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Other Stuff => Workbench => "Build Something" Contest => Topic started by: Daeothar on March 01, 2024, 09:26:32 AM
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As in the title.
I'm participating in a slow burning Frostgrave campaign, and actually created a snow/ice/winter table to game on, but I have, as of yet, no terrain to put on it. Well, no thematic terrain anyway and Tattooine style desert buildings look decidedly odd on a snowy ground.
So I need some winter terrain. And while normally a bunch of hills and ruins would be the best starting point, I'm of course doing this backwards and I'm starting with a piece of terrain that is actually of very little use in-game.
See; in Frostgrave, there are parts of the game that take place off-board, either before or after the game. And also, you can purchase elements for your camp, that will give you certain advantages in-game. But all of this is strictly off-board.
Which is why I want to model a typical Frostgrave warband camp. Because, of course... lol
My take on it will be a ruined building that somehow has one more or less intact room left. I picture this to be a corner room, with parts of collapsed walls hinting at the house's original floorplan.
The room will be where the warband gathers to plan, but is also the wizard's den and laboratory. The not-magical folk will be holed up nearby, probably in other parts of the same building, but the wizard requires some seclusion to conduct his/her magical experiments.
So in essence at least, it'll be a workplace ;)
I intend to add as many purchaseable (in-game) elements to the build as I can. So (off the top of my head), there can be a dog kennel, a summoning circle, a telescope, a library, etc.
The build will be made on an MDF base, with chipboard walls, which will then be covered with individual foam bricks (yes: mad :D ). The room will have a roof, which will be the floor of a second story, which will be ruined. I plan to make the roof detacheable to see the purdy stuffs inside, but when on the table, it'll just function as blocking terrain that can be climbed as well.
There'll be ruined wall sections, piles of rubble and additional frostgrave camp elements outside of the room. I'll also have to figure out a couple of ways to reach the second floor, which will also be ruined.
And then snow and ice. Lots of snow and ice, obviously...
This will be my first build with individual bricks/stones, so I'm pretty stoked about that. And the detailing; always my favourite part.
Now to figure out a way to include a butterfly somewhere that's not out of place... ;)
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Looking forward to seeing this build. I think I've read that in the new Mortal Enemies book there are scenarios fought in and for the warband's camp.
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Now to figure out a way to include a butterfly somewhere that's not out of place... ;)
If the camp requires non-combatant servants you could give one of them a butterfly hairgrip.
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Cheers guys :)
Looking forward to seeing this build. I think I've read that in the new Mortal Enemies book there are scenarios fought in and for the warband's camp.
I don't have that one just yet. I must rectify this immediately... :D
Here's a first rough sketch I just did. Looking at the things I want to accomplish, I'm reckoning about an A4 size groundplan should be workable, maybe a tad smaller. The room should take up about 1/4 to 1/3 of the available floorspace...
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And in the meantime, I've managed to cut and bevel the base, draw in some rough dimensions and cut a modest amount of stones and bricks for the build.
I will no doubt require more, but this amount will provide a good start at least.
The base structure of the room will be made from chipboard, as it's easy to cut and glue and will provide a solid base for the stones and bricks to be stacked up against. The insides will be plastered, so no ugly cardboard finish :)
Having fun already...
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And drying time...
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Good progress, well done.
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Looks good - and what speed! 8)
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Looking good.
I was intrigued when you mentioned chipboard for your walls, as that's the stuff I've used to board my loft and about a centimeter thick.
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Yes, that might be a misnomer. Even though I pride myself on my English, I'm not a native speaker and the (very) occasional wrong word might slip through. Usually a misinterpretation of something I heard elsewhere.
A well known Youtube terrain crafter by the handle of Wyloch uses this material a lot and I believe he calls it medium chipboard? As he explains it; it's the cardboard stuff you find as the backing of a legal pad.
In the Netherlands we simply call it cardboard, but hey; that's me trying to act all fancy lol
So yeah; let's just call it cardboard. Also; it's 1mm thick, in case you were wondering...
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It seems it can be both, which isn't confusing at all o_o
For craft work
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chipboard-Sheets-8-5-Alternative-Cardboard/dp/B08LR2TBPG
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71m3FYwhGpL._AC_SX679_.jpg)
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Interesting idea and a good start. I want to build something similar for my Escher gang in the future.
Well, no thematic terrain anyway and Tattooine style desert buildings look decidedly odd on a snowy ground.
Well, if you are talking about the half spherical buildings, painted white it might work as a kind of igloo ;)
The build will be made on an MDF base, with chipboard walls, which will then be covered with individual foam bricks (yes: mad :D ).
I will probably do the same thing for the winery building lol
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Very cool idea!
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Laying the first stones.
It appears this takes time! Who knew, eh? :D
Letting the first session dry thoroughly now, before attacking the freestanding stuff and the upper floor. It's a very cathartic and soothing activity I must say :)
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That's a fine start. The stones look perfect.
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A cool idea and a cracking start sir. I really like your stone work.
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The stone walls look very good!
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Thanks fellas :)
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Great stonework.
If you're going to extend the walls, as if this was part of a larger structure rather than just the size of the single room, you may want to make some gaps in the join. That way bricks can join the 2 parts together, rather than 2 separate walls next to each other.
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Absolutely, but I've planned an outside door right next to the intact room, which is why it's all (sort of) flush :)
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Sort of flush yes, but still not looking quite natural after adding the door I fear ::)
Still; the intention was to create a building out of uneven stones (for visual interest), which was also partial destroyed (for fluff reasons). So anything looking haphazard and crooked only adds to the overall look. That's my story anyway, and I'm sticking with it :D
To make the doorway as stable as possible, I added a metal wire as the core of the stones forming the doorway. The wires pin into the base, so after the glue dries, this will be quite sturdy (I hope).
There will be piles of fallen stonework on both sides of the wall too, which will also help with stability. The cardboard door will be taken out once everything is dry; it's just there to add stability and shape in the meantime.
I've found the most difficult part of this way of building is waiting for the glue to dry. I bought some super fast drying PVA for exactly this purpose, but the advertized 4 minutes on the bottle are really optimistic. At least; with the amounts and materials I'm using ::)
So I at least have the time to post this lol
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Looks great. Try Aleene's Tacky Glue - it works wonderfully and really is much tackier than white glue and holds right away
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The join in those 2 walls looks really good. Really liking how this build is coming along.
