Building Skinktown (part 1)

I am building a diorama for Warhammer figures; Skinktown. The building style will be part Moroccan, part Tattooine. It is designed so it could be used as a backdrop to a battle, on a 2' by 1' board, with a road in the centre to fit the existing battleboards. Eventually I will build a second one to go beside it, so we can have a 4' by 5' battlefield.

The basic form, then is a 2' by 1' board, 4mm plywood, just like the other boards, but with a similar vertical piece.

The shape of the land is formed with expanded polystyene, glued down with a hot glue gun. The plan is a road across the back, jumping a ravine on a bridge, with a second road descending from the left to the centre.

So there are two rows of buildings, those at the back in low relief. I built some rough prototypes of the building at the front to get in idea of how it would look, then started on the buildings at the back.

This one will go at the left, and is built of corrugated card from an old box. You can see how it has been cut to allow for the landscape at the right.

Here it is at a later stage, with an addition at the top right. Windows and doors have lintels (card from a cereal packet), the windows have meshes over them and the door is in place.

To give the walls texture, I painted on PVA glue and then liberally sprinkled on talc (I also filled in gaps in the corrugated card as much as possible too). Then the buildings were glued in place.

By the way, the sky was painted blue using a small roller; it gives a much more even finish than a brush; very important for sky.

In this image you can also see two of the prototypes for the foreground buildings.

Then I filled in gaps between the buildings with plaster. I used ready mixed plaster, a tub is only a pound from Poundland. Then it is all painted with white primer (the stuff you use on wood when decorating the house; it is relatively cheap and goes on any surface).

That is it so far. Next I will work on the building at the front.