Osgiliath The first Ruin

Osgiliath is to me, one of the most fascinating places in the whole of Middle-earth. However the city was turned into rubble and ruins a long time ago, there's still the glory of the old days of Numenor in the battle torn streets.
Materials Used Styro Foam (3mm - 6mm) Hardboard (1mm) PVA Glue Super Glue Gel

The Base
The first part was to decide on a base for the project. I decided to use one 'large' base, and then each building would be constructed on its own 'smaller' base. Once finished, each building would be placed onto the larger base.

On the webpage of Lestatus Potterus, I noticed a terrain plan with modular tiles. That's how the idea behind my Osgiliath basing was formed. The framework of the base was quickly done and the smaller bases were cut in a fashion which allowed them to fit

perfectly together.

For the initial ruin, I turned to a guide within DeAgostini's Battle Games In Middle-earth and built this as described within the magazine. The advantage of such house ruins is that they can be used separately as well (for 'Take and Hold', for example). But when placing them all together like a jigsaw, Osgiliath is formed in no time.

I'm not going to describe how I made this ruin since every ruin looks different. Instead of giving you a step-by-step guide I will give you some tips about how you can handle the tricky parts of an Osgiliath ruin like windows, archways or the base.

General tips

The basic rule for a ruin is that they should not be clean, perfect built walls. With a sharp modelling knife you can cut small sections of the walls in order to make them look old, broken and ruined. It's also recommended to make some cracks and gaps in your structure and walls. This can be done as well with a sharp modelling knife.

When building your walls try to keep in mind whether you want to use your walls as a barricade or an obstacle (23cm difference in height should be enough). Make sure you eliminate such problems if you are about to use your Osgiliath structures for gaming.

Another useful tip is to think of the original function that the building once had. Certain types of buildings are just easier to construct (things like partition walls and a specific floor plan can make your ruin very difficult to build properly).

Windows & Doors

Since this was my first ruin I chose for some sort of "certainty-solution" to build the windows and doors. While I was cutting the walls into the desired shape I also cut a hole of 3 x 3.5 cm into the wall.

The window arches and the small parts for the window were cut out of an extra sheet of 3mm strong Styro Foam. Once I had all the pieces to construct my window I glued them all together and placed the window into the hole in the wall. I only have a picture of one window finished in the wall. There are of course many other types of windows

and you can always try to construct one of your own ideas. For the doors I used the same technique.

The Arcade

The support of the pillar was made out of 3mm Styro Foam. While you are making these bricks with a sharp modelling knife make sure the pillars will fit. The pillars were made out of a round piece of dowelling wood with a diameter of 1cm. They were cut on 3cm length.

To finish your pillars you have to provide them with a 1,5x1,5x1,5cm cube (once again made out of Styro Foam) to place on top of the pillar.

Next thing to do is to cut the edges slightly steep. It's not easy to have four equal edges after cutting, so this step might ask a lot of work and fine-tuning to have it look perfect. On top of the pillars an extra plate of 3mm strong Styro Foam was glued.

The archways were built out of 6mm strong Styro Foam strips, ca. 2cm high and as long as you want it. Since each archway has to look perfectly like the others I worked with a template I made myself. Make sure theres enough place between the archways for the pillars.

While building the roof I forgot to take pictures, so this part will be explained in one of my following Osgiliath articles about other types of ruins.

The Floor

To build the floor I used a small wooden chest, found in a supermarket. All the wood was cut into pieces of different length and 1cm width. The edges were made sharp-edged with a modelling knife to make it look more like a ruin. The only thing left to do now is stick it all together like parquet.

The partition walls were added once the floor was already built. This way I only had to look to the outer walls and I could save tons of time.

Before I glued the floor of the first level to the wall, I made a small boot tree of 3mm strong Styro Foam which I glued to the wall to have a firm support. Furthermore it's better to paint the ruin itself before painting the floor (avoiding tons of correction work).

For the 'natural' floor I chose for the usual sand/talus mix. Lestatus Potterus wrote in his article about his church ruin it might be very useful to mix your glue with some sort of dishwashing detergent, all I can do is confirm this tip.

Painting
Everything was basecoated black - if needed provide extra layers, everything has to be covered. Once everything is black and tried all the parts were drybrushed with Fortress Grey (or another light-grey equivalent). The walls were finished with a gentle drybrush using Skull White.