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Looks great to me - the stonework is grand.
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Cheers guys :)
I've been stacking along, but there's only so much one can do before stuff needs to dry again. I've piled up bricks around the corner and on the fly have decided that there should be a partially collapsed doorway there as well.
So I cut some more door/window stones (as I've called them), which are uniform in size and shape, and proceeded to form a partial doorway. In order to support the free-hanging half arch of the door, I added another metal wire as an armature. I glued this in place with PVA, as I don't have foam-safe superglue, so I had to rig up a temporary jig to hold it in position while the glue set.
Which is why there are ABC blocks, a cardboard doorway and a foam spacer in the picture. I removed them this morning before going off to work, and it worked. So I can now string the door/window stones like beads as soon as I have time and continue with the walls.
Progress is slow but steady 8)
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These collapsed walls and doorways give the feeling the still standing room was part of a (much) bigger structure! Well done!
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I've found the most difficult part of this way of building is waiting for the glue to dry. I bought some super fast drying PVA for exactly this purpose, but the advertized 4 minutes on the bottle are really optimistic. At least; with the amounts and materials I'm using ::)
So I at least have the time to post this lol
I use this wood glue for years now.
(https://dm.henkel-dam.com/is/image/henkel/1438316_Pattex_Palma_Fa_Expressz_250g?wid=960&fit=fit%2C1&qlt=90&align=0%2C0&hei=960)
The bottle says it cures in 5 minutes. I'm not sure about that (never timed it), but it drys pretty fast, definitely under 10 minutes.
Good progress, I really like the doors. I'm sure it will look really good painted.
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Thanks guys 8)
@ McMordain: I've been using Uhu Woodglue Express for this project (see picture: my local hobby store imports a lot from Germany). It does dry faster than the Bison Fastdrying Woodglue I normally use, but not that much. Still; it works. I will give your Pattex recommendation a try once this bottle runs dry :)
On the stonelaying front; I've pretty much completed the first floor! I suppose that's a bit of a milestone, right?
There will be some more ruined wall on the second floor (or even above), but I'm holding off on that right now, so I can have easier access to the room itself.
Next job will be the floors.
They will be tiled, and I'm looking at patterns right now; I want something a bit more elaborate than the ubiquitous checkerboard pattern, as I imagine this house to have been the home of a rich wizard during Felstadt's heyday...
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Next job will be the floors.
They will be tiled, and I'm looking at patterns right now; I want something a bit more elaborate than the ubiquitous checkerboard pattern, as I imagine this house to have been the home of a rich wizard during Felstadt's heyday...
As it was already a wizard's place how about tiles (or mosaic) decorated and/or arranged to result in some king of 'magic circle'?
Whatever you do it should be spectacular if it's up to the standard of the masonry!
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I've been looking at many, many tiled floors from loads of different styles, ages and cultures the past couple of days. I've also given a lot of thought about how to create them.
My original plan was to use some glossy cardboard and cut out each individual tile. This would be fairly easy were I to do the floors in simple, square tiles of, say, 1cm on the side. Any small inaccuracies would be negligible during the laying of the tiles then.
But as I said; I want something a bit more elaborate, although not a full blown mozaic floor either. But anything small, and we'd be talking 1/2mm's, and any errors there would result in wonky patterns. Something I'd like to avoid.
I pretty soon had a rough idea of what I was after and several dozen of sourced pictures later, I had a bit of an epiphany: why not 3D print them? I mean; all the cool kids are doing it, so why not give it a go?
So this evening, I roughed out some sketches of patterns, picked the one I liked best and replicated it on Tinkercad. The result you can see below.
There are 4 types of tile required, and I figured I'd be able to print enough in one or two sessions for the project. All the floors inside the house, but outside of the intact room will be tiled.
In my head these are common spaces, such as corridors, vestibules etc, while the actual rooms are furnished with wood flooring instead.
So let's see if I will be able to pull this off. And if my printer will even be able to print something the size of the smallest tiles! Otherwise, there's always the cardboard... ;)
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That's a great looking design...but it looks fiddly as... good luck!
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Your remark about it being fiddly sort of rang true last night, and I had some genuine concerns about printing such tiny little objects in the first place.
Which is, when I was lying in bed still thinking about this, I had another, better idea. I will group a single section of the tiles together, on a very thin baseplate, and I will print multiples of this section. I will be able to tile them and get a consistent pattern, without having to worry about getting all of those tiny little squares upright and in the right position.
And that's what I will do next; make a single section like described (en outlined below) and then print a test version. Considering the very low profile, printing should be very fast indeed (unless I'm going to have to angle it).
So thanks Lost Egg; you set me on the right (or at least; less bad) path :)
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Which is, when I was lying in bed still thinking about this, I had another, better idea. I will group a single section of the tiles together, on a very thin baseplate, and I will print multiples of this section. I will be able to tile them and get a consistent pattern, without having to worry about getting all of those tiny little squares upright and in the right position.
You could also do larger groupings of four or eight main tiles with all of the smaller tiles base platted to make it even easier. Still watching with interest.
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That was one of the ideas I had last night too, yes :)
And I might still do that too, for the larger surfaces. And then have the single sections for the smaller corners etc :)
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Just read your plan for the floor tiles and thought "printing them in larger groups might be easier", unless you want a very uneven or broken floor, in which case you need individual tiles.
You don't even need the fit to be perfect within the walls if you're going to have plenty of furniture and clutter around the walls to hide any small gaps.
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Well, I certainly want broken tiles in there, but those can be broken or scribed by hand. As it stand now, I will be doing larger sets of tiles, to cover ground (sic) faster, but also some individual sets to fit the pattern into the available space.
But I reckon there will be copious amounts of debris in the corners anyway, so there will be ample opportunity to faff around if required :)
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Quiet Friday afternoon at work, so snuck in a bit of CAD-tinkering. The advantages of a web based tool ;)
This is a 4 tile piece. I might make a larger one too by simply copying and pasting, but this will be the standard. A single tile piece will probably also come in handy, so I will make one of those for sure.
Let's see how this prints during the weekend :)
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That looks great, should make it so much quicker to do.
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So, that went smoothly, but I still need to adjust some things, most notably, the height of the tiles. Right now, they're way too subtle and one heavy coat of paint will completely obscure the detail.
