Mordheim

In 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.”

You 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).

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

Today 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.

Here’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

(continued…)

This 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.

Now 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.

I 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! All 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

My 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.

After 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.

I 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.

In 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

I have finally completed my first Mordheim building. I started this building at about the same time I started this blog, so it’s been two weeks in the making. In my defense, this Mordheim building isn’t the only Mordheim project I’ve been working on.

I decided to go with a yellow paint with wooden accents. Here is the completed Mordheim building:

Here are the two outside walls. Click on the image to view larger image.

I’ll be putting up another image of the “gravel pile” on the second floor. I need to get a good picture with normal daylight.

I think for my first building, it came out very well. The only problem with this Mordheim building is that its scale is too large. Where Mordheim Models are 28mm, this building is closer to 38mm. When compared to the 3-story tavern/building that comes in the Mordheim box, they are almost the same height. The second story floor of this yellow Mordheim building comes up to the windows on the second floor of the original Mordheim building. The window and door on my building are also too large.

Notes to keep in mind,
Ashton Sanders

I’ve finally taken out my paints and started painting my first Mordheim Building. This picture is after my first coat of yellow (for the walls) and brown (for the wood) after the base coat.

As you can see, I went with painting the walls of this building yellow. I didn’t really have any thought or reason behind it, that’s just the color I pulled out. I should have darkened the yellow a little more before I put it on, so that the base coat for my Mordheim Building would be darker and I could add highlights on top of it. I’ll probably end up doing this anyway. It was nice how you could see the black base coat through the light layers of the yellow. I could have used that to my advantage by putting less yellow paint on the sections of the wall that I wanted to be darker. Live and Learn. =]

I haven’t really decided what I’m doing with that “rock” that is being used as a support on the left side of the door. It was a improvisation to fix a wall I melted. We’ll see how it come out tomorrow after the final coat.

Here is a picture after my second coat of paint. I also realized that the broken-off parts of the wall should be gray as the building was painted before the wall was knocked down… not after. You can also see a little bit of dry-brushing that I did on the wood to make it look more like wood. I started with a dark brown base-coat for the wood, and then got a light red-brown for the highlighting.

Until then,
Ashton Sanders

Probably one of the coolest ideas I had when I first started playing this game was to create a Mordheim Box for my Skaven warband. I found an old cardboard box I had, and a block of foam. I cut the foam to perfectly fit inside the box, and then cut it in half like a hamburger. I then cut out custom holes in the foam for my Skaven warband. That way, all of my Mordheim guys had a specific hole that would keep them protected.

After years of use, the box is pretty ugly, and many of the Skaven models have changed. I have a new piece of foam and a new Mordheim carrying case that I’ll be using to create Mordheim Box v2.0. =] I’ll post it when I’m done.

-Ashton Sanders

Here is another Popsicle stick project I thought up. I don’t really know where I’m going to do with it, but I wanted to make a Mordheim horse cart. I had a picture of a horse cart in my mind that I wanted to recreate at 28mm scale, and I think I did a pretty good job.

This entire cart is made from Popsicle sticks, except for the axle which is made from a thick, tough weed stem from my yard. I haven’t attached the wheels yet, but I want to find a way to make them able to roll. So, if I wanted to, I could actually roll the cart around. Why not?

(Note: Please ignore the paint job on that Mordheim Skaven, it’s from a much younger, rash me.)

More to Come,
-Ashton Sanders

(That is the question…)

I’ve been toying with the idea of adding bases to my buildings. I am almost ready to add a coat of paint to my first Mordheim Building, and I need to decide whether or not I want to add a base to it. Here’s a picture of a Mordheim building with a base, and you can click on the link to my first Mordheim Building above to see a building without a base.

The Pros of adding a base to your Mordheim building:

• When a building has a base, it is much easier to add debris and trash to the floor around the building.
• It also adds a lot of stability to your building. It is much easier to keep your building from falling over from the weight of your Mordheim Models.
• You can use them to add hills and elevation to your Mordheim Board. I can guarantee the City of the Damned is not totally flat.

The Cons of adding a base to your building:

• You get that annoying lip around the edge of the base that can distract from.
• The base can easily end up as a different color than the board you are playing on. (Use a friends board, make a new one, etc.) I’m trying to build these buildings for aesthetics, this will cause them to look very ugly. Here’s an example of Mordheim bases looking ugly.
• Buildings with bases cannot be placed very close together, so if you are playing the “Street Fight” scenario, you will have trouble making a wall of buildings.

Can you think of any other Pros or Cons? I’ll try to update this list.

I think I will end up adding small bases to some of my buildings, but I’ll have to work on camouflaging the bases really well, and I’ll probably need to put together a board first. Does anyone know where I can find a tutorial about how to create a Games Workshop or Mordheim Board (with the sand on it)?

-Ashton Sanders

UPDATE: For a more detailed post on this subject check out my newer post: Adding Bases to Terrain.

I’ve expanded my collection of Mordheim Ladders. I only have one GW ladder. (I think that’s all that comes in the box.) And ladders are extremely useful in Mordheim (not so much for Skaven, but for the other, not so agile warbands =). I’ve decided to make a couple ladders in the different construction styles of the Warbands of Mordheim.

You may remember in my first Mordheim Ladder post, I mentioned that it was a ladder that was definitely made by humans. After I said that, I went on a quest to create a ladder made by my Skaven Warband. I actually made two. Both of these were created from Popsicle sticks, and I think they came out pretty well. I still have to base coat that last ladder. Here are my four Mordheim Ladders:

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