Black Powder Red Earth - Buildings

Ah, Black Powder Red Earth (BPRE)!  The dust settles, the smoke clears, and another intense firefight rages through the war-torn African cityscapes. But where do these war-torn cityscapes come from?  Well, for the likes of me, from the trash I collect off the street and Bunnings!

No doubt, BPRE's default terrain is great for getting stuck straight into the action.  But for those who are on a $$$ (not time) budget and crave a bit more immersion (and maybe a side project), there's something truly special about crafting your own battlefield. That's exactly what I took on recently – building the game's six standard buildings in a glorious 2.5D format. 

While the 3D buildings certainly add depth and atmosphere, I opted for a 2.5D design for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the 2.5D format offers a great balance between aesthetics and functionality.  It allows me to see the miniatures positioned inside the buildings during combat, something that can be tricky with fully enclosed 3D structures.  Secondly, being smaller makes them lighter, and the slimmer profile makes them a breeze to transport and store - something I learned with another project a couple of years back. 

Cardboard Canvas: The Prototype Phase

My first foray into BPRE's urban sprawl wasn't exactly award-winning. I raided the recycling bin and emerged with a bounty of cardboard and foamcore.  Following the BPRE building templates, I cut out the shapes, glued them together, and...it worked! Not bad for a weekend's hobby time. Functional? Sure. Immersive? Not quite what I was after.

Here's one of the images from the book that I used to guide my build.
The picture has a grid - I spent a long time counting out the dimensions of the buildings!

 

My first building. Each "wall" is 2 strips of foamcore high.
Window ledges are just one strip high. Easy.

 

I used a PVA and Black Paint mix to seal all the buildings. 
They buckled a bit but then I stuck them down on another layer of 
Cardboard on the bottom.

I used painters tape to mask the tops of the walls before using spray paints...

...to get this sort of effect - the edges around the bases of the walls
fade to a black. It just adds to the interest etc.

And there you have it. Prototypes done!

Corktastic! Building with Character

Don't get me wrong, the world of 3D-printed terrain is tempting.  I spent hours browsing models, imagining them gracing my tabletop. But there's a catch...the sheer amount of effort involved in designing or sourcing ready-made 3D models, the logistics of getting them printed, and then tackling all the painting...it felt a little overwhelming.  The more hands on the better I say - it's a hobby, not a shopping expedition! 

The cardboard city was never going to do it for me. I craved something with a bit more texture, something that begged to be battled over. Enter cork!  A trip to the Bunnings (where cork tiles were sold out, so I had to go to another Bunnings and bought like 10 packets of cork tiles - their entire stock!!), and I was armed with a stack of cork tiles, ready to get building. 

The beauty of cork is that it's incredibly versatile.  It cuts straight very easily, allowing you to recreate the very regular style of the BPRE buildings - all you need is a sharp blade. I have a Stanley knife with 100+ blades that I swap out regularly. I used a hot glue gun to stick the walls to the bases and superglue to attach the mesh windows. I made patterns on paper and having various 1" etc templates certainly helped too. Once the basic structures were cut and glued, the real fun began.  Cork's natural texture creates a fantastic base for that war-torn aesthetic.  A little paint, some weathering with washes, and voila! Instant urban decay! 

 

Can make out the mesh I inserted in the window gaps in this pick.
A small detail, but it makes it that little bit easier to see where the windows are at.

I'm absolutely thrilled with the finished product.  The cork buildings have a solidity to them that the cardboard prototypes just couldn't match.  Plus, the texturing makes them a joy to look at, even when they're not under a hail of gunfire. Also, they kind of stick to the table too - there's that little bit of weight and grip to them that you just don't get with plastic, etc. Definitely a good choice.

Oh, the Doors!

How could I forget the Doors? the standard game comes with around 30 doors. I made mine using a papercraft pattern printed onto paper, then mounted onto heavy card stands. It took me quite a few hours, but they look great, so were well worth the effort.

My prototype - I've lots of papercraft
projects, so had lots of styles to choose from.

 

They look good huh?

So, then what?

Well, my terrain-building journey was far from over! My next mission was to conquer Axes & Ales (my gaming club) with an epic BPRE game day! The plan was to create not one, but TWO more sets of my trusty cork buildings, giving me enough terrain to accommodate three games running in parallel (well four, if I was to use my prototype terrain). But why stop there? I went and made the scatter terrain too – tip bins, oil drums, tactical planters, the whole nine yards! Finally, to top it off, I even crafted custom gaming boxes to ensure the BPRE sets can travel in style. I'll detail all that in another post :-)