So I'll thicken the tile layer by increasing it to 300% of the current thickness and see how that looks.
The current thickness took but 6 minutes to print by the way! :D
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Distinct advantage to short prints. The bottom of the stand for my landing pad tower is almost done at a little under 4 hours...
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I feel your pain; I've had prints last up to 10 hours to complete, so I'm pretty happy with these being so fast.
I had to thicken them up, so printing time is now 9 minutes, which is still very comfortably short. It helps I can print them flat on the build plate; no supports needed and the build is only a couple of mm thick/high.
Here you can see versions 1, 2 and 4 next to eachother. I think 4 has hit the sweet spot in terms of depth and width of the seams between the individual tiles.
I did some maths and I now know I will be needing another 4 printing sessions to complete what I need. One of those incorporates 1/2 sections, which I still have to digitally cup up and slice. But all in all, this will be just a couple of hours to complete. Then it's off to find my box of coffee stirrers for the wooden floor in the room :)
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Looks very good - nice print. I like the interlocking pieces.
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That last one looks great and like it'll be very satisfying building a floor from them. Are they designed to fit together exactly leaving the same gap between each cluster of tiles? Or will you need to do it by eye or use spacers?
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That last one looks great. Looks like they'll slot in next to each other really well too.
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Looks very good - nice print. I like the interlocking pieces.
Seconded- brilliant work.
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Well, I'm glad I decided to go with even larger slabs of tiling as opposed to 2x2 squares. Or even *shudder* individual tiles, as I had planned on originally ::)
I ended up creating 4x8, 4x4, 1x8 and 1x4 slabs and I will eventually not even use everything I had printed. Imagine having to do this tile by tile o_o
In the picture, everything is just laid out, not fitted and not glued down. I hope to tackle that soon, but I remembered I first will have to grout the outside walls and plaster the inside ones. I might wait with the outside until I finish the upper floor walls, but the insides I want to do before I put the floors in.
I also want to plaster the inside walls outside of the room, but then break away parts and pieces to expose the rough stones underneath. Because the room has been protected from the elements all those years, but the exposed walls will have had it rough in the eternal winter of Frostgrave...
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Imagine having to do this tile by tile
Come to the darkside of hand-placed tiles. You know you want to...
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Ooo they do look nice!
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Looking great, when I first saw your idea about the tiles I thought it was madness but you've really made it work.
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As planned; the tiles are removed for now, as the next stage is a messy one; the plastering of the inside walls.
I decided to do the room itself first. But I also had a little last minute idea I needed to incorporate: I removed a section of wall, as if it had collapsed, and used my cut bricks to fill it up. As if the warband had actually put some effort into their hideout. I will carry the damage over to the floor/ceiling, which will have been repaired in an equally enthousiastic but not very talented way.
And I then finally put on the wall filler. Smoothing it out with a bit of water really helped it to adhere to the cardboard and once it's dry, I can sand it more evenly (a lot more evenly ::) ) and even break and crumble it in specific spots to add more damage.
When that's done, I'll tackle the other inside walls. But those will have even more damage. With possibly just a few spots of plaster remaining. Then it's on to the fireplace and chimney.
Look how angry wizard guy can now focus his ire on the shoddy workmanship of his minions...
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Look how angry wizard guy can now focus his ire on the shoddy workmanship of his minions...
He should stop blaming others and study the 'Apply Plaster' spell...
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that looks really good :-*
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In a short session today, I've sanded down the plaster to a more scale appropriate level of relief and added some cracks to the damaged section of the wall I previously created.
Also, I've started construction on the fireplace. I suddenly had this idea of lighting it up with a tea-light LED. You know; the flickering ones. But I've not decided yet; the idea has pro's and cons to it... ::)
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Looking great so far. This might be a quicker easier option to the tea lights.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/balloon-lights/s?k=balloon+lights (https://www.amazon.co.uk/balloon-lights/s?k=balloon+lights)
Saw another LAF user use them in a build and they worked a treat. Wish I could remember who to link the images. :(
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Some lovely plaster work. I love the crack and exposed wall underneath it
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Cracking job!
Sorry, couldn't help myself. Looking good and I like the fire place idea.
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Cracking job!
Boom! Boom! Tish! lol
Nice work mate! I can’t wait to see this finished! 8)
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(https://www.shareicon.net/data/128x128/2016/04/14/492365_egg_256x256.png)
;D
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Fireplace finished :)
I gutted an electric tea light but where they used to be soldered in, with a proper switch and battery holder, these days they're just an LED with its leads bent through a plastic slider, which is held in place with a couple of hooks, and this presses the LED's leg onto the battery when moved.
Electronic components: an LED and a battery, nothing else. So if I decide to light up the (fire)place, I'm going to have to source at least a proper switch. Cheap Chinese junk... ::)
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The poor man - get him some quickly applied plaster to quench his anguish stat!
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I like how your wizard is cursing the heavens over the situation :D
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Since the tile floors of the hallways are rather posh, I thought that a simple floor of wooden planks would just not do for the den of a powerful wizard*. So I decided to create a wooden floor in a fishbone pattern.
To this end, I took a bunch of coffee stirrers, stacked them all on top of each other, taped them in this position and took them to the band saw. There, I cut off the rounded ends (they might come in handy as roof tiles later on perhaps) and cut the stirrers into lengths of 15mm.
This provided me with enough tiles to do the room (and significantly more as I found out afterwards, so I might as wel use them for the upper floor as well ;) ). And after first adding a border around the circumfence of the room, I then started laying them down individually. Th8is took me a couple of hours, including a short intermission to get something to drink and stretch my weary muscles.
But in one afternoon I managed to floor the room, which is drying as I type this. I used the slower PVA for this, to give me more time to work. I still did it in sections though.
It's not perfect, but that'll probably add to its charm (or so I hope :D ). There will be at least one persian rug on the floor though, so I might be able to mask some of the more unsightly errors... :)
And Angry Wizard Guy is actually doing a 'Heck Yeah!' here, as he's mightily chuffed with his new wooden floor lol
* My head-canon for this build is as follows: This was once the home of a powerful wizard in Felstadt. He had an old, existing house renovated with a nicer interior when he moved in (it was conveniently close to the university quarters). He then used a rather powerful spell to make sure his study was always at a nice, moderate temperature and not too humid.
