Warhammer 40K Terrain How To - Part Three - Buildings and Ruins

Alrighty then! Here we are in part three of our how to build Warhammer 40k Terrain for our battlefield. Let's make some ruined buildings for our terrain collection.

When we're done it should look like this with part one and two added.

We started with a basic pattern for the corner of our building. Using peaks on the windows fits in with the Warhammer 40k world better than squares. The same goes for peaks on the top. You can break off the wall at any height or width you prefer. Ours is 3 stories tall at the highest and five windows wide

These will be ruins so don't worry to much if your cuts aren't precise. We are using foam-core this time for ease of cutting. This is our rear corner, only one story left back there.

For the cuts on the edges, these are walls that have been "blown up" so don't worry if you need to tear things off. The rougher the cuts look the better the paint job will look.

For corners, trim off the thickness of the foam-core from the facing and the foam. Be careful not to cut through the backing. Apply a bead of hot glue down the corner and press the two parts together. You can use pva or craft glue but you'll need to leave the pieces to dry before proceeding. The hot glue dries solid, quick and a good way to keep your project rolling.

Next get hold of some press board, we used a cereal box. Cut strips the height of your structure and about 1/4 inch wide.

Glue those strips vertically between the windows. We cut door frames too and placed them in the gaps where we left windows out. We cut a 12 inch square piece of MDF board for our base.

We took leftover pieces of foam-core and insulation foam broke them up and used them for rubble. We added some of the sprue sticks we made in the last "How-To". Use hot glue for the large chunks.

We added piles of coarse ballast and "bits" we also made in the last tutorial. For these we used regular pva or craft glue. Spread as much or little as needed to secure the piles.

Here's what we have so far. Good pile of rubble where the floors would have collapsed into.

From the air it looks like so.

Now onto the painting. We had some latex paint with sand and ballast already mixed in but wanted to add more for the rubble.

Using a large brush, start applying it liberally in all areas.

Coat the fronts of your buildings too. Use vertical strokes so when you do the final painting steps it'll look great.

Once everything is coated and dried, we applied a coat of black primer to finally seal everything in.

Next, using a 1/2 inch brush apply a heavy dry-brush of dark gray

Apply to all sides...

Then continue with a heavy dry-brush of medium gray..

Then add slate gray....

When doing the buildings, use vertical strokes from the top down and especially under the windows.

This is where the weathering affects add to your terrain piece

We added a coat a light gray dry brush over most of the structure and then a light dry-brush of warm white over the very tops of debris and where weathering would be the heaviest like near the top of the building.

Here's the final dry-brush coat applied.

The rubble details come out with the final bright touches of warm white.

We feel it's lookin good from the back.

For the final touches we added splashes of Burnt Umber wash where any mud might be along the base.

So here it is. A beautiful piece of terrain to go along with your statue, courtyard and barricades.

Now you can use it as an ideal spot for your Tau Pathfinders..

Somewhere where a lone Blood Angels Sergeant  can hold out against a horde of greenskins

With the new allied rules you can have a last remnant of a Space Marine squad and Dreadnought  join up with a few Tau Pathfinders and Stealth team.

So now go have a great battle!
The Old Crow