Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

Prepare for Urban Warfare
Building the New City Ruins Kit

with Joe Saunders

With Flames Of War focusing on operation Bagration in the coming months, interest in city fighting scenarios is on the rise.  Fortunately, to help us facilitate this, Battlefront has released the amazing new City Ruins kit. This sizable kit has enough terrain in it to make a whole city block, enough to get your city fighting games up and running. (If you are new to city fighting there is a special set of rules that adds all kinds of new weapon effects and strategies to Flames Of WarYou can read about it here.)

To shed light on this exciting new terrain set, I will take you through the method I used to build the new kit and prepare it for the game table. You can use this article as a guide to help you build the set in a similar fashion, or it can serve as inspiration for your own terrain builds.  

Techniques and Materials
For this project I used a wide variety of materials and model building techniques. I also used a large variety of paints and an airbrush. I have includd a list of the materials below. If you wish to build something similar but don’t have the same materials, just substitute it for what you have on hand. (Please keep in mind that this terrain build uses a lot of chemicals that produce fumes so remember to work in a well-ventilated space. Also remember to be careful working with the craft knife and hot glue gun.)

Materials
Airbrush & Compressor Water Grey Acrylic paint 
Airbrush Thinner Tweezers Black Acrylic ink 
Paint Brushes (all sizes) Hot Glue Gun Brown Acrylic ink
Craft Knife Metal Ruler Various Brick Colour Acrylic Paints 
Sand & Kitty Litter Black Spray primer Light Brown Acrylic Paint
Pipettes Mig Dark Wash Enamel Foam Core Board
Airbrush Cleaner

Acrylic Satin Varnish

Model Lichens

Mig Enamel Thinner White Glue

Twine

Plastic Mixing Cups Black Acrylic Paint

Bamboo Skewers

Paint Palette White Acrylic paint 

Match Sticks

Static Grass Green Acrylic Ink

Push Pins

Rubbing Alcohol Wire Mesh Spare Model (For Statue)
Blue Tac Plastic Glue Pen
Insulation Foam File Masking Tape
Wood Dowel Wire Cutters Gun Metal Acrylic Paint 

#1 Planning:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

Before building the models, I took some time to plan out the terrain. Using Blue Tac, I put the buildings temporarily together to see what layout I wanted. I decided on 2 designs, a small building and a larger one. I also decided to model a crater on the smaller base and a garden at the back of the larger one.  I figured these additions would allow me to add some extra textures and the garden would add some colour. With this in mind, I drew up a quick plan for the models deciding one base should be 19 cm by 22 cm and the other should be 19 cm by 35 cm.  I then took the buildings apart and piled the parts for each building separately.


#2 Bases:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

I transferred the plans using my pen and ruler onto a piece of foam core.  The buildings were approximately 11cm wide so I drew the plans to leave a 4cm space on either side and a 2 cm border at the front. With my knife and metal ruler I cut the base out.


#3 Base Texture:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

Taking the ruler and pen I ruled out a 1cm x1cm grid on the base in the areas that would not be covered by the building or garden. I then took my pen and scored the lines into the surface of the board.  (This process serves 2 purposes.  First the squares can be used as a guide to make sure everything is placed evenly and straight.   Second, the 1 by 1 squares match the cobble stone finish on the base to my existing city game board.)  After doing this, I used the pen to score cracks and holes and other battle damage into the bases. For the smaller building I wanted to build a crater so using my knife, I cut a jagged circle into the surface of the base and gouged out some of the foam layer to make a shallow “pit”.


#4 Base Texture:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

Using hot glue, I stuck the building panels to their respective bases.  I used plastic glue to adhere the plastic building sections to one another.


#5 Raised Surfaces and Garden Posts:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

With the flat details on the base done, I began work on the raised details. This was divided into 3 smaller steps:

  • A. I cut 10 1 cm wide by 2 cm long strips from foam core and peeled the paper backing off the surfaces (you may need to soak it in water to do this). Next using hot glue, I adhered 2 strips back to back to make 5 posts. Using my pen, I scored a brick pattern into the foam and stuck a push pin in the top to be a decorative top on each post. Using my knife, I carved some battle damage onto each post and then glued them to the planned spot on the large base. 
  •  B. I took irregular pieces of foam core and glued them in a rough circle around the lip of the crater on the small base.
  • C. Using foam core, I cut out 4 garden beds and peeled the paper off the backing. Using my file, I then filed a gradient into the beds making them tall at the back and flush with the ground at the front. I then hot glued them in place.

#6 Fences and Statue:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

Next, I measured the distance between each garden post and cut a length out of the wire mesh to fill each space.  I then hot glued these in place.  I followed up by cutting a 2.5 cm tall piece of dowel and hot glued it into the middle of the garden area.  Lastly, I the glued the extra model (I had a Zulu warrior from and old left over kit) to the top of the dowel to form a statue.


#7 Rubble:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

Taking a craft knife I cut irregular shapes from foam core and insulation foam and hot glued them in random spots on both building bases to form larger pieces of rubble and brick debris.  I also used masking tape to round off the edges of the raised crater edges. Finally, I broke up match sticks into irregular pieces and glued them around the bases to add the impression of wood beams in the rubble.


