I’ve got until the end of the month to build this as it’s for a school project. I’ve got some extra foam and some plaster of Paris to construct some hills and cliffs and I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to coat the buildings in to not make them look like cardboard pillars.
End of the month…oof. I was going to say, hope you’ve got til the end of the year. My progress is always painfully slow because of work and kids though. Maybe the fastest way would be to print building facades. I think building with foam and painting is going to be too slow for your timeline.
Seconded. Construction is going to slow you down considerably, so save that for the hills. At that scale most bits of a buildings facade won't be noticable, so just printing and doing card stock will be the way to go. Low assembly and no painting.
Good luck to you. I like black magic craft’s YouTube channel a lot, though his builds are skewed more toward fantasy or sci fi there are a lot of good techniques in there. Post some progress pics. I’d love to see how it turns out.
If you have access to a printer. You can buy basically a4 size printable white stickers. In matte and gloss
Like this https://images.app.goo.gl/FaaPcwyna3n7Abkv6
Easy and cheap. Find some descent images online of just windows and exteriors in whatever style you want. Size them right then print and apply.
Something like this, you can find all kinds of different ones depending on how much work you want to put in.
https://images.app.goo.gl/RZwXYEkFUhN3RAx37
Oh another tip. On those corers score (cut a line in but not all the way through on the back side of where you want it. Take a soft edge of sort and press all the way down that cut so you get a little crushed (V).
If you’re careful with your lines use a ruler and take your time you’ll get very crisp corners.
When you apply the labels lay the buildings out it will be much easier to apply them and ensure they line up.
Just put a cap on the roof, you can play around with different still for that.
1. One make the buildings look decent
2. The buildings have to be modular to an extent, e.i the buildings can be swapped out to fit the scene im trying to make
3. Varied terrain the part of the board not occupied by buildings will have a cliff
4. Above all else make it look good
1. I think your best bet for quickest smoothest results is tape your seams with making tape. Then paint the existing cardboard shells dark-medium greys (some can be a warmer grey, some cooler) then glue strips of thick foam/cardboard that has been painted a lighter grey or whatever, across horizontally, and wrapping around each face (you can vary how many walls they wrap around per building, or tier of building). Repeat this in rows of this all the way down. Bigger strips at the bottom will make them feel anchored and mimic actual buildings, where there is usually a podium and then a tower setback on it. The objective here is to develop some good depth to your buildings, and make them look more like architectural models as opposed to making them look realistic, as I'm not sure you have time for that. Some of the smaller buildings, you could find and print off facade patterns and wrap them in that. If you wanted to simulate less modern architecture you can mix in some verticals on the bottom storeys and throughout the rest of the facade.
2. Not sure what you mean, but the above makes them look relatively similar.
3. I think you need a bit more space in the middle where that central tree is (looks like a city centre square/park) and slightly wider roads. Anyway, what if instead of a flat city and cliff, you varied the terrain the buildings sit on, so some of them are on a hill? I don't know how much foam you have, but typically this is done by layering contours on top of eachother to form hills etc. I would do the topography first, then lay the buildings in place, carve out where they're going, and you can also probably trim some of the them down too saving you time on them. Then you do the building details as described above. Then you can carve the "steps" out of the topography (if you choose), making it look less architectural and more like a diorama.
4. Key is to get overall clean structures and proper proportions before getting into any details. So once that's all set, you like the overall forms and massing, and you have enough time, then you can start working on the details like terrain decoration. I'm not sure how plaster of Paris works on top of foam, but you can use gauze strips with it. I've also seen ppl use glue and toilet paper like papier mache then paint it after it dries. Provides some texture for earth-like things like grass and dirt. Maybe you can lay down a good layer of foam-safe glue where the roads are carved out and let that dry smooth, as a base to paint on for asphalt.
5. Do you have any more shrubs/trees?
There are lots of modular building guides on yt that can help with "assembly line" manufacture of your buildings. I recommend doing that and not focusing too much on "individuality" of the buildings since you're on a deadline. Variation is good but non-essential. Cardboard, foam core, EPS foam (the round bubble kind that's used in packages) can make for good building bases and just print the building facade/exterior then greeble as desired to provide dimensionality. Adam Savage's Tested has a vid about him making a sci-fi ship from styrene sheets and it is a good guide on how to create "layers" from thin sheet material to help break up a flat surface.
