Tutorial : Simple and Inexpensive City Ruins
For all you those who are tired of hiding out in the woods and would like to have some desolate waste land city ruins to hide your blue behind in, please read on.
For making a simple ruin you will need...
small nails
Box Cutter (or your foam cutting weapon of choice)
Insulation foam board ( I used 3/4" foam cause that’s what I had lying round, but any will thickness will do)
PVC glue
Black and white spray paint (One or both of these need to be able to melt foam, However it works best if the black does not and the white does)
Pliers

Step One
Design your building. Deciding how many floors, windows, walls, etc. now will save a load of pain later.

Step Two
Cut the foam. Using your design cut the foam in the correct size and shape. Be sure to save the pieces, as they can be used later on. Don't work too much about having clean cuts or straight lines, you will not be able to tell later on, just be sure the pieces will be able to fit together.





Step Three
Build the Structure. Using the PVC glue, attach the walls, floors, etc. together. Push the nails through the floors and walls, pinning them together, to add more support. Allow to glue to dry for half an hour or more before going on.



Step Four
THIS STEP MUST BE DONE OUTSIDE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA!
Take your foam ruin outside and spray paint it black. Hose it down. Then while the black paint is still wet, hose it down with the white. You should see the foam began to bubble and melt, at which point retreat back inside for around 5 to 10 minutes while the paint dries. Come back and check on the progress. Continue to add paint until you are happy with the result. For a rougher texture, add more spray paint, for a smooth add little to no spray paint.
Add any details you feel like, like rubble piles, craters, etc. (If anyone want I have another quick and simple trick to make neat craters I could post)


Step Five
Let it cure over night in a garage or other well ventilated area and enjoy!







(This is my first attempt at a Tutorial, so any tips, or questions would be extremely helpful to make sure this Tutorial reaches the high standard on ATT. That and I will edit in better photos, especially of my finished cityscape board when it is completed. And I did do a search, but if someone has posted a similar thread, I beg forgiveness O great admins 'bows down and backs away slowly')
Thanks for reading and I hope you have found this post useful!
CoDominum

edited for better info and clarity

Wow! I have tried similar sorts of building, but they did not turn out as nice as yours did. It must be the black paint that doesn't melt the foam and the white paint does.

Good tutorial, but I have a few questions to help clear stuff up (I'm not going to point out your spelling mistakes, you should be able to go back and find those yourself (E.g. hose, not house))

1. What kind of foam did you use? Regular old Styrofoam, or the blueish modeling foam?
2. How did you use the paper clips? I didn't really understand that part, a better description would be nice.

Also, I would certainly like to see how you make craters, so that I don't have to buy moonscape craters off of someone.

Thanks, and good job; very useful.

edit: spelling

What a great tutorial! Again, I'm interested in knowing what type of foam is most suitable. Good idea to use the paperclips as fastenings, going to make one of these ASAP. Thank you!

To Tau's Firingline: I think I found a tutorial on here to make craters but in short: Get foil cupcake/muffin cases and some expanding foam (the type that sets hard and tends to be used to fill gaps in insulation, I'm not very good with the correct names for things like this!), place the cases upside down, crush them towards the centre from the top and then fill with the foam, before shaving/sawing the excess off. I believe someone also mentioned to use a loaf-style case to make a 'Destroyed - Explodes!' tank crater, including up to Land Raider size.

The paper clips were probably used to pin the pieces of foam together, along with an adhesive like PVA glue. Just a guess but its what i do with the terrain I put together.

Also the foam looks like 1/2 inch - 3/4 inch insulation foam board.

Thanks for the comments guys, and I did fix the spelling mistakes, I apologize for making them (never post later at night ). To answer some questions (which have also been edited into the post): It is 3/4" insulation foam board that can be found at local hardware stores. The use of the paper clips is what Sandune said, you use them a structural reinforcement for the floors and such be inserting through the wall and into the floor, making it studier and helping it stay together while it dries. And in the next few days I will add in the how too on homemade craters.

Hehe we have some buildings like that and we made some craters using some birthday candles. It was funny because 2 of the "Craters" were the same size as the small Blast template and One was the size of the Large one Silly us getting side tracked with Beer .

Good tutorial, CoDominium. Added to the Official ATT Modelling Resource list.

E.

Wow Thanks Eiglepulper, I will try to keep the high standard in this thread up to expectations then. Now then onto....
Tutorial: Simple Craters
For this you will need...
Box Cutter (or your foam cutting weapon of choice)
Insulation foam board the thicker the better
PVC glue
Black and white spray paint (One or both of these need to be able to melt foam, However it works best if the black does not and the white does)
Some form of base (I used the thin cardboard that the Warhammer 40k boxes are made out of, but any kind will do.)

Step One
Cut out a square or rectangle piece of foam, the size is up to you, but make it fairly good sized.



Step Two
Cut the corners off of your shape and turn it into an oval or circle.



Step Three
THIS STEP MUST BE DONE OUTSIDE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA!
Take your block and spray paint it outside. The color does not matter at this point, all we want to do is create a crater like appearance. Hose the piece down, but concentrate the blast in the center, as to form a hole. The spray paint will form a cone like hole, creating the inside of your crater.



Step Four
Glue your crater hole to a piece of cardboard, be sure to cut the piece bigger than your crater hole.
Using the scraps of foam you have saved from the building (see I told you they would be useful) or cut out some irregular size pieces, surround the crater hole with pieces of foam.



(A similar but different way is to use Oasis foam to create the rubble, or a combination of Oasis and foam board)

Step Five
THIS STEP MUST BE DONE OUTSIDE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA!
Return the great outdoors and proceed to hose down the crater again with black and white to texture and paint. Repeat until happy.



(If you do not like the melted looking bits in the center of the crater, you can add small pieces of foam to cover it.)
Step Six[u]
Let cure and enjoy!

Here is a finished one I made with a larger piece of foam and Oasis foam rubble.



Hope You Enjoy!
CoDominium