In this article you can read about how I make 15 mm (1:100) houses for World War II gaming. This is 3th Generation houses, as the way I design houses has developed over the years - and I will probably make small adjustments to this design again.

At Viking-Con 23 (a Danish game-con) in 2004 my game club Avalon, organized a big wargaming demo for the first time and we needed terrain. 'Historic' buildings (Normandy on D-Day) was new for us - and a whole new scale as well. We then used the Baptism of Fire rules, where the 15 mm miniatures were based individually on small Danish coins.

We used a new material, at least for me, namely foamcore. A material which I have since been a huge fan of. Foamcore consists of a core of foam with cardboard on each side, you can get it in 3, 5 and 10 mm. Before that I used plain cardboard and flamingo to create buildings. Compared to these materials, foamcore has some advantages: it is fairly easy to cut, easy to clue with ordinary PVA glue and, unlike cardboard, it does not bend so much when painted. The finished houses are also reasonably robust to wear from transportation, use and storage.

On the following Viking-Con, we used the Flames of War rules, where infantry is based 4-5 man on a 50 x 32 mm base. This meant, that some houses were too small and detailed – there were simply too many internal walls. I therefore made some new houses a few years ago, which I hoped could be used by both systems. Unfortunately they could only contain 8 FoW bases and only if the infantry stood sideways. I have now created a new type of houses, which can contain 12 FoW bases and where the infantry can stand with the front to the street.

The idea were to make 3 sizes of houses, with a residential and a commercial edition of each size. The houses can accommodate 12, 8 or 4 medium FOW bases. The main idea behind the houses, is that the length and width of each size is the same, so you're not having to struggle with that one roof only fits one particular house. You can vary the houses by making them in different heights, and make different designs of the frontages.

To all the houses I used 3 mm foamcore which is equally suitable for both 15 mm and 25 mm scale. Foamcore are available in size 70 x 50 cm and costs approx. DKK 65 per plate. Here I have cut out the frontage, gables and the support of the roof. However some floors are still lacking. Note that the gables are cut at 2 mm narrower than illustrated in the drawings.

I have measured up the window openings and soffit. Some of our older designs had an entire frontage, where you had to remove the soffit from the top of the building. I don't think that worked well in practice, so all my houses can be separated into floors. I'm also not too happy with houses that are more than 2 storeys high, because I think they are too unhandy to use in the heat of the game.

The window and door openings are cut out. You will get the best result, if you cut from the outside facing inwards, as the other side of the cut can be a little frayed. Use a pointed and sharp knife to the work. I use a metal ruler to cut after - and it helps if it have a little weight.

Material on the reverse of the frontage is cut away for the jointing. The idea is that the jointing is in the gable, so the frontage is intact. Cut in through the first layer of cardboard and through the foam - but leave the bottom cardboard intact. Then remove the foam with a hobby knife and scrape the last remnants away. The jointing is approx. 1 mm thick. That is why the gables should be about. 2 mm narrower than shown on the drawings.


The parts are glued together with white PVA glue. It's easiest if you have a box, where you can place the corner with the jointing, so you are sure that they meet in a 90° angle. To the left is second floor, which is glued around a floor of foamcore. To the right I have the ground floor, using a FOW artillery template to keep the angle.


The assembling of the underroof. I have used 1 mm cardboard of good quality to the roof. The cardboard is cut halfway through at the middle and then folded. The supporting parts are glued, so they sit just inside the house gable, preferably with a clearance of 2-3 mm, so the roofs are easy to remove.

An old design of the roofs, with support made of foamcore. The support won't held longterm use, and will brake at the middle.

The three parts of the house. As material to the floor of ground floor I used 1 mm cardboard. One reason to make a floor at ground level is to make the construction rigid. It is a good idea to cover the edges of the windows and walls, where the foam appears, with a layer of white glue mixed with a little water. Use an old brush to lubricate it.

Does they fit together? If it is a big house, it is a good idea to assemble the ground level first and let it completely dry. Then assemble and glue the 1st floor, and immediately tape it to the ground level, so you are sure that the two parts fit together when the house is dry. Since it is town house, the roofs have the same width as the house, so the houses can be quite close to each other.

The parts to the roof. I made the roofs in the 'old days' of profiled cardboard, but I have now switched to plastic plate, usually with tile profiles. I used plain white PVA to glue the mouldings on the cardboard, while the plastic plate is glued with plastic glue. You can make a 'scratch pattern' on the underside of the plastic plate on the most sensitive areas, to ensure that it sits a little more solid on the roof.


The tree lists on the sides of the roof protects the plastic plate from being loosened. Start by gluing the 2 x 1 mm lists on one side. Then glue the plastic plates on the roof. Then you glue 2 x 1 mm lists on the other side. Possibly excess cardboard from the underroof is trimmed with a sharp scissor. The roof joins at the top with a 1 x 1 mm tree list.


Windows are closed at the bottom with a 4 x 1 mm list, because it is the most visible part of the opening. Over doorways I glue a 1 x 1 mm list, because the underside of the doorway is not visible. On the design of houses, I have tried to divide the window openings with a vertical list, to give them a retro look. There has also made room for shutters in the new design.


The first floor is held in place by four 3 x 3 mm wooden lists. However, they have a tendency to break off. Note the 2 x 1 mm list that runs along the soffit. Their purpose is to conceal the assembly of the frontage, and partly to cover for any disparities between the ground level and first floor.

Shutters are glued on and the houses are ready to paint. You can go much more into detail and making the houses much nicer than I have done, but as you often stand four feet from the houses when you play and often in half bad lighting, I have put function over form.

On this page you can fin examples of painted houses.