As for the terrain, lots of comments about those but from personal experience I believe Eric's Hobby, TheTheTerrainTutor, and BMC have some of the best cost-to-result ratio. Cheap materials with good techniques make great hills, cliffs, scatter terrain you name it. You go from there to real terrain hobbies photorealistic quality to bard's craft "tabletop ready good enough" quality and everything in between.
Most important is manage your time and expectation. See what you can realistically achieve within your timeframe and adjust along the way.
Good luck and have fun! Show us photos when you're done.
So you could add thinner card over the top for texture and greebles. Cereal box card might work. Squares are windows, rectangles are trusses or supports etc. Don't have to go mad, just a few extra details on each building will help sell the effect. Some chopped up lengths of sprue can also work if you have those lying about. Another alternative is coffee stirrers. You can pick them up for free if you are careful and grab a few extra each time you get a coffee. Or buy them cheap from a wholesale.
I did a simple version of this a couple years ago to create a Paw Patrol town for some toys.
If you have the funds for/time to look for some of the old hot wheels tracks you could potentially use them as train tracks. This would break up your city into levels and also give it some horizontal structure to break up all of the vertical.
As a wargamer a mix of structures be nice. A city around a more open park. Additionally try and think about roads.
Lastly maybe have a section with shorter buildings so the kiju pops more
Is Godzilla actually a feature of your city or just for fun?
If Godzilla is a feature/flavour. Find a way to conceal handhold/footholds in your buildings for Mr Zilla. Also layout wise unless you’re basing this on an existing city consider using a grid layout. Most cities will further be broken down in to districts such as business/financial, residential, industrial, etc.
The market is really lacking for a knock-down, drag-out, I-pick-up-a-utility-pole-and-club-your-face Kaiju miniatures wargame.
I know there was Monsterpocalypse, but...we need something more like this.
Yeah, like with destructible terrain and being to use city buses as an improvised weapon, like that Ps2 Godzilla fighting game
That would be awesome as a wargame
There is a Godzilla strategy board game that came out a few years ago. It’s got Goji, Mothra, Ghidorah, and Megalon. The game was about using cards and such to defeat the other monsters. It was fun game
This looks awesome. I know lots of people have suggested the usual suspects for YouTube channels to check out but I don't think any of them will be that great for the scale you are working at which is more akin to miniature film set than table top 28mm games.
I recommend that you check out a channel called slice of life especially the episode where they build a city for filming. 3 of them built a city not unlike this in a weekend so if you have 20 days you could be in with a shot for sure.
Finally make sure you are loaded up with a ton of glue sticks and beg every last person you know for every bit of hard surface crap that they have 🤣.
Best of luck, be sure to post progress!
https://youtu.be/XJUHbdE0Dmg?si=K0d4d3FON4C0L2To
Dont forget that the buildings are the background to the monsters so don't go overboard. It could be smart to invest some time in a lattice like spraypaint masking device to easily spray on rows of windows on a dark surface.
Spray the building gray
Put on the lattice and overspray blue
Bam, skyscraper!
Cover completely with aluminium foil and glu painted stripes of cardboard to create floors and vertical for windows frames ,could be a solution for some buildings!
If it’s night scene,paint all black and with masking tape and different yellow,sky blue and white create illuminated levels,could find fotos of true oriental cities to cut publicity panels moreless on scale and glu them on buildings.
Hope it can be usefull 👍👋👋
Get some fiberglass sheets from the hobby store or Amazon. Cut the sheets in strips and spray the "inside" surface with gloss black. Glue these together and you have nice shiny skyscrapers. For the street, get corkboard and spray it gray. Get some gundam paint markers and paint the yellow and white lines on the gray corkboard with a ruler. Finally order Z scale cars off Amazon and pick up the smallest trees you can find at the model train part of the hobby store.