#8 Grit:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

Mixing white glue with water in a separate mixing cup, I spread this as a paste inside the buildings and around the walls. I also placed some in random patches on the stone tiles and then around the rim of the bases. Following this I sprinkled the sand/kitty litter mixture on top of this. I also painted the glue over the foam rubble to protect it during spray painting. While the glue was tacky but not dry, I poured a small amount of rubbing alcohol in a mixing cup then using a pipette dropped it over the sand/kitty litter mixture (soaking it on top of the white glue). Lastly, I mixed more watered-down white glue and applied this in a layer over the rubbing alcohol with a pipette. Then I left this to dry overnight.


#9 Spray Priming:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

After the grit was dry, I spray painted both buildings and bases with the black spray primer.  I kept the spray can nozzle far back from the model, as spray paint propellant can melt foam.  Then I waited about an hour for the paint to dry.


#10 Painting the Brick and Roof Tiles:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

I now started work on the brick and roof tiles for both buildings. I started by air brushing a dark brown/red tone over the entire brick surface. I then sprayed 2 increasingly lighter tones with a few drops of yellow added over the brick increasing the concentration around the widows to get a gradient from the more shadowy areas to the areas where the light would be more reflective.  After this dried, I took an old flat brush and mixed a light brown with yellow and dry brushed this over the whole brick surface to make a highlight. I dry brushed more heavily around the windows to give them a further highlight. (I used similar paints on both buildings but varied the concentration of paint to make them subtly different.) Lastly, I mixed satin varnish with equal parts water added a few drops of air brush flow improver and a 4 drops of airbrush cleaner (as a thinner) and sprayed 2 coats over the roof tile and brick work. Then I allowed time for this to dry (to protect the paint from the enamel wash in Step #11).


#11 Enamel Pin Wash and Top Highlight for the Bricks:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

With the brick painted, it was time to add contrast.  Taking my Dark Wash enamel I mixed it about 4:1 with odourless thinner in a mixing cup.  Then using a large brush, I painted the enamel over the bricks.  Because it had thinner in it, capillary action drew the enamel into the texture on the brick and into the gaps.   I waited about 45 minutes then moistened paper towel with thinner and wiped over the surface of the brick to remove any enamel stains from raised surfaces.  I let this dry for about an hour.  After the enamel I was dry, I mixed up the light brown/yellow highlight from Step #10 and reapplied it by dry brushing the brick (to fix the areas where the highlight was toned down by the wash).


#12 Stone Work:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

I divided the Stone Work into 3 steps.

  • A. Using a medium size brush, I painted the stone work dark grey, then carefully masked off the brick with strips of masking tape.
  • B. With the masking tape in place, I dry brushed the stone work light grey followed by pure white.
  • C. I now removed the masking tape and taking a fine brush, outlined the edges of the stone work with black acrylic ink.

#13 Painting the Interior:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

I decided to keep the interior simple and painted it by dry brushing it with dark browns and greys then finished with a drybrush of light grey.


#14 Painting the Base:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

I now began the work on painting the base. First, I dry brushed the rubble on the interior with shades of dark brown and worked up to pure white.  I then followed up by dry brushing the stone tile around the outside of the base with the same shades of grey as the stone work. I also picked out individual pieces of rubble with the brick tones to add variety.


#15 Lining In:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

Using a mix of both brown and black acrylic inks and a fine brush, I painted in the gaps around the stone work on the base and added small cracks and gaps on the façade of the buildings.


#16 The Garden Details:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

It was now time to finish the work on the garden. I broke this into steps:

  • A. I dry brushed the stones around the garden path and statue in shades of grey finishing with white, then washed it with brown acrylic ink (that I had mixed with water in a ratio of about 3 to 1). When this was dry I made a final top highlight by dry brushing the statue and path with white.
  • B. I made 2 trees by taking bamboo skewers and cut them longitudinally from the end into strips and stopping about halfway down the skewer to form a trunk. (Be careful and watch your fingers.)
  • C. I took the trees and reinforced the spots where the branches spread with dabs of hot glue. Then I painted the trees with watered down white glue using an old brush and left them to dry for about an hour.
  • D. I dry brushed the tree trunks with shades of brown and grey and hot glued a piece of model lichens to the branches.
  • E. Cutting the twine into short lengths, I applied hot glue to the bottom of each length. I then painted the twine with green acrylic ink and after it dried, carefully spread the fibers apart to form long grass.

#17 Garden Vegetation:

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit

Mixing 50/50 water to white glue I painted the garden beds.  I then sprinkled several colours of static grass in clumps over the glue. I poked holes in the foam core under the garden beds and used these as locations to insert the trees and grasses I made in step 16.  I fastened them in place with hot glue.  I then took my tweezers and removed any stray strands of hot glue.  Lastly, I dry brushed the wire mesh fence with gun metal acrylic paint.


#18 Matt Varnish:

I prepared my matt varnish as I prepared the Satin Varnish in Step #10, and applied 3 or 4 coats over both buildings and bases then left it to dry. The Terrain was now complete.

With the buildings complete they are ready for the game table. I hope that the process I detailed here helps give you some ideas to get your own city ruins ready. Now to find an opponent and play some city fight scenarios!
~Joe

Prepare for Urban Warfare - Building the New City Ruins Kit