Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Back of Beyond => Topic started by: Wirelizard on December 24, 2011, 08:03:52 AM
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Taking advantage of the last quiet, productive evening the holiday season is likely to allow me until the New Year, I settled down with a beer and cranked out a test building for an eventual hamlet somewhere in Russia, to be squabbled over by my Reds & Whites.
Pardon the late-night workbench photo:
(http://www.warbard.ca/files/Russianhut_23Dec2011.jpg)
The basic construction is mattboard (picture framing cardboard), the wood siding and framing are coffee stirsticks split lengthwise and glued to the walls, and the roof (first hipped roof I've ever built) has a mattboard frame and towel matting.
The roof is only basecoated, but I think the weathered grey of the wood is done for now. I might have to do a second layer of towel over the roof, as I got too enthusiastic with the scissors and haven't left much in the way of eves at the bottom edge of the thatch...
Total size is 2x3 inches, height to the peak is about 2.5". The two figures are both Brigade Games 28mm Russian officers.
There are, as usual, a few more details over on The Warbard (http://www.warbard.ca/2011/12/23/night-before-the-night-before/).
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I think you are right about the roof but other than its length it looks great. Thats two top endorsements for towelling this week (Matakishi) so I think I will have to give it a try myself.
The woodwork looks terrific too. Now get the village done.
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The woodwork looks right, do agree the you need more overhang on the roof.
Really look forward to seeing the whole set for the town.
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Very nice indeed!
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Thanks, everyone! These are fun, fairly fast buildings to make, although I'm quickly running out of stir sticks and am going to have to raid my local TarBlechs for more...
I started the second Russian building this evening, this one slightly larger at 4"x2".
(http://www.warbard.ca/files/Russianhut2_26Dec2011.jpg)
I've got another writeup over on The Warbard (http://www.warbard.ca/2011/12/26/second-russian-house-wip/), but basically the wood walls are coffee stir sticks split lengthwise and glued on. As you can see in the photo above, I lay the sticks right over the doors and windows then re-cut the openings after the glue is dry. Much, much easier than pre-measuring!
I've also starting using a #17 X-Acto razor chisel blade, which is an easier blade for this sort of trimming than the classic scalpel (#11) blade. It's also ideally suited for cutting openings like windows in mattboard.
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I like them, very very effective
dodge
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The beautiful building. Good job.
That's just the buildings are not Russian. In Russia, the peasants' houses were built of round wood (of course, where there is a forest). In areas where the forest does not grow (Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other) houses were built of adobe or clay bricks and plastered. Built houses of the square timber or planks sewn up front just in the cities. But the first house is not suitable for the role of a dwelling house - it is rather a barn and outbuildings.
Try to use as building materials, wooden pencils.
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I've been trying to think of an easy, quick way to simulate log construction, and haven't been able to come up with much. Pencils is an idea, but those would be very large logs indeed for 28mm figures, bigger than most of the logs I've seen in Russian photographs from the RCW. I might try bamboo skewers glued to a mattboard wall like I've done with the split planks on the current two buildings. Corners would be hard, though.
Anyone got any other ideas for simulating log construction quickly and easily?
For plastered buildings, I have a bunch of whitewashed adobe-type buildings already, a few of which are generic enough to be transplanted to Russia, especially after I build duplicate roofs of thatch to swap for the flat roofs most of them have right now.
The rough woodwork buildings I've got now could, with some artistic license, be log buildings of squared-off logs, I suppose.
Anyway, I am away from home for a week starting tomorrow, so will have a week away from my workbench to get itchy hands and think up new things to try when I get home...
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Cuprum will be able to help about Russia, but at least for Latvia etc the logs can be very large indeed. Tending to slightly smaller as they go up. Skewers would be on the small side, if anything.
Where are you interested in representing in your games? Baltics, NW Russia and Siberia would be bare logs. My preferred theatres are the south and Poland, so I went with the white. (In Poland they are not brick, but plastered wood, which is the same basic effect.)
Assuming Siberia, build your houses exactly the same, except with skewers or thin round balsa. Let them poke out just a bit at the ends at front and back. Then glue in a row of small round overlaps for the sides poking out to represent the sides coming through. (Technically the log rows should alternate, so you may want to start with a half sized one on the sides, but I doubt anyone would even notice, let alone care.)
