Ten Tips for 40k Buildings

March 29, 2008 by steerpike · Filed Under Modeling & Scenery

This article suggests new ways of using the Cities of Death building parts for terrain and on other models.

One of the best things about Cities of Death was the release of the building sets. These are easy-to-make, highly detailed and large, and the amount of plastic and the detail you get make them better value than many other GW products. They are designed to make ruined buildings, but sets can easily be combined to produce intact structures. What with Apocalypse having recently been released, it’s a good time to be building a city.

It’s likely that once you’ve finished making a selection of buildings you will have quite a lot of pieces left over. Don’t throw them away! There are loads of uses to which the remaining parts can be put. Here are a few suggestions, meant as much to get people thinking of new ideas as anything.

1. Shapes. The key to a lot of conversions is to look out for the shapes and styles that you want. Some parts of the building sprues look like other things. The half-doughnut-shaped “bumps” that come with the Manufactorum look rather like the sponson of a small tank, for instance, and could work as one with a gun barrel added.

2. Think about the look you want. The Sanctus looks quite medieval, as does most of the Administratum building. The eagle doors and buttresses from the Admin building look more “1930’s dictator”. The Manufactorum has a more industrial, Victorian feel. If you mix and match parts from different sets, you should think about the eventual aim you want. For some reason, the more industrial parts in a mixed building look better on the lower storeys and the more decorated bits on the upper floors.

3. Buy some plasticard. A bit of textured plasticard in place of a panel can make a building look original and suitably weird. Also, a balcony, spire or oddly-shaped lower storey made from plasticard can really break up the boxy look of the wall pieces stuck together.

4. Add some extras. The sprues are designed to make the ruins of boxed-shaped buildings. This can get a bit samey, so feel free to improvise. Walls don’t have to meet at right angles. A bog-standard box-shaped structure with half a ball on top could be the basis for an interesting observatory or gun emplacement. An arm from an Ork dreadnought could make a good crane boom.

5. Salvage the details. If you’re making a fully-enclosed building, or lying one of the pieces down so you can’t see the back of it, there will be some details that will no longer be visible to an observer. Cut as many of the details you can off the side of the piece that won’t be seen before you stick it together. Nobody will see that they’re not there, and you can use them on other conversions. It’s surprising how a few extra salvaged parts can make a plasticard box look authentic.

6. Looking for an unusual Space Marine helmet? Use one of the grilled lamps from the sprues. Cut the lamp off the building sprue, then slice the face off the marine helmet just behind the eyes. Glue lamp front to Marine helmet to produce a Bioshock-style diving helmet. Probably quite good for technological, Iron Hands-type armies.

7. A lamp post comes with the floor sprue common to all the pieces. By cutting off the round base (but leaving the “fins” on) and the cylindrical lamp itself (the bit that would be glass in real life), you can easily make a rather gothic missile. A good objective, or a hunter-killer for a tank.

8. Several of the “ruined window” pieces from the boxed sets have clearly been made by cutting bits off the complete window panel. With some careful cutting and GS work, two of the ruined pieces can be cut and combined to make one whole one if you’re running low.

9. Think outside the 40k Building box. Parts from other kits work well too, especially the Empire building kits that came out recently. They have a lot of gothic “twiddly bits”. The angels from the Warhammer chapel would look especially good on a 40k building, as would the statues from the fortified manor kit.

10. In the same way, parts from the building sets don’t have to be restricted to buildings. Big Imperial tanks can benefit from the decorations on the building sprues, and really massive machines could have entire buildings on top of them. Yarrick’s baneblade, the Fortress of Arrogance, incorporates some of these.

Obviously this isn’t a be-all-and-end-all list. There are loads of things you could come up with. The point I want to make, though, is that a lot of good conversions come from using parts in new and innovative ways. There are loads of ideas in real-life architecture, so keep an eye open!