Terrain Buildings Interior Dimensions

[Hieronymus]

I really enjoy making terrain and would like to make buildings that you could put minis in for playing. I don\'t play any wargames myself, so I\'m pretty naive as far as what\'s practical for game purposes. I\'d like to make a larger version of the orc hut that I made, (59913), but with a removable roof. What interior dimensions are suitable for this kind of thing?

 

[Jas]

Building Ideas...

Hi there,
Firstly I\'d say if you want buildings that can be used in Wargames then you need to define a use for the building. Will it be an objective? Used as cover? Will it be a spawn point for units? Or just plain old scenery use?

The removable roof is probably a necessity as you\'ll need to be able to move units about within. Personally I\'d posistion the desired amount of miniatures you wish to hold within the building inside and make sure there is room to manouvre to exits and windows (for shooting). Also remember that if its too big it may not fit on a gaming table, which tend to be 4ft x 4ft or 6ft x 4ft as a general rule. Use your minis as a guide when planning.

Hope this was some help...

 

[supervike]

scale scale scale....

first of all, I really like the building you made. It looks properly \"orc-y\" if you know what I mean.

Something that always bothers me is the scale of buildings. I bought the \"coaching inn\" from forgeworld and although I love the attention to detail and the overall look, I think the scale is a little too small. It seems they are making the buildings for the old 25mm style, but when most minis now are 28mm (and truly more like 30mm), add a base to them and things just don\'t \'measure up\".

My suggestion is to slightly \'oversize\' everything. If you have some based minis, use those for scale. For instance I feel a \"believeable\" scale for the interior your Orc Hut would be about 10 inches in diameter.

I made a \"watchtower\" type terrain a while back, and although I could do much better in many aspects, the one thing I really like was the scale of it.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/24983

I\'d really love to see what you come up with. Good luck!

 

[Hieronymus]

Until now, I was working from the outside in when planning things, but using the bases of the minis as a basis for the final dimension makes much more sense. It looks like I have to make a couple of more trips to the driveway for building materials.

I think that the stuff I want to make would be for cover and for scenery. I don\'t know what would be appropriate for an objective or a spawning point, as far as the type and number of openings would be, though.

Thanks for the tips and insight.

 

[Itchy]

If it\'s for two whole armies to fight over then you need to make it small (even the gaming companies make the vehicals WAY to small to be convincing) just so you can cram more terrrain onto the field. But if it\'s for something like D&D where you\'ve got a small group in a tight location, then you can make things more to a true scale to the minis because you\'ll need to have less actually stuff piled up on your table. Hope that helps, if not let me know and i\'ll try to explain it better.

 

[praetorian0_1]

My pal vike and Itchy are both right. The general consensus is to make things like buildings and vehicles a tad under scale. This way your guys can move around easier on the table and it doesn\'t get so cluttered. But if you only want a couple of bigger pieces on the table you won\'t run into any troubles with a bigger centerpiece. There is tons of room on top of vike\'s tower for example. It would be much better for a siege game for example.
What I do often is make the building into a partial ruin to give a variey of terrain all in one piece and most importantly-- give access for your little guys. You hands get in and oyt better that way too. 1/2 the roof = 5x the access. You can see some examples in my gallery if ya like. I mostly use kitbashed toysareus stuff that have components that are to roughly to scale and shape the rest into something that works for me.
Feel free to pick my brain by PM\'ing me or post it up here if you have questions as what I do--- its no big secret, so long as the end result is cool.

 

[Hieronymus]

Thanks, everybody. After I come back from Minnesota this weekend, I\'ll hit the driveway and see what I can come up with. Woo-hoo!

 

[freakinacage]

as an avid terrain builder, i\'ll be interested in how this turns out - don\'t forget to post a pic once you\'re done. hope it\'s as good as the first one

 

[Hieronymus]

I started out with cardboard and spackled it with wall joint compound. A bunch of sticks and a double handful of gravel later and I\'m off to a good start. Now, all I have to do is paint it and and see if I can get the camera to work again...

Aha! The camera\'s working. The new big hut is http://www.coolminiornot.com/71033

 

[freakinacage]

nice one. that looks the right sort of size. let us know what it looks like when painted