Adobe style buildings for Pirate games (updated 9-11)

[Sinewgrab]

Well, here we go. I opened my mouth in the swashbuckling forum, so here I am giving it the ol' college try. I started very basic, and with just some made up measurements to start with. These are about 3" and 6" tall.



The next step is going to be sealing the edges after smoothing them out with a mix of paint and glue to even the surface a bit, and then I am going to try spraying them with fleckstone to give them a rough surface. I like good terrain, but when all comes down to it, I am a lazy terrain builder, and I want it to look good, but not spend all day on it. Thus, spray texture instead of the more time-consuming methods shown by Wolfgirl and others. After texturing, then I'll cut out the doorways and windows. Now that I have received the Gary Chalk plans from some generous fellows, I am going to give those a perusal, and try and build some things based on them as well.

[Wirelizard]

I'd have cut windows and doors before assembly, but after should work.

One big piece of advice - replace your cutting blade! Foamcore is incredibly hard on blades, and you'll do much less salvage work with texturing with a new, sharp blade.

Yours look a good size, big enough to look/feel like a building without dominating the table. Smaller is better for buildings - they might be unrealistically small, but three or five small buildings will feel more like an actual built up area than one or two "realistic" bigger buildings.

[warrenpeace]

What is the best way to smooth out those edges?  Wood filler?  Spackle? A glued on piece of paper?

Guess that could be a two story building at that height.  I suppose an alternative to cutting out open windows and doors could be to glue on wooden doors and shutters, or painting them on.

[Sinewgrab]

I'd have cut windows and doors before assembly, but after should work.

One big piece of advice - replace your cutting blade! Foamcore is incredibly hard on blades, and you'll do much less salvage work with texturing with a new, sharp blade.

Yours look a good size, big enough to look/feel like a building without dominating the table. Smaller is better for buildings - they might be unrealistically small, but three or five small buildings will feel more like an actual built up area than one or two "realistic" bigger buildings.

Honestly, I cut these on my table saw. Quick, easy, but messy. I found that a sanding wheel on my dremel tool actually cleans the edges right up. I then fill them with a mix of white glue and paint.

I built two of the little ones, and one of the big ones to make a two-story. I textured them this afternoon, and I'll throw some pice up after I cut windows and doors.

[Sinewgrab]

And we have the finished bits.  First, a couple of WIP shots. I am using foamcore and hotglue, with some added balsa wood bits.






And here is the board I am using. I decided to color it to match the Fallout terrain I did before, and continue with the CD basing I have been using. That way, if I build more houses, I will be able to use the Fallout boards for terrain, and get more use out of them. The roads won't be very piratical, but I can live with that if I am having fun.




And, finished. This is what I plan on putting at one end of a 6' by 9' (or 12', depending on how many people show up to play) table for people to be trying to fight their way to to get the fabled treasure of the Pirate King, who will be coming back from the dead to defend it.



The rocks are actual rocks I picked up alongside a nearby river, that I felt were neat looking, and will be used for Fallout as well as for this game.



And the houses. They were experiments in every sense of the word - one got a teddy bear fur thatched roof, another I scored the foamcore with a ballpoint pen, and somewhere along the way, I realized that I don't really like making these style buildings - which makes it very hard to work on them. So, I probably won't make any more of these, unless I have to. I'll leave it up to Matakishi, WolfGirl, and the rest. The houses are separate from the cd bases, so that I can use them both on my board and on someone else's.

[Christian]

That's really nice!