After the cataclism that covered the city in perpetual winter, the spell somehow kept functioning, even after the demise of its caster. In fact, it seems that it is so powerful, it protected the room, even when the house partially collapsed.
An intrepid warband looking to strike it big in, what was now known as, Frostgrave recently discovered it, and made it the heart of its campsite. The wizard leading the warband obviously claimed the miraculously well preserved room as his own, and here we are...
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Good job on the fishbone pattern. I think I would have gone cross-eyed after the first row o_o
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Ooo...that's posh! Lovely job.
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I have since sanded it smooth, after the glue was dry. This almost completely filled up the gaps that were still left here and there, even though I tried to be as precise as possible. I then brushed a thinned down coat of PVA over the whole surface, to both protect it from everything that will come next and also to seal in the sanding dust.
Once it's time to paint, I will sand it once again, removing the PVA layer, so I can stain it and then do the final sealing. I'm hoping to make the floor a dark wood in the end.
On another note; I discovered that my tile floors have all warped upwards, so none lies flat anymore. I don't know what caused this; I thought they had been fully cured, so I've now bent them back as well as I could (there was some breakage here and there along grout lines) and laid them down flat, with a big metal weight on top. Hopefully this will remedy the situation.
Otherwise, I will have to do some redesign and reprint the lot...
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I like the way you are doing this with the plastered walls, parquet flooring and the fireplace - very detailed and attractive ;)
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I love the room with the wooden floor and the fireplace. Looks great, that wizard is a lucky one :)
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I really love the flooring; you don't see a lot of that kind of flooring in model buildings.
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You are putting in a LOT of work on this, and it shows. Well done sir.
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that looks really nice,indeed :-*
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Lovely stuff, man.
This is gonna be an amazing piece to game around.
Cool to see you're playing around with some new toys and techniques. Really upping your game, once again.
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You really are packing in the little mundane details that are easily missed. Very good stuff.
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Thanks guys; much appreciated :)
Construction of the upper floor has begun in the meantime. I added a row of stones protruding from the walls as a divider between floors. It also gives a bit more visual interest to an otherwise pretty plain set of walls. IK'm pretty satisfied with how that looks.
Then it was on to the upper floor. I cut out a rectangle exactly fitting the circumfence of the room below, making sure it also included the card framework (1mm thick), which will function as the main support for the upper floor. I say upper floor, but I aim to suggest in the build that there are more floors above these two. Or there were, at least.
I added balsa beams tot he underside of the floor, and cardboard trim to two sides of the rectangle. TYhe other two require a bit more finesse and fitting (due to the beams), but will also receive them. I let the beams protrude out a bit, so I can let the floor extend a bit as well, to add to the ruined appearance.
Next will be adding floor boards to the top, and some more parquet on top of that in the corner. The idea is to suggest that this room was nicely furnished at one time too, but the collapse and subsequent exposure to the elements ruined it even more. This will give me an opportunity to use up all those excess pieces of wooden tile.
But I might as well build up the walls of the 2nd story first; whatever suits me at the time of my next opportunity to hobby away ;)
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"How the hell am I gunna scrape that off?!"
Those underfloor beams are a lovely detail.
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"How the hell am I gunna scrape that off?!"
lol
Today I got to (almost) finish the floor/ceiling. I added bricks to where the chimney meets the ceiling, added the rim to the rest of the roof and added stonework to the outsides on the two exposed inside walls, taking care to add bricks where the repaired hole in the wall is.
Then I started adding planks to the top side of the construction. This is the basis for the floor of the 2nd story. As said; I will add a patch of parquet to one corner of the room, to suggest it used to be covered in its entirety.
It's drying now, weighted down to prevent warping. So the next step will be some more stone work now, building up the ruined walls of the second floor. I'm thinking hard about adding a small balcony to the corner as well :)
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What a brilliant build. Eye candy at every step.
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Cracking. It's interesting that as soon as you put a roof/floor over the room I start to wonder what shenanigans are going on in there...
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Today, because my work visit was finished way ahead of schedule, I had some time to tackle the chimney and upper floor fireplace (or what's left of it).
As below, I made a framework/skeleton of chipboard and then bricked around it. This fireplace was obviously ruined and only a part of the chimney from the one below is still standing. Somehow the rest of the fireplace is gone. That chimney part must have been built extra sturdy I suppose ;)
The ceiling/floor ended up warping after all (curved upwards in the middle), so I've set it aside for now with as much weight on top as I dare. Hopefully it will settle back into shape at least partially, as the gap it's leaving now is rather unsightly :?
I've threatened to start on the upper floor walls several times now, but they're going to have to wait a bit longer still, as I am first going to construct the balcony on the corner (yes; that's happening). Then I can decide on the door shape and from there, the walls will finally be built :)
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Moving at a good pace now (before easter slows everything way down), I've roughed out the balcony. It's not fixed yet, so I still add nails etc, and it will also require a (partially broken?) railing and a peaked roof over it. We'll see about those later though.
The beam construction underneath was done with balsa, while the planks were a slightly thicker and sturdier type of coffee stirrer. I used some ornaments from the bits box for this one too. I believe they're from the OOP WHFB Watch Tower kit, but I'm not sure. Definitely GW though.
I will be adding small details from those kits here and there all over the build. Mainly to make it fit in with those, as I have a boat load of them lying around and I might as well use them for Frostgrave now...
On a different note; I received the Frostgrave Mortal Enemies expansion yesterday, and it details warbands attacking each other's bases. Turns out a base consists of (at least?) 4 rooms of approximately 6x6 inches. SO I might have to repeat this whole exersize three more times to create a fully rules compliant base.
I'm already thinking about this. (of course ::) ), and I could make three equally sized bases which can butt up to eachother and create a floor plan of the entire house, with different rooms in distinct themes; a sleeping area, an armory/storage area and maybe a training ground, or stables? This should eventually be a seriously massive unit...
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3 extra rooms like this one? Sounds good to me.
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We're waiting....
The stonework looks absolutely brilliant. So much more work than just using a roller or drawing them in., but it really shows.
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I love how you have done the windows and doorways; much more interesting than a simple horizontal lintel.
