Fram's general buildy thread (Update 12-24 - Overblown gramophone)

[magokiron]

OMG!

Man you're sooooo talented.

Your buildings are pieces of beauty, and you should be VERY PROUD of them!

Thanks for sharing.

[FramFramson]

A small update for Prof and some others, which I will separate into two posts.

First, I was able to find a few WIP pictures of two projects. First the religious shrine:

I actually carved the base out of MDF instead of making it out of foam. For some reason the foamcore I was working with scored really badly so in a huff I decided to just carve it into the MDF. This worked fine, but was a spectacularly labour-intensive bit of foolishness!



Then I put on dowel and fittings.



The fittings were brass bits from a cabinetry place. They had knobs with concave tops, which made beautiful braziers/basins. The little ourobouros figure is a Dreamblade mini.



After that, I painted and flocked it. My biggest regret is that the brass tops for the columns don't line up 100% with the dowel and (far more irritatingly) stick out much more than I'm comfortable with (because the brass discs have a larger diameter than the dowels).

What I'd like is a band of patterned material I could glue around the tops of the columns, just under the discs, something I could paint brass-y, which would make the columns look capped, rather than having those discs floating awkwardly on top.

Next up, I had some WIP pics for the workshop (see the 1st page).

For buildings, I usually start with a plan, which I lay out on the MDF. I cut around that shape to give me a bit of a surrounding lip to work with. Then I figured in advance where I'd want basement windows (this building was a bit different - it was the first time I was including such low windows), cut the parts from the Noch stone sheets I have and glued foundation in place with glue gun glue (I actually put a layer of craft sticks underneath, to save the bit of stone sheet where it will be covered by ground texture anyway, but that's because I'm a cheapass and these stone sheets are expensive... it's really not necessary).



Added the first layers of wooden structure. These cover up the tops of the foundation.



Added the first floor in foamcore. Notice I painted the foamcore black. This is just in case any shows through my plank-clad exterior.



Some of the initial planking.



Another angle.



The underlying structure of the second floor is added and the building begins to take shape.





More planking and the first wash to weather the wood.





And I'm afraid that's it. I can't find any pictures from later. I may not have taken any actually.

[FramFramson]

My current project is a collection of tall grass patches, such as can be used to simulate natural plains (like the midwest), or swampy areas (like the everglades).

My initial idea was teddy bear fur, based on Elladan's beautiful work. However I don't have an airbrush, so this got interesting...

First, I cut some pieces and glued them to the MDF.



Then I tried to dye the grass green by soaking everything in some watered down acrylic. This turned into an incredible mess. The MDF was soaked and ruined and I had to dye the grass over and over and comb out all the clumps where paint pooled before I got anything close to what I liked.

Eventually I cut new MDF pieces, re-glued the grass and then left the project aside for a LONG time.



Went back a few weeks ago. First I built up a shore edge for the places where water does not touch tall grass with glue-gun glue. Then I did my usual wall compound + water coat, followed by light sanding job for ground texture.



Here's a close-up.



Been a couple of weeks since that update - I have some trees that have gone unbased FOREVER and have decided I want to do their bases at the same time, but hopefully more progress will come soon.

[Blackwolf]

Amazing stuff,brilliant

[Sangennaru]

that's very interesting! Those are the first "unpainted" buildings that i really like! Weathering the wood is nice, but usually doesn't give the same look of a wise paintjob. But in that case everything looks amazing! =)

[OSHIROmodels]

Wonderful builds everyone 

cheers

James

[aggro84]

Very cool, 
Thanks a lot for posting the tutorial.
I'd still love to see all of your stuff on a board together.

[FramFramson]

Hehe, thanks. Got to get more than a few other things done before I've got enough for a table shot.

[FramFramson]

Finally building a bit of terrain again, though just a small one for now. I'm on more of a figure painting kick, but this will be a sort of combination of the two.

I while back I got one of the new GW elf figures. Problem is, the new high-elf sculpts are bloody giant! This fellow is just about 40mm! It drove me nuts too, because he was a perfect sculpt for what I needed (eventually I resorted to getting some early 2000's Phoenix Guardsmen and converting them to get the same kit in the right scale).

Anyway, I thought a slightly oversized figure would work great for a monument. And his dramatic pose really fit well too.

First, I based him using a cavalry base I cut down a bit:





Then I threw together some wooden trim (there's a dollhouse store in town that's great for stuff like this) and foam to make a base:



Some plasticard would make the plaques. I kind of did a sloppy job on the bevelling, but I doubt it will be all that noticeable.



And primed the whole thing.



If I'm lucky, I'll paint it tomorrow. One thing I'm wondering about it that I want to make the bronze surfaces (the black-primed stuff) very green and weathered, but not TOTALLY green. I still want a few properly bronze highlights on the most exposed surfaces. Does anyone have any good examples of some not-quite-weathered-ALL-the-way bronze statues?

[Andym]

That looks good Fram!! I'll need to steal borrow that idea using the trim.

I don't have an references of a statue for you, I don't know if this can help...

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=24709.225

All that's done there is a GW hawk turquoise wash over a regular gold/bronze paint job, with some undiluted paint applied to the recesses to strengthen the colour.

BTW, did you ever get your wee house, from up the page, finished?

[FramFramson]

Yeah, I'm torn between doing it your way versus doing the whole statue in green and then drybrushing bronze on the most exposed spots.

As for the "wee house" those were WIP photos for the first building in the thread (people wanted WIP pictures, so I dug out the ones I had)

[MODman]

We have some massive talents out there, if we all come togther we could rule the world..................or destroy it..........top top pieces here very inspiring

[Antaak]

great work here! 

[Melnibonean]

Egad! That certainly some nice stuff. I just wish I had an eye for terrain.
I can make it but it is a huge effort for me and it never looks quite the way I want it.

I envy you!!!

[Andym]

As for the "wee house" those were WIP photos for the first building in the thread (people wanted WIP pictures, so I dug out the ones I had)

Oops!! In my defense it has been a while. I've just had to take a look again at all your stuff. Amazing level of detail on everything!