Russian Village Buildings (game report and new hut, 13 April)

[Wirelizard]

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:


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.

[Svennn]

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.

[Marine0846]

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.

[gloriousbattle]

Very nice indeed!

[Wirelizard]

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".



I've got another writeup over on The Warbard, 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.

[dodge]

I like them, very very effective

dodge

[cuprum]

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.

[Wirelizard]

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...

[Mark Plant]

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.)

[marianas_gamer]

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

[cuprum]

Here may be able to get a few ideas:



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/site-map/19-my_work/345-the-town-hall-clock.html

[brigadegames]

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.

[carlos marighela]

And if you really want to save time as well, there are the rather lovely Pegasus prepaints. I use 'em with 28mm.

[WuZhuiQiu]

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.

[Ramirez Noname]

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

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