Mould making

Trying to cast my own windows. I built a couple of masters, seen in the photo below. Small windows the same size, one with the shutter closed one open. I then took a silicone cast (shown right) and am trying out casting.

Basically I'd like to avoid having to cast them all in resin, that stuff's expensive. With a bit of work the plaster results might be ok. They're prone to bubbling and the wire mesh needs the plaster brushing on to avoid a complete mess. When I perfect the technique I'll show the cast results. Then they'll go in the tavern and all will be shiny.

Fountains

A couple of fountains I'm working on. These are really just to let me test out water effects for the canal, but should work out ok none the less.

Really struggling with my limited hirst arts moulds collection. Need to buy the round turret mould I think to make stuff like this easier.

The first will have a statue, I'm tempted to try for it spraying water but get the feeling that might be running before I can sit upright.

Not sure about the owls on the second, they're just balanced at the moment. It ties into the whole owl theme of the church, and the goddess Verena. With a texture they might work, the fact they're very low detailed lego pieces could work for partially eroded stone. Dunno..

Canal Warehouse

The canal board has been getting most of my attention recently. It was the small cargo barge that actually brought me back to Stadtheim from my 40k projects.

The warehouse is now up to roof level, the main doorway at the top will have a crane jib above to lower goods to passing vessels. The back door opens on street level. There's a wooden stairway to get to the goods doorway. Then a small door opens on each side at the lower street level.

When I came back to this I noticed the tower was well out of shape. Somehow it'd grown about 1/4 inch at the back. I decided to stick with this, hopefully with a slightly skewed roof it'll look ramshackle rather than badly built! We shall see.

The details for this board are shown below:

The first is the barge, with a couple of Antenociti's crates and currently a single Renedra barrel. I'm going to do a couple of large crate piles covered with tarps (saves money :D).

Second photo shows the in progress crane which will be loading goods to the barge. Human hamster power ftw.

Thrd is a very quick cart I built today. Not bad for half an hour's work. It's a bit rough but I like it that way.

I'm hoping this will be the first complete board, though I may not do the water until all the canal boards are sorted. That way I can make sure they're all the same.

Tavern Expansion

Remember the tavern, that very brief update with a single photo? Well I've been working on that, it's expanding and has somehow acquired a hugely complicated roof.

First picture above is the front view, with the main gable showing. The arch shaped hole will have a recessed window I borrowed from some random terrain I've seen somewhere. The roof will go over the main body and stop in a small dormer at the back.

Second pic is the rear view, the block on the right is the new kitchen wing. On the other side will be steps up to the first floor, they're not in yet.

The grey stuff is depron, shown in the third photo. This is my first play with this stuff and it's great. The first floor will be half timbered for a traditional look. Still no board to mount this on yet, but that won't stop it growing.

Stadtheim Lives!

I'm back. It's been a while since I've had time/inclination to work on the town but currently on holiday from work and finding time to get stuck back in.

Bought some depron, which I'm using for the ground floor of the tavern, that's going quite well. Also learned how to mould/cast stuff, so trying to sort out my own windows later.

Couple of new purchases arrived today. From Renedra I bought a couple of sets of barrels. Big ones are about 15mm high, little ones about 10mm. Seem very well scaled for 28mm models so I'll be scattering these around.

Then from TerraScenic I bought a set of Modelling Mates moulds. Basically a cheaper version of Hirst Arts moulds. Made from EVA foam (the stuff you get on fishing rod and exercise bike handles), they lack the detail and quality of the HA stuff. However for 2/3 the price of a single HA mould you get THREE of these. Plus they're a lot larger, the basic block one has 28 individual blocks.

I'm casting up my second batch now, once I have enough to build something I'll show it. They're a little larger than HA bricks but should work well to give variety to my town.

Finally I'm working on the canal section. The warehouse is almost up to roof line and I'm building a small cargo barge to go under the crane.

Photos coming.

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..