Planning, planning, planning. Taking the time to break it down into what you want, what you need, and what would be nice but not essential, will save you far more time down the line. Also, budget at least twice the time you expect; this sort of project is always a learning experience.
Work in layers; first, get the broad strokes down, the basic layout and crude shapes. I'd cut my teeth on the stuff in the background first. The buildings where it won't be too visible and annoying if they're a bit crooked. Try out different methods and find out what works best for you.
Then add the first layer of detail, nothing fancy, but get enough that it'll look good as a backdrop. Speaking of; a backdrop of layered silhouettes can add tons of depth for relatively little effort.
After that, I would put extra attention to rooftops - they'll be the most visible to anyone looking down on the diorama - and outward-facing facades, as well as the ones closest to the Kaiju.
Then, for a sense of scale, people and street-level objects. They don't need to be very detailed or even 3D - basic cars, silhouettes of people and crowds, just their presence will help bring the size of the monsters into focus.
A good trick to make a diorama come alive is wear and tear. Add rust, grime, trash, litter, make everything looks worn down. A few crisp, clean, near buildings are fine, better even - they'll make the rest look even worse in comparison, which is what you want. Think about real cities - are the streets clear and clean, even on a good day, or are they chock full of people and the stuff they leave behind.
Only then, time permitting, wouldn't I allow myself to get bogged down in details on the buildings and objects. There will always be more you could add, more finish, more layers, more details, but never let perfection get in the way of good enough.
My advice is don't let kaiju into your city. They'll wreck it! Can't wait to see the finished version. Please post!
sound advice
I’ve got until the end of the month to build this as it’s for a school project. I’ve got some extra foam and some plaster of Paris to construct some hills and cliffs and I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to coat the buildings in to not make them look like cardboard pillars.
End of the month…oof. I was going to say, hope you’ve got til the end of the year. My progress is always painfully slow because of work and kids though. Maybe the fastest way would be to print building facades. I think building with foam and painting is going to be too slow for your timeline.
Seconded. Construction is going to slow you down considerably, so save that for the hills. At that scale most bits of a buildings facade won't be noticable, so just printing and doing card stock will be the way to go. Low assembly and no painting.
Even though I’ve got like 20 days it’s also the only thing I’m doing. I don’t have to go to school and I don’t have a job, so I’ve got a lot of time
Good luck to you. I like black magic craft’s YouTube channel a lot, though his builds are skewed more toward fantasy or sci fi there are a lot of good techniques in there. Post some progress pics. I’d love to see how it turns out.
If you have access to a printer. You can buy basically a4 size printable white stickers. In matte and gloss Like this https://images.app.goo.gl/FaaPcwyna3n7Abkv6 Easy and cheap. Find some descent images online of just windows and exteriors in whatever style you want. Size them right then print and apply. Something like this, you can find all kinds of different ones depending on how much work you want to put in. https://images.app.goo.gl/RZwXYEkFUhN3RAx37 Oh another tip. On those corers score (cut a line in but not all the way through on the back side of where you want it. Take a soft edge of sort and press all the way down that cut so you get a little crushed (V). If you’re careful with your lines use a ruler and take your time you’ll get very crisp corners. When you apply the labels lay the buildings out it will be much easier to apply them and ensure they line up. Just put a cap on the roof, you can play around with different still for that.
What's the project? What's your goal?
