Aberillo: Making Old West Buildings

Following on from my photos of my Old West town, Aberillo, I've been asked by several people for plans so they can make their own buildings. But there are no plans. Each building was made separately, along some broad guidelines, and this is one of the things I like about Aberillo - every building is different. The lack of consistency gives the town character and a bit of a ramshackle look (made even more so by the lack of precision in the details). 

Although I can't provide plans, I can talk through the process, and outline some of the principles I used, and learnt by trial and error, along the way. One thing that is certain is that these buildings are a lot cheaper than the ones you can buy - even the cheap ones - and are easy enough for anyone with a few basic modelling skills to build.

Here then is my rough guide to one of the buildings in Aberillo. The same basic principles were used on all the others.

(Most of) what you will need

You will need:

Card for the Main Structures 

This is for the main structure of the building. I like the card packaging that Amazon gives you free with every book order. It's just about the right thickness.

Wooden coffee stirrers 

While you can easily obtain these from coffee shops, if you're going to make a whole Old West town you're going to need a lot. I bought a packet of 1000 of these online for £6.99, and after 20 buildings (plus boardwalks, wagons, signage etc) I've still got about half of them left. So pretty good value.

Matchsticks

You can buy modelling matchsticks from hobby stores or just buy cheap matches. Mine are from the Hobby store and to be honest cost about £3.00 for 100 which is fine. Cheaper from the supermarket though if you're counting every penny.

Balsa wood

This is particularly useful for making boardwalks but can be used in other details as well, for example, stairs and balconies, if you're going to get more advanced. Also useful for retainers to hold roofs in place, but we'll come to that later. Balsa can be expensive so shop around. I particularly recommend balsa that is 3/4" (that's about 18mm) thick as this is a good height for your boardwalks (and what I used). Note that balsa wood is missing from the photo above for some reason.

Card for Planking

It's actually worth investing in some decent modelling card here, as some card will expand with PVA glue and can therefore cause unsightly bulges in the walls later. Mine is bought from WH Smith & Co (about £5 for 100 sheets) - which is cheap given that you won't need a lot of it - about 2 or 3 A4 sheets 

at most per building, less for smaller structures. Needless to say I still have plenty left.

2mm tile spacers

This is for making the middles of window frames. Yes, you could make them out of card, but I like the results I get from using these. And they're very cheap too, about £3.00 for 100 or so which is way more than you will need. 

Masking tape

Buy the cheap stuff that's rubbish for decorating. I use this to (permanently) mask visible holes in the edges of cut cardboard because it's a lot easier that using putty (and also cheaper). It's also useful for temporarily holding things like walls in place while the glue dries, and several other cunning tricks I'll show you later. 

PVA glue

I buy this in bulk from the DIY shop and hence it is very cheap. Incredibly useful and used in just about every terrain and basing project I have done. At the time of writing £10 for 5 litres in B&Q (you will not need 5 litres).

UHU all-purpose glue

Very useful for sticking card together, despite its tendency to be stringy. £1 a tube from Poundland.

Tools

You will also need a sharp modelling knife, a ruler, and a surface to cut on. If you don't already have one I recommend getting an A3 sized self-healing mat which you can currently get quite cheaply from The Works (£8). Larger mats are great if you have the room. The square grid printed on this is also very useful for cutting accurate angles on the corners of pieces of cardboard.

Step 1: Walls

Walls cut from cardboard

Start off by deciding what the overall shape of your building is going to be and cut out the walls. The example here has four basic walls (the four on the left) with a small extension to the side (the three walls on the right. You can see the sizes of these from the (centimeter) grid on the mat. The two main side walls (front left, front centre) are identical, with one edge (the top) cut to form a sloping roof. Tip: don't make the angle of this too steep if you want figures to be able to stand on the roof. The back of the main building (back left) is the height of the rear edge of the side pieces. The front of the building (back centre) is made to a greater height as is the style of Old West buildings, to accommodate signage).  Tip: don't make this too high if you want models on the roof to be able to use it as cover. 2cm above the top edge of the roof is about right for this. The side section has a more gentle slope, for practical reasons so that figures will be able to stand inside this part of the building when the roof is on!

When you decide on the size of your building bear in mind that 28mm figures with bases can be around 4cm high, and that you will need space for doors (mine are 2cm wide, 3.5cm high) and windows (2cm x 2cm), so make sure the roof is not too low. 

If you're being ambitious and making a two (or more) storey building I recommend at least 5cm for the height of each storey, but variety adds to the overall effect so this doesn't have to always be consistent.

Step 2: Holes for Doors and Windows

Window and door holes cut, and pieces unashamedly rearranged

My building has two small windows and one front door. I've cut holes for these above, using the measurements shown before - 2cm wide, 3.5cm high door; 2cm x 2cm windows. The top of the door and front window are aligned here (they don't have to be), and note that the wall to the left of the front window is the same width as the one to the right of the door. Aesthetically, it can look odd if this isn't the case so be careful.

