Prepping the linen for the tent.  I add a small hem to each edge using a fold and PVA so that the width of the strip is the same as the length of the roof.  The linen is stuck to the frame using PVA which is allowed to dry before more watered down PVA is brushed onto the rest of the roof to cause it to sag and stiffen.  On this building I stuck the sides down at the same time as the roof and then added the back piece of canvas so that the roof was held in place by the material

Once the PVA had dried and the canvas set I took a scalpel and cut through the material between the wooden frame and the bottom of the roof base to separate the two and have a lift off roof.

The finished construction just requiring detailing. 

The Land Agent's Shack.  The sign was printed on paper and mounted on art board before being weathered. I fitted a magnet in the wooden front of the building and steel paper to the back of the sign so it can be changed if needed.  The wanted posters are from the internet, printed on paper and stained with coffee for an aged look.  Hinge and lock are paper and bits of plastic.

The Lumber Yard Office

The Lumber Yard Office will become part of a larger piece later on, but for now it's a stand alone building.   This was my first attempt at balsa over a 3D printed framework and it's also the first working door on a BLF building.

The building framework was designed on Tinkercad and printed in PLA on a 3D filament printer.  A separate set of roof trusses (not shown in the picture) were also printed and slot inside the two end gables.

The sides and ends were glued together using engineer's blacks to ensure squareness.  Figure is a Knuckleduster miniatures storekeeper.

Skipped a few steps to get to here but the balsa sides were made of 1mm think balsa sheets with plank lines drawn on using a soft lead pencil.  The distance between the lines is 5mm.  All the wood was stained before assembly to ensure the wood glue doesn't stop the wood from taking the stain.

The balsa was fixed to the frame using PVA glue and the window and door openings were cut out once the glue had dried.  The frame is used as a template so cutting the openings is relatively easy.  The door and windows are 3D printed.

The roof is art board cut to shape and PVA'd to the 3D printed former.  The surface was painted with dark brown craft paint to stop the board showing through the tiles at a later stage. Strip balsa was then added around the edges as eaves before the addition of tiles.

Tiles were added using strips of laser cut shingles from Oshiro Model Terrain which were then dry brushed using various shades of brown.  I'm avoiding using to much grey on the wood as most of the buildings in BLF represent new buildings only a few years old.

The door was hinged using two small strips of linen that were glued to the frame and door edge.  

The door can be now be opened and closed which is useful in skirmish games

Signage was made in Adobe Fireworks and printed on photo paper.  Door frame and window sills added using 1mm square balsa.  The whole building was given a dry brush with a light sand colour to emphasise the edges and individual tiles were stained with inks and thinned acrylic to give the roof some interest.

 Finished Lumber Yard Office (although it still needs a door handle)