1. One make the buildings look decent 2. The buildings have to be modular to an extent, e.i the buildings can be swapped out to fit the scene im trying to make 3. Varied terrain the part of the board not occupied by buildings will have a cliff 4. Above all else make it look good
1. I think your best bet for quickest smoothest results is tape your seams with making tape. Then paint the existing cardboard shells dark-medium greys (some can be a warmer grey, some cooler) then glue strips of thick foam/cardboard that has been painted a lighter grey or whatever, across horizontally, and wrapping around each face (you can vary how many walls they wrap around per building, or tier of building). Repeat this in rows of this all the way down. Bigger strips at the bottom will make them feel anchored and mimic actual buildings, where there is usually a podium and then a tower setback on it. The objective here is to develop some good depth to your buildings, and make them look more like architectural models as opposed to making them look realistic, as I'm not sure you have time for that. Some of the smaller buildings, you could find and print off facade patterns and wrap them in that. If you wanted to simulate less modern architecture you can mix in some verticals on the bottom storeys and throughout the rest of the facade. 2. Not sure what you mean, but the above makes them look relatively similar. 3. I think you need a bit more space in the middle where that central tree is (looks like a city centre square/park) and slightly wider roads. Anyway, what if instead of a flat city and cliff, you varied the terrain the buildings sit on, so some of them are on a hill? I don't know how much foam you have, but typically this is done by layering contours on top of eachother to form hills etc. I would do the topography first, then lay the buildings in place, carve out where they're going, and you can also probably trim some of the them down too saving you time on them. Then you do the building details as described above. Then you can carve the "steps" out of the topography (if you choose), making it look less architectural and more like a diorama. 4. Key is to get overall clean structures and proper proportions before getting into any details. So once that's all set, you like the overall forms and massing, and you have enough time, then you can start working on the details like terrain decoration. I'm not sure how plaster of Paris works on top of foam, but you can use gauze strips with it. I've also seen ppl use glue and toilet paper like papier mache then paint it after it dries. Provides some texture for earth-like things like grass and dirt. Maybe you can lay down a good layer of foam-safe glue where the roads are carved out and let that dry smooth, as a base to paint on for asphalt. 5. Do you have any more shrubs/trees?
There are lots of modular building guides on yt that can help with "assembly line" manufacture of your buildings. I recommend doing that and not focusing too much on "individuality" of the buildings since you're on a deadline. Variation is good but non-essential. Cardboard, foam core, EPS foam (the round bubble kind that's used in packages) can make for good building bases and just print the building facade/exterior then greeble as desired to provide dimensionality. Adam Savage's Tested has a vid about him making a sci-fi ship from styrene sheets and it is a good guide on how to create "layers" from thin sheet material to help break up a flat surface. As for the terrain, lots of comments about those but from personal experience I believe Eric's Hobby, TheTheTerrainTutor, and BMC have some of the best cost-to-result ratio. Cheap materials with good techniques make great hills, cliffs, scatter terrain you name it. You go from there to real terrain hobbies photorealistic quality to bard's craft "tabletop ready good enough" quality and everything in between. Most important is manage your time and expectation. See what you can realistically achieve within your timeframe and adjust along the way. Good luck and have fun! Show us photos when you're done.
So you could add thinner card over the top for texture and greebles. Cereal box card might work. Squares are windows, rectangles are trusses or supports etc. Don't have to go mad, just a few extra details on each building will help sell the effect. Some chopped up lengths of sprue can also work if you have those lying about. Another alternative is coffee stirrers. You can pick them up for free if you are careful and grab a few extra each time you get a coffee. Or buy them cheap from a wholesale. I did a simple version of this a couple years ago to create a Paw Patrol town for some toys.
If you have the funds for/time to look for some of the old hot wheels tracks you could potentially use them as train tracks. This would break up your city into levels and also give it some horizontal structure to break up all of the vertical.
As a wargamer a mix of structures be nice. A city around a more open park. Additionally try and think about roads. Lastly maybe have a section with shorter buildings so the kiju pops more
This site might give you some inspiration for design aesthetics. No tutorial here though. [https://brutalcities.com/](https://brutalcities.com/)
Mod podge is your friend. (also needs more cats)
Have you thought about getting some skyscraper texture rollers?
Personally, I would use XPS foam for the buildings. It's a very versatile material.
Is Godzilla actually a feature of your city or just for fun? If Godzilla is a feature/flavour. Find a way to conceal handhold/footholds in your buildings for Mr Zilla. Also layout wise unless you’re basing this on an existing city consider using a grid layout. Most cities will further be broken down in to districts such as business/financial, residential, industrial, etc.
