Sci Fi Stairs

Sci-Fi Corridor Tutorial #1: Stairways

As I mentioned before, one of my main projects for 2011 will be making a modular Sci-Fi corridor for Space Hulk-style games. I have a soft spot for heavily detailed terrain - and as much as different bits from Urban Mammoth, GZG and The Scene could help me with detailing the walls, a single problem remained: stairways.
So, without a further ado, here's my take on making 15mm industrial/spaceship stairways - but you can easily use this technique to make some stairs for fantasy/medieval gaming (just use wood-textured plasticard or pieces of balsa wood for the steps).
The stairway I'm going to make is going to be 2cm high, 2cm deep and 4cm wide - but you can adjust these measurements to your own projects.

Tools and materials
Tools:
Hobby knife
Steel ruler
A pair of zig-zag pattern craft scissors (you can find these in art&craft store) like these:

Materials
0,25mm plasticard
Medium-thickness cardboard
Balsa or pine wood
Some textured plasticard or 'granny grating' (plastic canvas used in needlework)
Superglue

Part 1: Stringers
Cut four squares of equal dimensions (mine were 2x2 cm) out of plasticard, two for each of the stringers.

Cut two squares out of the cardboard (using the same dimensions as with plasticard ones).

Using your craft scissors, cut diagonally through each of your prepared squares (see the picture).

Four plasticard stringers

Glue a plasticard stringer on each side of the cardboard one, sandwich-style:

Cut a piece of balsa or pine wood, roughly 1 cm long and glue it between the stringers (see below). Notice that I used 2cm wide wood, so the edges where the stringers will be glued on are even and won't need any sanding:

Part 2: The treads
Cut strips (each measuring 40x5mm) out of textured plasticard or granny grating:

Using superglue, glue the strips to the stringers (tip: put a drop of superglue in the corners, so to make sure each tread is glued to the stringer both vertically and horizontally):

Finished stairway
I painted the stairway by undercoating it with black and then drybrushing it with silver. Some black wash was added in the places that appeared too bright for me. 

As you can see, the treads can held a miniature base between them

 That's it for today, I hope you will find the above technique useful.