Canal Mouth

Hallo. Quick update with what I'm currently working on. After the slight change to the layout I mentioned the other day, I've been looking at the part where the canal meets the sea or river or whatever it is off board.

This piece extends the existing canal system with one side higher than the other. Similar style all the way along. The tall edge finishes with a cliff face, which will hopefully look better when textured and detailed. The other side has a small pier thingamy which will be set up as a small canon emplacement. The idea is it should stop intruders sailing straight up the canal.

Still to do is the footbridge over the canal, got some plans but need to get hold of some pink foam.

Here are the two canal boards together, also entitled "why we build with set squares". D'oh. Yes, I need to move the bricks on the new board and file down the edge to get a smooth join. However I like how it's coming along, the view down the canal is pretty cool.

Still plenty to do but work is a bit insane at the moment so I've lost my weekends. Once I get them back things should start progressing again.

The town in SketchUp

Combined with my slow workrate, my inability to photograph models in an explanatory way I thought might make this a worthwhile venture. I wanted to try and give people a better overview of where the town is going, as well as explain it to myself!

So last night I downloaded SketchUp. Not used it before, but figured how hard could it be? Turns out it's the easiest packaging for visualisations I've ever used. It genuinely IS like sketching in 3d. A few things are clunky but perhaps when you get to that point you should be using a bigger package (Maya is my preference). Anyway, I digress.

This is Stadtheim! Not sparta, nor indeed frothers. The town has changed a bit from the map on the right. Whilst ostensibly this is modular terrain, since it won't be played on much if at all I'm desigining it to be put together in a certain way.

The new blocks on the front left edge are the coast. Too tempted by the awesome pirate models out there to not do this. I may even extend one block further out so I can put in a harbour wall, but for now it'll stop there. The far edge will become a cliff, the near a small dock with jetties.

Of all the blocks shown I now have 5 on the go, the latest being the mouth of the river. The far corner is a plan I have based on the rather spectacular town of Rothenburg. There will be three bridges in total. The one shown, and another wide one the other side of the watch house. Finally a small footbridge will go over the river mouth.

Too many ideas. This could easily end up being a city..

Verena Statue.. sort of

I made this plinth ages ago and have been looking for a statue to go on it. The plint is just to top from a cylinder of tooth paste and a plaster cast from the lid of a cold coffee drink. The texture is just plaster dust and chunks from hacking up hirst arts blocks.

The owl I found in an old box of stuff. I'd love the say I painted the patina like that, but actually it's just because it's spent many years in a slightly damp loft.

Anyway, I think it'll work nicely as a subtle statue to Verena, although if I find a 54mm roman goddess miniature I may change my mind.

Oh and apologies for the random thumbnail, my photo script crops in strange ways sometimes to create the thumbs.

Church and Stained Glass

The church! My favourite piece, I really love this. I think when it's detailed properly it'll be the sort of thing I'll keep coming back to just to look at.

So current state of play. The grounds are painted, the main cobbles need another drybrush to a lighter grey, looks very black at the moment. I'm really happy with the brown cobbles though, love the effect (paint brown, black wash, drybrush same brown).

Need to sort out the roof of the lean to at the back. Need railings for the graveyard as well as detailing and painting and so on for the headstones.

And then the stained glass windows! I'm so happy with these, to the point I'm almost proud. The finished effect is great and I really need to get the rest in. The one in the pic above isn't fastened, just propped up for show. I'm going to use a white back drop to help the colours stand out, as shown. Bit dusty, need to keep an eye on that somehow.

But yeah, thrilled with how this is coming together. If the rest of my town works out half as well I think I'll be happy with the overall project. At the moment just desperate to get the four in progress boards done.

Watchhouse Painting

The watch house has progressed slightly since last post. The watch house itself is now painted. The wood needs another drybrush and the windows need something, just undercoated at the moment. Looks better in person that it does in my dodgy photos. Lessons to be learned I'm sure.

