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The Mordheim buildings that came with the box set are wonderful. Printed with a great strong color theme and assembled with 3d plastic pieces they enhanced the game; providing a playable set of buildings, and providing the wonderful miniatures with a rich consistent back drop.
So, naturally, I was not satisfied.
Assembled over 20 years ago, my set has seen fantasy skirmishes, pirate raids and even been pushed into service for Bolt Action. I suspect the biggest contributor to their longevity has been that I mounted them on sturdy hardboard bases. This added rigidity and allows the bases to have a modicum of rubble (mostly cheap clay cat litter). A realistic amount of rubble would probably be unplayable.
The hardboard bases were wrapped in photocopies of the early GW Dungeon Floor Plans and painted with a wash to provide each building with a pavement/sidewalk of flagstones. When placed on a board with texture and paint the buildings create an instant street.
The first couple of buildings I built, as instructed.. but they obviously needed floor joists. Somehow thin floors made only of boards are more unrealistic than walls made from a single layer of plaster. (at least the walls were printed to look like they had layers). So, I added floor joists in painted balsa.
These added bits of wood have held up ok, but most of the buildings have lost a few that I need to replace. The red 3 story has lost a window that I think is put aside.. somewhere.
After just two buildings I decided that thin walls were not doing it for me, so added foamcore walls to the interior (leaving the exterior faces).The inside faces and edges were painted to match the overall tone of the set.
Then I moved on to making my own buildings. Scratch built but using the plastic parts and similar colors to maintain the overall consistent look. The quoins on the house below are card painted to look like the original plastic ones. designing my own allowed me to add stairs and interior walls, and to build a larger building for the waterfront with a more commercial (less residential) feel.
Finally, I made a couple of character pieces
I have always enjoyed making scenery out of whatever I can find. Garage sale/car boot sale toys can be a great source of durable parts. The ruined cathedral walls are part of the 40K boxed set at the time and were very easy, and inexpensive to pick up. The base is hard molded plastic and came from a 1991 game by Parker called The Great Museum Caper - a 3d version of Clue/Cludo. The result was very durable, and like the buildings, includes it own sidewalk.
And for the center piece, Sigmar's Temple bell tower.
This model uses some of the plastic components of a Disney playset combined with foamboard, cardboard, plastic sheet, an empire knight and a metal devil from the C18 undead series, and various plastic kit bits. I'm going to add a base and maybe a wing or two during this round of repairs and restoration. Also it had a twin tailed comet weather vain that has been lost a needs replacing.
Overall - Beautiful scenery that has stood the test of time.
As well as repairs I am adding some new 3d printed pieces to my set and trying to stay with the original vision - I'm using some ruined building pieces by Gothic Things (MyMiniFactory). And I have found I can easily create 3d versions of the original Dungeon Floor Plans to base them on. (ImageToStl.com).
In other news - the last group of preslotta Citadel goblins are starting to leave my paint table so before too long I'll be putting up more of them. And.. my goal to finish all the figures I have started but left unfinished over the years is off to a productive start - but I keep realizing there are more...
Cheers
Caius
