Ruined House Scenery - I. Construction with Hirst Arts

In an effort to expand my collection of scenery, I have been making use of Hirst Arts building bricks to create some unique designs. If you have not encountered Hirst Arts before, then the simplest explanation that I can give you are that they are somewhat like lego bricks. Except you cast them yourself from a mould, using plaster.

My previous efforts with Hirst Arts have included building a fieldstone bridge and a number of other structures that you can see in the background of pictures contained in articles such as my chaos space marine raptors. They are very flexible and if you've never given them a go before, then I can thoroughly recommend them (and no: Hirst Arts does not sponsor my blog). Casting them is fun once you get the knack of it, and they can be glued together with PVA glue (certainly in the case of regular plaster; although many people prefer dental plaster for their bricks).
This building contains blocks from the Wizard's Tower mould produced by Hirst Arts. It is a fairly basic set of blocks and that is what makes is so very useful for general designs. I decided to construct my building on an MDF place mat. The MDF gives the structure a good solid base on which to build these buildings and is much superior to cork (which I have used in the past for basing some minor scenery pieces such as low walls; and used for basing miniatures).

The idea for this building was to create a small to moderately sized house that is either somewhat ruined, or only half built. Since I have done (and played in) ruins to death, the latter appeals to me somewhat more than the former. So this building will be painted up as a half built house. It features three main rooms: one very large one and a pair of smaller ones to the side. The ground is made from casting the cracked tiles mould and on top of this, I've piled up the basic building blocks to form walls.The rear of the house features a window (suitable for shooting arrows out of...) which can be used as a slim line of sight for a single gunner. The walls are of a variety of heights that provide a variety of cover depending on the height of the miniatures that are hiding behind it. For instance, a space marine can completely conceal himself behind the "window" wall, but will only have his calves and some of his thighs concealed by some of the walls on the opposite side of the ruins.

At the front of the house, I've left a number of gaps between the walls to represent where doors might be built (or where they once were). There are also doorways between the various rooms that are wide enough for a standard base to fit between. I intend to flock and paint this entire structure and will post the result of it at a later date.