Archive for the 'Mordheim Buildings' Category

Dec 19

New Roofing Tiles

Collapsed Tower,Mordheim Buildings
Author: Ashton Sanders

My latest work has been on my Competition Entry for TerraGenesis.com.

I have a couple of minor details to work out before completing the construction phase of my project and moving on to the painting phase. One of the biggest problems I’ve faced is getting the roofing tiles to work. In almost all pictures of Mordheim roofs that I have seen, the roofing tiles are about 1/2″ wide. Which translates into almost 2 1/2 feet wide in Mordheim size. There is no way that most buildings (even in fantasy) would have roof tiles 2.5 feet wide! So began my quest for smaller roofing tiles.

I got a deck of mini playing cards for Christmas and cut those up into rows of roof tiles. This is where I ran into my problem: The playing cards were so laminated, paint wouldn’t stick to them. I tried everything I could think of, and asked for help at the TerraGenesis forum. Unfortunately nothing could solve my problem until I realized I could find a similar material that wasn’t laminated: Card Stock. I even had a couple sheets in my laptop bag!

I cut up one row of roofing and glued it down tonight. I’ll be adding and update about it tomorrow.

Mordheim Roof

Enjoy,
Ashton Sanders

Dec 15

Mordheim Carpenter

Collapsed Tower,Mordheim Buildings
Author: Ashton Sanders

I’ve been working hard on my Collapsed Tower for Mordheim, and today we had a visit from the Mordheim Carpenter.

This collapsed tower almost completely destroyed one side of the main floor, but the other side of the main floor is still in perfect condition. Today, I had the Mordheim Carpenter out to add wooden framing to the entire house. I added a wooden door and door frame.

Here’s a picture of the wooden framing on my Collapsed Mordheim Tower with “Ugh” the Orc for size comparison:

Mordheim terrain with wooden framing

More on the way,
Ashton Sanders

Dec 13

Mordheim Terrain without a Base

I’ve touched on my thoughts on Adding a Base to Terrain and my last two buildings have not had bases. As I mentioned probably the biggest Con of not having a base is the difficulty of keeping the entire building supported. This is especially true for my entry into the TerraGenesis Fallen Over Competition.

Here is the latest picture of my Entry:

Fallen Mordheim Building

Cutting out a hole for the support sticksAs you can see, I’m going to have to create a lot of supports between the roof of the tower, the rubble and the main building. All I had connecting the two was a thin sheet of Styrofoam, so this is what I came up with: Adding support beams under the foam.

1) I cut out slits under the connecting piece of foam. I cut out enough space for two sticks to be sticking halfway out, and for two sticks to run parallel for extra support. (I did this we a fully extended (flexible) razor blade. The flexible aspect allows me to rub the blade horizontally across the bottom of the foam creating a perfect hole. See picture.

2) I cut out small slits in the bottom of the roof and the bottom of the main building; just big enough to slip in the Popsicle sticks.

3) I glued in all of these supports with Elmer Glue.

4) I am also planning on adding some supports to the top of it, in the form of fallen debris between the separate sections. They will look like they are just leaning on the main building (or roof), but they will actually act as additional support. You can see a good example of this in the first picture above.

Good thing foam is not too heavy. I think these supports will be enough to hold this terrain together.

Here’s a picture of the glued in support beams:

Supporting Mordheim Terrain

Enjoy,
Ashton Sanders

Dec 9

Terrain Competition

Collapsed Tower,General,Mordheim Buildings
Author: Ashton Sanders

Another site that I’ve been lurking on for a while is TerraGenesis. Great site full of endless resources. I first found this site when I was looking for board creation ideas. I found this page with a great Mordheim Table Idea. I then found that they hosted a new two month, terrain competition every month (so there is always two competitions available).

They came up with a perfect competition for a Mordheim building called the “Fallen Over Competition.” I started a for a Mordheim tower that fell over. I will be posting some of my thoughts and progress on it here as well.

