"Running a city street chase, with buildings & mini's" Topic

In the BX D&D adventure module, B6: The Veiled Society, TSR provided printouts for making paper buildings. The module also has instructions on how to run a moving chase through the city detailed within the module.

Once played, the module's chase scene rules can still be used for future games! The provided buildings are generic, and non-descript, meant to represent the layout of the streets, roughly. All you need are a few buildings that can be plopped down on your battle-mat, along with a few miniatures. The mat provides a grid to lay out your buildings according to your street design. Make a printout of the chase rules, along with the buildings, and you have all you will need to run future street chases in your campaigns!

The PDF building pages are B&W, but these can easily be colored with pencils, to make them pretty on your tabletop. Color the original printouts, then make color copies on full-sheet label paper…

Here is a sample building, built by printing the PDF page. I printed the building cut-outs onto full sheet label paper. I cut these out, peeled the backing paper off, and I burnished them onto chipboard I got from Michael's Hobby & Craft Store, from their frame shop area. I only used my hand to burnish them -- leave these overnight to allow the label glue to cure a bit, securing the bond to the chipboard; otherwise, be careful, as the label paper may peel off as you burnish, but you can likely press it back down.

I cut these out using a razor knife, leaving borders on the label paper portions, initially. After this, I cut them on their finished lines, removing the folding/glue tabs, as I will not be using them. I cut them all the way through, using 3-4 light pressure strokes with the razor knife. When I cut the creases where the walls will be bent to form the corners, I cut those on the print side, only 2 strokes, to cut them only part-way through -- this allows them to bend crisply, without cutting them off, completely. I just taped this one together, for the demo project.

Note that mine are currently B&W… I plan to use colored pencils to give them some life. If I print off more of them, I will color a copy with pencils, then I will make color copies onto full sheet label paper.

The creator of the original CastleWorks castle PDF (long OOP), was Denny Unger. He was the first person to recommend edging your cardstock creations with a black Sharpie pen, to 'erase' the white edges. This really makes a difference: original, without the Sharpie ink on the edges; with the blackened edges.

Gluing the building's roof to the walls will hold them square. I will likely ignore their chimneys: very tedious work to cut and fold these tiny embellishments on top of the roofs. To be honest, I doubt anyone will notice their absence… I will work on more of these, tomorrow. I will also color them, to demonstrate the street chase concept eschewed within the module B6: The Veiled Society. Cheers!

Nice. A little color will make them pop.

The black and white ones would be perfect for a chase at twilight/darkness.

Excellent ideas!

For whatever it's worth, full rules, complete with a city streets schematic, and even chance cards, are provided for in the current 2nd Edition of "We Only Kill Each Other."

There's also a "Tri-State Area" map that allows chases to proceed across country, and for gangs of bank robbers to ply their trade from hideouts to bank jobs, to escapes to the next hideout, etc, until eventually being caught by police for that final shoot-out.

More details are available here: link

Nothing like careening in a top heavy automobile down city streets, dodging traffic and pedestrians (you hope!) while someone fires like mad out the shattered rear window at pursuing Cops who care hardly more about "collateral civilian damage" than you do!

TVAG

So here are the finished models, arranged as they might be, for a city chase scene, on the tabletop, in game. Here's another perspective of the same scene.

Now, about the finer details on the construction process, from where we left off, yesterday…

Here is a shot of two models of the same buildings, on the left of each pair, they have had their white edges, blackened using an Acrylic Paint Pen (Sharpie permanent markers provide too little ink, making it harder to cover the white properly -- I tried these first). The improvement achieved by blackening the white edges, is remarkable, I think. Now, fore a couple of 'glamor shots' of the buildings: Glam1, Glam2.

The PDF pages were printed in B&W, using a laser printer. I modified them using colored pencils, applying simple colors (brown on the wood bits, all the same brown color; yellow over the windows, giving them a warm candle or fireplace glow; gray over the metal bits on the doors; and finally, orange over the roof shingles -- feel free to vary the colors you use!). I kept my color scheme to a minimum range, using the same colors on each building as they are intended to be non-descript.

For a few hours worth of effort, these turned out really nice. I would strongly recommend that if you plan to print out multiple pages of these models, print one copy, first. Color this first copy with pencils, then make as many COLOR photocopies as you intend to need, on full sheet label paper…

Coloring these models, one by one, with colored pencils, can get very tedious, and repetitive. Make the work as easy, and efficient, as possible, and make COLOR photocopies.

After I had cut out the chipboard buildings and roofs, I applied a thin bead of Wood Glue to the flat wall of the building. I spread this thinly over the attachment areas, with my finger. I had two paper towels on hand: one wet, to wipe off excess Wood Glue from my fingers; and one dry towel to dry my cleaned, wet fingers, off with so I could avoid smearing Glue all over the models as I worked.

I pressed, and held, the walls together, lining up the thin wall edge in position on the broad wall with the Glue applied to it. I held it in place for two minutes to allow the Wood Glue to dry enough that I could let go of it.

I took the roof pieces, and I did a dry fit: sometimes I had to turn it to get good alignment with the building's walls, to achieve a nearly equal hang-over on both sides and both ends. I applied a thin bead of Wood Glue around all four edges of the flat roof surface, spreading this with my fingertip, cleaning my fingers on the wet/dry paper towels, then I pressed the roof on all of its edges, aligning it properly. I held it in place for at least two minutes, to give the Glue enough time to set enough for me to put the building model down without anything shifting. This resulted in some Glue pressing outside the seams, so I used my wet paper towel to wipe away the glue before it set.

Note that if you print these models with an inkjet printer, you can't wipe anything away with a wet paper towel: inkjet ink is water-soluble, and it will run and bleed, ruining your work…

After another 10 minutes of drying time, I used my black acrylic paint pen to blacken the edges. You can use any appropriate color paint pen: brown for wood, gray for stones, or even orange for your roof tiles. Cheers!

