Vagabonds Viking Village - Beehives Done

[Vagabond]

Thanks for the advice chaps. The last time I used my hot glue gun was when I made the crops for this village, there will be some comment about it earlier on this thread, anyway I burnt my fingers with the damn thing and it's been sulking in it's box ever since.

Hum - hot glue and 3rd degree burns or PVA and glue the haystack to my fingers, it's a tricky one.

I've done the DAS cones and they are drying now, I also did some small cones to make some more beehives by winding string around them to simulate rushes.

I have another question, I'm wondering if I can cut the coconut fibre off a square of door mat to use as a mown field to put the hay ricks on, leaving the stubble in place. The backing material on my mat is black rubber, I was wondering if there's any way to colour this brown without getting paint onto the cut down coconut. Maybe a wash would do it?
Cheers

[marianas_gamer]

Nice work on the church Try to avoid a trip to hospital on the hay ricks 

[gamer Mac]

Nice work on the church Try to avoid a trip to hospital on the hay ricks 

yes I agree with these statements

[Vagabond]

Thanks guy's, quick update on the hay ricks.


The naked ricks.
It's a good job I took the photo as I missed flocking one of them and only noticed when I looked at the pic.


A bad hair day.

In the end I went with my spray contact adhesive, the coconut fibres seem to have stuck well, I'll give them a while to dry and hit it with a dilute PVA solution and then give them a hair cut.

Next the bee hives and then I'm going to make an oven with a thatched roof to keep the rain off the bread.

Any other suggestions will be warmly received.
Cheers

[DintheDin]

So, your idea worked nicely and the hay ricks are coming out very nice!
What other suggestions for the village?
A chicken coop, pig sty, market stall, some pottery/big vases, a spreader for drying fish (assuming they are fishing  )

[SotF]

Thanks for the advice chaps. The last time I used my hot glue gun was when I made the crops for this village, there will be some comment about it earlier on this thread, anyway I burnt my fingers with the damn thing and it's been sulking in it's box ever since.

Hum - hot glue and 3rd degree burns or PVA and glue the haystack to my fingers, it's a tricky one.

I've done the DAS cones and they are drying now, I also did some small cones to make some more beehives by winding string around them to simulate rushes.

I have another question, I'm wondering if I can cut the coconut fibre off a square of door mat to use as a mown field to put the hay ricks on, leaving the stubble in place. The backing material on my mat is black rubber, I was wondering if there's any way to colour this brown without getting paint onto the cut down coconut. Maybe a wash would do it?
Cheers

I've gotten some bad burns from my hot glue gun in the past...worst was when I was making oozes that I needed for a D&D session, then the dog decided she needed attention and my hand hit the puddles of glue.

Anyway, a great option for mowed fields that tends to work better than the rubber is to take sections of corrugated cardboard (Smallest corrugations that you can find) and peel one side of the cladding off after cutting it to the shape you want the field. Around the edge, work some filler into the ends of the corrugation to blend it to the base and strengthen the ends, brush it with thinned white glue and dust the entire thing with fine sand. Prime the piece, paint it as earth and then use some patches of dead static grass (or just use some scissors on a cheap paint brush of the type you'd use to paint the walls or the like that has the right color bristles to the right length, to be bits of it left behind after harvesting...or if you want other options, you can add some more thinned glue to the tops of the ridges and mix a bit of the fine flocks with some unused green tea to have a field that could either have been harvested or just starting to grow.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

The church and hayricks look superb. Maybe an on-line game when you are ready? I would be happy to take on Doug Bloodaxe!

[Vagabond]

Din thanks for the suggestions, I like the idea of fish drying racks and daft as it seems I've never thought of a chicken coop. I've got a pig pen but I suppose every wargamer has one The vases/urns are on the list, but they have been on the list for maybe 5 years

SotF I think the ploughed field with the crops just sprouting on the ridges is also something I've always meant to do but I can never get the top layer of paper off without ripping it.

Thanks Lord Snapcase, the ricks look better now they have had a hair cut.

[Vagabond]

The Beehives are based on something Gamer Mac did, and I think he got the idea from someone else so I borrowed it from him.


This is an easy thing to do but you need to think about the process, which of course I didn't until I realized how difficult I made things.

Earlier I posted a pic of the DAS cones, all I wanted to do was wind a length of string around the cone. That proved impossible and I ended up supergluing the end of a piece of string to stop it unravelling. Then superglued that end of the string to the base of the cone. Then with a small brush painted PVA along the line that I would wind the string, a bit at a time. Sorry that's a rubbish explanation, anyway I got pva all over me, I superglued my fingers to the beehive and there were some very strange fumes given off from the string when I superglued the end, but I'm alright now. I think.


The finished beehives


The trimmed hayricks.

The beehives and hayricks are sat on my table ready for a game tomorrow.

[gamer Mac]

Looking good
you need to be carefull with the fumes
I can't remember whose idea they were I will have a look to see if I can find out

[SotF]

SotF I think the ploughed field with the crops just sprouting on the ridges is also something I've always meant to do but I can never get the top layer of paper off without ripping it.

You don't need it to be perfectly clean coming off, the added roughness actually ends up adding to the end result in making it look like the broken up dirt for it.