"Anyone Scratch-Built Modern Ruins That Look Like This?" Topic

Most of the outer walls gone, and just the floors and central rooms are left standing.

A) What materials did you use?
B) How did you decide/plan which floors would have what space?
C) Did you make inner stairways to give troops access to the floors?

It's almost as if the buildings were giant boxes for soda bottles, stood up on one end, but with most of the exterior sides gone and all you basically have left is the dividers (the inserts).

Thanks

Dan
PS. The following examples are from Donetsk (Ukraine), Chechnya, Syria and Libya.

Haven't done, no. Materials would depend a lot on scale, and not all would be the same. For the 2nd and 3rd images, I'm thinking in 15mm foamcore and matchsticks would about do the structure, with card floors and kitty litter rubble.

But 28mm would be more complicated. Plastic beams are expensive. Sheet Styrofoam and balsa might do your top image, but I wouldn't think much of the infantry commander who did anything but dig in at ground level.

First image and fourth on down would be more interesting tactically. At that stage, you could start gluing boxes together.

I used to pass an unfinished and abandoned Motel on I-69 which looked a little like 2 & 3.

Check these out: link

Some people can make everything look easy, even making dividers out of regular corrugated cardboard:
YouTube link

This lady made an organizer out of black foam board, and I think it would look just fine as a terrain piece, once you "damage" it of course:
YouTube link

I guess the problem would be to build one without any of the supporting outer pieces (or most of them) that could stand on its own.

Dan

You'd need to get creative for modern steel construction. I call it "posts and plates", you have steel posts holing up the floors, and the outer wall is purely decorative.

Fortunately, most of the steel beams get covered in concrete or some fire-retardant material, turning them into simple square posts. So square-section rods will work for your uprights, and then you can use foamed PVC or foamcore for the floors and walls.

Lion

When you say "foamed PVC" are you referring to the flexible craft foam sheets?

Thanks

Dan

link

Just… Wow.

If something like those were available in 15mm, I'd be on them in a heartbeat, GBP/AUD exchange rate be damned.

Duck

Edited to add:

From the looks of it, I'd welcome just about everything they've got in the catalog, if done in 15mm…

Re-Ducked

Duck

I would snatch them up for sure if they were 15mm, despite all the exterior walls.

Dan

Look at the old Kenner Girder & Panel Sets:
girderandpanel.net

Fieldworks in the UK has some modernish ruins:
fieldworks.org.uk/15mm.htm

GameCraft Minis has some MDF kits:
link

link

link

link

The Fieldworks and GameCraft are 15mm. The Kenner sets might be larger, had some in my youth back in the 1960s and used Matchbox cars with them. Maybe closer to 1/64 or 1/72 ???

The irony of the two stylish women walking past the ruined apartments is overwhelming.

Even at the end of the world as we know it there are girls that wanna have fun…

Great ideas CC. You definitely have me looking at boxes differently!

The old trick was to convert figure trays into ruins:

Start with this type of thing:

Or you can start with shipping box type cardboard:

As explained here:
link

Or sheets of foam:

And get things like this:

link

This type of things is the subject of many web sites:
link

link

link

The brand name for the foamed PVC sheet I bought is Sintra. It is flexible (you can roll that 4x8 sheet into a 2'tube), but once you glue it into a square box it is incredibly sturdy.

It's the same stuff that Plastcraft uses for their terrain.

@zoneofcontrol:

Thanks for those links. I've actually saved a GameCraft bookmark, but had forgotten it… Fieldworks was a new one to me though.

Duck

On a separate note, since the thread diverted slightly that direction…

Anyone have a CURRENT RELIABLE source for EXTRUDED styrofoam sheet in Sydney (besides Ekersley's)

Google-fu is failing me.

Duck

Is this what you are looking for in 15mm Dan and Duck ?

link

etc .

….it wouldn't take much to base and texture them up more and/or add rubble if you wanted to .

40% off sale !

capt jimmi

A belated thanks for that link!

I've just been searching some old bookmarks (and cursing the number of "There is no Topic with this ID number." I've encountered) when I stumbled upon your reply.

Plainly (for a variety of reasons) I should check my bookmarked topics more frequently…

Edited to add:

Extra thanks! Quite a lot of ready made goodies there. Don't know how I could have missed them.

Duck

Kind'a like that in 6mm … "Legiongrad" …

I did broken slabs of concrete walls usinf an appropriate colored mix of sculpy. Rolled out a wall and baked it, then broke and chipped the cured slabs.

Found more photos of ruined buildings with NO exterior walls

Dan

"Urban Renewal" … Mid East style. Is that Syria or Iraq ? Or both ?

Syria, I think.

Breezy buildings, right? No walls, which is the effect I was asking about.

Dan

Most of those will have to be torn down and new structures built. They are so badly damaged, they could be very unstable even if repaired.

Legion 4

In some areas those repairs have already begun. So the next quake or bomb will end up having truly catastrophic effects on the occupants.

Dan

I don't doubt such "folly" … And when it happens the media will be all over it. Some how blaming the US or Europe or the West in general for not doing more !!!!

Even if much of the damage was done by Syria and/or the Russians and ISIS, etc., of course …

For smaller scales … I had no idea that plastic aquarium "egg crate" divider (or ceiling light diffuser screen) came in anything other than white:

auction

Well, the black plastic might be a little easier to paint up to look like the concrete "beams" that one often sees sticking out the sides of buildings in photos.

Dan

Well some gal no matter where they are always try to stay "stylish" …

Excellent find Cacique Caribe. The spacing varies from supplier to supplier, but some of the are about 1cm which would be perfect for microarmor(10 feet between floors)

I think there are a couple reasons driving why you don't see a lot of exterior walls missing and do see lots of exterior walls standing:

- The classic "corner ruin" nests well, so you can store them in less than their total footprint while the internal intact ruin takes up its whole footprint for storage.

- A lot of industrial through post war buildings (and many before) had exterior walls that were structural, thus stronger. The recent shift has been to interior structure, so, depending on when you are gaming or building for, the ruins do look different.

- The interior divisions make it harder to reach in and maneuver figures in the type of ruin you are discussing as opposed to the openness of the "classic corner".

- The center of gravity is lower in relation to the base of support on the "classic corner" making it more stable on the table than a full interior ruin.

I did this for a diorama.

link

Terry

Terry

You, Sir, do amazing work! The level of detail on that,piece is mind boggling. Incredible.

Have you done any multi-story structures?

Dan

Thanks Dan, Thank you for the kind words. Not really as I am a dedicated HOTT gamer so seldom have a need for such. However, I wouldn't see it being nay more of a problem. That little diorama for Nick was kept to one story as I needed it to fit inside the 6.5 inch by 4 inch case or I would have made it two story with the top floor pretty much caved in. And a lot of it was based directly form the 3rd book in Nick's "Hell Divers" series.

Terry