28mm Normandy buildings for WWII gaming

These buildings are intended for 28mm games (like Bolt Action or other similar historical World War II games). The early prototypes were made from foamcore but I switched over to 1/8" tempered hardboard to make them more durable on the game table and while packed away in transport.

The only drawback to using the 1/8" tempered hardboard is that is requires power tools to cut. You'll need a drill to make a pilot hole for the windows and I used a scroll saw to complete the window and door cuts. You can cut the basic shapes out with a jig saw, but the scroll saw gives a cleaner cut and you can stay on your guidelines better resulting in a better finished product.

Also I left the bottom and 2nd floors as one room. You could divide them into two rooms by adding an interior wall but I wanted to make them as playable as possible and fitting a 10 man squad inside a tiny room is too much trouble so I left each floor as one big room. In Bolt Action, one squad can occupy one floor so it keeps things clean in the game too.
This is an early prototype made from foamcore.
The parts are easy to cut out of foamcore using an X-Acto knife.
The roof shingles are made from cereal box card and scored with a ball point pen.
The shutters and doors are from coffee stirrers and balsa wood.


You can see how small the rooms are so the next version will get scaled a bit larger.

The 2nd floor is removable from the inside but it is a bit fiddley so I scrapped that design.



This is the new design made from 1/8" tempered hardboard.
Larger and with split floors to make it easier to get to the troops on the bottom floor.
I was in a rush the get them ready for MidSouthCon 32 so I just sprayed them with grey primer.


The roof is removable to get at the top floor.
The floor is made from coffee stir sticks.




And the top floor lifts off to give access to the bottom floor.


The roof on this design is a bit more complicated. It is made from rows of cut coffee stirrers.
I was in a hurry to get these ready for MidSouthCon 32 so I just painted the roof flat black.
The window and door trim is made from match sticks and coffee stir sticks.


This is another example of a foamcore version. It is a single building, not the typical "duplex" style.






Here is a photo from MidSouthCon 32 with these on the game table.
In the upper right corner of the shot you can see the town made of these buildings.