Step 3: Assembling the Basic Building  

The wonders of masking tape

Here's a cunning trick. Align the main walls of the building in the relative positions they will be in when glued together and temporarily hold them in place with masking tape. Then glue the edges and fold the structure into shape. This saves a lot of trouble holding multiple glued walls together before they are dry. Make sure you leave a small gap (same size as the cardboard thickness) at each glued wall joint. Walls should be positioned consistently with each other and I recommend the side walls are tucked slightly behind the front and rear walls at each joint as this will mean the building will look better from the front and the roof will fit better. Hopefully that makes sense!

Taped and glued and drying

Do this for all the walls and then glue the whole thing to another piece of card and let it all dry, preferably overnight. 

Step 4: Doors and Windows

Well, one door in this case. The photos below show the steps to make the door.

1. Cut the basic door shape from cardboard, 2cm x 3.5cm. Tip: unless you've thrown it away, you should already have a piece of cardboard exactly the right size that was left when you cut the hole for the door. Using a sharp knife cut a square hole in the top of this to take a window (this assumes you want the door to have a window - in most depictions of Old West buildings there is a window in the front door, but it's up to you). The top and side edges around this square hole should be about 2mm wide - the size of a matchstick - as that's what you're going to use there shortly.

2. Take a tile spacer and trim its ends straight so it is exactly the same size as the hole.

3. Using a small amount of UHU glue the spacer in position inside the hole.

4. Trim some matchsticks as shown so they will fit together around the edge of the door and its window.

5. UHU them in position

6. You can then make some door panelling out of bits of scrap you have around. I've added a bit of card to this door, for example. Then set the door aside to dry.

Windows

You'll need two windows. These are made in a very similar way to doors but are less fiddly.

1. Trim a tile spacer in the same way as for doors and cut some matchstick pieces to fit together around it. These should be almost exactly 2cm along each outside edge, so that (a) they don't fall through the window hole and (b) aren't so big that the tile spacer doesn't fit snugly inside.

2. Here's the next cunning masking tape trick: as you glue the elements together hold them in place using the sticky side of some masking tape. When the window has dried peel the tape off carefully. 

Step 5: Roof

When the basic building has dried, cut some card to just fit over the top, overhanging the downward edge of the slope by a few millimeters and only just overlapping the building sides. 

Roof pieces in position

Roof pieces off (for reference)

I then glue a small length of balsa to the underside of this in a position to stop the roof sliding off. 

Now let the whole thing dry and we can come back to it tomorrow.

Step 6: Tidying Things Up

Much tidier already

The first thing I do when the basic building has dried is trim around the base with a knife. This will improve its appearance but will also expose the gaps in the edges of the cardboard all around. So we cover these up now with small pieces of masking tape.

Masking gaps with... masking tape

Don't worry about the rough edges as these will either be covered later or hidden inside the building (and painted). Make sure you cover the edges around the door and windows as well as these will otherwise show. 

Step 7: Planking

This is the process by which we clad the building in strips of card to give the effect of wooden planks. It's one of the longer steps in making this building and you are likely to need to do it in stages allowing for some drying time between walls. 

Cutting planks from card

You're going to need a lot of strips of card for this, so cut plenty of them, around 5mm or so wide (but don't worry too much about accuracy). Once you have a few of these, start gluing them to one wall of the building. Start at the same edge each time (so you won't have to cut the excess length of card off that wall edge) and work from the bottom of the wall upwards so that the planking overlaps in the right way.

Planking going on

Hopefully the pictures here show the process. I use undiluted PVA glue for this, applying it with a brush which I keep damp throughout. You might find that diluting the PVA helps a bit. Each plank should overlap the one below it just slightly.

More planking

You should do this in stages as trimming the edges helps you to see what's going on, but only trim edges when the glue has thoroughly dried or it will break, pull out of position, stretch or otherwise make a horrible mess. Take your time and be patient! 

Front edge of side wall trimmed, ready for the front of the building

You can trim edges with scissors when dry, or if you are careful with a modelling knife.

It adds to the effect if you use more than one plank to go from one side of a wall to the other, so use up those offcuts and trimmed pieces as you go, and don't make the joints between planking edges perfect.

Be careful working around windows and doors

You will probably need to cut some planks to length before gluing when working around windows and doors as these can be tricky. Note that you don't need it to be absolutely perfect around the edges of doors and windows because you're going fit frames slightly over those edges later.

Planking on the building done

Don't forget the planking on the roof. Work from the lower roof edge to the higher so that the planking overlaps in the right way.

Careful observers will note this photo is out of sequence

Step 8: Fit the Windows and Door

Looking much more like a building now

Glue the windows and door in place with PVA. Hopefully they will fit perfectly but if you need to fill gaps now is the time to do it. PVA will work for this unless the gaps are too big, in which case just adding some more planking can avoid the need for filler.

Step 9: Details

Further details added

Many buildings can be significantly improved by the addition of minor details. On this building I've used trimmed coffee stirrers to add a cornice (if that's not the right word don't judge me) to the top of the front of the building and edges to the sloping roof on the side, and a door surround made from matchsticks. 