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Wirelizard,
I have used sushi mats. One side is rounded and the other flat. See my Dayak longhouse for how they work, especially after painting.
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=31414.0
LB
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Here may be able to get a few ideas:
(http://japodarok.ru/images/stories/master_class/i032.jpg)
http://japodarok.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:2009-12-16-21-36-21&catid=38:2009-12-16-21-37-59&Itemid=69
http://japodarok.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55:2009-12-16-21-48-15&catid=38:2009-12-16-21-37-59&Itemid=69
(http://mp1008.ru/images/hobby/town_hall/e6083.jpg)
http://mp1008.ru/site-map/19-my_work/345-the-town-hall-clock.html
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We could save you some time - we have two Russian houses - one of each type.
http://www.brigadegames.com/Terrain-and-Buildings_c_222-3-0.html
I like your buildings though.
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And if you really want to save time as well, there are the rather lovely Pegasus prepaints. I use 'em with 28mm.
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Skewers are fine for 20mm, but may be slightly thin for 28mm.
Provided that you do use some kind of dowelling, the "logs" can be V-notched on their undersides with a heavy knife, and then filed down with a round file that has the same diameter as the "logs".
Obviously, the notch is at 90 degrees to the "log", and is meant to allow the "log" to fit over a perpendicular "log" from the previous layer.
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Hi
I managed to get hold of some 4mm dia. skewers - they were made of "ramin"? rather than bamboo and worked well for my Treasure Island project - linky here http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=19545.0 (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=19545.0)
They came from a local Poundshop but they haven't had any for a while :-[
WuZhuiQiu's idea for jointing the corners would work well; I like the use of the towelling for the roofs on your buildings.
RMZ
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Yes, I have an old stash of skewers that were made of some softwood - they are ideal for this purpose, but I have not seen any for sale for more than a decade.
Bamboo, however, is fairly hard, and tends to split, as I rediscovered while modelling the Shevardino redoubt the other day.
Softwood dowels may be the most practical option.
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Good looking building WL! If you're looking for dowls i found some at Dollar giant that were 1/8 inch in diameter and you could look for lolipop sticks at Michaels
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In NZ I would look for battered sausage sticks. That would be corn dog sticks for the Yanks. What do Poms eat on sticks?
These aren't cheap, but you get 1000: http://cromers.com/shop/supplies/hot-dog-supplies/corn-dog-sticks-1000
Certainly bamboo is tough to work.
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Yeah, having thought about it a bit more, bamboo skewers wouldn't be suitable, both too thin and too blasted hard to cut & shape.
The dollar and craft stores sometimes have big bags of "craft dowels" available, I should look into those, or just head to one of the local lumberyard and get a length of dowel I can hack up.
Thanks for the interest and suggestions, I'm away from home until next week, as I mentioned in my last update, so no progress until next year, but some things to think about and plans to make during my vacation!
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Disposable wooden chopsticks aren't bad size wise, they're the right shape and aren't too difficult to work.
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Nice work. I too think there should be eaves for the roof. I am a Pegasus quick build man myself. Except for the Orthodox church. Can't get Larry to make one. We assemble a village of maybe 16 Pegasus houses for the Eastern Front games we run.
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Nice work. I too think there should be eaves for the roof.
I rebuilt the roof of that first building before Christmas, so it has eves now.
Except for the Orthodox church.
Nothing says, "Welcome to Russia" quite like an onion-domed church, does it?
Along that line, some pages from my notebook done last week, while I was away from computer & painting bench but had time to sketch, look inspiration up on the web, and think...
(http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/4167/churchplansjan2011.jpg)
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Wirelizard, while they are still on clearance grab some onion shaped christmas ornaments from Target or Wallyworld. It saves a lot of work later on.
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There is an error. The head of the church (in the form of onion shaped) shall be based on a diameter smaller than the dome.
(http://s002.radikal.ru/i200/1201/be/17c52447d909.jpg)
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There is an error. The head of the church (in the form of onion shaped) shall be based on a diameter smaller than the dome.
Good point, cuprum. I'll amend my church design accordingly! There actually was going to be a small neck around the base of the onion dome, but I'll make it a bit taller.
This photo is one I pulled off the internet last week and didn't keep the source page information, so I have no idea where the church is, but it's a good basic design that should be easy to make a wargame-friendly building from.
