The Northern Conspiracy
Table Top Terrain

My first concern was how do I build so many brick buildings economically. The second concern was how do I realistically represent streets of the era. My third concern was how to make the layout flexible so that I could rearrange the terrain from time to time. The following is an account of what problems I encountered in creating city terrain and how I solved those problems. Please refer to the accompanying photos when reading the text.

Making Cobblestone Streets:
My first problem was how to model the streets, which would take up about 1/3 of the terrain. Modeling concrete is not difficult at all, but, in the 1920's only the highways and the main thoroughfares were paved with concrete and asphalt was still thirty years away. Cobblestoned streets were the norm. I tried several different ways to show the brickwork: Manufactured hobby sheets were too expensive, making individual bricks from card was too time consuming, and embossing the brick pattern onto Styrofoam was not resilient enough.

The next step was to tape the template to a piece of primed Plexiglas. The Plexiglas I got free from my local hardware store, it was scrap to them. I then sprayed stone finish paint in several coats over the mesh. I used the brand sold at Wal-Mart but I am sure D.I.Y. stores carry the same thing in England. The stone paint was great to work with as it cleans up with water easily and dries to a hard, textured, surface. Remove the template, let the surface dry over night, and start the process over. Its pretty quick and it only cost me about $10 (two cans) to do about 7 feet of tile, 7 inches wide. Just add manhole covers and drains and then paint a dark brown. Don't forget to wash and dry-brush the bricks.

To do this for the city blocks I had to keep in mind the thickness of the bases so that the street tiles matched properly. This actually worked perfectly with 1/8" tempered hardboard for the base material. The street tiles are about 2/3 this thickness which makes the curbs the right height.

Using Brick Paper or plastic sheets:
For the brick buildings I used commercially produced brick paper. You can order many different colors and styles of brick from model railroad catalogs. I also used some plastic sheet brick on the garage building and paper sheets on the other buildings.

Using Stone finish sprays:
For the larger building surfaces I used the spray stone paint again to give a stucco appearance. It works great if you use a dark stone paint first and then over spray a tan colored stone on top of it. This gives a weathered look.

Painting signs:
The black and white signs that are on the sides of the buildings add a lot of realism yet are very easy to make. Mask off an area with tape the general size of the sign. Make sure to protect the rest of the building from overspray too. Spray paint the color of the letters first. Then, apply some peel and stick vinyl letters (about $2.50 a set) to the building. Note: it pays to lay the letters out first on a piece of plastic the size of the sign, avoiding placement errors. Now spray the background color. When the paint has dried lightly scrub, up and down, the area with fine steel wool.