"Cereal Box Building Question" Topic

Having recently bought into Terminator and Team Yankee, I'd like to make so building using cereal boxes and other various packaging poxes that just end up in landfill or the recycling bin.

My idea is that I'd like to simply wrap these boxes with a brick, clapboard, stucco, etc., printed paper and then glue on simple card cut-outs for doors, windows, etc.

Looking on RPG-Now, though, I don't see any publishers of PDFs for simple sheets of these textures. I don't want to spend time assembling paper models--as nice as some of these are.

Does anyone know of a source for such PDFs?

Check out Stoelzel's Structures M.U.C.K. line, its basically a modular building set with multiple textures. Just print the walls, doors, etc that match what you want and go for it. His products are on Wargame Vault link

Google _____ texture and see the image section. So for brick walls "brick wall texture" will get you new brick, old brick, yellow brick, etc. Repeat for stucco, clapboard, etc.

My idea is that I'd like to simply wrap these boxes with a brick, clapboard, stucco, etc., printed paper and then glue on simple card cut-outs for doors, windows, etc.

In my experience:

1. Cereal box card is too flimsy for model building structures.

2. The glossy art work on the box does not like glue, so sticking them together or sticking anything onto it can be a pain.

In short, I don't recommend it. I would however recommend artist's mount board instead.

If you 'open' the cereal boxes out and use the reverse plain inner sides they become a handy source of card………

If you 'open' the cereal boxes out and use the reverse plain inner sides they become a handy source of card………

Yes, but it's too flimsy for anything structural and you can't stick anything to the glossy side.

I've had plenty of success gluing paper to the glossy side of cereal boxes. I do it all the time to make counters for playing Traveller starship combat (using Zhodani Base's awesome counter-making website). Maybe the smaller size of the counters makes it more successful, but it seems to work.

I've had plenty of success gluing paper to the glossy side of cereal boxes.

What glue did you use?

US and UK cereal boxes may use different material. Everything you've said is entirely true of the card used for a 100 count box of teabags, but the stuff we use to keep Froot Loops from escaping is 2-3 times thicker than the card from a 150 g Walker's shortbread packet. PVA sticks to it in the usual way.

Whether you use cereal board or artist board the building that you create needs interior reinforcement. You will need 1/4" or 3/8" square stock of wood or styrene, depending on the size of the walls.
The interior reinforcement will keep the walls from warping and sagging.

Actually, if you want to give making your own textures a try, what you should be googling is "seamless * texture" with * = to whatever material you're after.

Seamless textures will give you tiles that you can repeat and assemble in Photoshop, GIMP, or (presumably) MS Paint. The seamless part is important, because otherwise the tiles aren't easily repeatable. Having repeatable tiles means you can build the overall texture to whatever size you want, and won't have to distort the image to fit.

Another good tip for brick: Look up "Acme Brick Masonry Designer." This program is a quick download, and will let you build custom seamless brick textures using any color of brick or mortar in their catalog. You can even customize the way the brick is laid (common, flemish, english, etc.).

Whether you use cereal board or artist board the building that you create needs interior reinforcement. You will need 1/4" or 3/8" square stock of wood or styrene, depending on the size of the walls.
The interior reinforcement will keep the walls from warping and sagging

Sorry, I have to disagree. I have built loads of buildings using artist's mount board and I have NEVER used any form of internal reinforcement. The models are so strong, I can literally chuck them in a bag and they will not get damaged or deformed.

I have equally never had any problems with warping ot sagging.

I've had plenty of success gluing paper to the glossy side of cereal boxes.

What glue did you use?

Regular Elmer's white glue

I have two suggestions. From experience UK cereal boxes are sufficient to support 28mm figures. Indeed we ourselves (MG) started out that way. The MG fold flat building are made of slightly thinner card and will still hold 28mm figures. If treated with the same consideration as your figures they will not have a problem.

I would suggest that you cut out the windows and glue in some floors as this eliminates the need for record keeping as you can put the figure within the building and it does make them stiffer particularly if you want more than 1 floor.

The link shows roughly what you would achieve posibble even better art work than those shown (it was the quickest way of showing a photo). Note on these buildings the roof is "hinged" to allow access to the first floor. You lift the building to access the bottom floor.

Have fun and show us the result.

link

I would suggest befriending your local picture framer and raid his collection of card off its and art board bits, they would be only too happy I am sure

I've had plenty of success gluing paper to the glossy side of cereal boxes.

What glue did you use?

Regular Elmer's white glue

Did you not find that the paper soaked up the water in the glue and went all crinkly?

I would suggest befriending your local picture framer and raid his collection of card off its and art board bits, they would be only too happy I am sure

This. They will be more than happy to give you their off-cuts.

Did you not find that the paper soaked up the water in the glue and went all crinkly?

You're using too much glue. All you need is a thin smear. So thin it dries almost instantly.

The spray/aerosol mounting glue is good but pricey in comparison to white glue……good if you're in a rush…….

Another option is foamboard. It's a thin layer of extruded polystyrene foam sandwiched between thick paper. It's pretty rigid, easily cut and easily butt joined to itself. You glue with wood glue. Elmers in usa.
You can texture for concrete or rendered effect using paint sprinkled with fine sand or masonry paint.
Some pizzas come on extruded polystyrene bases and you can use that as is if you have internal bracing or just a base per floor. You can make multi story buildings of layers of such trays with 4walls glued to a base. Plus a removable roof.
For my semi detached houses I scored the brick pattern on. Painted grey, overbrushed red brown for a bricks n mortar pattern. Oversized still looks ok.

Scalescenes do some amazing buildings, as well as generic brick sheets. They are commercial but not expensive, you print off the PDF, glue to card, cut out and make up

They make some amazing detailed buildings, although I have just glued the front facades to flat surfaces to make some much easier to make buildings that look good.

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Sorry this is heading away form the original question, but I have found that cheap option is corrugated cardboard (from cartons) for the structure and adding textures using cheap materials at hand (textured papers etc). The suggestions above of googled textures is also a good option.

Here's an example of a Mayan-like temple that cost nothing more than glue. link (Plus see subsequent posts for completed object)

The main hint I'd offer, is reinforce the cut edge of the corrugated cardboard (with strops of card or masking tape) before you start painting and texturing as it can get a little soft and loose shape.

I built some buildings using cardboard.Roll them in watered down white glue and through some sterile sand…airbrush or drybrush=nice adobe finish.

To bring the thread back this is a good site and free for your bricks.

paperbrick.co.uk