(http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9960/churchyardsmall.jpg)
I'm going to make the roofs and domes simpler, but keep the basic two-part plan and proportions.
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Second of the small farm buildings finished earlier this evening:
(http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/4011/rusbldgjan2012.jpg)
That's a pair of Brigade Games 28mm White Russian officers between the two buildings, and the steel ruler in the foreground is six inches long, just for scale.
I took the roofs off (all of my buildings to date have accessible interiors) and put them upside down so you can see how ad-hoc the interior structures can be and still produce a perfectly serviceable thatched roof! The roof supports are all mattboard (high quality cardboard, usually used for framing artwork) and light card, and there's been no warping or damage despite soaking the towel on top with diluted white glue during construction.
(http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/1227/rusbldgroofs2jan2012.jpg)
I'd do some in-progress shots of the roof construction, but you really do get white glue everywhere and I don't really want to handle a camera with glue-covered hands...
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Thank you for the new pictures! Looking very good! :) I could imagine that some warping of the roof might even contribute to a more rural look, so I wouldn't have worried much.
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(http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/2923/ruschurch9jan2012.jpg)
Progress on the church. Main structure largely complete except for trim around the windows & doors, the framework of both roofs is complete, just need the skin then shingles. Domes above that obviously not even started yet.
The front section is a 2" cube, the rear is 3"x3"x2.5". The whole thing including domes is going to be about 6-7" high once complete.
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Now that's nice !!!
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How are planning on making the domes?
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Very nice start indeed... I am intrigued while planing a hostile takeover of your idea! :)
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Thank you for the update.
I have enjoyed reading your comments and seeing the new images. I too will be stealing your ideas. in fact I have already built a larger Russian House following inspiration from another set of photos on LAF. A church maybe my next project.
As far as the Onion Dome is concerned - my favoured idea would be a Christmas tree decoration, maybe even in foam if you can pick one up in a craft store. While the first one I ever built was a cardboard core wrapped with masking tape (to get a rough shape) and then paper soaked in iPVA glue to define, once painted it looked OK.
Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/
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Doing shingle roofs with strips of card - an enormous pain in rump. Pain in the hand, too from all the cutting needed. Still, the smaller front roof is done except for trim and looks good, and I'll start in on the shingles on the large (much larger!) main roof after dinner.
I need to head up to the local Michael's tomorrow and see what they have in the way of big wooden beads, leftover Xmas decorations and such for domes. I thought I had a couple of 1" wood spheres around somewhere, but can't find them! Assuming I can't find a suitable Christmas decoration, I'll go with milliput and a wooden sphere for the domes. The real church I'm using for inspiration has neat cupolas rather than domes, but I want classic onion domes for maximum Russianness, if that makes sense. :) Also, onion domes should be easier to fabricate than cupolas.
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Another possibility is to use the end piece of a curtain wood pole… they come in all kind of crazy shapes and sizes…
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Great stuff. Anyone have a good source of pictures for Russian churches?
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Great stuff. Anyone have a good source of pictures for Russian churches?
Google Image Search is your friend, I'd say. I used search terms like "Russian wooden church", "Russian village church", "Russian church architecture" and similar. I can't be more specific, because the week I did all that searching I was visiting family and using loaned computers the whole time. All I have are a couple of saved photos I emailed to myself.
Mark, cuprum and some of the folks who actually know what they're talking about might have better resources; that's what worked for me and got me the photograph on the previous page of this thread that I'm using for inspiration for the bulk of my build.
In other news, shingles are a pain. Yesterday I calculated that the main roof of this blasted church will require 80-90 3" strips of card, all cut halfway every few millimeters to get something like a shingle profile out of them. I currently have... about a dozen such strips prepped, but I've already done the smaller front roof in the same style, so I'm more or less committed to getting the main roof done that way too. Argh. ;D
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It may be possible to look at cupboard handles for the rough shape of the oninon dome.
The ones I`m thinking about is the turned pine ones, that would provide the general shape, but would need some sort of building up on top for the oninion finishing.
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Useful for Gothic Horror too - very nice.
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Shingles and trim on both roofs all done, bases begun for both domes. Off to Micheal's in the morning for 1" wood spheres, finally, and I'll add details and shape with milliput. The "necks" are strips of light card I wrapped around a knife handle and glued.