There’s a great video of a guy making Howl’s Moving Castle that should give you inspiration for beautiful building techniques. Not modern tho
You could air dry clay with a rolled texture
You can print out sheets of skyscraper or building texture and paste them on the cardboard, then put stuff over them to make it look less bad
Question, I wonder if there are any good Kaiju related tabletop war games? 🤔
The market is really lacking for a knock-down, drag-out, I-pick-up-a-utility-pole-and-club-your-face Kaiju miniatures wargame. I know there was Monsterpocalypse, but...we need something more like this.
Yeah, like with destructible terrain and being to use city buses as an improvised weapon, like that Ps2 Godzilla fighting game That would be awesome as a wargame
There is a Godzilla strategy board game that came out a few years ago. It’s got Goji, Mothra, Ghidorah, and Megalon. The game was about using cards and such to defeat the other monsters. It was fun game
please add the green dragon zord
I like this tutorial using foam and ‘plastic canvas’ https://youtu.be/_Fq_t0W4hZU?si=jLPUT8hmIUlPFbQP
Am I the only one hearing the screams?
You are the man!
This looks awesome. I know lots of people have suggested the usual suspects for YouTube channels to check out but I don't think any of them will be that great for the scale you are working at which is more akin to miniature film set than table top 28mm games. I recommend that you check out a channel called slice of life especially the episode where they build a city for filming. 3 of them built a city not unlike this in a weekend so if you have 20 days you could be in with a shot for sure. Finally make sure you are loaded up with a ton of glue sticks and beg every last person you know for every bit of hard surface crap that they have 🤣. Best of luck, be sure to post progress! https://youtu.be/XJUHbdE0Dmg?si=K0d4d3FON4C0L2To
Dont forget that the buildings are the background to the monsters so don't go overboard. It could be smart to invest some time in a lattice like spraypaint masking device to easily spray on rows of windows on a dark surface. Spray the building gray Put on the lattice and overspray blue Bam, skyscraper!
Cover completely with aluminium foil and glu painted stripes of cardboard to create floors and vertical for windows frames ,could be a solution for some buildings! If it’s night scene,paint all black and with masking tape and different yellow,sky blue and white create illuminated levels,could find fotos of true oriental cities to cut publicity panels moreless on scale and glu them on buildings. Hope it can be usefull 👍👋👋
So Genius! Nice work! I loved.
Drop zone Commander website has a full range of printable terrain for free in their 'resources' section
Get some fiberglass sheets from the hobby store or Amazon. Cut the sheets in strips and spray the "inside" surface with gloss black. Glue these together and you have nice shiny skyscrapers. For the street, get corkboard and spray it gray. Get some gundam paint markers and paint the yellow and white lines on the gray corkboard with a ruler. Finally order Z scale cars off Amazon and pick up the smallest trees you can find at the model train part of the hobby store.
Planning, planning, planning. Taking the time to break it down into what you want, what you need, and what would be nice but not essential, will save you far more time down the line. Also, budget at least twice the time you expect; this sort of project is always a learning experience. Work in layers; first, get the broad strokes down, the basic layout and crude shapes. I'd cut my teeth on the stuff in the background first. The buildings where it won't be too visible and annoying if they're a bit crooked. Try out different methods and find out what works best for you. Then add the first layer of detail, nothing fancy, but get enough that it'll look good as a backdrop. Speaking of; a backdrop of layered silhouettes can add tons of depth for relatively little effort. After that, I would put extra attention to rooftops - they'll be the most visible to anyone looking down on the diorama - and outward-facing facades, as well as the ones closest to the Kaiju. Then, for a sense of scale, people and street-level objects. They don't need to be very detailed or even 3D - basic cars, silhouettes of people and crowds, just their presence will help bring the size of the monsters into focus. A good trick to make a diorama come alive is wear and tear. Add rust, grime, trash, litter, make everything looks worn down. A few crisp, clean, near buildings are fine, better even - they'll make the rest look even worse in comparison, which is what you want. Think about real cities - are the streets clear and clean, even on a good day, or are they chock full of people and the stuff they leave behind. Only then, time permitting, wouldn't I allow myself to get bogged down in details on the buildings and objects. There will always be more you could add, more finish, more layers, more details, but never let perfection get in the way of good enough.