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!