(http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/2419/ruschurchwip23jan2012.jpg)
The fit where the two roofs touch is extraordinarily tight. I'm actually going to have to trim a millimeter or so of shingles from the upper roof to make it easier to fit... I'd love to claim I planned it that way, but won't!
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No replies to my last post? Guess I'll just have to talk to myself. ;)
So I braved the rain and the moronic drivers to get myself up to Micheal's craft store after work today. They were out of the plain 1" wooden spheres I'd planned on using for onion domes, the random-wooden-shapes section was pretty well picked over, and a lot of it marked for clearance.
Instead I found a pair of "decorative rod ends" which really make much more awesome Russian-esque domes than the shapes I'd been planning on using.
Behold the domes of the Church of St Boris the Intoxicated:
(http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/8891/ruschurchwip25jan2012.jpg)
Once again Captain Vodkanovitch provides scale, as he goes to pray for the cleansing of the Red filth from Mother Russia. Oh, and that the pounding headache goes away soon, please.
When I got the "decorative rod ends" home, I drilled a hole in the top and inserted lengths of wire, then used good, cheap terracotta milliput to form the upper surface of each dome. The putty parts will need to be sanded after they dry, then I'll skim another layer of putty over them to properly finish the job.
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This is coming along very well. Please don't mistake silence for lack of interest: the problem with WIP threads is that it is easy to run out of things to say in response, but this is still useful and fascinating.
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Pretty cool dude.
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Good call with the rod-ends - I've been pondering about wargaming uses of such myself!
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I like what you did there! They look great and appear to be sturdier than xmas decorations. Very nice indeed!
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My latest Blog post shows some Russian Church imagess that may be of interest,
Keep up the good work - it is coming along very nicely.
Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/2012/01/architecture-of-russian-north.html
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The domes are spot-on.
Prefect, they look to be the right size.
Can't wait to see it painted.
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The domes are spot-on.
Prefect, they look to be the right size.
Can't wait to see it painted.
Thanks! Basecoat over the weekend, probably, and it's going to have a very simple paintjob - mostly weathered wood - so I might get the whole building finished this weekend. I just got the domes installed on the roof tonight, so I want them properly dry before I start battering the thing with a paintbrush.
I like what you did there! They look great and appear to be sturdier than xmas decorations. Very nice indeed!
Much sturdier, they're solid wood of some sort instead of lightweight plastic like an xmas decoration that size would be.
The domes got sanded and given a second very thin coat of milliput last night, then given a final touchup sanding this evening before being glued onto the "necks". By happy accident, the centre of the necks and the hole in the bottom of each wooden rod end are pretty much exactly the same size, so I was able to put an internal collar of rolled-up light card in to get a good solid wargame-grade joint. I might reinforce the joint with a thin "bead" of milliput but that shouldn't be needed.
My latest Blog post shows some Russian Church imagess that may be of interest,
As I commented on your blog, I'd very much like to see more scans from that book, if you have the time and inclination to share them! I doubt I'll tackle a second church anytime soon, but other rural buildings would be great inspiration as I slowly expand my Russian hamlet.
Next photos after St. Boris' is painted and finished, hopefully early next week.
Actually, that reminds me. This church needs a proper name, other than my off-the-cuff "Church of St. Boris the Intoxicated". Puns are fine, bonus points if they're multilingual. Maybe I could just look up Russian words for intoxicated and see if any of them sound right... :D
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Rod ends...Phnaar phnaar
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Possibly finished, and certainly I'd happily put it on the tabletop in this state, but I'm thinking one more drybrush on both walls and roofs is needed to really get it to pop, and a chestnut or brown wash over the domes to give them a bit of definition.
Anyway, behold the gleaming domes of the Church of St. Boris the Intoxicated:
(http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/7950/ruschurchwip29jan2012.jpg)
Proper photograph in daylight sometime early next week, assuming it ever stops drizzling out.
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Looks the business! Very nice work.
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Are you going to base it or just use it like this ?
Does the roof come off ?
David
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lol, so nice!!!
don't base it, please! Buildings just don't need to be based, they are much much more versatile if left unbased!
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don't base it, please! Buildings just don't need to be based, they are much much more versatile if left unbased!
