A Small Graveyard (last WiP photos, 20 Nov!)

[Wirelizard]

Sunday evening my computer blew it's main hard drive up... I geeked around with it until I realized there was naught I could do except make the problem worse that evening - so I broke out the modelling supplies and actually got something done, instead of spending the entire evening surfing LAF! 

I'd started a few gravestones with milliput a week or so ago, and there's more finished (and these ones cleaned up) since this photo was shot:


So I dragged out a piece of scrap beadboard styrofoam, hacked a hill-shaped piece out of it, and slathered on pre-mixed spackle which starts bright pink and dries white. It feels a bit like working in cake icing, but being premixed is much neater and easier to work with for those of us with no space at all.

The retaining wall along two sides is leftover Hirst Arts blocks, mostly the small cubical dressed-stone blocks. I wasn't too neat laying that stonework, this is supposed to be an old, ratty graveyard after all!



The white open space is going to be a small mausoleum - with a set of stairs inside, leading down into the hill. Secret passages being classic plot fodder, you know. There'll be headstones around that, and on the lower level, and some sort of decaying gate, or at least gateposts, at the base of the gravel path that winds it's way up toward the mausoleum. The edges will be mostly bushes and rocky bits where they aren't retaining wall.

The whole thing is just over 7" long, 5" wide. The photo with all the pink spackle in it has a Canadian penny in the middle, which is just under 20mm across.

(oh, and the hard drive that failed and prompted me to actually start this didn't eat any of my personal files, just the operating system. I'm running on my old, smaller hard drive for now, and the busted one is still under warranty, so it'll be back to Seagate next week. One of the gravestones has "RIP HDD" on it, to commemorate the event that got me to start building the graveyard!)

[DFlynSqrl]

Looks like a good start so far Wirelizard.  I like the "RIP HDD" idea.     Glad none of your important files were lost.

[Wirelizard]

Stonework and rocks all painted up, barring a bit of weathering, and the lower half has gravestones and the first round of flocking in place.

The upper half is awaiting more progress in building the mausoleum that'll go in that white area. While I bash away at that, I can keep going with greenery and detailing the lower half - needs lots more bushes, dead leaves, and such for a proper overgrown and neglected look!

The stumps and dead tree are milliput (over a wire skeleton, for the tree) and based on pennies; I just used plaster to fair the pennies into the ground.

All my figures are packed away for transport to a game tomorrow, but the penny-and-wire construct in the centre, on the path, is based the same as my figures (Canadian penny, just about 18mm across) and is roughly the same height as a 28mm figure!

[Wirelizard]

Carved the stairs for below the mausoleum and glued them in place; there's a piece of scrap styrene over that for the floor & foundation, but that went in after this pic was taken.

The mausoleum itself is also assembled and mostly detailed; it's more styrene, with milliput detailing. It'll get a door next, and a grate over the door. I'll also put short wire pins in the corners, and drill holes in the floor so it stays in place and is removable for access to the stairs into whatever mysterious caverns or crypts lie below!

[Wirelizard]

Quick WiP photo before I get some sleep:



Mausoleum construction done except for the door, and just dropped into place. Basic groundcover done across the whole graveyard now; bushes next.

Quite what that Copplestone hunter needs a really big double-barrelled shotgun for in a small overgrown cemetary... do we really want to know? Students of the occult might want to have a close look at the engraving on that gatepost with the stone globe on top of it, though...

[Wirelizard]

Bushes mostly in place, more ground cover in place, painting complete on the mausoleum and vines added to the sides. (Used tea, dried out, makes great dead leaves and dead vines. Smells nice, too!) Still need to do the door of the mausoleum, pins to hold it in place, and more bushes - that brown area in the lower image will be brush too, but I needed to do the foliage in stages to give it a chance to dry.

Still lots of wet glue on the thing - a lot of the whitish-looking areas are from the glue. I use lots of dilute white glue for stuff like this; takes ages to dry but dries strong enough that you could pick the entire piece up by the bushes, probably.

Once the glue is dry, and assuming it ever stops raining, I'll get some daylight photos instead of just workbench snaps like this.

Also, 300+ views and only one comment? Rly?

[Lordblackwing]

Looking good Wirelizard. I may have to borrow your tea leave idea. What brand do you recomend, or just use whats in the cupboard?

[Wirelizard]

Looking good Wirelizard. I may have to borrow your tea leave idea. What brand do you recomend, or just use whats in the cupboard?

Whatever's in the cupboard should do nicely. Bagged tea is usually more finely ground; loose tea is bigger pieces. For the graveyard's leaf scatter, it's all used bagged tea. Loose tea could make nice scatter on a forest base.

I go through two pots of Earl Grey per day, usually, so a day or two worth of used tea sets me up for lots and lots of modelling projects!

[argsilverson]

Nice project and well executed.

I go through two pots of Earl Grey per day, usually, so a day or two worth of used tea sets me up for lots and lots of modelling projects!

Next time use Lady Grey, lovely scented tea.
Apart being my favourite tea for the last 5 years it has more flavours added, small flowers/petals etc. Could provide more variation for dead leaves. the loose leaf boxes have some violet coloured bits, but since I used mostly bagged one I do not know the exact content in the bags.

[Hitman]

Great project. That is a very fine piece of scenary that you have made. Very lifelife and actually looks full of life...if you'll pardon the pun!! I really enjoy the WIP pics...they really help give the viewer an appreciation for the effort that goes into a project like this. I really like the little details...the steps down, the growing, clinging vines, etc. You have done a masterful job. Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Hitman
 

[Wirelizard]

Finished the grate-like outer door of the mausoleum, and added the last of the bushes along the edges of the graveyard. This beast is pretty much done, barring waiting for glue to dry.



The door is wire clipped off paperclips, the hinges are styrene, and the rivets on the hinges are dots of superglue. The whole mausoleum is standing on the pins that'll hold it in place on it's foundation.

[Mr. Peabody]

Makes me want to play Call of Cthulhu! And that ain't half bad!
Steady on!

TR