-Ashton Sanders

Dec 8

Mordheim Roofing Contractor

Church,Mordheim Buildings
Author: Ashton Sanders

Mordheim Roofing Supplies
Mordheim Roofing Step 1
Mordheim Roofing Step 2
Mordheim Roofing Step 3
Mordheim Roofing Step 4
Mordheim Roofing Step 5
Mordheim Roofing Step 6
Mordheim Roofing Step 7

Finally the roofing contractor was called out to finish roofing the church. I’ve seen a number of different types of roofing tiles in Mordheim, and I decided to try this style out and see how it goes.

When I was making the building, I added a couple sections of triangle board to the corners of the roof to use as the roof’s “foundation.” This is actually what holds it all together. I added some wooden cross-beams to the inside for some realism. (Made out of Popsicle stick splinters.)

Then it was time to create the roof tiles. I didn’t have any really plan, so I went with my gut: I cut out a rectangle of a Bed, Bath and Beyond box that I had lying around, and cut it into 3/4″x 1.5″ strips. A lot of them came out with slightly different dimensions, but I guess that’s what happens when you hire the least expensive roofing contractor in the business. (I’m doing it practically for free.)

After cutting the tiles to size, I proceeded to glue them down with a good helping of Elmer’s glue. You can see the progression of adding the tiles to the right.

You can click on any of these Mordheim pictures to see a larger image.

I tried to make most of it look as professional as possible; except for some of the edges where the tiles needed to be destroyed or missing. I think I did a pretty good job of breaking, removing and destroying this Mordheim Building’s roofing tiles. One thing I realized after I had completed this roofing project is that some of the tiles should be curled up at the ends. I did that after I took the pictures, so you’ll see that in the next couple posts.

I did the other side of the roof as well, except I only did a before and after picture. You can see those here:

Before:
Mordheim Roofing Before
After:
Mordheim Roofing After

I hope other Mordheim roofing contractors find this useful. If you know of any easier/better way of roofing Mordheim buildings, let me know.-Ashton SandersEDIT 12/9/07: Looking back on these tiles, I should have made them much smaller. At 28mm, these tiles are almost as big as a human… =/ They look fine when you’re not comparing them to anything, but I wanted to add a fallen tile to the debris on the floor and realized it was too freaking big; it looked like a door was sitting on the floor.

More to come.

Dec 6

Adding Dirt/Grime to Mordheim Church

Church,Mordheim Buildings
Author: Ashton Sanders

After my last post about my Mordheim Church, i still had a couple incomplete projects to work on before I can actually start painting it. I have to add some roof tiles, and some dirt and grime. It’s not like someone is sweeping the floor every other day, and since their is no roof, the wind and rain filled the second story with dirt and grime; not to mention a large rock crashed into it.

If someone was to walk through the church, from inside to out, there would be a certain path of least resistance that is probably most taken. I tried to keep that section pretty clear, and worn down, while the rest of the floor is covered with dirt. To add dirt and grime to this Mordheim Church, I tried two different methods:

Applying Dirt Method 1: First, I put some glue direction on the floor, and spread it around the room. I filled in the corners and edges with lots of glue, and spread it around with my fingers. Sand Glue MixtureI dropped some wood chips and small wood shavings over the glue. Then I took some fine beach sand I collected at Camp Cherry Valley, and dropped it on the floor. I shook the building a little bit to get the dirt to stick to all of the glue. I needed to do this a couple times to cover all of the glue with sand. After that, I went on to…

Applying Dirt Method 2: Second, I mixed some sand, glue and water together to make a pretty fluid mix of sticky sand. You don’t want it to be too runny or too thick. Then I took a Popsicle stick to spread it around the floor of the building and into the cracks. I ran my finger over the pathway to keep the dirt in the cracks and off the worn path. When I got to the end of my second batch of sand/glue mixture, I used my fingers to rub the leftovers on the walls to add some character.