Final update, final photo. I added the chimneys, made of chipboard, edges blackened. Cheers!

The buildings look a bit on the small size. I guess you could scale them up to 28mm. They do look nice!

excellent presentation, thanks.

Thank you. Yes, they are small for 28mm. They are representative, but they could be scaled up.

I found a game, 20(?) years ago, called, "When Good Villagers Go Bad." It is about a group of Adventurers who mess with the local Villagers, until the Villagers get fed up, attacking the Adventurers. The game uses minis and buildings, which end up on fire. LOL! These are perfect for that game. Cheers!

Awesomely simple.

New chapter on cardstock/chipboard terrain making: a mish-mash of buildings from different publishers, making them with full sheet label paper, color laser printer, chipboard, and Poplar square dowels in the corner joints, and to reinforce and prevent warping, on the longer wall runs.

Digging through my digital files for 25mm scale buildings, I found some old Village On The Cheap files, along with Mage Knight PDF files, and even some old TSR PDF buildings. The On The Cheap line was sold on DriveThruRPG, for many years, but they are completely gone, now -- I can't even see them in my Library. The other two were offered for free on the Internet, by their respective owners, around 20 years ago. The Village files I paid for, buying them through DriveThruRPG. I made some of these models, around 15+ years ago, using 110# cardstock -- they were recycled, more than a decade ago.

It is now time to rebuild them, using the chipboard method, and with full color laser prints on full sheet label paper…

Here is an image of a temple, with stained glass windows, from the Village set. It features a bell tower, with four buttresses, and two wings of the temple. I might print off a third wing, as one of my homebrewed deities builds a three-winged temple, one wing for each aspect of her domains of authority and power; I will need to modify the wings to form a triangular shape hinging on the central bell tower -- this will be a future project. For now, I will build the temple according to its original design plan. I may need to get a small bell for the tower, rather than use the chipboard version -- I'll need to visit Michaels for a look-see.

Next up, is a photo of the entire chipboard, almost entirely covered with buildings printed on label paper, and cut out to fit more economically on the sheet of chipboard; since I do not use the glue tabs provided, I can trim the label paper closer to the printed walls, pushing the structure images closer together, so I can fit more onto the sheet of chipboard, reducing waste.

The blue slate covered, two-story building is an inn, near the middle of the board.

The next building, opposite end of the board from the temple, is a yellowish wattle and daub home, with an excellent brick chimney at one end. This is a Mage Knight building. Its roof shingles are made of lovely Autumn colors. It is really quite striking.

For these buildings, I will need Poplar square dowel sections, glued to the insides of the long walls, to keep them from warping. I will also glue Poplar dowel sections in the corners, to give the models strength as well as neat, square corners. They may not look so good now, but wait until they're fully assembled, and the edges are blackened to make them virtually disappear.

When I finish these models up, I will put together a castle wall and gate section, using these buildings, and the others in this thread, to demonstrate how to model a section of a city, near a gate entrance. There may be a rumble brewing in the temple sector.

"Keep your friends close, and your sword loosened in its scabbard. I can feel Evil prowling about like a hungry Hell Hound, seeking easy prey. Sulphur spewing, lazy, mangy Beasts!…"

;-) Cheers!

Finished one of the Mage Knight houses -- this is nicely sized for 28mm figures. This one clearly demonstrates how I use square Poplar dowels, glued inside, to strengthen, and prevent warping. To be honest, that photo shows that the long walls are, in fact, warping, and because I did not use a single dowel running most of the length, it is still warping. Note to self: use a single dowel, running 90% of the length of the section you want to keep straight…

To hold the square dowels into place, securely, while the Wood Glue dries, I use spring-type clothes pins. Note that you will need to leave the clips in place for 15 minutes, and you should wait 12+ hours before you stress the glue joints, or the dowels may separate; they can easily be re-glued using the same surfaces, but try to avoid this as it can damage the chipboard. Be sure to wipe away excess Wood Glue that may ooze out of the joint, as this can create a real problem.

More updates to come: I printed out several more buildings, and I am working to build them all using these techniques. I will show all of them together, when finished. Cheers!

Nicely done!

I came up with some new techniques for joining corners of buildings and roofs: using paper and Wood Glue, to form a joint -- stronger than just Wood Glue on the edges of the chipboard, but not terribly strong by themselves, certainly not as strong as using a square wooden dowel.

Here is an angled roof, in two pieces. I did a dry fit, to make certain everything lined up. Then, I applied some Wood Glue, and I spread it around, evenly, using a throw-away kid's school paint brush -- I keep these on hand for brushing Minwax Polyshades onto miniature figures (aka, The Dip Technique -- brushed on, not dunking the mini's into it, as that takes much longer to remove the excess urethane-stain!). I also cut a strip of scrap paper, folding it down the middle, to apply to the roof seam, to hold it together.

I applied the paper strip to the roof seam, to hold the pieces together; I also applied a second such strip of paper between the roof, and the wall, shown in the bottom left of this picture. I found it extremely difficult to hold the walls to the roof pieces, as these are not square joints -- it was nearly impossible to brace them together, without holding them in my hands, until the Wood Glue set enough, to let go of them. These paper pieces glued over the seams, makes such joints very easy to achieve good results with.

Here is another paper/Wood Glue-secured joint, on a bell tower for the temple model. There was no room for a square wooden dowel, as it would have blocked the window openings! The combination of Wood Glue, in the chipboard seams, with the paper applique, makes a strong-enough-for-gaming joint!

Nearing the finish line on several more chipboard model buildings. More pictures and posts to come… Cheers!