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Even though easter was very busy with family visits and fraught with elaborate brunches and mountains of chocolate eggs, I did manage to get some stuff done, once the last relatives had left the grounds.
I actually had to stop at this point, as the walls were becoming too unstable with the glue still setting But I just had to pull myself away; I'm having too much fun stacking bricks and stones like this. Must be all the Lego-filled days of my youth ;)
Hopefully I can finally end the building phase this week and start on the detailing. A full month has passed already and I had planned on finishing this phase before the end of March. So I'm now officially behind schedule (as a good building project should ::) ), but luckily not too much; everything is still possible at this point... :)
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very nice progress :-*
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On a different note; I received the Frostgrave Mortal Enemies expansion yesterday, and it details warbands attacking each other's bases. Turns out a base consists of (at least?) 4 rooms of approximately 6x6 inches. SO I might have to repeat this whole exersize three more times to create a fully rules compliant base.
You could argue this build is already 2 rooms (inside the room, and the roofless part 'outsidish', but another three equally sized bases does sound way better of course! :D
I'm already curious to a picture with all the GW stuff to see how it all fits in together (for a Frostgrave table).
Great work all over!
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More great progress.
With regards to the wall building, you could always use cocktail sticks to help bind the wall together while the glue dries. They'd also add strength to the wall.
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ALmost finished the stone laying last night. The doorway to the balcony is done, but needs some more care, such as some filling stones and some cutting back, but this is the basic shape done.
There will be some slight building up, as I fudge my way into creating an awning/roof over the balcony. It will be a simple sadle type roof, with shingles, but this might well require some more hight to the wall it's attached to. There will probably be some remnant of the roof proper as well, depending on the space I have to maneuver.
Adding some spikes to improve stability/survivability seems like a good idea, but instead of cocktail sticks, I might resort to metal rods, because of the thickness (or lack thereof) of the walls :)
Chugging along...
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When I have seen this:
(https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=144741.0;attach=219673;image)
my first thought was "Jump!"
And now I have this image where the mage, after a successful mission, drunkenly boasts on the balcony, and his similarly intoxicated followers chant "Jump! Jump!" from below lol
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lol
'Hold my beer'...
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Tonight I managed to almost complete the balcony. Once it's dry, I can attach it to the ruin and lay the final stones to lock it in place. Which should conclude the masonwork!
The roof of the balcony will require some additional small work, such as attaching decorative side boards and the top ridge. There will be a small decorative element (I have the choice of several) as well.
One of the plastic decorative pieces on the balcony has already lost its hammer due to my hamfistedness, but that is still salvageable I reckon.
After that, I will have to finally lay down the tiled floors and then the rubble piles in three corners of the hallways. A lot of stones will end up on top of those as well, to suggest the collapse of the walls.
And then; back to the plasticard and the detailing! :)
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Very not bad! That gable certainly adds to the balcony
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One of the plastic decorative pieces on the balcony has already lost its hammer due to my hamfistedness, but that is still salvageable I reckon.
Or you can leave it like that. It's a ruin after all :)
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Love this way this build is evolving. And those rooftiles are a neat idea.
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One groovy build. That's gonna end up looking awesome with your painting skills.
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Thanks guys :)
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The balcony is now finished, bar one possible addition. I am contemplating adding supports for the awning on the outside corners, but I'm having a hard time finding a balance between an authentic look and playability.
To make it easier to place miniatures there (I reckon it's a prime archer/crowsbowman spot) I made one side of the balcony ruined. On the other hand; all medieval examples of balconies like this have pillars supporting the awnings above. BUt those would make it more difficult to place miniatures I feel.
So what to do?
Anyway; taking a page from Quidamcorvus' playbook, I've started adding GW model building details to my build. First the two carved figures on the balcony ( I will leave the one damaged; cheers McMordain), then some more details on the awning and a round disk displaying a mythical scene (I think it's a pied-piperesque depiction?) on the short wall. I imagine it to be a bronze embellishment, so there'll be plenty of patina later on.
Finally (for now), there's two sword wielding monk types I cut from the rear wall of a GW fantasy building (a small house). I added some plasticard edges to them and now they're stone carvings guarding the outside door. They're just mocked up here; the sprue goo is still drying on the seams and I need to sand those flat before permanently attaching them to the building.
Then; I ran into some trouble fitting the tile floor pieces together; looks like the edges I left on the sides are too big, even though they were exact matches in TinkerCad. Looks like the printer put on some extra material to the circumfences of the floor pieces. So it's one more time into the CADiverse to rectify this; I will completely take off the edges and fit them by eye when glueing them down instead of matching them up like puzzle pieces.
Ah well; it was a good idea in theory at least... ;)
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Always cool to see what other people scrounge out of their bits boxes! This is coming together nicely.
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This is looking very good :-*
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very nice indeed :-*
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Wow, this build just gets better and better. The detail you're putting into this really adds to the character. Truly inspiring.
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Finally; the tile floor is in! :D
Next stop; the doors and then the piles of rubble...
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Very nice work all around. Can't wait to see it completed.
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Just looks better and better!
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First door is done. It's the easy one, because this one does not open... ::)
It's partially blocked by the large rubble pile in the hallway next to it, and I plan to add a bookcase or cupboard or something like that to the inside, so it's only partially visible there too. After all; it's not opening anytime soon witht hat rubble piled up against it.
This is also why I made the inside slightly less detailed. The shape was achieved by cutting out plasticard along a template existing of the cutout of the original door, which I saved for this occasion.
I then reduced the sides with the thickness of the plasticard strip I cut for this purpose and glued them together. But not before I first created a similar door-shape from coffee stirrers, which is the outward facing side of the door. After it dried, I simply superglued it to the door which was placed into its place just minutes before.
The rubble pile is now a pretty cut up piece of foam, but it will be embellished with loads of stones, sand, gravel, planks etc; the remains of a once intact house. It will also provide easy access to the first floor.
I've also sourced the first of the base camp enhancing items from the Frostgrave rulebook; a sarcophagus, which I've mocked up here in what will probably be its definitive location. I will post a list of all the items I will have to put in there later.
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Another smallish update; I laid some pretty flooring on the 1st floor; it's been slowly consumed, as firewood I suppose, by the residing warband.
I also put in the doorframe on the door that will be able to open (plasticard) and another pile of debris has been placed in the corner of the base. It too will require the addition of some actual debris before being finished.