Here are some pictures of the completed product:

Mordheim Building with Sand Mordheim Deck with Dirt
Here’s a close up of one of the corners with dirt and wood:
Mordheim close up of Dirt and wood chips

Next step will be adding the roof tiles. I did forget that I wanted to have some roof tiles in the dirt and grime. Hopefully I’ll be able to add it after the fact.

-Ashton Sanders

Dec 3

Building a Mordheim Deck/Porch

Church,Mordheim Buildings
Author: Ashton Sanders

Mordheim DeckIn my latest Mordheim Building post, I discussed creating an entrance at the front of my Church (even though it could easily pass as a tavern, pub or other gathering place). I did quite a number to create this deck. The first thing I did, was figure out how far forward I wanted the deck to be, and then cut up a bunch of Popsicle sticks to fit the proportions. I chose to create the porch 2.7″ deep and almost 7″ wide. To the right you can see my lumber yard, and my sticks in their assorted stages.

First I cut the ~4″ Popsicle sticks down to 2.7″, and then I cut those pieces in half lengthwise to get thinner planks. I also used some of the 1.5″ pieces as planking. I scraped my knife over every edge of each plank to add “character.”

Building Mordheim BuildingsYou can see in this next picture the frame I created for my Mordheim Deck. The four beams that are on the inside of the deck are suck down to allow the planks on top to sit level with the top of the outside planking.

After getting half way through creating this deck, I realized I hadn’t properly destroyed the deck. Even though the front side of the Mordheim Church hadn’t been hit too hard by falling debris from the comet, it’s in the City of the Damned, so I couldn’t leave it totally untouched.

Here’s my new deck; complete with hole, wreaked post and destroyed handrails. I’ll probably be adding some more grunge, dirt and debris after I finish framing the door and windows (on the left side of the building).

Mordheim Deck building Building Deck

I can’t think of anything else to add to this building, so I’ll probably work on a couple other of my unfinished Mordheim projects before starting the painting on this Mordheim building.

-Ashton Sanders

Dec 2

Framing the Mordheim Church

Church,Mordheim Buildings
Author: Ashton Sanders

Framed Mordheim WindowsToday I worked on framing the windows. I even decided to start framing the large circular window.

For these windows, I just cut a Popsicle stick into lengths of 1″ and 1/2″ and then cut those pieces into three (lengthwise). This gave me nice, thin and short pieces of wood to use as framing. The circlular window was framed with 1/2″ lengths with slightly slanted edges (to make the circle).

You can also see in this picture the gray boards I put in place for the roof. They will be used as the foundation to add the roof tiles too.

Mordheim BuildingHere’s another side view of the destroyed floorboards.

As I’m writing this, I’m realizing that this building only has one entrance/exit. It very well may not be used very much because of that. I think the best handling would be to make another entrance/exit on the front. I could destroy a portion of the front side of the building, or I could possibly make a second story deck on the front. That would create a door that units could come through. It would also add the character I was looking for to the front of the building. Yea, I like that idea a lot. Let’s see how it goes.

-Ashton Sanders

Dec 1

Building Mordheim Church

Church,Mordheim Buildings
Author: Ashton Sanders

(continued…)

Mordheim Church Floor ConstructionThis is my second building that I am creating for my Mordheim Board and this is my second post. I’m calling it my Mordheim Church. It isn’t going to have a (playable) ground floor. Instead, the second floor has collapsed down upon it in most places. Here are a series of images as I go through the process of creating a destroyed wood-panel floor. You can click on an image to enlarge.

The idea is that a piece of the meteor crashed through this building, and destroyed the back wall. This also caused the second story floor to collapse down onto the first floor to create a sort of ramp. This will create an easy way to get up into this building from one side only.

Mordheim Church Floor ConstructionNow to begin construction!

