The Emma, Gilman House, & Mortuary

[gauntman]

I've been wanting to do some more Innsmouth Scenery to go with my docks and lighthouse so I've been working on a boat and a version of the Gilman House (inspired by Grimm).

As you can see both are still under construction.

Anyway...the boat "Emma" taken from the boat in Call of Cthulhu, is almsot finished.  I just need to add some minor items such as an anchor, life preservers and rope and tackle to the deck.  I am wondering how best to put the name on the ship.  WHther to print the name and glue it to card or hand paint the name directly on.  I think I'm leaning on printing the name in graphics to keep all the name sections the same.

I made the ladders, rope stantions, and handrails out of plastic clipped cross stitching-mesh to buy at hobby stores.  I think it's cross stitching it's used for, hell it might be for yarn or something.  It is a fine plastic mesh which can be easily clipped and shapped into dozens of tiny shapes.

The nice thing about this boat is that it is completely playable.  It has two ladders.  One from the waterline and another to the wheelhouse.  The roof to the wheelhouse can be removed and there is room for miniatures to walk anywhere on the main and upper deck for fighting.








The second project is a 2 story version of the Gilman House from Innsmouth.  I've only got the 1st floor based here but you can see how it's progressing.  I can't stress how important it is to draw and measure out every detail and angle of the interior and exterior wall construction prior to tracing and cutting the walls.  That process took almost as long as cutting a piecing it.

This is my 3rd large urban building.  One shortcut, I wish I had learned long ago which made everything so much easier was  pinning the walls with striaght pins while setting it into place.  This really made things easier.  In the past, I just kept it tacked together with white glue while it set.  Pinning is so much neater and easier.  The most tedious part of the whole process is tracing and scrying the exterior brickwork into the outer wall sections but now that is behind me.



The front desk will be added to the right once you walk through the front doors..  The doorway behind the front desk leads to a private office and an exterior door to the side lot which is fenced in.

The stairway has a small storage room/basement access under it. 

The stairway was challenging too but I pieced it with sections of wooden coffee stirrers and Goop glue.

You can see all the printed graphics, pictures artwork, signs, posters, textures, rugs and wallpaper I printed off to use as details for later.  I even printed some mythos letters and torn handdrawn Necronomicon prop sheets in micro to leave bloody and strewn about.


The side lot next to the building will have a wooden picket fence surrounding the yard with one access point from the property.  Of course I will make an escape route from one of the upper windows on the 2nd floor.  There will be 3 bedrooms on the 2nd floor linked by interior doors and a main hallway but I'll show more pics and construction continues.

[gharak]

Nice work there,

Any chance of some bigger photos, expecially of the boat.

Looking forward to seeing the house finished.

G

[Uncle Mike]

Fantastic!!! Will you be 're-enacting' the scene from "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"? May have to get a few movable bookshelves as well...

[gauntman]

Nice work there,

Any chance of some bigger photos, expecially of the boat.

Looking forward to seeing the house finished.

G

For some reason, they don't appear when I try to post the full sized pics???  I used to be able to do it but now I can't seem to...

Anyway here's a link to my FLikr page if you wanna check out larger pics.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48890619@N02/

Fantastic!!! Will you be 're-enacting' the scene from "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"? May have to get a few movable bookshelves as well...

I've been reading Escape from Innmouth by CHasoim and listening to "Shadow over Innsmouth" by the Atlatic Threatre COmpany to get me in the mood.  I also found some gameplay movies of "Dark COrners of the Earth" on Youtube.  I never knew there was an Innsmouth Section.  That's gives some great inspiration too.

Anyway, I don't usually make doors on my buildings due to gameplay complications, I'm not sure if I will or not.  I will definately dress the whole building with painting, carpet, wallpaper and handmade furniture but I might just fix the furnature in place.


I always enjoy decorating these houses after they're pieced together.  That's the most enjoyable part to me.  I found some great wallhangings of people with the Innsmouth look and nautical picutures to hang on the walls.

[B. Basiliscus]

I'm going to absolutely love this when it's done.
Bravo, looks great!

[gauntman]

I've had this old factory for a while it was about $15.oo USD from a model train company..  I just added some Marsh Refinery Buisness Signs, "No Trespassing Signs, and a "Check in at Front Office" sign to the exterior and Whola!   

My Marsh Refinery CO.

[Sheerluck Holmes]

Nice 

A boat is something I have always wanted to make... maybe I will give it a go.

Do you take the outer layer of paper/card off the foam card before drawing the bricks?

 I have never had much luck at doing this, and would like some tips.