And finally, I added some damage to the tile floor, as it looked just too pristine before. I might add some more scratches and missing tiles here and there.
Next I'll probably be working on building an opening door for the actual workplace...
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I'm loving the details, it really brings the build alive.
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Once again, ourdoing yourself, my dude.
Amazing job.
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This is just getting better with every update :-*
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I'm thoroughly enjoying watching the growth of this, especially the mixture of techniques.
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This is an incredible build! :-* Your patience to do it to match your vision is an inspiration. Keep up the great work!! ;)
Mike Demana
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Thanks guys, encouragement really fuels the fire to keep going, even though the deadline is looming impossibly close already :)
I've found a good rithm doing stuff for a couple of hours, taking a few pictures afterwards and posting a short update that evening or the next day. It's really helping me to stay motivated; logging my own progress.
As for today's update; it's a riveting one. Nails it right on the head. You won't get board. ::)
Well actually, this was a rather dull one for me, but I had to power through, as it's a bit of detail I find necessary. Years ago, I made this tool from an old pinvice, a locking bolt from an old PC-case and a technical pencil that broke. Combined, they are a tool for pressing in nail heads or rivets into wood or plastic!
I've used it quite a bit in the past, then nearly forgot I had it, but it absolutely came in handy for this build! Here, I've used it to add nails to the floor boards, adding the impression they've been nailed to the beams below, instead of being magically glued in place.
It adds some more realistic detail I think. But also; it was boring as heck, and hell on the hands, as the wood I used is quite a bit harder than balsa. [wuss]I ended up adding a folded scrap of cloth between the tool and my hand...[/wuss]
Also, I added the repairs made to the hole in the floor/ceiling with a different type of wood as the one used for the floor boards. These too were 'nailed' of course.
And finally, I added some more damage to the tiles in the hallway. I think I'm happy with the level of distress there now.
Still have to do that door though. And I almost forgot about the windows!
No work will be done today though; I've got my regular D&D session on Wednesdays, so hopefully some more will be done on Thursday :)
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Nice progress!
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Maybe when deadline pressure is off, you could give us more details on your rivet maker. Sounds like a handy tool for scratch builders to have... :-*
Mike Demana
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It adds some more realistic detail I think. But also; it was boring as heck, and hell on the hands, as the wood I used is quite a bit harder than balsa. [wuss]I ended up adding a folded scrap of cloth between the tool and my hand...[/wuss]
Well worth the effort though :)
Also is the tool too fragile to use a small hammer with it?
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Lovely work. I'm a bit late to this party, but have you considered toothpicks for the bannisters on your balcony? hey are turned/carved at one end and have a very nice bannister appearance. I used them on my manor house for the stairs.
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Today's free time has been almost completely spent on a single door... ::)
I could have gone the simple way and simply added a few coffee stirrers together and call it a day, but no; I wanted this door to open, and I wanted it to be a bit more elaborate.
This is an inside door, in a rich wizard's house after all!
So, as you do, I researched medieval inside doors and came to a compromise between looks and material limitations that I could be content with. Sure; I could have 3D printed one; there's plenty of 'em on Thingyverse, but I felt like it was finally polystyrene time, so I broke out the plasticard and set to work.
The door exists of 5 layers; a 1mm inner layer, two 0,75mm layers with cut-outs and finally two layers of 0,25mm strips and shapes, slightly thinner than the layers below them.
It involved a copious amount of careful filing and sanding, but in the end, I got them all pretty uniform.
The hinges are two pieces of 2mm plasticard, drilled and then sanded into shape and two pieces of paperclip wire bent into shape and filed square on the inside corners for a snugger fit. I had to redo those half a dozen times, but I finally got two that were very close in shape.
Then it was filing and sanding until the door fit snugly (but not too snugly) into the doorframe. I also added a keyhole; the door handles still have to be sourced; I spent 30 minutes searching my bits boxes, but nothing stood out and I don't want to do a ring or a simple bent wire.
I'm letting that rest for the time being; I've got the windows to fuss over now! :)
Oh; I also added some fallen masonry on the first floor and drilled out the nail holes in the overhanging part of the first floor's floor boards. To drive the point home, an also drilled out beam will be resting one end on the ground just next to the door below.
@ mikedemana & McMordain: I will do a small tool feature this weekend; you'll find it's actually quite sturdy!
@ anevilgiraffe: I know the toothpicks you m ention; I've got quite a bunch myself and I did consider them, but they are just too dainty to match the medieval architecture I'm trying to emulate. Hence the square ones I ended up using. They're actually square(ish) bamboo BBQ-skewers.
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Love the door :-*
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The door is amazing! Very fitting for a rich wzards's house! Maybe you could even paint it that it resembles exquisite woodwork or so? Or a combination of different types of wood (pale birch and reddish chestnut?).
Wouldn't the top of a pin work for a doorknob like the one below? With some greenstuf/plastic card behind it? I think it looks more classy than a ring anyway?
(https://www.interieurbeslag.nl/media/catalog/product/cache/bd6e7eba5c37429e6343d2258940ea60/0/9/095_907_0080_0ba.jpg)
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That door is great - I'm about to embark on the same adventure for an exterior door for my warehouse building
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Ooo that's posh and well worth the effort!
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That door is really good - :o :-*
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That door is just another example of why this is such an inspirational build...some coffee stirrers stuck together and cut to shape, or a bit of scribed balsa would have worked, but you've spent a day making a detailed, opening door.
Where is the clapping hands emoji when I need it?
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Oh shucks, y'all's makin' me blush 'n all... ;)
Truth be told though, I am very happy with the result. SO much so, that I will redo the blocked door in the same style too.
As for the windows; I was faffing around with a mould/jig for plasticard frames, and this seemed to work. But when I pulled the first one out of the (cardboard) jig, it came apart as apparently the glues I used were not able to fuse ABS and polystyrene together. Bummer.
But then, as I was closing up shop for the night, I got this idea, which I wanted to check; I have the entire range of the Lego Heroica games and expansions and I remembered a doorway that might work.
And lo and behold; the door (which is a window in proper minifig scale) was a nigh on perfect match for the windows I cut out! What are the odds, right? :o
Now, I didn't want to take the required bricks from the games; my daughter and I had too much fun playing them and the games would not be complete afterwards, which would be a shame.