The first part of creating the floor was easy. I first cut the rounded ends off of 50 Popsicle sticks to use as Mordheim-sized floor boards. Then I cut seven of them into 1/3 and 2/3 sections. I glued the floor boards into place in a staggering manner:

Full length, 1/3, 2/3 and then back to a full length board again. This is a pretty normal construction method for normal houses. It makes the floors look nice and space the “seams” out so they aren’t so noticeable.

Mordheim Church Floor ConstructionI will also mention that before I put any board down, I ran my sharp knife over the edges of it to give it a beat-up look. That’s a trick I learned from a Terra Genesis article on preparing wooden beams for Mordheim. They used balsa wood, as it’s a lighter wood and easier to cut/work with. I use Popsicle sticks cause it’s 1/20th the price. =]

I added some crossbeams from a stick to a firework that a friend had left at my house (after launching the firework of course=]). I added three crossbeams. One is still intact at both ends, one is broken only on the left side, and the last has completely collapsed.

No Base! I had discussed whether to use a base or not for my Mordheim buildings. Probably the biggest reason to use a base is to make it easier to build the building (and add rubble to it) without it falling apart. I took this as a challenge to build this building without a base! Mordheim Construction of a Church FloorAll of the destroyed Mordheim floor boards are glued together to create a firm, invisible base that holds it all together. So even though it looks like all those boards are about to fall to pieces, they are actually quite sturdy.

Now that I have finished this part, I have a little more wood framing to do for the windows and roof, and then I’ll be doing some final touches to make it look realistic.

More on it’s way!
Ashton Sanders

Nov 30

Second Mordheim Building Begins

Church,Mordheim Buildings
Author: Ashton Sanders

Mordheim FoundationMy wife bought be an electric heater as an early Christmas present, and the greatest thing about it is some sweet Styrofoam that came with it! I sliced off a section of it with my foam cutter, and you can see what I started with on the right.

I instantly decided that this was going to be a three-sided, two-story building. I also am going to use that thick block of Styrofoam to my advantage. I’m going to make the second story caved in on the first story to such a degree that you can’t actually access the first story. I can build a closed door on the front, some closed-shutter windows along the side.

Mordheim ChurchAfter I had my foundation, I had to create my second story. I learned from my mistakes of creating my buildings too large for the Mordheim scale, so I brought it down on this one. The only real draw back with using this Styrofoam, is the walls are almost 4 feet wide (per Mordheim standards).

To create the top floor of this building, which I have decided is going to be a church, I took two “L”-shaped pieces of Styrofoam and cut them to fit perfectly on top of the Foundation. I used my foam cutter to cut the roof line onto this Mordheim Building. I also cut that large circle into the front wall to be the remnants of a stained-glass window.

I then measured some spots for small windows. Since these windows were so small and narrow, I couldn’t use my foam cutter or the same knife that I destroyed the first time I cut Styrofoam. So instead, I used a retractable razor blade. I heated the blade in a fire, and then stuck it into the foam to “melt” my windows into place.

Mordheim ChurchI then started working on covering up the cracks that were created by having the two different sections of Styrofoam connecting. I used wood framing to do this. I also decided to add wooden baseboards around the entire ground level as well. Of course my favorite material for wood framing in Mordheim is Popsicle sticks.

I created the door frame for the front of the church. I will probably end up painting the door onto a piece of card stock, and then gluing it into place. This will set the door back behind the door frames.

I don’t look forward to framing all of the windows, but I will probably figure out some measurements that work, and just cutting all the pieces to size.

Mordheim two-story buildingIn this picture, I cut some pieces of thick card (from a Bed, Bath and Beyond Gift Box), and set it where it will probably go. These pieces of card will be glued into place and will be what holds up the roof leftovers. I will do my best to completely cover it with roof tiles, which probably will also be cut from the same card.

I did this whole project in about an hour, and I’m very excited to continue working on it.

-Ashton Sanders

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