Dante's Game

Posted: 10th, April 2009

(Editor’s note: Click on any of the pictures to see larger versions for more detail)

Years ago I purchased this great little scratch built building from a terrain building company in England.  They’ve since gone under and I’ve been wanting a “workable” version of the building with a lift-off roof, lift-off 2nd floor, working windows, and working doors.  As you can see in the picture to the right, the scale of the building is more suited toward “true 25s” (old school 25mm miniatures). I wanted something to fit the bulk of my current collection of minis which are mostly 28mm in size (as shown by the unpainted Reaper figure on the right).

I decided to try my hand at recreating the building myself after being inspired by this project. Only this time, I would try to painstakingly document each step for posterity, and so others could benefit from the lessons I learned along the way.

Naturally, the first step in the process is to start sketching ideas of what you want the finished piece to look like.  For me, hand drawn sketches work best and are quickest.  If I were a whiz at CAD I’d probably be cranking out super accurate plans, but that’s not going to happen in this lifetime I believe.

I had a bit of help drafting the sketches for this project since I already had an actual model to view in 3D.  That made the process of sketching the exterior go very quickly. I did take some liberties with the placement of the half-timbered beams and also found during the actual building process that even more adjustments to the placing of the beams would become necessary due to structural weaknesses or other such occurences (more on that later).

As I mentioned previously, I wanted a building that had al lift-off roof and lift-off second floor which meant that I would have to sketch out designs for the interior as well.  I had an idea of what the basic layouts of the room would look like (the easy part) but I also had to consider what kind of embellishments and fixtures should be taken into consideration for the interior of the project (the hard part).  If you’re going to have a building you can put figures in and you’re building it from scratch, you may as well take the time to detail the interior…which means a lot more planning, sketching, measuring, and experimenting. The end result will be totally worth it though.

Once you’ve banged out the rough idea and rough sketches of what your project should look like, it’s time to start thinking about scale, placement of things such as windows, doors, trim, and other exterior details.  That means that you’ll need to move from rough thumbnail and freehand sketches to more accurate, technical drawings.  For my tech drawings I used 4:1 graph paper (4 squares to 1 inch).  I used an “average” sized (28mm) Reaper miniature (pictured up top and chosen from about a dozen Reaper figures for its middle-of-the-road stature) as my sort of guide as to how tall windows and doors should be.  The next thing I decided was how long, wide, and high I wanted the exterior of the building to be based on the existing model and based on the scaling up that I would need to do. I wound up adding four inches (no, not from one of those unwanted emails we’ve all received at one point or another…) above the original building’s 8″ width, I doubled the length from 3″ to 6″, and added 3″ of height from 5″ to 8″ not including the height of the roof. Did I mention that this was an ambitious project? ;-}~

One very important detail to factor into your measurements is the measurements of the materials you’re going to use. I haven’t mentioned this (or the materials to be used) previously because as I see it, a creation of this sort starts with a vision of the end product and is then fleshed out during the planning phase. Having said that, this is an ideal time to talk about what materials and tools were used to embark upon this structure.

Knowing ahead of time that I wanted working doors and windows in the structure, I researched what I thought would be the best material to work with to assure relative longevity of the working parts. I wound up using Balsa wood and Bassword (a heartier, harder wood than Balsa).

BUILDING MATERIALS:

• White foam core board (a.k.a. foam board): I picked up a standard sized (20″ x 30″ x 3/16″, Elmer’s brand) sheet from Michael’s Arts and Crafts. One sheet should be enough for this project.
• 1/4″ x 3″ x 36″ Balsa wood (Midwest Products, purchased at Michael’s): 1 strip would be more than enough for this project.
• 1/8″ x 3/8″ x 24″ Basswood strips (6): These will be used for the interior and exterior “half-timber” beams. You’ll eat through these unbelievably fast (look closely at subsequent pictures to get an idea of how any little strips get attached to a project like this)
• 6″ x 12″ x 1/8″ craft plywood: This will be used for the base that the structure will be mounted on permanently.
• Solid brass miniature strap hinges: Used to hang door on frame (purchased from Micro-Mark)
• Mini nails (3/8″ long): Used as pins/pivots for windows in window frames (purchased from Micro-Mark)
• 6mm “jump hoops”: These will be used for the door handle ring. You can find these at any craft or hobby store that sells jewelry making equipment and findings
• 4mm jump hoops: (see notes above)
• 8″ x 10″ yellow acrylic sheet: Used for glazing in the window frames.
• Elmer’s Glue (white PVA glue): Used to glue the foam core board sections together.
• Krazy glue (cyanoacrylate or, “instant glue”): Used to glue the half-timber strips to the foam core board.

TOOLS:

• Mechanical pencil and plenty of leads
• Really good steel ruler (6″)
• Heavy steel ruler/straight edge (12″)
• Steel Yard stick (for cutting long pieces of foam core board)
• Steel square for measuring and marking corners and right angles
• Xacto knife and plenty of brand new blades
• Xacto saw blades
• Miniature files for sanding edges of Balsa and Basswood
• Small needle-nosed pliers
• Push Hammer/Nail Set for miniature nails: Almost impossible to get the mini nails set otherwise! (purchased from Micro-Mark)

I’m quite sure there will be various and sundry other parts and supplies that will go into the finished project but I’ll have to document what those are as the project unfolds (i.e. what I use for roofing tiles, what I use for furnishings, etc. etc. etc.)

That wraps up the first part of this project.  I hope you enjoyed the presentation so far.  Please feel free to send comments and/or suggestions.

In the next segment, we’re going to get into building the working door and working windows.  Stay tuned..!

-Dante