29 November 2011

15mm Urban Ruins - Proxie Models Test Building

After the last post, I decided to put together the one Proxie Models building I have right now, and worry about the rest of my Urban Table project later.  This is pretty much the same technique I used long ago with my GW Cities Of Death buildings.

Raw materials: one Proxie Models ruined building set, a 6" x 6" square of 1/8" MDF hardboard, and a length of styrene corner stock I found in a drawer.  The Proxie walls don't really have finished edges, so I thought the styrene would be a good option for building corners.  It also gives me a way to quickly change building styles with the Proxie sprues... I'll just use square corners on some, rounded corners on others.


I used an X-Acto hobby-sized miter box and saw to cut the corners and went to work.  Assembly was pretty simple - Tacky Glue held everything together and set quickly.  Gorilla Glue would have been another option.


Then I decided the building needed a floor of some kind.  I cut 1" x 1" squares from an old blister card.  I try to save small bits of packaging that are on really nice glossy stock - they come in handy.  I meant to go back and score these so there would be fore tiles per piece, but I got lazy.  I did cut a few tiles up by the most damaged portion of the building, just to give a broken effect:


And for the rubble - plain old sand that I liberated from a local park.  I piled it up along the foundation, with a few thicker piles over the damaged sections.  It's not a super realistic effect, especially if you go back and look at pictures of WWII Stalingrad and the like.  But realistic rubble would pretty much fill the building - not useful for maneuvering figures!  I think this is a good compromise between realistic rubble and plain ruins sticking out of the ground.


I think this is good enough for my test piece.  I might mix in some larger bits of rubble next time, but this will be a decent start for my war-torn cityscape.  I'll get it painted as soon as there's another day warm enough to spray primer onto it.

Cheers,
Chris

7 comments:

  1. Thanks, looks good and useable.

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  2. I made a proxie models order recently thanks to this blog, looking forward to trying this myself.

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  3. Very nice. I like those corner pieces.

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  4. I like the layout - I've not based my corners and walls to date but will have a good think over this.

    Have you seen the small bricks you can get for models? These would make good rubble rather than the rough round sand... Example is http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SMALL-GREY-BRICKS-28mm-Scale-SCENERY-TERRAIN-Pegasus-Hobbies-5198-/250925324009?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6c5096e9#ht_1240wt_698

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  5. I've thought about those brick piles. One good thing about 28mm bricks - they're perfect 15mm cinderblocks. But they're a bit more than I want to spend on this project for now.

    It's not hard to make more convincing rubble piles from chunks of old sprues and things like that. More expensive pieces could be added in later as scatter terrain.

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