Recent events have rekindled my interest in providing buildings for the 6mm crowd. I'm looking to design buildings that will appeal to the majority of the community (i.e. not covered in skulls) and will not drain anyone's bank account (I'm talkin' to you, Ebay sellers).

To that end, I'm thinking about a series of buildings, constructed from four walls and a roof tile. My plan is to design within a 3x3 inch (8cmx8cm) or 2x3 inch (5cmx8cm) footprint to reduce the number of roof tiles required. There would be no height limit though, so the system would allow for vertical variation while maintaining the ease of requiring a limited number of roof tiles.

In addition to a limited number of roof tiles, there will be a limited number of wall sections - buildings will have one or two different facings in order to keep both inventory and costs down.

As time goes on, and if there is demand, larger or custom buildings are always an option (tank factory, anyone?) but that's for later on...

Any thoughts or concerns before we embark on this grand adventure?

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Adeptus Monk-anicus
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Sounds good to me, what sort of end material are we talking?


Mostly that the terrain section has a long history of people starting building projects, showing awesome CAD/masters and then nothing happening so good luck …

Also, I think you have typo'd cm as mm (or missed a 0 off each metric measurement).

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Nope. They're tiny buildings. Thanks for catching that.

I agree with you - I've done that in the past as well, but I've had some other ideas that I think make the project more feasible now (i.e. limiting parts.)

And I will be completing this and bringing the project to fruition - assuming the interest is there.

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Adeptus Monk-anicus
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I'd be in the market for elegant, not-ruined alien buildings. I can do rubbled ramshackle myself

For the time being, buildings are going to be humanocentric.

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Adeptus Monk-anicus
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Sounds like fun

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I think the precut plasticard roof the woodland scenics landmark structures (N-scale) employ is a very effective solution. It may not be for your purposes, however. It depends on the scale of production you're thinking of.

I would consider using a set (or limited variation) on number of floors, perhaps two or three, to reduce the number of casts (you're doing resin?) needed.

I heartily (and parenthetically) approve of any 6mm terrain plans!

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SG

Ghost's Paint Blog, where everything goes that isn't something else.

Full support from here Theres too little decent 6mm buildings available

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In doing some research, I came across the brilliant idea that an ideal way to decrease design time, but increase variation would be to make individual floors that would slot into each other. Buildings would have no limit as to their height!

Then I found out Hawk Wargames had already done it (http://www.hawkwargames.com/collections ... tial-tiles). Sigh.

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Adeptus Monk-anicus
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And that precludes you how?

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Based on personal experience…

1) Stackable stories can look bad compared to full-height facades.

Sure they let you build a building as tall as you want, but that doesn't mean the building will look right. Just look at the way the Cities of Death terrain went together. Each part looked great, but most buildings that got made by us hobbyists didn't look like real buildings. Most tall buildings in the real world don't have a noticeable transition at every story, so stackable floors will look wonky.

2) Choose your foot print dimensions (and roof tile sizes) based on the ability to accommodate both 20mm x 20mm and 12mm x 40 mm bases.

I'm not sure if you've had the 'pleasure' of playing a game with one of those FW cathedrals, but I can tell you they aren't the most play-friendly pieces of terrain because it doesn't really accommodate the playing pieces (infantry stands). Compare that to the old cardboard and plastic buildings from Epic:SM that fit the stands exactly.

I believe that 1.125" squares are ideal as base units for building footprints. For floor heights, use 0.5 to 0.72 inches, and may e a full 1" for the bottom story.

If I remember, I will email you some dimensional data this weekend.

I'm really interested in this. I've been looking to get some variety into my buildings and have had my eyes on the Brigade Model buildings for some time (will probably pick them up soon).

For what it's worth, my main concern with buildings is playability. It has to be able to accomodate my infantry (which are on old style square based stands). Buildings make excellent places for Devastators to hang out, so there's nothing more frustrating for me than buildings where the stands keep sliding off!

Obviously it has to look good as well, but functionality is my main concern. The old SM buildings (cardboard with plastic rooftops) have served me incredibly well.

Would like to see a few of your ideas for specialist larger builds as well, I missed out on the FW buildings completely and look on enviously when I do see them.

I wouldn't be too put off by the Hawk Games site. Have you seen the cost of those buildings? Get to France!

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What about just producing a single A5 (or similar) sized sheet with detail on 1 side divided into a not too obvious grid, it could be designed to look cohesive but by scoring a grid line and snapping you could separate into individual wall pieces, plus with a little bit of work on the customers side it'd be easy to create ruins adding symmetry around windows would also make this a lot more effective and allow the kit to stretch further. Then a set of more rigid corner pieces/brackets could be used and cut to length to support the buildings.

you could start with
1 grimdark wallls
1 brackets
1 grimdark roof (grids corresponding to the wall set)

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This i approve of. A suggestion for brackets: <>< squared off. That gives a better connection versus just square corners. However it would require a reverse corner part.

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SG

Ghost's Paint Blog, where everything goes that isn't something else.

While I also approve of some sort of bracketing system, I want to try to keep this project as simple (i.e. inexpensive for you guys) as possible. Therefore, I think one-sided wall molds are the way to go for the time being. Maybe more complex designs can come in the future.

As for roofing, I also approve of a Plasticard option (again keeps costs down) but some people don't have access to Plasticard or just don't want to have to worry about any DIY. They want a kit with all parts that they can just glue together and use it. And I don't blame them - there is something to be said for "easy." Obviously, if the kit comes with a roof, there is nothing stopping anyone from doing their own!

I've been playing with scaling right now, so I don't have any images yet, but I should have some basic designs coming soon. Currently, the plan is for a one-sided wall with a very thin "window pane." The idea is that if you assemble your buildings as a full structure, you can paint windows and you don't have a pass-through effect. Should you decide to "ruin" the building walls though, you will be able to easily use an Exacto blade to trim out the membrane and have windows with no "glass."

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Adeptus Monk-anicus
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