The tower is one of my favourite pieces, I thought it deserved a couple of photos. The joists under the walkway need adjusting then painting, and there's still no door on the middle access arch, but it's getting there. Oh and I need to paint under the eaves.

Canal

I'm back! So I've not been slacking on the actual project, but I have been somewhat lax in updating this blog. Therefore tonight I've taken a load of photos of the current progress.

First up is the new canal board. This is the sort of piece I've wanted to do since starting this project (and long before) and I'm enjoying it immensely. However casting all these blocks with only a prison tower mould is a pain (only 8 normal blocks per cast). So I've ordered a second mould which should help.

This is going to form the basis of the canal pieces. There will be four in total, one in a 90degree turn. The left hand side in the top photo stops at tier one, the right at tier two. This will limit the flexibility of the boards but should add some very cool dynamics to the final piece. I hope.

The building in the middle is going to be a warehouse. It will go up two storeys above the top level before being peaks on the third. I'll do a gantry on the canal side and a simple jib to allow loading into barges.

Do need to figure out how best to do water. I've got a bottle of water effects but I think it could get expensive. Ideally it will cover the small walkways. The theory being they're underwater, but you can see them and use them if you need to.

Oh and my first figure! The warrior monk duder. Just a few pieces I had kicking around from a bitz buy on ebay. I think I'll paint him up and he can be the "barry" for this project.

Stained Glass (again)

Right then, long time no update. I've not been slacking though, things are progressing.

My main problem is my bloody camera batteries refuse to hold their charge, meaning I have to charge the things each time. Irksome. Anyway, the church is coming along nicely. The whole thing is more or less painted, just needs a roof for the lean-to at the back and some detailing.

I've finished the sheet for the windows, infact I now have it printed on acetate ready to be framed and mounted.

As you can see a few bits of reptition, but I'm happy with that. The two owls and Verena herself will go on the rear of the church. Then the two sides are a sword and two small windows, then the front has just two small windows either side of the tower. Obviously the round ones are for the top of the tower.

I need to get one cut out, then framed with thin card and put in place to see what it looks like. Then it's a case of trying to decide what goes behind it. Because the colours are quite washed out they obviously have a lot of white in them. Print white and you get, well nothing! So the acetate windows are quite transparent. I still think some tin foil behind them might work well if I can avoid creasing it.

Also need to sort out the section for the next tile, the first canal piece. Taking a lot of effort with the casting but it's coming along and definitely needs photographing.

Once I charge my batteries...

Stained Glass Windows

Right then, so second or third attempt at these. I'm getting happier with the results, but as you can see I don't really know what I'm doing! These will be printed on acetates, then the black borders overlayed with card to give it a bit of depth.

The church is dedicated to Verena goddess of knowledge and justice, hence the owls and scales n such. I'll keep that theme throughout the windows. I will most likely get bored and repeat a few, but I'd like each of the four sides to look different. I also need to sort out the circle windows for the bell tower.

Oh and if you visit that link you'll see where the sword/scales image came from, was ruthlessly traced. As was the owl, which is why it feels slightly odd perhaps.

All for suggestions if any of my new found visitors from BoLS would like to comment ;)

Church Update!

Aha, the church returns. Yes I've not abandoned this one at all. The roof is done and painted. The church itself has had its first drybrush, will need another to pick out the details. I also need to sort out the grounds, that's a job for this week I think.

I've had two goes at the stained glass windows, but I'll do another. It's a church of Verena, so lots of scales and owls all over the place. Should look good.

I toyed with the idea of lighting the inside, but I just don't think it'll ever get used and be a lot of effort. So I'm now thinking about tin foil on the inside of each window. Should serve to bounce light back around and hopefully make the windows 'pop'.

I'm really happy with this for my first dig with hirst arts. I got so buoyed by this I did the watch tower and I think things will spiral from there.

