TFTB & CF Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown Buildings (Killian WIP)

[Cat]

The past few months I've been sending Joerg at Things From The Basement detailed illustrations of the buildings from Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow movie (1999) and other related historical buildings.  A few of us are working on a big Donnybrook skirmish game set there during the French & Indian War.  Hope to have it all ready in time for Huzzah! this May.

Sleepy Hollow was haunted long before the Hessian lost his head in the Rev War, and the Donnybrook rules will work fine for bringing many different factions and touches of Gothic Horror to the table.

The major game board will be a model of the movie set.  Outlying boards will include the movie set for the Western Woods, Tarrytown, and Continental Road.

The building kits are up on the shop now.  The Bridge, Inn, Van Allen House, and Van Tassel Manor are from the movie set. 

The Martling House was a historical house in Tarrytown, and home to their first murder; it's in the style of period small farmhouses of the area. 

The Schoolhouse is designed as a smaller version of the 2nd historical Sleepy Hollow Schoolhouse; there are no images of the 1st one, but the very small 2nd one was bigger than the 1st.

The Corn Crib is modelled after the historical one at Abraham Staats' farm in neighboring New Jersey.

I'll post photos of my models up as they get finished.

https://www.thingsfromthebasement.com/store/c35/Inspired_by_Sleepy_Hollow_-_The_Movie.html

[SotF]

I like the bridge and schoolhouse for my more frontier fantasy village...

[NurgleHH]

Sorry, these building didn‘t get the wonderful grotesk of the buildings in the movie. The important thing of these buildings was the impossible design, seems they are not from these world. I hoped for more, but these building is only normal fantasy... but only my personal opinion

[Cat]

What you're remembering from the movie is the emotional impression.  The blades of the Windmill are the only grotesque structure (the Windmill and a few more buildings from the set are in the request queue with Joerg at Things From the Basement).

All of the other buildings are very plausible real world structures (with lots of fog machines and post-production blue-filters applied).  What is un-real is that you wouldn't find all of these architectural pieces in one small village.  That was a very deliberate design decision to give the movie such a dreamlike quality.

With minimal concessions for design simplicity for the laser-cutting process, the models are quite screen-accurate.  I poured through screen-caps and making of videos and other illustrations to send to Joerg to work from.  The making-of vids were the biggest help for seeing what the buildings look like without the fog machines and filters.

The big Van Tassel Manor model received a little more design simplification to compress the size a bit to bring it down to about an 8" x 12" footprint.  The current photos of the finished model are of the first prototype piece. A few changes were made after that was built.  The tower is a bit taller and the tower roof spun 90 degrees, and the chimneys are taller.  There will be photos of the actual production version when I finish building my kit.

This making-of video has some clear village scenes from 2:03–3:11, and some quick bridge views at 2:17 and 2:54:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu25XTyqJM8&t=259s

This behind-the-scenes video has clear village shots from 2:52–3:30, a bit of the end of the bridge at 3:25, and from 6:04–6:25 is filmed inside the bridge.  So thanks to this vid, even the inside of the Bridge model is screen-accurate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a00FN5wiDmA

[white knight]

I like them. Would like to see them with some figures to judge the size. 

[dinohunterpoa]

Sorry, these building didn‘t get the wonderful grotesk of the buildings in the movie. The important thing of these buildings was the impossible design, seems they are not from these world. I hoped for more, but these building is only normal fantasy... but only my personal opinion

Agreed 100%! Not even a small hint of a Sleepy Hollow vibe whatsoever in any of those buildings, they're completely different from the movie scenery:

What you're remembering from the movie is the emotional impression.

No.   

[Cat]

Wow, tough crowd! ~,^

The kit has arrived here and now I can check the actual pieces, you are correct on the Manor missing the vibe.

Looking at WIP photos of the design in progress, I was thrown off by the model being photographed from an upper angle compared to the low angle of the screencap.  Seeing the actual pieces, all the upper roof gables need to be raised up steeper.

And the timber framing needs to be quite asymmetrical to give the proper "What am I walking into here?!" feel.

[robh]

...........Seeing the actual pieces, all the upper roof gables need to be raised up steeper.
And the timber framing needs to be quite asymmetrical...........

Both ideas will certainly help, but the inherent weakness of these and imho all mdf buildings is their "boxy" square angled nature, they always lack character.

The roof profile on the film building is not a constant angle, it "flattens" as it reaches the bottom so it appears to splay outwards. Likewise the roof peak line is not flat, it arches upwards at the ends and the uppermost point of the eave on the front extension protrudes further than at the bottom ,  the underlying structure could probably be designed to incorporate this with a flexible card roof.

The buildings as they stand are good serviceable mdf models but as already said don't capture the otherworldy Gothic vibe which is the result of the lack of square angles and "balance".

[Cat]

Stay tuned for photos of the actual build.

Joerg is making a few alternative parts, including steeper gables for the tower, swoopy spike pieces for the roof peaks, and taller steeper walls for the attic over the carriageway.  Other changes I'll be kit-bashing during construction.  The stock version is the one that makes the most sense by far for his shop since it can cover several centuries of historical periods for the widest sales appeal.

I am pretty sure I will be able to get the swayed roof profile with this.  The roof pieces are not cut from solid HDF.  They are chipboard, and shingle strips are applied separately.  This construction should lend itself quite well to shimming and bending.

The Manor won't be the first kit on my construction table though.  I'll be waiting for the Spooky Upgrade bits before I begin tackling this.  First up will be the Covered Bridge.

[horridperson]

I like them.  I don't see MDF kits as done out of the box;  I like they as a way of getting all the grunt work out of the way so you can get busy giving the bones some character of your own.  If I pick one up I'd start by cutting arcs into the pitch of the roof and ditch the exiting roof so I could emulate the sagging appearance of the film version.  The only thing I miss are the pokey bits along the rooftop.

[Cat]

If I pick one up I'd start by cutting arcs into the pitch of the roof and ditch the exiting roof so I could emulate the sagging appearance of the film version.

I started working on the bridge last night.  Was a good session's work with saw and blade adding wood grain texture and notching in the framing details on the interior.  The supplied roof pieces for the bridge are mdf.  I'll be gluing some thick balsa wood strips up under the peak; then I can take a half-round shop file to the top and give it a sag.  The heavy paper shingle strips will work to the new shape nicely.

The peaky bits on the Manor roof are dormers.  As soon as I figure out which sizes I want, I'll pick up windows from Grandt Line or another model railroad supplier to make a handful of dormers to apply.

[horridperson]

Post up once you add the grandt line furniture and your own embellishments.  I think you will have a winner.

[shadowbeast]

The kits would benefit from being made in multiple thicknesses of material. The sag could well be cut into the parts if the kit roofs were in 210-300GSM paper.

[Wirelizard]

The kits would benefit from being made in multiple thicknesses of material. The sag could well be cut into the parts if the kit roofs were in 210-300GSM paper.

Was thinking that swapping the MDF roof pieces for light card would be the easiest way to add sway and irregularity.

[majorsmith]

I think with a bit of modelling skill these basic buildings could be made to look exceptional