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Build Guide · intermediate

Ruined farmhouse terrain

A scratch-built ruined stone wall section, a common terrain feature in Normandy's bocage country. Construction and painting follow the published terrain tutorials in the sources below; we have not built this piece ourselves.

A US patrol in the ruins of Saint-Lô, Normandy, July 1944, with Notre-Dame church behind. Reference image, not our terrain.
A US patrol in the ruins of Saint-Lô, Normandy, July 1944, with Notre-Dame church behind. Reference image, not our terrain. Photo: Salvas, U.S. Army Signal Corps, Public domain
Level
intermediate

Researched method, not a tested build

  1. Step 1 of 6

    Mark the walls

    Draw brick or stone coursing lines onto foamcore, then sketch window and door openings, along with a wavy, broken line marking where the wall has been blown out. Miniature Fort Blog's foamcore ruins tutorial glues cereal-box card over the foamcore for the coursing layer.

    Bench tip. Cut the openings before freeing the wall from its sheet; it is easier to control on a flat, supported piece.

  2. Step 2 of 6

    Cut the damage

    Cut away sections along the wavy break line, then bevel and rough up the cut edges with a blade so they do not look machine-cut. For a blown-out look, Miniature Fort Blog cuts a rough oval hole at a random point in the wall and pushes or pulls the card and foam outward, rather than cutting it cleanly away.

  3. Step 3 of 6

    Brace and base

    Glue roughened foamcore strips inside corners and floor joints for strength, following Battleground Hobbies' approach to building terrain ruins, then fix the walls to an MDF or foamcore base with PVA or superglue.

  4. Step 4 of 6

    Build the rubble

    Pile broken foam chunks, card strips and coarse sand or ballast around the base of the ruined wall and glue them down, following the same rubble method Battleground Hobbies uses for its building ruins.

  5. Step 5 of 6

    Paint the brickwork

    The Model Warrior's Normandy farmstead tutorial paints brick walls over a black basecoat, with progressive dry brushing in browns and greys from dark to light, individual bricks picked out in a mix of reds, sands and greys, and a dark wash over the whole wall to tie it together.

    Bench tip. Picking out a handful of individual bricks in slightly different tones, rather than leaving the whole wall one colour, is what sells the stonework at tabletop distance.

  6. Step 6 of 6

    Paint the rubble

    Base-coat the rubble pile with the same dark tone as the wall, then dry brush up through greys to a light highlight on the highest points, following Battleground Hobbies' progression from dark grey through to a light grey or warm white highlight.

Sources