Brewery getting closer

Heya. Right worked like a trojan over the weekend on various bits of this project. Well, relatively speaking.. I'm so easily distracted :)

The brewery is now roofed (rooved?), once the fermenting balls are detailed it'll be ready for painting. A little tidying to do on the edge of the roof but the glue was drying.

A couple of shots of the board as it stands. You see the walls are now up around the brewery and ready for texturing. It's all cramped, but that's exactly how I wanted it. Areas of the town will be more expansive, but this is the slummy/light industrial area.

Quite happy with the second shot. I'll take one again once I have it painted. I'm hoping for something similar to the streets I saw in creet, all overhanging balconies and narrow passages.

Which brings me nicely to this

the second house for the brewery board. It looks a little odd at the moment, but it needs a frame erecting on the top. The idea is it's a ramshackle little building the owner keeps extenting. So you'll see the existing roof line, then it's raised up with boarding and a new level is being added.

It's inspired by the quote in many of the Discworld Books "what Ankh Morpork is mostly built on is Ankh Morpork" (to mangle it badly). I love the idea it's a growing, living town with stories behind most buildings. I really dislike the empty feeling you get in games where it's just a scene, cheap props with no depth. I want this town to have a representable tale.

That's the theory anyway!

Brewery Update

Making some progress then, hopefully this weekend I'll get the brewery tile moved up to around the detailing stage. Here's how it stands..

I know, masses to do. There's a wall to put right around the raised area, a second house to put on the far side of the first, then some sort of path on the near side of the slope.

The second house is going to be undergoing an extension, so it'll be completed up to the first floor, then the roof will have been removed and there will be a wooden frame in place. Trying to give more access to things. It was a plan from the start to have this not as a ruined town, but as one being built or at least expanded.

Also on show in that pic is my latest piece, the brewery chimney. It needs linking to the brewery itself, but I'm very happy with the result. It's made from polystyrene cut into bricks, glued up all haphazard, textured with sand and painted. The top is a combination of some random Action Force bit and the safety cover from a firework rocket fuse. Random is the best way forward.

First Painted Building!

Woo, first building is complete. Well ok it needs a little tidying, and it's probably the smallest building I'll do, but still, huzzah.

The small house is for the brewery tile, I'm going to do another one of a similar size to go next to it, overlooking the brewery courtyard.

I'm not 100% sure about the finish, I'm not the world's greatest painter by any stretch, but I like to try and develop a style early on in a project that I like, and I'll be happy to continue throughout. The "white" bits were a bit of a pain. Everything was primed black, then I tried to drybrush white upwards, the whole thing ended up looking like a black and white photo!

So I used a white wash (never done a wash in white before) to flatten out the panels and it looked better. The advantage being it also loosened some of the black primer giving the white a streaky, weather worn look. It would benefit from further weathering and the like, I may come back to it later.

The roof line needs a little tidying, always the way when you come to photo it you spot the errors. Probably because it's so much bigger on screen. Finally the wood work would definitely benefit from another, lighter tone drybrush. It's only had one so far.

However these things aside I'm rather happy with the end result, certainly from a couple of feet away (as I expect the whole thing to be viewed) it's rather effective.

Not been a wasted weekend, the watchhouse tower is almost painted, and the watchhouse itself is now textured. Also casting like crazy for the next new tile. Oooh, suspense huh?

Watchhouse detailing

Just realised I hadn't posted the watch house for a while, that's taken a nice jump forward.

The woodwork is all on, as are the plastic/resin accessories. The windows are all from a mordheim bits buy on ebay. The doors are Antenociti's ones of course.

The sand is chinchilla bathing sand, as recommended by the nice people over at Terragensis. Much nicer finish than normal sharp sand. I'm not sure how well it's stuck though, think it may need more glue than normal sand. I've stippled on some paint onto one side (so as not to sweep it all off) and will see how well it's stuck once dry.

Particularly happy with this one, and it looks pretty cool sat on top of the stone ground floor too. It's next on my list for painting after the church, which has now begun.

