Tu-Torii-al

[Henrix]

Here's a little tutorial on how I'm building my first Japanese-ish torii gate, for Bushido.
It's not really historical, some minor things differ.

First off a little bit on how I want it to look.
This is more or less the type, but with a single top bar:



I want an old, slightly derelict look, like this:



Enough preamble, lets get started!

[Henrix]

I cut a bit of wood for the top bar, the kasagi. I don't know the name of the wood, but it's slightly flexible, used by folks who build their own model airplanes and boats. Not balsa, it’s too soft for this.
I then soaked it thoroughly in water. (I’m not certain why there’s a smiling Buddha standing in it. )



Next I cut the ends to a better angle

[Henrix]

And the rest of the pieces.
I cut holes in the parts to fit it all together.
This is where I started to realise that I should not have used bamboo skewers for the posts, it is too hard. They were a pain to make the holes in – hard to drill and carve – and I got wounded when my drill slipped.

[Edit]I just realised I forgot the wedges holding the lower bar in place. I made them, but must have thrown the tiny things away when I was enraged and hurt in the skewer incident.[/Edit]

[Henrix]

To make the wood grain stand out I brushed along the grain with a copper wire brush.
For the blasted skewers I had to use a steel brush and a lot of more work. I also should have cut of less before to have something to hold on to.
The last is a lesson I’ve learned before, but have too low Wisdom to remember. (Must raise Wis next time I level. Must kill more orcs bakemonos.)

[Henrix]

Gluing it all together with PVA, and stick it to some of plasticard.
The base stones and stepping stones are made in milliput.

Winding stepping stones don’t have anything to do with toriis, but look nice and have everything to do with tea gardens. This is not Japan, but the Jwar islands, remember?



Here’s a detail showing the brushed grain.

[Henrix]

And painted. The wood is stained with diluted greyish dark brown, and highlighted with (Vallejo MC) Stone Grey and Deck Tan (and a small amount of Offwhite).
The ground covering is acrylic caulking with some brown mixed into it.



Next steps, still to come, will be to add plants and stuff. (I'll whiten the base stones more, they are supposed to be white stone.)

[Red Orc]

That looks very lovely!

To my shame I never played Bushido back in the day, but I'm sure that the inhabitants of the Jwar Islands will be very pleased with their new torii.

[Henrix]

Thank you!

But "back in the day"? I think you are thinking of the wrong Bushido. This is a miniatures game less than a year old, not the old FGU RPG.

[Red Orc]

Ah, OK; I didn't even know that there was a 'new' Bushido.

That explains why someone on a thread about Chinese architecture referred to Bushido minis; I wondered what the mass interest in a 25-year-old game was!

[Marine0846]

Very cool.
Great how to do it thread.
Will have to try some of the ideas you used.
Thanks for sharing.

[Ssendam]

Nice work.

Where did you get the copper wire brush from?

[Centaur_Seducer]

Great stuff, Henrix!
And it bodes well for upcoming games

[Henrix]

Thanks guys! Heart warming appreciation is appreciated!

I got the brush from a Swedish cheap hardware store (Clas Ohlson) in a set containing a steel brush and a stiff nylon brush - all excellent for this kind of work, depending on how hard a brush you need.
They seem to mostly be used to clean small engine details (and after soldering), so places that sell stuff for car and motorcycle tinkerers should have it.

Yeah, Silversixx, I hope to have a nice table ready for Gubbspel Galore!

[Hoplon]

Great tutorial!!

Taking notes of some very useful techniques for my proyects. 

[dampfpanzerwagon]

Very good looking model. Thank you for posting the tutorial.

Tony