Lighthouse - Ever built one?

[Malamute]

In a mad moment I have decided to build a lighthouse.

Just imagine the game - the windswept, storm lashed rugged coast of Scotland.A rowing boat struggles to come ashore undercover of darkness - Prussian agents on a deadly mission abducting the professor from his croft retreat.Or something similar, Deep ones spring to mind or a Werewolf on the loose terrorising the locals.

Anyway, thats enough of my scenario ramblings and I am sure you will hve loads of your own.

Now onto the challenging part of how to do it. I  googled loads of images and have some neat ideas. You should see some of the gothic ones - outstading looking.

 I have decided on foam core as my preferred method with plasticard bits, balso doors and trusty Polyfilla rendering. The
The Building will have an attached single storey house and the tower will be either square or hexagonal, not round.
I guess the hardest bit wil lbe the light, probably a bulb and its housing.

As this is early days I am open to suggestions and ideas for its construction etc. Anyone ever built one or seen one in a game?

What do you think, am I insane

[argsilverson]

Nice project, good luck.

1.- there is some interesting paper models that you can adjust, or use as templates. try a search for paper models and you will get something.

2.- for lights, if you want working ones, try the ships fittings shops. There is something you can find.

[JollyBob]

You're probably a li'l bit mental, yeah. But it sounds like such a cool idea.  

I have never built a proper building, so I can't offer any comments on how to proceed, but I'm sure I saw a small torch somewhere recently that had a light in that looked remarkably like an old fashioned lamp.

If you can find something of the sort (and not too expensive), would it be too hard to take the gubbins out of the body of the torch, and have it as your light? It would be battery powered, so no need to muck about too much with wiring and stuff, and you could have a working light to warn those important convoy ships away, providing those dastardly Prussians don't try to sabotage it....

[Svennn]

If you are insane then I was certified long before you as I made one a good few years ago.

I made a round tower from stiff card in a slight cone shape to give a taper and covered the whole thing in polyfilla. Sanded it smooth and "carved" the bricks in when it was set. This is how I used to make all my stonework - looks much easier to scribe foamboard.

Now the naughty bit, if any members of Her Majesties Constabulary are viewing look away now. I "stole"/"borrowed" some of those flashing road work signs (I didnt let the batteries go to waste either) and cut the lens down and just used the centres. It was wired with a bulb and I was well chuffed with it but alas it got trashed somewhere along the line.

And if anyone was going to ask - yes, it was red/white stripes.

[Chilledenuff]

Well... if you were to use a round lighthouse I'd recommend a Pringles^tm tube... for the light you could use part of a wire bird feeder around your bulb with clear plasticard.
I hope this helps with the project

[Hammers]

You could use a cardboard model, like this one from Kartonwerft :
 The model is in 1:100 scale but can easily be xeroxed to 1:50 and perhaps even transfered
 to plasticard.

[Grimmnar]

Best advice i can say is go here.... http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=142925 and look over Rob's Pirate Town. In there, on one of the many pages of madness, is a lighthouse he scratchbuilt. Atleast i think he scratchbuilt it, and go from there. He answers his PM's reguarly in my experiences. :-)

Grimm

[Captain Blood]

Great idea... I feel a lighthouse competition coming on 

[chicklewis]

This one looks about the right scale, could paint up well, already assembled, and only $6.

http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=2018085

Here are about fifteen different lighthouses, scroll down to find the 'in stock' ones.  All are approximately the right 28mm scale.  Double click on the right to see the photos. 

http://home.att.net/~lemaxvillages/plym11.html

I might start with one of these, then customize it and repaint instead of scratch-building.

Chick

[Hammers]

Might work but Lemax requires some serious remodelling to get rid of that awful gaudiness.

[chicklewis]

"Might work but Lemax requires some serious remodelling to get rid of that awful gaudiness."

Much less than you might think, this is why the miniature gods gave us paint and dremel. 

Chick

[Rabbitz]

How funny,  TJG and myself came up with the idea to build a lighthouse a few weeks ago,   Fortunately we haven't started it yet so can wait until you lot do and then steal all your ideas.   Mwahahahahaha   

[odd duck]

Scottish lighthouse you say?In my Mom's home town of Fraserburgh they made the first lighthouse by flattening the top  of a castle (scotish tower house) and putting the light aparatus on top! google image kinnaird head lighthouse for a look . You could build build a tower house model with two intetchangeable topstories and have two terrain pieces in one! lighthouse and tower house.and of course you'll need a tunnel from the castle to a sea cave on the cliff below, just some ideas good luck with the project

[Sinewgrab]

Hmm. Maybe a lighthouse will be just the thing to build to set on the table at the same time as my pirate ship. Hmm.

My wife hates all of you, by the way. I have started more projects because of something I saw here or heard referenced, and the miniatures I had never heard of before that this site has pointed me towards...and I love it. 

[Argonor]

My wife hates all of you, by the way. I have started more projects because of something I saw here or heard referenced, and the miniatures I had never heard of before that this site has pointed me towards...and I love it. 

Let's make a club... no, wait, we're already one