So I sourced a Lego brick seller locally, called them this morning, went by immediately after and left half an hour later in possession of 10 windows and matching inner frames for the princely sum of €3,50!
Some urgent family matters first, but then I found some time to fit them into the build. I had to shave out about a mm or so from each window hole, and then cut a part from the Lego brick, including the nub on top, and it was. Just. Perfect! 8)
Due to circumstances, I won't be able to do much more this weekend I fear, but this has saved me at least a full day's worth of work. They just needs some glazing and additional fluffing, but they're better looking than I would ever have been able to achieve by hand.
I'm already contemplating checking out the Lego catalogue a bit closer for more useful bits and bobs...
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Those lego frames work perfectly!
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They look spot on!
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Door and windows look great.
And totally get you on the toothpicks.
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Those lego frames work perfectly!
Seconded. Great idea.
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Was wondering, why you went through all that effort on using plasticard and the door, when cardboard would probably would work just as fine. But offcourse your build needs to be fully functional.....
Can't wait for you doing some modern buildings and trying to figure out how to make the toilet actually flush.
Overdoing it as always. Seems you push your limit with every new project, dude.
It looks awesome.
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Thanks guys! :)
Working plumbling, now there's an idea... lol
As it turned out, yesterday I did have almost an entire evening to faf around with my project after all. And I got quite a load of stuff done. Well; mostly they're small jobs with big visual results, but still; definite progress!
Firstly, I built the blocked door in the same style as I did the opening one. But I did not have to build it completely; it's partially blocked on one side and there will be a bookcase blocking it on the other side, so only the very top will be visible.
This went rather quickly, also because I did not have to invent everything; I had some templates and pre-cut plasticard already. And since I was working on the door(s) anyway, I also added doorknobs to both. It's a small hole drilled partially into the doors, with a short piece of plastic rod inserted and glued and then a tiny craft jewel is superguled to the top of the rod.
Presto; facetted (so: fancy) doorknobs with minimal effort :D
Then I glazed the windows with pieces of blister packaging and glued very thin strips of plasticard onto the window sills, to hide the small holes that were present there.
After all this, I finally glued all the doors and windows into place. Turns out, after a quick test, that the superglue I use works really well with foam. Which helps.
The added GW decorative bit on the side wall (the disk) looked too tacked on for my taste, so I cut it out of the wall, including the stones behind it, and then glued it back into that hole. It's now recessed, and looking like it actually belongs there :)
And overdoing it as ever, I also decided to magnetize the first floor for extra sturdiness during gameplay. It was not really necessary; it fits pretty snugly on there, but me being me... ::)
It was a really quick job though; I heated up the back of one of my jeweler files (I use them without wooden handle) and carefully melted a hole into the required locations. The diameter was exactly that of the magnets I have used here, so some small blobs of superglue later and this was also done.
Finally, and the job with the most visual impact, I finally glued the big rubble pile into place and added a whole bunch of debris on it ( and the other, smaller pile). I used sand, gravel, cork bits, and all the saved cut-offs from the build which I saved. To this I added a bunch of intact stones from my stock and also plaster rubble I had saved from casting plenty of rock faces in rock moulds for another project.
Together, these make for some pretty convincing collapsed building rubble!
I still need to seal them into place using isopropyl alcohol and thinned down PVA, but that I'll tackle tonight. The edges of the base also require covering to fit in with my snow table, and I will add some more smaller piles of rubble along the outside walls. Also tonight, I plan to do the plaster on the top floor.
The astute might have seen the cardboard shapes I glued into place there. These are for extra support and stiffness for the upper floor's walls, as they proved rather bendy/floppy on their own. This way, they're quite a bit more resilient. I was always going to plaster certain areas of the top floor walls, but all broken and crumbled. The same I'll do to the inside walls of the ground floor.
One week remaining and I still have to get started on the interior details like furniture and the required Frostgrave camp elements... ::)
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lovely stuff.
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The use of card to both support the inside of the walls and provide the foundation for the plaster is brill!
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Looking good matey. Recessing the disc was a great idea and it really feels part of the building now.
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Thanks lads :)
I believe I still owe you guys a rundown of the rivet/nail punching tool I cobbled together, so here goes:
I used a double sided hand vice which I dreaded using, since whatever side I was not using would always dig painfully into my hand, and when I got myself a new one with a rotating knob on the end, I stopped using this one.
But during a build involving wooden strips, I needed a way to do what I've done in this project; simulate nail heads in wooden surfaces. So I got to using a technical pencil for this. It was perfect, but it also was rather fragile and not intended for the purpoe. Also, it was not very handy for the job.
So I A-Teamed/MacGuyvered my own tool for this in about half an hour or so, if I recall correctly. I consists of exactly 8 parts, including the three pin vice parts:
- Pinvice body
- Pinvice head (x2)
- PC case cover screw
- small metal spacer
- PC case motherboard spacer screw
- Small screw (same diameter as the head of the pin vice)
- Head of a technical pencil (0.5mm)
The main part is obviously the pin vice itself. To the business end, I superglued the small screw, which works as a stop for the technical pencil head, which is put on top of it. One of the pinvice heads is then screwed on tight.
The back is a bit more involved though, but only a little. I took the PC case screw, added the spacer ring to it and put it down the opening of the second pinvice head. I then screwed the motherboard spacer onto the screw using needle nosed pliers.
When those two parts were snugly screwed together, there was ample space for the screw to rotate independently from the head, and the spacer ring made certain it did not wobble too much. The second head was then screwed back onto the pinvice and that's it! :)
I've used it a lot over the years and it has not let me down once. The only downside is that the PC case screw I chose was not much of an upgrade from the bare bit-holder and head that pained me so much before.
Which is why I used a bit of cloth to prevent getting blisters on the inside of my hand (again). Were I to do this again, I would probably go for a more comfortable knob (yeah yeah ::) )
GW has pinvices for instance with a large plastic handle, which might be more suitable. But this is just what I had available at the time :)
Project update tomorrow; I'm headed for bed now...
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As promissed, here's the progress of last night. I put down the ground cover on the bare parts of the base. There are some additional piles of debris here and there, but most of the plain cover will be snow once painted.
I also plastered the first floor. It's obviously rough right now, but it will be sanded down to the same relief as the plaster inside the room. And then I will be chipping away at it on the edges, so it'll look like it's slowly crumbling away.
