The Large Ruin A Tutorial.

A few people asked me how I did various bits for this building. It was quite simple really so I though I 'd piece together tutorial for it. It didn't take long to make to be honest I think some stages need a few days to dry between steps and thats about it.

The Beginning some packaging scavenged from a portable radio or whatever. Base is from a birthday cake. (yum yum)

 Getting a rough idea of position.

 As you can see the inner walls are quite thick.

 I ended up using a sort of small breadknife as a saw and trimmed down all the interior ad removed some of the bottom section to give it more height and appear more like the concrete shell I intend it to be. Keep all the offcuts they will come in hand later as rubble walls etc.

Thinking about access to the upper floor I wanted more than one way in but didn't want a ladder or rope. Decided to go with a wrecked vehicle.

 Trimmed out rough holes for windows and a damaged section above the van (Giving a way in and an excuse to have rubble as a means to step up.

 At the rear used some of the carved off sections from the bottom I carved out some L shapes and distressed them to appear damaged. I also clipped off some sections of paperclip and bent it to represent the reinforced rods often found in concrete. (Super glue these in place). The top floor and the extra L sections where simple cocktail sticked on to the main structure carefully. I find that twisting the sticks as you push them in helps prevent tearing big chunks out of the polystyrene.

Using the off cuts again I build up a back wall for the stairwell and from another chunky block  I carved out a stair section (deciding on playability over appearance).

 Van is now glued into place (I use PVA for most of it) Trimmed down some old bits of sprue and glued these into the one side of the building as the old door/window frame. I then trimmed into shape more off cuts and lay them out as rubble.

 Rubble inside 

 Now at this point I made a booboo. The nature in how it went together not only makes it difficult  to paint but also to game in. (Oops) so the one side where the van is ruined wall sections where put into fill that gap. (Note to self for any future builds)

 You can see the wall section in place now. Playability of the lower floor will have to be something I put more though to on the next one.

 Next a bit of detailing. I carved out some triangular shapes out of the polystyrene and using coffee stirrers trimmed down added roof beams and to the windows ledges where added .

 More rubble and, left over sprue and other bits off the cutting board where spread about some in a more careful position to give the impression of well worn s walkway and steps in the rubble.

 Next step mix paint with pva and water into a milky consistency (I used artist acrylics from the Works using black and white mixe to make a dark grey at first) and then cover the whole thing all over. Once covered apply sand and cat litter and any other debris from the build process all over then leave it to dry. (IRL it took 1-2 days to dry fully.

 Once dry I did another coat of the pva/paint mix with the grey a slightly lighter shade this time to seal the building.

 Next I use some Sepia and black washes to stain the floors and walls these where thinned slightly to allow the grey colour underneath show slightly.

 Next mix up some light grey paint and drybrush the whole thing. I used a 1.5 inch wide standard paintbrush for this. I did this two or three times adding white each time to the mix to get a lighter shade until I was happy with the overall appearance. It doesn't matter if you get it on some of the wooden areas to much.

 Painted the wooden details in a dark brown (burnt umber again artist acrylics)

I had a look at plant growth on various ruins on line before hand and found that its tends to have a water staining etc where things grow. So planning where the plants where going to grow I first applied a very thinned green wash allowing it to flow and spread. Allow this to dry (a couple of hours or so). I then got some Camo Green and stippled it using a cheap kids brush in the areas where you just washed.

The van at the front got mucked the same as the rest of the building. I washed the windows with black and brown washes to make the more prominent and a few other recesses on the vehicle. Stippled patches of orange/brown paint as rust patches.

 Next using PVA Glue (Diluted a little) I added some Javis Country side scenics Coarse Light Green Grass. I used generous amounts of pva and picked up clumps of grass and pushed it on quite firmly. Messy but fun. Allow to dry then using a soft brush brush off any excess then fill in any gaps.

I also had some dark green clump foilage which I added in a few spots. The clumps where difficult to add as the weight of them pulls them away from the vertical walls. If I did it again I'd put it on its sides so its was horizontal then add them and let them dry.

 Finally I add some grass tufts from army painter. A few here and there in nooks and cracks.

Thats about it. We have another terrain comp again for fun. Smaller piece of scatter terrain this time but  I hope to do 3-4 of them so I can fill out my table more. Probably going to do some corner ruins.