The floor was basecoated black as well. Make sure every little part is covered once again. The floor was finished with a darkbrown drybrush (something like scorched brown will do the job

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Osgiliath
A Ruined Tower
This article describes, as the name suggests, how to build a ruined tower of Osgiliath.
Tools and Materials Sharp modelling knife Styrofoam 3mm Styrofoam 6mm Fibreboard 1mm Hardboard 1mm Thin cardboard Superglue PVA

Important Note: Construct and paint the walls sections individually first and only glue them together when they are complete!

Ground Floor

The most important thing with a tower is its square shape. For this reason, I decided to make two of the walls 12mm longer (6mm extra at each end). That way, if you glue them to the other shorter sides, you get a basic square shape.

Next we come to the windows. Cut out the basic window shape and also two recesses on either side. Into the recesses, place two 3mm pieces to represent columns. To represent the stonework I used a cheap fineliner pen that

dents the foam easily, but you can use a pencil or ballpoint pen. The main thing is that you need to press firmly.

The door hinges are made of small tubes, made off a good size so that something like a paperclip can be put in. There are lots of things like that, it's just a matter of luck and creativity. Just cut them in the right size and stick them firmly on the inner side of the door, suing enough PVA. To make sure that the door itself fits well and closes without leaving gapes I incised something like 2x2 mm at the inner side of the porch vault. At the outer side you can easily repeat this hue, it will improve the look of the door.

Both doors were cut out off 1mm strong hardboard. The great advantage of using hardboard is that whilst it is quite thin it's still solid enough. Secondly, paints don't come of or weak like say on cardboard or paper.

The door enforcements were made of 3mm thick modelling paper. Because the backside of the door won't be visible there's no need to make this very detailed. I didn't go further then some simple formations as you can see on the picture below.

To attach the door I used some tin iron wire (a paperclip is fine). The iron has to fit perfectly in the hinges. Just stick a good piece into your hinges and bend it until it has a corner of approx. 90. Now cut them into a good length and glue them firmly to your doors. Make sure you do this on the backside of the doors. Also, glue them on the right

height so that they fit into the hinges.

In order to hold the bottem of the next floor I attached a ridge on every wand, made of 3mm strong Styrofoam. Make sure they stick firmly or your ruin might become even more ruined...

The bottom of the first floor was made once more made of 3mm thick Styrofoam. In one corner of the bottom I cut out a gap that will serve as a shutter hole. The size of the hole should be something like 2,5x2,5 cm so that it fits 25mm and 28mm miniatures. The shutter was made of a sheet of 1mm thick fibreboard. You could also use balsa, modelling paper or something else that is not too thick and allows you to make a pattern in it. Depending on the material you are using you can use a knife or a strong pencil. Enforcements for the shutter were made of thin cardboard and glued onto the edges.

Finally I made some ruined extensions for the corners of the walls. Those were made of 3mm thick Styrofoam. Just measure the right length and check if they fit. Make sure you carved them with a sharp knife to make them look very ruined.

Next I painted all the parts with Chaos Black, but you can use any other black acrylic equivalent. After that I glued the final pieces onto the wall like the extensions for the walls. Make sure everything looks extremely ruined since Osgiliath has seen many wars. If needed add some extra gaps and scratches with a sharp modelling knife before undercoating everything black.

Once all the parts were turned into a good black cover everything was drybrushed with Codex Grey, except for the non-stone parts (Doors, iron frame, etc.). Add an extra highlight of Fortress Grey and if you like you can finish with some Skull White. Cheaper paint equivalents will do as well. Wooden parts can be done in any brown way you like, just as the iron parts.

First floor

For the first floor two walls of 12mm were cut out once again. The windows are done in the same way as described for the ground floor, except that there will be no door this time of course.

Very important is that underneath the windows something like 5 or 6cm is kept. This is important because a protrusion should be attached, once you're done with the wall. This protrusion was made of 12mm long and 3mm thick Styrofoam, make sure you cut into one piece. This is important as well because the peaks (as to be seen on the picture above) will be needed to fit the first floor firmly with the ground floor. At both sides 6mm was left free to add once more some ruined wall extensions.

At the upper side of the walls some girders were added. These are merely for the beauty of your tower. They were made from 6mm thick Styrofoam. On the long walls 12mm free space was kept on both sides, 6mm is enough for the shorter walls. If you got an easy and stabile hand it's time to cut another girder diagonal.

