Little Huts of Horrors (with tutorial) --

[d phipps]

Here are a few pics and a tutorial for the huts I finished this week. My therapist encouraged me to make them with removable roofs so you will see some with the roofs off…




Its been probably 15 years ago that I wanted to make these huts. And working on the terrain for our Pulp Alley scenarios has finally given me a good enough reason to get them done. The basic components of each hut are a CD for a base, SCH 40  PVC for the walls of the hut, a metal escutcheon for the basic shape of the roof, and a large paint brush for the grass thatching --





First I built up putty on the escutcheon to get the shape I wanted, then painted and textured the putty so it would contribute to the look I was going for. This was a pain in the ass because the escutcheon was not quite the shape I wanted, so I ended up using more putty and time than I really wanted to.

The texture/grain on the outside of the walls was done by scoring it with a demel tool. This was very easy and accomplished in less than two minutes per hut.

STEP 1 - The grass roofs were the most involved part and I’ll go into more detail. In the picture below you can see the first row of grass being applied. I simply snipped off Ľ inch sections of the bristles, dipped it in a mixture of wood-glue and water, and then stuck the bristles to the side of the roof --



STEP 2 – After the first row was applied I let it set-up for an hour or so before applying the next layer. The second layer was applied exactly the same as the first but just a little higher --



STEP 3 – This step just involves trimming/shaping/smoothing the bristles at the top. All I did here was push it all down while it was still slightly wet and leave it over-night --



STEP 4 – This is the final layer of grass, applied higher still, and making sure there is enough at the top to completely cover the roof --


Note that each ring of grass took me about 15 to 20 minutes to apply.


STEP 5 – I let the roof dry for about 30-45 minutes for going to this step. Here I used string to pull the grass at the top into place and give it its final shape. Note that once I get everything tied down I use a couple drops of super-glue at the very top to really bind the peak together --



And that was about it. All that was left to stick the pieces together and paint it up.






THANKS!
Dave -

[Bako]

Wow, those are excellent. Good job!

[Saya]

woww!! cracking stuff here!!!! 
congrats and thanks for sharing

[Calimero]

Cool!

[Dr X]

Truly remarkable work. Quite nicely done, sir.

[Remgain]

Huts added to the "To do" list.

Thank you very much for the tutorial!

Marco

[Argonor]

OMG... away for a couple of months, and the bar gets raised again in the meantime.... 

I'm just popping by, btw... not time for hobbying at the moment, still trying to find a house we can afford AND that has rooms/space enough...

[Malamute]

Superb idea, beautifully executed.
Welcome back Argonor!

[gamer Mac]

They are the Business
Very nice Tutorial Thanks

[Mr.Dodo]

Genious!
Er, what's an escutcheon? Just looked it up. 'A shield on which a coat of arms is represented'.
?

[d phipps]

Thanks for looking everyone! I appreciate your kind words.

Mr. Dodo - in this case an escutcheon is a metal flange plate that slips over a pipe, used to cover a hole in a floor/wall through which the pipe passes. I found mine at a local home-improvement DIY store.



THANKS!

[Mr.Dodo]

Aah, thankyou. Where would we be without DIY parts eh?
 Lovely work which achieves practicality for gaming with a high standard of modelling, and therefore atmosphere.

[warrenpeace]

...and kudos to the therapist who encouraged making some huts with removable roofs.  Is that supposed to be blood splatter inside?

[warrenss2]

Fantastic huts!!!

But...

Isn't Tarzan supposed to be tied to a post in the center of the village?

And the herd of rescuing elephants?

[General Roos]

Thank you for your tutorial! The hut´s looks great!