1000% agreement. I based one of my scratch-built buildings and regretted it. It looks sturdy enough so keep it as is. You could lay that on a green mat or a snow table and it would look perfect.
Great work by the way.
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Nice looking building!!
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Outstanding.
Lots of enjoyment following this thread.
Thank you.
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Very cool. 8)
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Are you going to base it or just use it like this ?
Does the roof come off ?
David
No base, I don't usually base buildings. Partly this is because I am fantastically cheap, the material for a base on a building this size could be used for most of another, smaller building!
And yes, both roofs come off separately, although given the church has one door and no ground-level windows it's a bit of a dead end tactically. During the Mud & Blood games it will primarily be used for I can't see anyone ever bothering to go inside, during the pulp skirmish games we also play it is a possibility, I guess. I actually considered building the roofs solidly on, but it was easier during construction to have them separate, and making them separate was reflex, all my other buildings have removable roofs.
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I finally had the magic combination of A) being home when it's daylight B)and not raining C)with five minutes of free time, so here's a pair of photos of the Church of St. Boris in actual daylight for the first time.
(http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1120/ruschurchwip30jan2012.jpg)
Here's the first photo of the rear wall of the church, and a better view of the larger roof.
(http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/4716/ruschurchwip30jan20122.jpg)
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That´s a great work. Church and espacially the domes look awesome !
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Wow, Wirelizard... That's an amazing result! Beautiful! :-* :-*
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Wow, Wirelizard... That's an amazing result! Beautiful! :-* :-*
Thanks, I'm very pleased with how it turned out, especially the domes. Since that photo was taken the domes have had a bit of a wash with burnt umber ink, which weathers the gold just enough.
I've spent the last week mostly prepping for this weekend's gaming convention here in town and the pulp game I'm running there, but I did have a chance to knock off a small piece of scenery to fill a corner of my Russian hamlet - a very basic pigpen.
(http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/640/pigpen4feb2012.jpg)
It's all offcuts from the church project I had lying around, with the round posts hacked from a length of bamboo skewer.
The mud is hot glue, from a little glue gun - I dabbed it on and pushed it around with a stirstick, then after it was dry I picked off all the little "strings" of glue to which hot glue is prone, and cut a few of the peaks I'd missed down. It looks good as mud, it's still level enough for figures to stand on, and unlike globbing white glue around, the hot glue won't warp the scrap card I used as a base.
It's a technique I'll be using again, it does nice easy mud and hot glue sticks are cheap!
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I like 'em, very much so.
I'm going to book mark this page and when I restart my Gothic Horror project, I'll pull this page up for inspiration.
Magnificent; can't wait to see in game pictures
Cheers
Andy
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Added a pair of larger houses to the village last week, finally got some pics of them this evening.
The fence and muddy yard on the left-hand building aren't finished yet, but the rest is, unless I go back and add door- and window-frames at some point (which I probably will do, doorframes especially finish off a building nicely).
(http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/1497/rusbuildings22mar2012.jpg)
I suppose these are "Russian-esque" rather than strictly accurate, but they look the part and give the hamlet a couple of larger buildings aside from just the church. Also, and unlike the church, these are potentially tactically useful as more than just simple line-of-sight blockers, as they have windows and/or doors in every wall. (the church's only windows are high off the ground)
I have about ten pieces of small scatter terrain in progress, clumps of bushes, some more small fields, and such.
I also got some step-by-step photos while I was constructing the towel thatch roof of one of these two houses, so at some point I'll put up an illustrated guide to how I do towel thatch roofs.
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Those pair of houses really look the part. :)
I had missed the finished church - really great :o
Looking forward to seeing the WIP photos for the towel covered roofs.
RMZ
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How did I miss this thread? Beautiful work and very inspiring. :-*. How did you achive the weathered wood look?
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How did I miss this thread? Beautiful work and very inspiring. :-*. How did you achive the weathered wood look?
Thansk! The paintjob is a black basecoat, first drybrush of 1:1 grey and pale brown, then a second drybrush of 2:1 grey and pale brown only on the upper half or third of each wall, and on the corners. The upper sections of most buildings - where the walls are sheltered somewhat by the eves - tend to be less dirty. The brighter drybrush on the corners helps define the building a bit, by making the corners and edges "pop" subtly.