[Malebolgia]

Fantastic stuff man! Really inspiring. This will be a terrific project to follow

[gauntman]

Nice 

A boat is something I have always wanted to make... maybe I will give it a go.

Do you take the outer layer of paper/card off the foam card before drawing the bricks?

 I have never had much luck at doing this, and would like some tips.

Lets see...

On boats, I used 1 layer of foamboard for the deck and made the bow out of card cut from a cereal box.  The trick is making the bow point higher in the front.  It's very subtile but neccesary to make the ship look right.

on buildings...


I've kinda learned what works for me through trial and error.

1.  Map out real life size and wall measurements to scale on paper.  Each level of the Gilman house will fit perfectly on a sheet of copy paper.  This will tell you in real life if the room sizes look right with miniatures or if a wall needs to be moved or where optimal door locations should be.  Make sure you boldly write down and determine door sizes and widths, window sizes and wall heights.  These are standard throughout the whole construction.  Make sure your doorways will allow figures bases to move through.  I use uniform metal washers to base minis so I need a 1 1/4 inch doorwidth fand 1 3/4 height for good clearance and appearance.  My walls were a standard 2 1/4 inches high.

2.  Trace everything on posterboard.  Walls doors windows and exterior brickwork.  Make sure the brickwork coresponds with the window and door frames.  This is actually very easy if you keep your bricks 1/2 centimeters high.  They will fit exactly along with the doorfram and window frmae measurements I used.

3.  Leaving the exterior poster paper on the board trace and scry the exterior brick design into the paper using a sturdy ballpoint pen.  Don't break the paper surface.  Just give it an impression.  Don't scry into the door or window openings.  It will make them harder to cut.

4.  Cut the windows and doors out.  Then cut the walls out.  It is harder to cut the windows and doors out after they are already in small wall sections.  Then cut the walls out.

5. Cut a piece of poster board for the base or hardboard if you wish to use that.  I prefer posterboard for eeaier pinning but posterboard is also prone to warping and damage if not treated carefully.

6.  Pin the exterior wall.  Make sure your building is squared when pinning.    Once it's squared pin the outer walls to the base.

7.  Glue the walls while pinned with PVA glue.

8.  Insert, pin and glue the interior walls.

9.  Cut pin and glue any other levels and floors.

10.  Prime the interior, paint the interior.  add any decorations printed textures and painted furnature.

Some of this is obvious but..  The order in which some of these steps are done is very important or can cause headaches if done out of order.

  Hope this helps.

[Sheerluck Holmes]

many thanks - I should be able to make some more interesting buildings using your advice 

[blackstone]

This is looking great. The posters/signs and the photos are excellent... some of those people certainly do have the Innsmouth look about them. 

[gauntman]

 2nd story structure complete


Down the steps...The upper hallway





I finished the interior walls the upper step assembly and railing and doors and windows.

It was difficult to decide whether or not to add additional windows.  In the end I decided to add one more matching the ground floor window for astectics.  Anyway, the Gilman House is suppose to be a death trap with only one legitmate way in and one window available for escape.

I made the "escape window" different from the other windows by making it open.  After the rooms are painted and decorated I will add toilet paper/glue curtains to further obscure the closed windows and make the open window even more obvious and appealing.  It will also be the only window with any possible footing below.  (a shed will be positioned beneath that window for entering the fenced in lot.

Next step....making sure theglue is solid, pull the pins/patch the holes and prime the base and walls.
The tough part about painting the posterboard base is being careful not to warp the base.  (thin the paint).

Anyway...it will take a bit of paint to get it all covered so..it might be a few days before any more pictures.   

[D@rth J@ymZ]

Great project! I love the multilevel Marsh Refinery!

[gauntman]

Finished the major parts of the Gilman House.

Painted interior/exterior added wallpaper and flooring.

Hung Pictures and placed rugs.  Placed posters outside.

I still need to add furnature and add the curtains.













I was inspired today and began work on a 2nd building today.  A small and simple mortuary...
The walls and frame have been cut and pinned.  I'll get to work on this as I add the finishing touches on the Gilman House.

The mortuary is going to be fun. After many drafts on paper.  I decided to make it a 3 room building.  It will consist of: a viewing parlor with a coffin on display off the entryway, an embalming room with a bay of cold storage lockors and grisley embalming table and finally a secluded office for it's mysterious mortician.  It will have a front entrance and a rear embalming room entrace for moving the bodies in and out. 

This will be great for more urban terrain and for zombie and mad scientist fun as well.

 

[B. Basiliscus]

LOVE the wallpaper! 
These are coming together excellently, can't wait to see the morgue!