WIP - The Gold Mine - RESTORED PICTURES

[Mancha]

Looking damn gorgeous.
Right - here's an idea for you... You know those spoiled railway modellers have all kind of brilliant little luxury items to enhance their layouts? Well, I'm sure I've seen little flickering flame L.E.D.s... (battery powered presumably?)
Don't know if it'd be too difficult or too late to wire up now, but a couple of flickering torches set just inside the mine entrance (or was it an adit?  ) would be an extra piece of magic to wow your onlookers...
Just a thought...

Captain, that's indeed a very nice idea! I'll think about it and any possibilities for hidden wiring ... Will check a railway shop next days.

I was going to suggest exactly the same thing.  They run on little 9V (or even smaller) batteries.  You could install the lights into the tunnel, put the wires into the base, and carve out a battery compartment into the lower base.  I did the same when I installed a light into the "hold" of a ship.

[Verderer]

The mine is looking absolutely brilliant! Keep at it, we want more pics!

[Evilcartoonist]

Wow! That mine is simply FANTASTIC! 

Something else I'll have to add to my try-to-do-this pile.

Can't wait to see the final product.

[Admiral Benbow]

First of all, a big thank you to everybody for all the nice comments! Just a small update today to keep you informed how the project is developing. I have not been lazy since last time, but due to "real life" things I'm way behind my plan to finish this at the end of September (obviously ...). So end of October is the next date and I HAVE to finish it then as it's only a couple of days to Crisis.

In the meantime I collected all needed miniatures and prepared them for undercoating and painting. Even a stage coach with four horse team was added, not directly for the mine, but needed for our game; looks like a lot of painting work coming ...



If you ever want to know the meaning of "a pain in the ass", then order the Dixon stage coach set  . Although most parts are cleanly cast, nothing fits together without lots of cutting, filing and drilling, and the five parts of the coach cage had even to be reshaped partly. There are no locator holes or corresponding pins, everything is guessing and a lot of trial and error. I recommend NOT to use any kind of cyanoacrylate or instant glue; I fixed everything with two part epoxy and needed two evenings just to finish the coach and improve the very weak suspension between cabin and wheel frame! I hope this wargame model will stand at least some handling now ...



Detail shot of all the small parts for the mine, baggage and horses for the coach:



The work team of the mine, mostly Foundry and some smaller conversions including that Old Glory guy at the outer right:



The rock structures of the mine are now fully sculpted and the clay is drying slowly. The entrance has been covered with Tamiya tape to protect the already painted parts, the pine bark pieces have been blended with clay to resemble a homogeneous structure. But only after painting it will show if the thing will look what I'm after ...







That's it for today. I will now get out my airbrushing equipment to undercoat everything in its predominant colour to save some painting time. Then main painting will start on everything, so you should expect to see something more colourful next time in about two weeks time ...

[Super_Gibbon]

I can't wait! This project is truly awesome.

[Regulator]

Bloody awesome!

[argsilverson]

Bloody awesome!

and is getting more ,,, every day

[ancientsociety]

Really beautiful work!

[Dan]

Great stuff 

[Christian]

Firstly, that's some great work! I can't wait to see it finished. Keep it up.

Also, about working with the clay: how much work are you doing while it's wet and are you carving into it while it is dry? I imagine most of it is working with it wet. Anyway, I find your work very inspiring and would like to try my hand at rocks with clay too!

[Admiral Benbow]

Also, about working with the clay: how much work are you doing while it's wet and are you carving into it while it is dry? I imagine most of it is working with it wet. Anyway, I find your work very inspiring and would like to try my hand at rocks with clay too!

Christian, thanks for your nice comments and sorry for being so late in responding, but I've been very busy in real life ... 

I worked the clay only in its wet stage. The consistency of Keramiplast is very similar to real clay, so it's not really wet but soft and can be smoothed using some water. I liked the result as it was after drying, but you could have carved the stuff with usual wood working tools.

Due to my time constraints I was not able to shoot more WIP-photos, but will try to do at the weekend ... In the meantime rubble and grit has been added, the whole thing was undercoated and completely washed, drybrushed and detail-painted. And the stage coach is coming to live as well! 

Stay tuned!

[BigMecha]

excellent! so very nice...

[cianty]

This is really breath-taking! I look forward to your next update. Awesome work! 

[tsar1701]

Can't wait to see more !

very impressive work

[Christian]

In the meantime rubble and grit has been added, the whole thing was undercoated and completely washed, drybrushed and detail-painted. And the stage coach is coming to live as well! 

Stay tuned!

Woohoo!