At the upper side of the walls the same process of adding ridges was repeated. As you hopefully remember these are needed to hold the next floor. Just follow the guidelines before but keep an eye on the size of everything - it might differ a bit.

Also at the upper side of the walls the same process of adding ridges was repeated. As you hopefully remember these are needed to hold the next floor, the third one already. The ridges should be placed about 2cm before the walls end.

The final thing to make for your First Floor are the ruined wall extensions. Just do this in the same way as explained before, making sure you use the right sizes. Don't forget to make them extra battled and ruined with a sharp modelling knife.

Once more, make sure you paint everything (as explained previously) before gluing the big parts together. Things like the girders and ridges for the next floor can be glued in place before painting though. Just make sure the big parts are painted before sticking everything together so that every little part is painted in the best way possible.

Second Floor
Very important about the second Floor is that the long walls are 12mm shorter then the first walls made. Secondly, both short walls are approximately 12mm shorter then the long walls. This is because the size of the floors shrinks towards the top of the towers, as you hopefully noticed before.

For this Floor I changed the common and used before windows into an archway. This adds some variation to the tower which makes it look better. If you can, always try to add something extra and/or new to your buildings without exaggerating. Make sure that you start cutting the archways at the point where the visible part of the wall begins.

The four walls were finished in exact the same way the others ones were done. Once everything is cut just glue the small pieces on the 4 walls (don't forget to add the ruined extensions), paint the 4 walls and glue everything together. Done!

The roof is made of 4 trapeziums, all made off 3mm thick Styrofoam. For the size it's a bit up to you since I did this

without decent measuring. All that matters is that the longest part of your trapeziums is 6mm shorter (you know why!) and that they all fit, which means that they all need to have an equal angle.

This might be a tricky part of your towers because it requires some patience and skill. If things wouldn't go the way you want them to go, just start again and take your time- there's nobody behind you. Once this is done glue them together.

The ceiling was cut into the right shape, using a Sharp modelling knife and 1mm thick fibreboard. Other strong materials with an equal thickness are good as well. Finally glue it on with some PVA. Make sure it sticks perfect.

A shutter was made into the floor as done before. Just use the same technique, making the shutter approx. 5mm

wide. All the other information you need to finish the shutter has been previously explained above.

When the ceiling is ready in terms of construction it's time to repeat the same process. Paint the rood and the walls and glue everything firmly together with enough PVA. Don't be afraid to use enough glue. Once everything is done all that rests you to do is to check if it matches with the first floor.

Third Floor

The third (and very final) floor is as simple as it is complicated. All you have to do is make 4 archways of 6mm thick Styrofoam, making sure the pillars are 6mm wide as well. As for the length and height it's a matter of taste and the process of your own building. All you have to do is make sure that everything fits and looks good without losing its proportions.

Once this is done (careful, this might be tricky as well. It sounds simple but the construction is quite delicate to make) just stick it all together once more. Make sure everything has been painted before.

As you can see on the picture above you can easily use this construction as a ruin on itself.

The dome was made of a Polystyrene ball, bought in a hobby shop. Cut the ball in two pieces, try to do this clean, giving the ball a good surface. The size of the ball is not extremely important since this shouldn't be precise work. Just make sure that the dome is big enough. Give the dome enough basecoats with Chaos Black so that no more

Polystyrene is visible.

The dome was placed on a piece of 6mm thick Styrofoam, slightly bigger then the square formed by the four archways and the dome. Glue the dome onto the piece of Styrofoam (the final ceiling). Give the edges of the dome once more a ruined look by using a sharp modelling knife. Paint everything as described before.

By placing the dome and its ceiling on the finished archways your third floor will be ready. Add this final floor the the second floor (there were the shutter "hopefully" is). The last thing you have to do is make sure all the floors fit perfectly and glue them together. You might also choose to keep things detachable, splitting up your tower into three or four parts. This might be useful if you have not enough storing room are if you are planning to transport your tower.

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Osgiliath
Time for the third episode in my Osgiliath Adventure! In the two articles before this one I explained the basics of Osgiliath, how to make the first ruin using those basics and finally making a tall tower. This time, we will be adding a new 'slightly more advanced' building for your growing city.

