Anyone With Tips On How To Make Hobbiton Or A Similar Halfling Village?

[Cacique Caribe]

Some questions before I consider this new project:

- What materials did you use for houses (hobbit holes) and shops?
- Did you model the town after the LOTR films, like the joined* buildings, or did you do your own thing?
- How many “buildings” did you make?
- How big was the overall layout?
- Did you make them with removable roofs and playable interiors?
- Anything else?

Thanks so much.

Dan
PS.  Mine will be for 15mm, but whatever suggestions you offer are surely adaptable.

* http://www.travelmint.com/destinations/the-hobbiton.asp

[SotF]

Several craft stores have a "locket" pendant that you can clip the loop off of with some wire snips, it's a great door for halflings with 28mm.

There are also a lot of generic fairy garden pieces that work well for hobbit hole parts.

If you have the cash, Forge World actually has a pretty nice kit to make some, you might want 2 of the kits to make some different houses.

There are a decent number of tutorials on youtube as well for both the middle earth wargames and for dioramas.

If you're looking for building ideas and have the time, it might be worth your time to install Lord of the Rings: Online, the Shire is one of the free areas in the game and has a lot of awesome architecture for the style that you could get some ideas from.

I've made 2 hobbit buildings myself, both using, largely, the same basic thing with no interiors.

I'd actually made a "modular" pair of hills with one that could be split in two and a hobbit piece that can go up against it. The other had a corner come out that had a bit over a 90 degree section, both hills also had some features that could be swapped to add a chimney to it, and one a window on another side. The second I made because I found the door at the craft store charms aisle

[jon_1066]

Check this model railway layout for inspiration (not mine I hasten to add),  It's really great. 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/35993-hobbiton-end/&tab=comments#comment-382983


I think however you construct the hobbit holes they are going to need to be on the side of a hill so the first thing to work out is how you are going to construct your undulating countryside.  Once you have that then all the usual techniques for buildings will work.

I imagine pink foam or similar will be best as you can carve the hills to suit.  If you wanted playable interiors you could then model those as well with a removable hilltop to give access.

[Cacique Caribe]

Thanks!  Excellent suggestions.  I’ll start looking at brass “stampings“ too, specially those of small round frames.

And the idea of creating one large undulating hill and building the hobbit holes into it is the ideal way to do it - and how I always imagined it should be done-, but is precisely what I was afraid of.  Mainly because it involves a heck of a lot of storage space that I don’t happen to have.

If I do go for the large undulating hill option, the hill will indeed have to be sectional.

I better start sketching, don’t I? 

Dan
PS.  Update ... I’ve just bought some of the more “rotund” halflings from Essex.

[SotF]

Thanks!  Excellent suggestions.  I’ll start looking at brass “stampings“ too, specially those of small round frames.

And the idea of creating one large undulating hill and building the hobbit holes into it is the ideal way to do it - and how I always imagined it should be done-, but is precisely what I was afraid of.  Mainly because it involves a heck of a lot of storage space that I don’t happen to have.

If I do go for the large undulating hill option, the hill will indeed have to be sectional.

I better start sketching, don’t I? 

Dan
PS.  Update ... I’ve just bought some of the more “rotund” halflings from Essex.

One of the things with my part of it was inspired by something a friend of mine had done a long time ago. She'd gotten a couple of the old Citadel Modular Hills from a garage sale and made some barrows and similar that would be able to match up with the parts of it...meaning that the required parts for specific pieces could be used or parts could still work as a more generic thing. And going with faceplates for them means they end up taking less space for more limited use terrain and more general pieces.

[Cacique Caribe]

One of the things with my part of it was inspired by something a friend of mine had done a long time ago. She'd gotten a couple of the old Citadel Modular Hills from a garage sale and made some barrows and similar that would be able to match up with the parts of it...meaning that the required parts for specific pieces could be used or parts could still work as a more generic thing. And going with faceplates for them means they end up taking less space for more limited use terrain and more general pieces.

I think that friend of yours is an absolute genius!  I still have a handful of those hills in the closet.  Might as well put them to good use.

Thanks so much!

Dan

[Golgotha]

These numbered houses/Hobbit holes are inspiring - I used to have the link but can't find it - they can be seen however on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/468444798740423006/

[SotF]

I think that friend of yours is an absolute genius!  I still have a handful of those hills in the closet.  Might as well put them to good use.

Thanks so much!

Dan

Unfortunately, when I was making my own, those were out of production and had to make my own for it.

[Cacique Caribe]

Unfortunately, when I was making my own, those were out of production and had to make my own for it.

If you still need hills to make hobbit holes, check out these Kallistra hills:

https://www.kallistra.co.uk/index.php?page=14

Dan
PS.  Unfortunately, as I’ve just discovered when I was about to check out my order, the postage to the US seems absolutely prohibitive.  I reached out to them to see if they have any US stockists that sell their hills.  I hope to hear back from them soon.

[SotF]

If you still need hills to make hobbit holes, check out these Kallistra hills:

https://www.kallistra.co.uk/index.php?page=14

Dan
PS.  Unfortunately, as I’ve just discovered when I was about to check out my order, the postage to the US seems absolutely prohibitive.  I reached out to them to see if they have any US stockists that sell their hills.  I hope to hear back from them soon.

I've made hills with them. It's more that I'd had to do more work for the ones I made compared to the friend who used the old modular hills

[amunptah]

What about using the squirty insulation foam method to build the basic hill structure? You can carve away with a knife or hot wire cutter to smooth them out, finished off with some filler. If the pieces are large enough it would theoretically be possible to slice the top of each hill off, then carve out the rooms inside, so you have a playable interior.