Audrey's Oubliette

by Audrey Ewing

I have always liked the paper terrain World Works Games puts out. It is one of the best ways to create scenery for modern day games. But I didn’t want stuff that was flimsy and flat. So sometime ago I decided to make the paper terrain using foam core. It takes more work but in the end it looks great. So I figured I would share my knowledge and make a little “how to” for those interested in how making buildings with foamcore from the WWG stuff yourself.

Starting it all

First I want to point out that I customize all my buildings by taking them into photoshop and tweaking them before printing them out. So my buildings, their size and how they look will not always match the standard WWG stuff.

After printing out the walls, roof, and base on cardstock I use spray adhesive to glue the outside walls and base only onto foarmcore. Do not glue the inside walls at this moment. You can see that I left and outside edge of cardstock around all the walls when gluing them down (see image 1 below). This makes it easier to get a nice clean edge when cutting them out.

Walls

I cut out all the walls from the foam core using a metal ruler and x-acto knife. I cut the walls making sure the blade is straight up and down. If it is at an angle you end up with a beveled edge.

After cutting out all the walls I start working on the doors and windows. Now you don’t have to use transparencies for the windows but I find it adds an extra dimension to the buildings which makes them look better. But I will also point out that the bulk of time assembling these buildings is spent on cutting out the windows.

Base tile

Cut out the base the building goes on just like the walls and set it aside. For the base I actually use gatorfoam and not foamcore. Gatorfoam is more rigid than foamcore. That way my base tiles are always very strong and flat. But gatorfoam does cost a lot more than foamcore.

Doors

I begin with the doors by cutting around the frame of the door so the door itself will be recessed on the outside. When cutting out doors I make sure to only cut through the first layer of cardstock and foam. DO NOT CUT THROUGH ALL THE WAY. The backside or interior wall of the building should remain intact for the doors.

The door is a bit tricky to detach from the back foam since you do not cut all the way through. I use a larger utility knife that has an extendable blade. I cut into the foam from the bottom of the door and try to cut all the way through to the top of the door and to each side (see image 1 below). Then using the utility knife I separate the outside door from the backing cardstock (see image 2 below).

The foam never cuts cleanly and that is not a problem. Now comes the time to make a big mess. Using an x-acto scrape off all the foam on the back of the outside door and the foam on the doorway. If you have any windows in the door you cut them out of the outside door first. Then place the outside door piece back into the door frame and trace the widows from the outside door onto the back cardstock (see image 4 below). Pickup the outside door and you should have a nice guide line to use for cutting the windows for the inside door. Hopefully the images below will help make sense of this.

Once your door and windows in the door are cut out you can glue the transparency windows in place and then glue the outside door onto the door frame back cardstock. Thus creating a recessed door.

Windows

Ah windows, the nightmare of it all. If you feel you are not up for the madness of cutting out windows I would not blame you to just leave the printed ones as they are and skip this step. For the brave at heart or insane, continue on.

Similar to the doors you are going to carefully cut out around the windows, but you DO cut all the way through the foamcore this time. Try to cut as straight up and down as possible.

When cutting out the windows the outside tends to look nice and neat (see image 1 below), but the backside looks less than perfect. Do not worry as this is ok. When you are finished no one will be the wiser as your interior wall will cover the less than perfect cut lines. Remove the printed window from the window frame (see image 3 below). Now if you did not cut perfectly straight, clean up the window frame and any stray pieces of foam. Again as long as you have not done a hack job the windows will look reasonably straight so people will not notice. I haven’t had anyone notice.

Grab the printed out inside wall that corresponds to the wall you just cut the widows out of. Carefully cut out all of the inside windows. Be sure to cut along the same lines as you did the outside window. Once all the windows are removed from the inside wall you can start gluing all the transparency windows into place. I noticed that the printed transparencies look shiner on one side that the other. I try to glue all my windows in so the duller side is facing to the outside of the building. Once all the transparency windows are glued in place it should look similar to image 5 below.

Now take your outside wall that is attached to foamcore with all the windows removed and glue the inside wall to the back of the foamcore. When gluing the inside walls I use a glue stick that is low in water content (UHU Office Pens 99570). The glue stick allows me a little time to reposition the inside wall if needed unlike the spray adhesive. The low water content glue stick also keeps the foamcore from warping as it dries. Though I stack some heavy books on the walls while they dry to keep everything nice and flat. You should now have a nice little wall with windows you can see through.

Fitting the walls together

To make the outside walls butt up together nicely you need to remove a strip of cardboard and foam that is the exact width of the adjoining wall. You only need to cut two walls for a typical rectangular building. I cut the notches out of the front and rear piece (see image 3 below).

The foam core I use is approximately 0.24″ wide. But foamcore varies in thickness from manufacturer to manufacturer even if they all claim to be 5mm thick. So use all the same type of foamcore.

I add a thin cut line at the 0.24″ mark on each side of the wall in photoshop. That way the lines are already there and I can just cut away. You can also measure them out with a ruler or use a piece of foamcore as a guide. The interior wall should be glued on before cutting the notches. Similar to how the doors are cut out, you cut through the interior wall cardboard and foam but not the exterior wall’s cardboard (see example 1 below). Now time for more scraping to remove the foam.

Once you have all the notches cut in your walls it is time to assemble the building. I test fit all the walls before gluing. If everything fits nicely I glue the building together. While the buidling is drying I tape the corners of the walls together with low tack painters tape. The brand I buy is purple colored. I forget the company name. I also glue the building to the base tile while the walls are drying so I can position the building correctly.

Roof

Your are almost there. The roof is pretty easy. Just spray mount the printed roof cardstock to the foamcore, just like the walls. Cut out the roof from the foamcore. For the roof to fit on the building you will need to trim a .24″ groove around every roof edge similar to the walls. Once that is done the roof will fit flush on top of the building. I find sometimes one side or another of the roof may need to be cut a little wider so it will fit on properly. Once you get your roof to fit you should be done except for the little add on details like signs, ladders and such.

Wrap up

I hope you find this helpful. Unfortunately I do not have as many photos as I would like to show every step but I think the core parts are covered. The best way to learn this process is to just build a building this way. I refined my process overtime as I assembled buildings. Also you learn to spot problem areas. Plus once you have it all down you can create L or U shaped buildings that look more dynamic than a traditional rectangle.