Making 1/32 Scale Roman Buildings

 

Four "city" Roman buildings that I have been constructing this week.
The figures are 1/30 scale King & Country civilians.

Click on pictures to enlarge your view

The past week has seen me in a flurry of miniature model construction as I have started making some of the buildings (and then some) for my Hannibal Punic Wars war games at Little Wars and Historicon this year. Surrounded by vast sheets of foam core board, balsa and bass wood, thick card stock and oceans of glue, I have finished three farm buildings and have a good start on four city or town buildings.

When I embark on making buildings for a new historical period, I like to start with something that is simple and easy to make (such as small farm buildings) before I tackle the more complicated buildings (such as city buildings). This gives me a feel for how to design the basic shapes of the building and how to assemble them together. The most basic building is a square box with some doors and windows cut out from the sides of the box.

My first building was a small Roman era farm house and a work shed. The shed consisted of four pieces of foam core board and a tile roof that I fashioned out of a piece of corrugated cardboard from a box that I received from an eBay seller. I like to save some of my boxes for future use in model building constructions. After I cut out the sides of the walls I line up the pieces to make sure that they fit together and then I pin them together with sewing pins. Once I am satisfied with the fit of the pieces, I glue them together using my hot glue gun. 

Sometimes I will use super glue to tack on a decorative piece of wood to the foam core wall. The picture below shows a horizontal cross piece at the top of the front of the shed. This is a piece of a coffee stirrer that a local coffee house chain donated to me. It covers the gap between the roof tiles and the wall. I found it easier to use super glue rather than the hot glue gun in this instance because it spreads evenly across the wood while the hot glue is "lumpier" in its application.

Work shed to use with my Roman farm. 
King & Country figures.

The next model that I made was a small farm house such as those that might be found in the Italian countryside. This was easy to build, but it had a few more complications than the basic shed. This time I needed to make a ridged roof and to cut out the windows and doors from the foam core. I glued pieces of fine wire mesh over the interior parts of the window. The doors and shutters were made from balsa wood that I scored with a wooden fondue skewer to simulate wood planks. The wood bits were then covered with wood stain. 

The sides of the building were partially slathered with a mix of wall board paste and paint and allowed to dry overnight. The next day I painted the buildings with a light grey chalk paint and then did some dry brushing with a lighter shade of grey. I used Plastruct terra cotta roof tile (in plastic sheets of material) to make the roof. A piece of round dowel rod was used to cover the gap on the ridge of the roof where the two sides of plastic tile sheets met.

A birds eye view of the smaller Roman farm house and work shed.
King & Country figures.

The Medium Farm House Construction

The medium sized farm house starts with a basic shell made from 3/16th inch or 1/4 inch black or white foam core board. The picture below shows some of the basic house "shells" that I made from foam core board. I keep a set of sketches for each shell so that I know how to make it again for another building without having to go through the process of deciding on which dimensions to use all over again.

Four of my basic building shells for my Roman buildings. These serve as 
templates for future buildings.

Walls and roof construction:

I cut out the walls and then figure out where I want to place all of the doors and windows. Doors are made out of balsa wood and glued to the inside part of the wall. I use a fondue skewer to "score" vertical lines to create wood planks and then give it a stain of dark walnut stain.

Thick balsa wood or thinner bass wood pieces are used to make the ridge pole of the house. Supporting beams extend from the walls of the house to the ridge pole to strengthen the ridge pole. The cross beams do not actually support the roof, but rather, they are placed to offer strength to the side walls, preventing them from pushing inward. These structural pieces also get a coating of walnut stain.

A view of the roof ridge pole, beams and braces that will support the roof tiles. You can also
see the bits of mesh screen that cover the windows from the inside of the house shell.
This is the medium farm house work in progress photo.

Applying the Mud to Create Stucco Walls

I mix up a pot of wall board paste and brown paint that I use for basing my soldier figures. The same goop or mud also serves as stucco on the walls of Roman buildings. I like to use the Red Devil Pre-Mixed Spackling Paste for this part and I buy large tubes of craft acrylic brown paint from Michaels' Stores. Below is a picture of the medium farm house after the application of the mud.

The next phase is to paint the walls of the building with "chalk paint". I use a medium grey as the base coat and then I dry brush a light grey chalk paint to pick out the texture of the wall board paste. 

Attaching the Roof 

After all of the exterior painting is finished I then turn my attention to attaching the roof tiles to the house. I will cut out a piece of cardboard the size of each half of the roof and glue them into place. This provides a sturdy base for the plastic roof tiles. The roof tiles come in plastic sheets that measure about 8-inches by 12-inches and it is a simple matter of measuring the tile sheet and cutting it with a box cutter knife. The tiles have been sprayed with a coat of primer prior to being glued to the roof and so I finish the painting of the tiles after they have been attached to the roof. The tiles are glued into place using my not glue gun and then I stick sewing pins through the plastic tile sheet and into the foam core board. I finally cut a length of round dowel rod and fit it into place where the plastic tiles join at the ridge pole. This simulates the tiles that would be placed horizontally across the peak of the roof to prevent rain water from seeping in under the vertical tiles.

The painting and dry brushing of the terra cotta colors are done after everything is attached in its place.

Here is a picture of the finished medium sized Roman farm house:

Medium sized Roman farm house (right) populated with King & Country 1/30 scale figures.

Next Up: Constructing City Buildings

Here is a preview of the first four city buildings that I have been working on this week. All of them are in the "work in progress" stage and I hope to get them painted and finished sometime next week. Stay tuned to this blog for pictures of the finished city buildings.

The models in the pictures represent one side of one street of my Roman city. I could have as many as 16 shop and town house buildings in the project. There will also be a Roman temple and maybe a forum and a bath house when I complete the project. There will definitely be an aqueduct running across the side of the game table.

One thought is to make only a few buildings for war gaming purposes. However, I am also considering making this an on-going project and adding a few more building here and there over the next several years. The city would cover a 6ft by 4ft table; or maybe even more over time.

Here are some inspirational pictures to help me through the Roman City Project.