As Beaverlick Falls is an expanding town I'm planning to have a number of buildings that are still under construction. They are reasonably quick to make, add interest to the table and provide less cover than complete buildings which helps with gameplay.
Having tried to build the frameworks out of basswood, I quickly realised that they would take as long as a solid building unless I found an alternative method. There are MDF kit versions available but as my goal is to scratch build as much as possible I looked at 3D printing.
Tinkercad is a free to use online CAD program from Autocad. It's relatively easy to use (compared with other CAD programs) and a few hours spent 'tinkering' will get you a basic understanding. The advantage of using CAD is that once you've done the basic building, it can be amended and reused, either as a whole or in part.
I'm not going to go into details of how to model in Tinkercad or how to 3D print as there are plenty of forums and blogs out there that will tell you how to do both. I will however recommend those interested in 3D printing take a look at this article Matakish's Tea House.
Plan view of components in Tinkercad. This is my basic design for a small building that I've used to create a pair of houses under construction. By printing it flat like this, rather than as a fully 3D assembled house I have avoided a lot of clean up and it's given me more flexibility for future builds, for example a building that's got a side still to be built.
Components parts printed ready to be assembled . . .
. . . and the assembled components. The roof lifts off for ease of access.
Assembled and painted building with an additional floor made of balsa sheet with pencil line floorboards. This will be added to a base board with lumber piles and other small items at a later date.
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