Oh and hallo to anyone coming from BoLS, I'm not in the blog alliance which has done wonders for my hit count. Please do feel free to comment, otherwise I just end up talking to myself and from there it's a slippery slope to going shopping wearing slippers and calling everyone m'lud...

Brewery Cladding

Brewery continues, now got some of the woodwork sorted. Still lots of detailing to do, but it's starting to look more like I wanted it to. Still struggling to find some decent sized kegs, worrying I may have to make them. Might have a play at sculpting some from foam and see how it goes!

Disco Brewery!

Yeah, well almost. Combine cheap plastic confetti with superglue and you get instant rivets! Working on the brewery whilst a few bits of card dry on the watch house.

The doors have just been finished and mounted, they're almost full height (two storey). The brewery itself needs work but I've started the detailing. Just cut some balsa to do the heavy duty beaming work. I need a few more bits and bobs for the fermenting balls, then I'll put some seams on them and try and add a patina effect to try and emulate brass.

I think this piece will live or die with the courtyard. If I can decorate it suitably it should look pretty slick. Need to find some decent sized barrels. If anyone knows where I can get some 2" scale barrels I'd appreciate a heads up, all I can find are normal small ones.

Watchhouse Overview

Got the roof of the watch house done today, so thought I'd take some pics of the whole caboodle. First pic shows the courtyard area. I need to do something with the wall, I'm thinking iron railings along the top. At the back at the stables, unfortunately in taking this I realised with the cobbles down the arches are rather low (I'd guess around 7ft in real money). Not sure it that buggers the stables idea or not. May end up being a storage area or something.

Second shot is a full height pic of the tower in all its glory. I'm rather happy with the dimensions, is quite pleasing to the eye. The bridge will join in the arch on the right hand side.

The final two shots show the street at the front. Not sure if I'm going to do a gateway into the courtyard, or just let it be formed naturally by the tower bridge. However once detailed I think the street should work nicely.

Going to work on timbering the watch house next, then it'll be texturing and painting time. All very exciting!

More bits!

Another order has just arrived from the terrain store. They do precast hirst arts blocks at a very reasonable rate, this little pile was about 12quid I think. The casts are pretty good, though the plaster is softer than the type I use myself. Don't see it beng a problem though, the church tower is made from them and they're fine.

Unwrapped and put in this box to dry out, sitting in the sun yesterday has done that so they're ready to go.

I bought two types of floor slabs, 1 1/2" square each. There are basic rough textured slabs, then a mixed bag of bricks, herringbone and concentric. All look great and will be awesome in my town square as my chess board.

Speaking of the chess board, I'm going to go for dwarfs vs chaos dwarfs. Should be great, though I'll have to convert my own CDs since the old plastics go for a fortune on ebay, and the new ones are rumoured to be FW only. Hardly a cheap solution. Chaos Dwarf Online has lots of guides for converting and I'm not bad with greenstuff, so I'm sure I'll manage.

Just wish I had more time to work on this, work is batshit insane at the moment and taking up a big chunk of my free time. Still, when I'm retired by 35 I'll have plenty of time to work on my models. hehe.

The Watch house

This is the watch house itself then. It's quite large as you can see, but I intentionally reduced the size of the main block so it didn't dwarf the watch tower. The link to the tower will be on the other side of the main block.

The small block on the right sits over the stables, still not sure if I'm going to do that as a hay loft or actual rooms. Ideally I'd like it to look like a converted hay loft but I'm not sure I can manage that.

The basic premise (need to find a decent spot to write down these themes) behind this is a coaching inn which was built in the shelter of a watch tower. As the town grew the watch commandeered the building, linked the tower to the inn block and started using it as their headquarters.

Oh yes, there's logic behind everything I do. Honest ;)

Brewery Base

Done a bit more to the brewery base. I appreciate this blog isn't really showing the whole picture, so I'll try and take more explanatory photos.