Step 10: Internal Doors

It may have occurred to readers that there appears to be no way to get between the two rooms in this building. While you can happily ignore this, my simple solution is to glue some matchsticks to card in the shape of an opening and stick this to either side of the internal wall, as the photos below show.

Doorways made and stuck to card...

...cut off when dry...

...and stuck inside...

...on both sides of the internal wall.

Step 11: The Boardwalk

No Old West building is complete without a boardwalk, and this is where the balsa comes in (and more coffee stirrers). This step makes all the difference and you will be pleased to hear is remarkably simple.

Cut the pieces to size

First of all, carefully cut some lengths of balsa wood from the 3/4" thick piece, so that they make beams roughly 4mm wide (apologies for mixing imperial and metric measures). Using the building as a measure, cut them to length so they extend from the back of the building to project 5-6 coffee stirrer widths (a non-imperial and non-metric measure) to the front. In practice, that's about 3cm, which by amazing good planning is also just about the right size for a 28mm figure on a base to comfortably stand on.

Cut enough of these beams so that there is roughly 2-4 cm between them when they sit beneath the building, and set them in position approximately evenly spaced on your cutting board as if the building was sitting perfectly above them.

the next thing I do is measure two coffee stirrers to the correct width of the building and glue them with UHU in place to hold the structure together. One of these can be glued at the rear edge of the boardwalk, and one at the front (this is easiest). In the image below the rear one is glued at the widest point of the building which is at the rear of the side extension, and I've glued another one at the read of the main building.

Completed boardwalk

When this is dry add more coffee stirrers to the front of the boardwalk so that it is 6 coffee stirrers wide. You don't need to do the floor beneath the whole of the building. As with the planking, if you use some shorter lengths this gives a good effect. Tip: it helps if the ends of these short lengths lie on top of one of the balsa beams so that the structure retains strength, otherwise you may need additional reinforcement underneath.

The boardwalk above is slightly deeper on the far side at the front because of the shape of the side extension of the building.

And attached

Finally, glue the building in position on top of the boardwalk and set it aside to dry.

Step 12: Steps

To make it easier to step up to the boardwalk from the street, boardwalks were provided with steps. I make these from offcuts of balsa (cut ends of the beams beneath the boardwalk), which I cut to support two steps and extend beneath the boardwalk, and two lengths of coffee stirrer for the steps themselves.

Step elements

Glued together in position

And glued in place to the underside of the boardwalk

All that remains is to paint the building and add final details such as signage. 

Step 13: Painting 

Painting really could not be simpler. First I paint the whole of the inside of the building brown (it's not important what colour but it is better than having bare cardboard). The outside of the building is them entirely painted with a different brown. I strongly recommend using cheap matt emulsion paint for this so what I did for my town was I found the colour I wanted with modelling paints and painted a piece of card, then took this to B&Q and got them to mix me a tester pot (which are actually quite large) of it for the princely sum of £3.00. So my buildings are actually base painted the colour of Vallejo Tan Earth but using matt emulsion, so much cheaper.

The painted building

When dry, I dry-brushed the outside of the building with a lighter colour (I'm using Crown Biscuit, which I also use for dry brushing bases). Again, amazingly cheap.

Step 14: Finishing Touches

For commercial buildings, this is essentially signage. I use the computer to print out a sign in an appropriate colour and font to the required size, then cut this out and stick it to a piece of card (the car used for planking). When this is dry, I cut a coffee stirrer down to make the edges, and stick them in place. Some careful painting in the same outside building colour, followed by careful dry-brushing, and the sign is finished. Stick it in place with UHU.

The finished building

Finally, I used some small balsa offcuts, some wire and bits of coffee stirrer on the building above to also make a sign that would hang in the front of the building. Adding these minor details to some buildings adds character. I recommend watching westerns for ideas.

If you have a go at this yourself please let me know how it goes and please add any good ideas or helpful hints and tips you may learn. Have fun!

Some Notes on Costs

For those who are interested I've done my best to work out how much I've spent on these buildings. Of course I also have a lot of materials left over for new projects (or further future extensions to Aberillo) so the cost of buying materials is significantly more than the cost of materials used for each building. Bear in mind as well that some of my buildings are larger and much more complicated than the example here. I estimate that I have probably spent around £50 on materials and made 20 buildings of various sizes plus boardwalks, wagons and lots of other odd bits for Aberillo - which given the amount of what I have made is incredibly cheap in comparison with purchased terrain or MDF kits (and in my opinion looks better as well). 

Here's my estimated cost breakdown of the average cost of each of my buildings in materials, for reference, but note that the one shown above is small though and will be a lot less - perhaps no more than £1.00 on its own:

Although these buildings are very cheap in materials, do bear in mind that you will also need to have the right tools available. A decent modelling knife with plenty of spare blades, a cutting board and a ruler are going to set you back around £40. However, this is an investment if you're going to be doing any terrain building and I would expect most people reading this already have a well-equipped toolbox anyway.