Finally I use a very thin brown wash on the bottom quarter or less of the walls, where mud and dirt are often kicked up by the rain or passing traffic. That really helps anchor a building, visually.
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More buildings, nice treat.
I look forward to seeing the whole town when finished.
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More buildings, nice treat.
I look forward to seeing the whole town when finished.
Everything so far - the church, the two newer larger houses, and the two older much smaller houses - will be together on the table this coming weekend at the Trumpeter Salute convention in Vancouver, where I'm running an RCW game on the Saturday afternoon.
Pictures from there, I promise, sometime next week!
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Having had the pleasure of playing with these yesterday, I had to come right over here to see the WIP for these lovelies.
They are most impressive when seen in the flesh; WL these buildings are all the 'right size' for good gaming. They really look the part, they are sturdy and they don't need a huge table to work. Genius. :-* :-* :-*
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I've only had a quick look at the photos I took at Trumpeter Salute, but here's a quick glimpse of my Russian Civil War game featuring the buildings from this thread.
(http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6216/7037802379_11a4a9cb60_z.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirelizard/7037802379/)
My Russian Civil War Game at Trumpeter Salute (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirelizard/7037802379/) by WireLizard (http://www.flickr.com/people/wirelizard/), on Flickr
Bottom left is the buildngs, centre is the White Russian SPAD just roaring away after a (fairly ineffectual...) strafing run of the Red-held hamlet.
More about the game itself either here in or in a new thread in a day or so, but short version is that unlike our playtest a few weeks back, the Reds held the village and gave the Whites a rough time, despite the White air support and other changes to the scenario.
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Can't wait for the report!
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The game report for my Trumpeter Salute scenario is over on the Warbard: Even Whites Bleed Red (http://www.warbard.ca/2012/04/05/even-whites-bleed-red-a-rcw-encounter/)
...and I've started scenery building again. Inspired by Tony's plank-roofed hut, I've started my own:
(http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/8186/rusplankhut13apr2012.jpg)
It's 2"x3", smaller than Tony's example but similar footprint to my existing huts.
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Nice game report.
Its been a long time since I have a chance to attend Trumper Salute.
Maybe will be able to again someday.
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Inspiring.
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Inspiring.
Thank you!
I'm wondering what else my little Russian hamlet needs... I've got a church/chapel, two larger houses and now three smaller huts.
Using Google Image Search for "traditional Russian barn" found me this 15mm building set from TimeCast:
(http://www.timecastmodels.co.uk/range_4/4_001.jpg)
I like the roofline of these buildings, with the partially hipped ends over the barn doors. I might try a 28mm barn similar to the middle building, with a footprint around the same as the church, 5x3 inches or so. I've been looking for a barn design that isn't just a simple oversized shed, even of those would be far more typical!
I might do one or two more plank-roofed huts, too, although I can tell right now I will not be doing any more complex rooflines (hipped, or the L- or T-shaped buildings) in plank roofing - far too much work, towel thatch is so much more forgiving for that sort of roof!
Anyone have any other ideas for typical buildings in a Russian village or hamlet?
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Honestly what it needs the most is a decent gaming board. The green cloth lessens the look of those great buildings a lot. You need nothing complicated, just some sanded styrofoam-boards with a browm drybrush and some lanes in a contrasting tone.
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I'd love to have the space for terrain tiles, but honestly they're a non-starter. I don't have a huge amount of storage space and do very little gaming at home, so transport is an issue as well.
The cloth I used for that last game is game club property, and I'm not a fan of the old-school billiard-table-green look either.
The cloth in this photo is also a loaner, but looks one heck of a lot better than the older one:
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5467/6936757538_d540c9f391_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirelizard/6936757538/)
Advance to Attack! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirelizard/6936757538/) by WireLizard (http://www.flickr.com/people/wirelizard/), on Flickr
This was Sunday afternoon's RCW outing, in which the Whites punted the Reds, who were trying to hold the edge of the town with a couple of rifle sections and a Maxim HMG.
The mat here is one of Hotz Artwork's "European field" mats, a much greyer green with some stenciled/sprayed patterns in different colours. I'm either going to buy one of these, or do something similar up myself if I can find suitable fabric.
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Looks definitely better. On the other hand I think Hots is rather expensive for what they deliver (Though part of the cost for mine was due to the horrid shipping to Germany)