Underneath the principle Tools and Materials I used.

Styrodur Sharp Modelling Knife Scalpel PVA Super Glue

The second Building

I wanted to try something different with this next building to veer away from just 'rubble & ruins'. I wanted every building to have its own identity and details to make a clear difference between them all. Therefore, every building has its own specific doors and windows.

The most notable part of this building is its elevated entrance. The whole ruin was built on a base made of 2cm thick Styrodur. It's very important to make sure you have a good idea about the final ground size of your ruin, otherwise your base may very well be totally the wrong size. It helps to make a sketch of your concept before you do any cutting for the base.

The stairs were carved out of the base with a sharp Model Knife (as always, be careful). Keep an eye on the scale of your stairs, use any 25/28mm miniature you have as an aide. Also try to make your stairs of equal sizes. Because I wanted the base to have some nice decoration I used a 3D template. These can be found in most hobby stores and come in many different sizes and patterns. Cut them in the right shape and use enough PVA to glue the decorations onto the base.

I'm quite proud about the windows I made for this ruin. Still, they are actually very easy to make once you know how it goes. First, I sketched the windows on a piece of 6mm Styrodur. The window opening was cut out with a sharp knife. Be careful for the those little protrusions. They will serve as a base for the 'window pillars', which will be added later.

Approximately, a 5mm open space was left under the window. This is necessary to make the actual wall that will be visible in the room underneath the window. As can be seen above, 2mm's were cut off steeply. The other 3mm's remained untouched.

Now comes the hardest part of this building. Using PVA and a sharp Modelling Knife, a right-shaped piece of 3mm

thick Styrodur was added inside the window Arch. This can be very tricky, both arches must have the same Radius to make it fit correctly. Next, the inside arch was divided into three, new smaller arches.

On top of that, you'll have to make sure they fit precisely with the protrusions that were carved out to serve as a base for the window pillars. To make it even more complicated I carved out some decorations in the arch. This decision can be considered a mistake though. Namely, it was totally impossible to have the same design on every window. The idea was probably good, but the outcome wasn't as good as I hoped for.

The next step in finishing your windows is to glue the inner parts into the window opening with some PVA.

The pillars, forming the actual windows, were made with some toothpicks. Use a sharp knife to cut them in the right size and glue them into the Arch with some Super Glue. Try to make them as equal as possible (if you're not really aiming for a very ruined window).

The main entrance of the ruin was relatively simple to make. All I did was curving out three big arches and a stone pattern within it. When you're ready with your entrance and first wall you can start building the banisters. This is quite simple to do as well. Find yourself a long, round 0.4mm diameter rod made of wood (preferably Balsa - it isn't cheaper, but handier). Equal parts of 1,5cm were cut out and glued onto the base, using a distance of 1cm. The hand-rail is nothing more than a L-shape, made of 6mm Styrodur. The steep hand-rail at the stairs might be tricky to make. If so you can always leave that part behind.

The inside doors are made to look strong, and face the windows. They are identical to the windows, with the only difference being that the door pillars touch the base, there's nothing between them. A sharp modelling knife will be needed once more, so be careful.

The door arch was made of 3mm Styrodur (look after the radius to make it fit nicely). The pillars were made using a 6mm diameter wooden rod. Make sure your pillars are the right length. One piece is enough for one door, since it looks much better if split the rod with an extremely sharp scalpel - nothing else will do (be VERY careful).

Both (half) pillars and the Arch were glued into the door with enough PVA. Once that is done, your door is ready to be painted. The first floor was cut out of a 6mm Styrodur plate. The size of your second floor is fully up to you. One tip though: dont glue it together. As described in the previous Osgiliath articles it isnt easy to make supporting beams for your floors. That way you can always access all parts of your buildings.

The stairs to access the first floor consist of separate Styrodur blocks (length: 2,5cm, width: 1cm). All these pieces were glued together in the middle. If you have a corner in your stairs, use a 3cm wide piece. That way a miniature can be placed on it. To embellish the outside of the stairs 3mm thick Styrodur was used once more. All you have to do is carve it out carefully so that it perfectly matches the size of your stairs. The real structure (all the stairs) was carved out after it was glued to the stairs. This way you can easily cut out the right shape into both pieces (brick & wall). As always, once done there's nothing left but carving out the stone pattern and painting.