Ruined Brick Walls

Ruined walls are one of the most handy pieces of terrain for any 40k game. They look the part as you be bound to find them in any battlefield that has seen some fighting.

These walls are made of plasterboard which is easily found for nothing in the rubbish of any construction site and crumbles away quite easily. Once painted they look great and if glued to a base, they are definately strong enough.

What you need

• Plasterboard (Gyprock)
• Modelling knife
• Ruler
• Cheap paints
• Old screw driver (needs a bluntish end)
• PVA glue

Making ruined brick walls

These walls are made out of plasterboard. The same stuff most interior household walls are made out of. If you look around any house that's being built or renovated you are bound to find some off cuts. A hardware store may give you some for free as it tend to get damaged quite often.

Plasterboard is covered with thin cardboard on each side and we'll use this to create the brick effect.

Cut off a piece to the height you want the walls to be. It is quite easy to cut with a few strokes of a blade.

Mark out a grid of lines horizontally and vertically to represent the bricks.

Try to make the spacing between the horizontal lines about the width of the end of your screw driver. It makes things a bit easier.

I found a grid of about 1/4 inch horizontally and 1/2 inch vertically quite good.

Now take your blunt screw driver (if it is too sharp you will dig into the cardboard) and a ruler. Using a firm pressure score along the horizontal lines to make the gaps between the bricks.

Next go along each vertical line and push the screw driver on each odd line segment to finish off the rest of the gaps.

You should end up with basic wall after you repeat the other side.

Draw the various wall shapes you want with pencil first. If you want T-shaped and L-shaped walls, make the intersection of the 2 parts match in height. Notice that you can use the upside-down part also.

If you want to get some ideas for the shapes, check out the finished walls below.

Cut out your shapes with a modelling knife (or a small saw can work too). Use your knife and notch out seperate bricks or things look a bit funny. Crumble the edges away with your knife or screwdriver. You don't have to been too careful, they are 'ruined' walls!

If any pieces break off that you don't want to, just put some PVA glue into the cracks.

Glue sections together with PVA so you have corners, etc. You can add various battle damage where bullets have hit and glue some kitty litter around the bottom for piles of rubble.

Paint them dark brown, dry brush with white, then dry brush patches of the brick with a dark red color.

If you like, glue it to a piece of thick cardboard or wood.

Reader Tip: Some cheap paints can react with ingredients within the plasterboard (namely gypsum) and cause the plasterboard to return to a powder. A thin coat of varnish prevents this. Note that not all cheap paints will do this, but about 40% of them can particularly blues, greens and browns.