Halflings

Minor random diversion. GWpertinent is running a compo for the oldest 40k model in your collection, but it got me thinking about my old fantasy models. I dug out these guys:

Proper old school lord of the rings action. A mixture of LotR, including Frodo, two Sam's, Bill the horse, and of course Strider, along with quite a few standard halflings. My favourite has to be Screaming Lord Titch (at the back with the green hat and the club).

Awesome models that so deserve a better paint job and bases. In my defence I was 6 when most of them were released, but still. My town is going to need inhabitants, a halfling warband seems almost a necessity, especially as the LotR movies are helping with the inspiration for Stadtheim.

Watch House Board

The watch house now has a board sorted out. It's going to be very simple, no other buildings on it. Just a very small square outside the watch house yard itself.

Started building the floor of the yard using the new terrascenic cobbles mould. The mould itself isn't bad, because it's so much more shallow than the hirst arts moulds it does tend to warp a little in the middle of the large pieces, giving each big cobble brick a slight hump back. For this set it doesn't matter, since the cobbles are uneven anyway, but if I was casting smooth blocks it would be a tad annoying. Could just be my cheap plaster of course.

Before bed I plan to have a go at the doors for the watch tower. Other things are drying so I can't really do much more on the yard itself. I need to go set the cobbles casting again though. Did that the other night and completely forgot to go scrape the mould. Hah, now I've got two sets of pieces that need several mm of overflow scraping off before use. Still, live n learn. I hope.

Watch House Update

Started the walk way for the watch tower over the weekend. I've cut in and fitted the joists, as well as sorted out the wooden boards. I now need to tidy up the joists to fit better, then detail the boards a little.

After that it needs a hand rail and four corner supports and a roof.

I have also started the watch house part which will be linked to the tower via a bridge (to the open arch way half way up). The ground floor will be solid stone with no entrance, then up the front will rise a stairway. Behind will be stables underneath the overhanging first floor.

I really need to sort out some sketches, but it all kind of makes sense in my head, so I guess that's what counts for now!

Church Rebuild

Right last night I demolished the left wall of the church, really wasn't happy with it, nothing was aligned and all a bit ropey. So knocked it down and rebuilt it. It's looking much happier now. Still a few foibles here and there, but should add to the character of the finished build.

Also started the steps at the front. Need to detail them. I also need to find a suitably sized piece of half-tubing to fill in the missing gaps at the bottom of all the arches. Sure something will turn up, otherwise I'll be chopping doweling in half, never easy!

New Mould

Excellent, my new mould from TerraScenic arrived this morning. It's their broken cobblestone mould, which I'm planning on using for the courtyards at the brewery and watch house for starters.

It's currently casting up at the moment. I'll get some photos once I de-mould the pieces and we'll see what they look like.

Oh and huge thanks to Gary at TerraScenic for sorting out a replacement mould for one the post office snaffled. Cheers mate.

Pieces

One of my piles of components. Mostly from Antenociti's Workshop, though the mordheim bits are from an ebay bitz lot.

Also have a rather impressive pile of cast hirst arts blocks ready to be put to use in the watch house. I bought the Prison Tower mould cheap on ebay, and it seems to have been a good choice. Has a great mix of standard blocks and archways.

Tavern

This is going to be the biggest building so far (not including the church). Four storeys tall, with a balcony and some rather cool wooden detail work.

Plenty to do on this, but I'm optimistic it'll work well.

Watch House

I'm going to love this when it's done, I just know it. Will be very hard to describe. Basically this is the watch tower, then it will be linked by a bridge a couple of storey's up to the main watch house. Then there will be a courtyard and stables out the back.

I've now taken this up to roof level. I'm going to chisel out the top of some of the bricks to lay balsa joists, then a narrow wooden floor will extend the current stone walkway around the top. Capped with a big pointed slate roof this should give a traditional roman style watch tower.

Did I mention I love Hirst arts? Just so easy to work with and will work out very cost effective. I'm going to do quite a few of the town houses with a couple of layers of stone for foundations. Should give a nice unifying feel to the whole town too.

Church

My favourite building so far, the church. Currently looks like a ruin, but it won't be when it's done. Far too many destroyed churches in wargaming if you ask me.

Obviously a hirst arts build. I bought a precast bell tower set, but was so impressed with all the extra components I decided to build extras. I had a go at casting a few basic blocks of my own to fill the gaps but it wasn't wholly successful. I've got plenty of real ones now having bought a mould, so I'll knock down the body and try again.

Yet to figure out how to do the stained glass windows. I'm going to put a solid looking wooden door in the inside of the bell tower (so you'll still be able to see inside the base), and a lean-to type affair at the rear.

For the bell tower statues I've picked out a few from Denizen miniatures. It's going to retell the story of a famous knight against the undead hordes. Should be nifty.

Small Town House 01

There are going to be dozens of these, so I wanted to get started early and see how quickly I could put one together. The basic foamboard frame was a doddle to put together, the balsa wood a bit fiddly but nothing major. I did learn I won't be doing individual wooden shingles for the houses though, too much like hard work!

The pink windows are resin accessories from Antenocitis.

The Brewery

Every town needs a brewery. And as well all know Dwarves make the best brewers.

This was one of the first buildings I planned, it just had to go in there. It will be surrounded by a walled courtyard (to keep out the undesirables). Just basic structure at the moment.




There are going to be a set of decorative gates at the head of the courtyard, adorned with a pair of brass dwarves (the as yet to be named founding fathers of the brewery).


The dwarf statues are a pair of very old plastic dwarf warriors. Also started on the wooden gates but need to hang them first.

Welcome to Stadtheim

Hi all. Welcome to the first post of what will hopefully become a long running blog detailing my build of the town of Stadtheim.

Situated in the Old World, Stadtheim is a small town in the midst of the Empire. Built around a culture of craft and artisanship, the folk of Stadtheim take great pride in their town.

My first real foray into terrain making proper, though I have a fair few boxes full of previous attempts which belie that. My usual haunt is the realm of 40k, usually vehicles for IG. However I wanted something of a change and the idea of a fully fledged town took me.

So it has begun. I'm going to document each building and the related progress in its own posts to try and get some coherence going. Bear with me, may be a bit ropey to start with.

I'm really hoping for feedback and motivation on this, so if you do happen upon this blog and feel like saying something (ranging from a thumbs up to a naah that's crap) please speak up.

Let's see how we get on!
Si