And that, I think, will conclude the building part of the project. All that remains now is to do the furniture and trappings of your common warband base.
Originally I wanted to do all the furniture in plasticard; it's the part I regularly enjoy the most, but there's this little thing called time restraint, so instead I've opted to print several bits to speed up this stage.
I've sourced several free and paid for pieces of furniture and details and I will complete the ensemble with some plasticard items. Think the dog kennel and a bookcase; both relatively easy projects.
All of this will have to be done in the next couple of days too, so I will have enough time to paint this thing as well...
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And as I was flocking that base, I also attempted printing the first batch of furniture. It did not go as planned...
"Nigel gave me a drawing that said 18 inches. Now, whether or not he knows the difference between feet and inches is not my problem. I do what I'm told."
lol
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lol... and now it's a cathedral!
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Maybe the mage has some small friends lol
The build looks great, can't wait to see it painted.
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a very impressive build!
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A council of Snotlings maybe... :D
More great progress Daeothar.
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"Nigel gave me a drawing that said 18 inches. Now, whether or not he knows the difference between feet and inches is not my problem. I do what I'm told."
lol
lol
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This build is truly stunning. :o The level of detail and creativity is well beyond what would be considered top notch!! :-*
Mike Demana
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Cheers :)
A small update, as I head into the detail zone. There won't be many more pictures I reckon, since painting time is rapidly approaching now and I will go dark then until the big reveal.
So, here's a bookcase I built out of styrene. It will be populated with all kinds of books I've gathered over the years. There'll probably be a skull, some bottles etc as well.
You can see some of the selected nicks and nacks I will be adding to the build in the second picture.
Some of the items in the below list I have already available, but some I will still have to build or source:
- Dog Kennel (to be built next with styrene)
- Cauldron (a metal one from my bits box)
- Enchanter's Workshop (I will have to assemble this with other bits and scratchbuilding)
- Crystal Ball (I'll raid my daughter's beads collection when she's asleep tonight ;) )
- Scriptorium (I have an STL of a suitable desk that needs to be printed)
- Celestial Telescope (a GW bit from my bits box)
- Summoning Circle (will be painted onto the 2nd floor)
- Carrier Pigeons (this one got me stumped. some sort of dovecote perhaps?)
- Arcane Candle (probably a scratchbuild with some plastic rod and wire)
- Summoning Candle (same as above)
- Sarcophagus (a free STL I already printed off)
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Love that book shelf!
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Great work on that bookcase.
But knowing what your bookcase looks like, you'll be needing a lot more books to fill it to an appropriate level. :D
Build is looking super.
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lol
Don't worry, I'll make it as lifelike as possible ;D
Oh, and here's a WIP doghouse...
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- Carrier Pigeons (this one got me stumped. some sort of dovecote perhaps?)
If you feel like a challenge, how about the mechanical owl from clash of the titans.
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The bookshelf is nuts - really need to get myself a resin printer one of these days
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lol
Don't worry, I'll make it as lifelike as possible ;D
Eh, close enough. Needs about 4500 more battletech paperbacks though.
Are those glued down yet? 'cause I'm not envying the paintjob they are.
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:D
They're only mocked up here; once in position there will be less books and more nicknacks; this was just to show off ;D
And I'll probably go back and forth with painting and glueing with most of the interior: start with them loose for ease of reach, then glue them in place and od the final shading, fitting in etc in-situ.
By the way; I have not printed a single book for this project: a colleague gave me a couple of stacks he had printed off as a test and I still had a blister pack of Greenstuff World resin books I received years ago which came in really handy here :)
If you feel like a challenge, how about the mechanical owl from clash of the titans.
Now there's an idea! 8)
Speaking of the Frostgrave essentials: the dog kennel is done, and I have now also sourced the crystal ball; it's a glass bead to put inside paint bottles with a nub fromt he underside of a 50mm square WHFB base, which I cut out (from an already cut bit of base in my bitsbox) and sanded round. Made for a perfect fit.
Oh, and the cauldron and sarcophagus I already had; I just pinned the legs of the cauldron into place, so they're both ready for painting now.
The end time is fast approaching. The painting time...
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I did the library for the Frothers Cthuluedo game... it's not that bad to paint, I mainly did red spines, with some blue and green, the occassional gold line or dot.
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That is a really nice collection of bits. It will add a lot of character to the build.
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Coming together very nicely.
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Loving the extra details, helps to make it feel more lived in.
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Yeah, details... ::)
As Reacher says: 'details matter', and I evidently really, really take that to heart :D
These will be the last pictures before blackout; it's a mockup of the various furniture and detail pieces I will implement in the build. If there is time, I will make a removeable rug for the large table to stand on, with the chairs. This will make those bits removeable for ease of play. I might even magnetize this, so it'll be snug when moving the piece around and also, it will always fit into the exact right place.
Anyways; a more architecturally grounded friend of mine suggested to do wall anchors for the floor beams of the second floor. And since details matter, that will be the last(?) element I will add to the build ;)
I'm already putting some pigments on here and there, and I won't be able to show this anymore, so bear with me for one more week or so :)
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Oh, go on, just one more then :D
I did the wall anchors and used the left over green stuff to repair or strengthen certain areas. I also repaired the failed print of a chair so it's usable now, which is nice.
The second picture is the whole build during the painting stage, in accordance to the competition rules ;D
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That looks cracking mate, well done.
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Well then, damn. This is beyond stunning and looks amazing together. Good thing I have this weekend to catch up
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An inspirational build. Can't wait to see it fully painted.
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Amazing detail. Looking forward to the end result.
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The second picture is the whole build during the painting stage, in accordance to the competition rules ;D
Highlighting that will be easy, but it's going to be a nightmare to shade ;D
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Alea Iacta Est...
The voting has started, so it won't be long till I will be able to post more WIP pictures and the painting process, which was quite involved as well!
And there's quite a few better pictures that I was not able to enter; turns out a lot of the details really come to life in larger pictures and are kind of lost in the thumbnails I had to use in the competition.
No matter; I will share them as soon as it's allowed :)
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Thanks for all your hard work.
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Thanks for all your hard work.
Same to you; I think everyone has put in their very best effort; I'm really impressed by all the entries! :)