North West European Farmhouse for Bolt Action WW2

Actually, I don't even own Bolt Action... my son and I began collecting 28mm WW2 as a side project from some painting commissions I'd received.  We're both fans of the early war, and so he collected Germans, and I British.  I like to work in plastic, so my early war Brits are converted from late war Warlord Games plastics.  He's a bit better served than me, as WG produce lovely 'Blitzkreig' era German infantry in Plastic.  Anyway, this post isn't about the miniatures as such - it's about the scenery we decided we needed;

I wrote a short set of rules for small infantry actions, and during playtesting we quickly figured out what most 20th century soldiers already know - if you go running around the battlefield with no cover, you get killed immediately.  So I needed some terrain quickly, both the offer cover and (in the case of this farmhouse) to give my pitifully small British force and position to defend against my son's horde of rampaging Germans.

It has to be quick to build, big enough to fight inside, and generic enough to appear anywhere in North / West Europe.  As with many projects, I wasn't actually allowed to finish it before it took to the table, so I thought some readers might be interested in seeing it 'half done' and taking a look at how I make buildings.

Step one was to make a suitable base.  A leftover component from an Ikea shelf unit provided the 3mm mdf for the base, and I made it about 7.5" / 19 cm square to allow a 5" / 13cm square building to sit neatly on top with room for a 25mm round base to fit round the edges.  The shell of the building is 5mm foamboard, with the doorways cut to allow passage of a 25mm round base, and the height of a 28mm miniature on its base.

The floor is a wood planking 'tileable' texture I sourced (legally!) from a website which sadly no longer seems to exist.  But if you Google "free tileable textures' you'll find something similar.  I printed it out 'photo quality', and cut a piece to fit the whole footprint of the building.  If you have more time, you could vary the floor surface, adding rugs or carpets perhaps.

A couple of part interior walls and a chimney breast were added (5mm fomaboard again), and the outside walls decorated with yet another free tileable texture - this time a random stone effect.  It's a bit vivid... but you could maybe find a more subtle one!  The interior wasn't detailed much - just a lick of cream paint for the walls (grey where damaged) and a splodge of black for the fireplace / smoke damage.  It's not a diorama, so I resisted the urge to detail it to death.  The quoins on the corners are cereal packet card, cut to 15mm x 10mm and folded around the corners before painting them grey.

The roof timbers are coffee stirrers, split in two to get the right width.  The loft floor is coffee stirrers too, but left at their full width.  The space provides room for models to stand on it, we've had five or six crammed up there!  As I was in a rush, the timbers were not painted, just blackened here and there.

The roof tiles are cereal packet card, painted grey (both sides!) and stuck down to appear damaged / slipping.  The only plastic on the entire model is the shutters - cut from 'louvred' plastic card.  When time allows, I'll finish the model so it looks a bit more presentable - stonework on the chimney, stain the roof timbers so they look less new, and finish the ground texture round the outside.