Normandy Terrain: Buildings

Well, I finally finished with the remainder of the Normandy table. As I posted earlier this week, all these buildings are scratchbuilt from 3mm MDF cut with a table saw and dremel. Mostly this was an experiment to see if I could produce quality structures without the expense buying laser-cut parts or basic structures and I think it's a resounding success! Two major issues were cutting doors and windows (solved by marking them out with a carpentry square and cutting with a dremel cutting wheel) and hiding the rough corners (solved by using cereal box cardboard to make corner stonework). I made doors and some windows out of basswood and some windows are casts from originals made of plasticard. The shingle roofs are all cereal box cardboard - which, while a nice effect, is exceedingly tedious to cut out.

First up is the petrol station. This is a larger building meant to shelter large AT guns or even an AFV. I used several period photos to get the right "feel" for an older building converted for a more "modern" use. The garage door says "Repairs for cars of all Makes". Besides the basic construction detailed above, I added petrol pumps made from wooden "pawn" shapes with plasticard pump handles and readouts, added a small hanging lamp from an HO house kit, various bits, and fuel barrels and jerry cans from a 1/48 Tamiya kit.

The farmhouse stable was an MDF shell with scale basswood panels glued over it and painted. After basic construction, I added a 4ground rocking chair, wooden barrel shape, and hay. I painted the base with a cobblestone pattern to mimic the farmhouse base.

The schoolhouse was a last-minute addition. Originally, I had planned to do a Gendarme Station, but looking at photos of the time realized even the smallest one would be too large. Unlike the other buildings, the schoolhouse has a slightly raised first floor so I could add basement windows along the bottom, as well as make a larger, double-doored entraceway. The biggest pain with this building was getting the correct angles cut for the gabled dormer on the second floor. In addition to basic construction, I added a small washboard and some chalk drawings out front - in addition to the hopscotch, I added a small drawing presumably titled "Goodbye Blue Sky".

The Sarissa Chateau was the building that started this whole table and I wanted to build it into a larger complex fit for the landed class of prewar France. I used green washing pads to make a variety of manicured hedges, a small statue (using Gorgon Studios awesome "Marshal Ney" miniature), a small reflecting pond from basswood and Modge Podge (a mistake to use that instead of clear resin), and a greenhouse. 

The greenhouse was yet another experiment - I formed the basic structure out of clear acetate and then glued the basswood directly on it. I then distressed the "glass" with cracks, shards, and bulletholes. 

A cheeky way to treat the greenhouse is dangerous terrain, for those of you who have seen Die Hard...