Well I'm gonna try to do a typical bombed out city during WWII. I've decided to use 1/4" foamboard; the stuff that's smooth paper with styrofoam inbetween. Now I'm working in 1:35 scale and have some figures and vehicles and have started building the basic walls for the buildings. For each wall I cut out rectangular holes where doors and windows are obviously but what is the best way to make it actually look like a window and add some dimension to walls instead of keeping it all flat? Something like here https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules.php?set_albumName=album60&id=aaf&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

How is it that all those little ledges and windowsills are done? Or is that a premade one? If so is there anyway i can create the same look on mine? And what's the best way to go about window frames and doorframes rather than just leave a blank hole? Second, I want to create the broken look of the building walls and what's best to do that? The look I'm going for is like ripping cardboard but that's tough to do with foamboard and an exacto-knife can't get the intricate cuts. I could probably use a Dremel and have that carve out the edge but that might be a look too polished. Suggestions? Finally, what's the best way to create the brick look on the foamboard? Carve the pattern in slightly or what? Mostly just a short overview of what's the best to go about starting and the basic construction is appreciated. Thanks!

I don't know if those are premade or scratch. However, you have both option open to you. Custom Dioramic has some premade window sills and frames etc. You can go to greatmodels.com and do a search. Or what a lot of people do is scratch build them.
A few thin strips of balsa wood or styrene (can be purchesed or you can get it from various household containers). Measure and cut custom ones. You can use clear styrene for the windows.
The fancy trim can be purchased at a doll house place (maybe Micheals or AC Moore) or scratch build them.
You can also experiment with putty or molded clay for fancy trim. I have used sculpy for some window sill holders.
Here is one that I have done using the materials mentioned above.


One idea for the torn look could be to carefully cut the foam board in a way you want the ruin to look, just cut 2mm lower than you want. Then take household spackle and build up the 2mm. Then you can sand and texture the spackle look like a broken building.

Bricks can be done in two ways
Faust has some great ideas in here
https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/142
Or
you can cover the foam board with a thin layer of spackle and etch the bricks on that.

I agree you can use prefab or scratchbuilt. I wrote an article about Basic Wall Building you could see here at Armorama.com , plus there are lots of other resources and articles to help you.

For door jams, window jams, exterior wall decoration I use basswood then cover with Durhams Water putty.

Here are a few examples:





John
www.johnneill.com

Basic Wall Building

The best thing about the foamboard you have is that the left over chunks from making
your walls work well for rubble at the base of the wall.. I've had pretty good luck with making
broken walls by just cutting a ragged edge with an xacto knife then grinding into the edge
to further roughen it up. To provide the type of relief on the sills and doorway that are on the
buildings in your link would take alot of layering with balsa, bass wood or styrene if you dont
use a prepared or cast product.. it would definitley take a good plan and patience to do a
large building, much less a town using that method... Maybe try making a simple corner
structure out of the foamboard using a couple of techniques for the walls and see whats
best... good luck

Thanks alot for the suggestions guys! One more quick question regarding scale. I'm using 2st Century 32X figures which are 6 cm tall. I've broken it down where each cm is roughly 1 foot in real life. So I have a 3 story apartment building 27 cm high with 9 cm(feet) ceilings. So does this seem realistic or way to high or not high enough? Thanks alot guys you sure know your stuff! :-)

The height sounds about right.. you might cut out the face of the structure and then draw or
paint in the doorways, windows and see if it looks good,, before you cut a whole story of
windows and find out they arent what you want.. ive included some photos of some old
work i did with foamboard.. on the building you can see some of the problems i ran into
trying to cut out the window and then add in a wood border.. tough to get it even..probably
better to cut out the basic square then insert a seperatley built frame.... i left the top edge of
the building low so i could add a seperate cornice piece to bring it up to correct height....
The smaller peices came out better than the building... less windows and doors to deal
with.... All the broken and blasted areas were done with an xacto and painted all with acrylics... brick section wasnt carved in.. it was a seperate piece glued on.. goodluck

As far at 27cm being the heigth - its 2cm shy. Don't forget the thickness of the floors.