Wednesday, 6 August 2025

Ruined buildings block 1 terrain 26

 Here are some of the ruined buildings I built  last summer primarily for northwest Europe bolt action but a couple of them would probably work for what Napoleonic built up areas ended up looking like after they inevitably caught fire! They're also bound to see service on the eastern front.They all got spray painted in Halfords and pound shop black, some in gloss because I ran out of matt and I'm less precious about terrain! It's mainly to prime/seal up the plastic sheet and the metal I've used for tile battens on the roof. After that I've used various emulsion paints and a bit of flock . 












Considering the plastic sheet isn't brick and is the wrong scale, I think they work pretty well, notice the work gloves, to round off the ensemble I was also wearing a canvas apron, I like aprons!

I deliberately let some of the black show through the various layers to help degrade the finish. Window frames tended not to be white pre ww2, that was a post war Queen Anne revival and of course before petro chemicals were developed for paint in the 1960s anything painted white went yellow/cream pretty rapidly, green,blue  and burgundy were popular woodwork colours as they were not too fugitive and were pretty stable (red and green also worked well with heat which is why they were popular locomotive colours) I haven't gone too colourful in the rooms but enough that there is some contrast, a small amount of regret that I didn't install fireplace surrounds but you have to draw the line somewhere! 
























First four with my flagless commisar, well at least he's not in a box! I tried to indicate lime render with a white wash on some of them and varied the brick colour  a bit. Pretty happy with them and they look good with the previous buildings too which is nice. I've varied the render colours a bit, they're a little cartoony but I'm alright with that, as you can see the other six are on the table  so I hope to add those like these to Dave Stones Summer of scenery, hope he's back on the tools soon. Next up? More terrain or Austrians I guess?

All the best 

Iain  

44 comments:

  1. Beautiful work Iain will make a spectacular town setup 👍

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  2. Rather splendid, really cracking work on them, they should really look the part on the table.

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  3. Smashing work Iain. They all look suitably ruined.

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    1. I see what you did there,thanks Richard!
      Best Iain

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  4. Wow these are great Iain.....I am working on a multi part industrial building at the moment a la Stalingrad, not quite up to this scale but it is coming along!

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    1. Lot's of easy sub assemblies really, looking forward to your Stalingrad, I'm planning train yards and Pavlovs house to add to my ruined factory and some larger tenements type buildings for Stalingrad/Berlin and ideally an art deco theatre/cinema but then I've got to store everything!
      Best Iain

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    2. Yeah, that is the rub, for sure - I really don't have room for what I already have - and I am making more......! Have a look at this mdf supplier in Oz - I am seriously thinking about this model !! https://darkcastleterrain.com/cdn/shop/products/20220924_013810_470x.jpg?v=1663949706

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    3. Yes, that's nice and massive! It's what I'm thinking of scratch building, well converting a big foamcore box on a base I have but it'll take up a lot of the shed!
      Best Iain

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  5. Nicely done Iain…
    The estate agent would probably list them as ‘Doer Uppers’ 😁

    All the best. Aly

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    1. In need of light restoration, ideal, for those who like a project?!
      Best Iain

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  6. They look great Iain. They should look brilliant on the tabletop.

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  7. Great work Iain. They all look suitable worn and weathered.

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    1. Slightly under the weather I think? Thanks Lawrence!
      Best Iain

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  8. Love the brickwork ….. hard to properly (in real life and modelling :-) )

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    1. Pretty easy to do really,nice to hear from you Norm!
      Best Iain

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  9. Iain, Great job, very effective Will make the games that much more atmospheric.

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    1. Thanks Joe, it does make it much more immersive if the terrain is as good as the figures I think?
      Best Iain

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  10. Great job destroying these buildings! These ruins remind me of my days building WW2 dioramas.

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    1. I had in mind a monogram leaflet on building WW2 Arnhem diorama buildings I got with my 1/32 Ostwind model in the 1970's so pretty much spot on there Jonathan!
      Best Iain

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  11. Wow, these ruined buildings are excellent, Iain! And using plastic sheet to get this effect is beyond my skill. I would be using foam and plaster to try to achieve this look.

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    1. Looking at your book nooks and ships nothing is beyond your skill set! As there seems a bit of interest I think I'll do a step by step post on how to build them, I've still got the prototype and some left over bits so I'll use those.
      Best Iain

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  12. great job! I love ALL of it.😁😁
    One day you'll have to show / tell me how you got that plaster wearing off and brick coming through effect. But I'm struggling with it.

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    1. Thanks Stew, I'm on the shower and tell for the build, might take a bit of time though!
      Best Iain

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  13. They look really fantastic, the results are stunning

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    1. Hi praise from a master terrain builder!
      Best Iain

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  14. Excellent painting!

    That's cool info about colors and the history,

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    1. Thanks Fitz, yeah I found it interesting, glad you did too!
      Best Iain

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  15. Wow! Those look marvellous. I really appreciate it when people put work into their terrain. it makes my brain itsh when I see well painted minis fighting over bare mdf...

    which reminds me, I should probably get some more terrain done myself!

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  16. Thanks Tim,in part inspired by the frostgrave ruins you did a while ago and I agree much better to have terrain to go with the nicely painted figures!
    Best Iain

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  17. Excellent scratch building there Iain:). One of the best parts of the hobby to my mind!

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    1. Yes,absolutely agree with you Steve,definitely one of the best bits!
      Best Iain

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  18. Great looking, and useful terrain, Iain. I particularly like ruined buildings with parts of second or higher floors still intact. Great for figure placement.

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    1. Thanks Dean, yes I think they make them more usable, although I'm thinking about a more basic single layer building to mix in amongst these?
      Best Iain

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  19. Those look amazing! The weathering is perfect!

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  20. Stunning work Iain! I'm being a bit slow with my reading so I'm catching up on blogs at the moment. You have had a busy time of it with your admirable work scratchbuilding buildings. It was interesting to read of the reasons for the choice of historic colours too. I really should do more work on terrain but I just enjoy painting figures - This is inspiring though!

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    1. Thanks Jason, I wouldn't want you to waste your time on terrain when your figure painting is so good!
      Best Iain

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