This is the type of bases I'm using for the whole town. 40cm squared. The polystyrene is about 2inches thick, and it will go up to three layers high. The first layer is the basic road, allowing for digging down for the canal and sewers/basement steps etc.
The second and third layer will give me nice height to the whole town when complete. I hope.

The brewery goes up one level, but it will be an enclosed courtyard so it won't need to join onto anything. All sides will be textured so tiles can butt together even if there are mismatched layers.

The space front right is for the town house, the little triangle front left is a running theme through the boards, just a small section of cobbles to give a consistency to the boards so they should join nicely. The roads are all done from textured wallpaper.

Should get a photo of each of the boards with the current buildings in place.

Church Roof

Hah, sounds like it should be a fundraising event. However the church roof is started, has been for a while. I'm really happy with the whole church, the dimensions are rather pleasing.

The other side of the roof is complete, just need to finish off this one, then join them together. Could be tricky since the glue seems to have warped the foamboard for some reason. I'll build an a-frame then clamp the sides to it, all should be ok.

I've also come up with a solution for the missing pieces in the window frames, hacked an old pencil to pieces! Just needs a spot of plasticard and should be sorted.

Current Plans

Just a quick run down of the current ideas bubbling around in my head.

Town square. This one is next, I've ordered some pre-cast 1inch square floor pieces to save me casting them (shame they don't do the 1" by 1/2" I need for the watchhouse). It's going to be a raised square with steps all around and a small slope to get carts up (for market day!).

The basic idea is I'm going to build it in such a way it will double is a chess board. Then I'll build a chess set from dwarves and probably greenskins to be traditional. Should be a nice showpiece when I eventually sort out some cabinets to store these things in.

Waterwheel. There's going to be a canal in the town to give me opportunity for bridges and docks and so on. One thing I really want to add is a waterwheel. Next to a mill or something, bit fuzzy on the finer details.

Mordheim gangs. So I don't game, never have really, but I thought it'd be a shame to not at least have a couple of gangs for this scenery. So I've bought a few dwarf warriors I'm going to convert into a treasure hunter band. Not sure what the others will be, probably just humans of some description.

Bloodbowl. I started a bloodbowl pitch a while ago. I'm thinking I might try and turn it into a stadium and use it as double or even quadruple tile for the board. Would fit the style quite nicely and follow the theme of the chess set of "useful" terrain pieces. We'll see.

Things are moving along well, despite a couple of holidays in the past few weeks. Very happy at how easy to paint the watchtower roof was. Painting is always my major bugbear. I have dozens of unpainted miniatures (ok hundreds, but who's counting?), and it's where I always stumble. I want to get the church painted up next just to prove to myself it's easy. Then we should be ok!

Watch Tower Roof

The watchtower roof is now complete. Very happy with the finished result, colour is a little darker than shows in the pics. The build was easy, and the paintjob itself very simple. A bright blue undercoat, a black wash (both cheap poster paint), then drybrush with a light grey to "mucky" it up a bit.

I'm going to use this roof style across all the slate roofed buildings. I figure a small town like this would most likely use the same quarry anyway and it'll bring uniformity across the rag tag collection of buildings.

Also done the wooden ballustrade around the top of the tower, as well as the door. This all needs painting now.

Having trouble casting enough floor blocks for the base, might need to buy a different mould. I only have 1 of the pieces I need, and I need several dozen to get it finished. Most frustrating.

Church Walls

The church now has the real wall sorted. I'm not 100% happy with the design of the front corner, but I think suitably detailed and painted it should be ok. Not restarting now!

Need to come up with a solution for the bottom of the window arches, don't have enough actual pieces (or a mould to cast from!) so need something else. Sure I'll find something.

Bought some more ink for the printer and transparent paper so I can print out the windows. Then I'm going to cut cardboard overlays to paint up the same colour as the stonework. Should all be ok I reckon.