What am I doing? The Sept of the Seven Hells

[Wellington Bonaparte]

Didthe sept ever get finished, incredible work and I'd love to see how it turned out in tbe end?

[Hammers]

Didthe sept ever get finished, incredible work and I'd love to see how it turned out in tbe end?

Almost. I had a overambitious plan for mosaic floor which I spent hours on but had to heave. It looked rubbish so I go frustrated with the whole thing and did something else for a while.

[sukhe_bator]

I can recommend Miliput and miniature slotted screwdrivers from a Pound shop. Excellent for impressing brickwork, so I'd imagine equally useful for mosaics.

[Hammers]

I can recommend Miliput and miniature slotted screwdrivers from a Pound shop. Excellent for impressing brickwork, so I'd imagine equally useful for mosaics.

Thanks, sukhe. It is not so much about getting the right tools as getting out of a rut. I am a very emotional and interesting person, that way.

[OSHIROmodels]

Get out of your bed and finish it 

[Hammers]

Get out of your bed and finish it 

You go and get a proper job, you slacker. Making custom toys ain't it! 

[OSHIROmodels]

You go and get a proper job, you slacker. Making custom toys ain't it! 

 

It is for the moment 

[sukhe_bator]

I feel your pain. Who'd have thought there'd be so many bricks to sculpt on a 15mm engine shed 200mm x 150mm x 100mm - go figure!

[Hammers]

Hello, it's me again! Have I been gone long?

Spurred by my recent entry in the BSC2020 I'ver decided to pick up the tools to set to work on this project again....



One of the things that sent me stalling with this floor was an over ambitious and not successful to make a mosaic floor for the sept. This time I thought I'd go about it in a different way. I will sculpt paving and a mosaic onto panels which I eventually will glue in place. In the picture above shows some of the panels in place within the sept.




The floor has been cut out in a heptagon shape (after a intricate alchemy formula) and cut into section. The reson I don't d the floor as one peace is that I know from experience that there will be a lot of fitting with various and mistakes are easier to amend if you can try fitting them together as pieces.




Apoxie sculpt is a perfect medium to create masonry from (great to work with for many purposes, really). I applied an even thin layer on the middle floor panel. It is pretty easy, but you get the best result if you dust the clay with a little talcum and cover it with some clear plastic bag and roll se the rolling pin on it.

The seven-pointed star was inscribed into the clay and then I punched a mosaic pattern into it with the metal end of a 0,7 mm clutch pencil. That done, I did masonry pattern around the circumference.




There are seven floor panels which all were inscribed with more or less identical patterns.




As I wanted the masonry to look old and worn. I have threaded upon enough paving stones in ruins to know they tend to be a bit concave. I achieved this by dipping my pinkie finger in water and rub it in a circular motion in the middle of the larger paving stones to create a shallow indenture. Diverse nicks and cracks were inscribed before the clay hardened.



And this is how they fit together. The gaps between the floor panels will of course be filled in when I glue them in place...



And this is how it will come together in the sept.

[Ogrob]

Very nice! Great to see progress on this. Really like the touch with the worn down paving stones.

[Hammers]

Oh, yeah, almost forgot...

I have been experimenting with and idea how to clad the spire with copper sheeting.




I bought this roll of copper tape (used to deter snails to get into cultivation boxes). Reading up online you should in theory be able to get a verdigris corrosion on the surface by exposing it to ammonium (nasty stuff!) and sea salt in a sealed container. Well, I am not satisified with this test strip. I think I may be better off painting the effect.

[OSHIROmodels]

What a beast 

You could try a patina kit. Most decent art suppliers should have something suitable. It's been years since I used one (shit, nearly 17 ).

[marianas_gamer]

The masonry looks great. I agree, paint the tape. Why introduce corrosion into your build when it will probably cause trouble down the line?

[Blackwolf]

Beautiful work

[Hammers]

As I have talked about previously in this thread I want to have murals on the inner walls of the sept. I completed four of these a couple of years ago and now I have brought them forth again. Here are two of them:




The Hell of the Merciless Sun




The Hell of Perpetual Drowning




The Hell of Eternal Winter

While I think they look alright, it is not exactly what I saw in my minds eye. I was going for a naive medieval style but ending up using the same style I apply to my miniatures. I have during the last few days made some new attempts and while I have made some progress I am just not skilled enough to make my hand do what my imagination tells it to. So...

Instead I am using the old murals I prepped. They are painted on thin double sided corrugated cardboard covered with a thin layer quick cement (the kind you use to mend cracks in concrete).  Why this combination? Well, the cement is fine enough to works well as plastered surface, as would have been used by a westrosi pictor. I picked double sided corrugated cardboard because it is rigid enough not to warp too much as the wet cement dries. Also, after the cemented has dried and the mural has been painted on it, it is fairly easy to separate the two back layers from the painted and up with a thin sheet which you can glue to the wall. Like so...




As I feel off the cardboard layers the painting did not crack att all.




The walls onto which I glue the murals are rather uneven, so I used sheets of thin balsa wood and clamps to ensure a good bond.




All the murals squeezed in place.







There, all clams removed and edges trimmed. I will no go on to weather and wear the murals. The colours are too bright so I will most likely airbrush them with a light dusting of light grey. I will probably do make the edges prettier somehow. Cracks and holes need to be chipped away to reveal the brickwork behind. Various washes and pastels should be applied to simulate dust, soot, algae, rain damage and other. I think I can make it look alright.