The Great Terrain Build Off - Part 5

The Bakehouse is now complete, I just need to paint it and base it.

I used the thick card from envelopes again for the tiles. I had planned to use cereal box card, but I think I prefer the slightly thicker tiles.

Rather than stick individual tiles on I cut strips. Each was 15mm wide and overlapped the roof by 5mm either side. 

I have a craft guillotine, which makes it quicker and easier. 

Then taking three strips at a time I cut in every 8 to 12 mm (roughly) and then clipped off corners, shortened some tiles and generally made them look uneven.

Preparing three strips at once helps add to the random look. 

The main roof and the extension had strips glued on every 7.5mm, I had the lines as guidelines, though they were every 5mm, meaning a bit of fudging, but again, that helps with the hand-crafted look. The lean-to had smaller tiles, I imagine it's a recent addition.

The ridge tiles were glued on as individual tiles, I used one of the folds already present in the envelope, great for this and also for gluing on the edge of buildings. 

I've also gone over the daub, adding a second coat to fill the panels out a bit, and added card hinges to the doors. 

Just the painting to do now, oh, and a base of course. 

The Great Terrain Build Off - Part 4

I see Merlin has been working on his cottage, so I've got a bit further on the Bakehouse.

Like him I have made the windows separately, they will get glued in place as I timber the building. 

I like the effect that Merijin of 'Another Wargames Blog' gets in his Warhammer Townscape builds (he talks further about it here), so I bought some plasterboard tape and cut coffee stir sticks into 2mm wide strips to build some frames.

I laid two 15mm long strips down on masking tape 5mm apart, then cut two more strips for the top and bottom of the frame. 

Then plasterboard tape was carefully placed on top, using the tape to represent glazing bars. The tape is slightly sticky on one side, so this helps keep everything together. 

Then I ran a thin bead of superglue over the joints and the tape where it touched the wood and gave a quick spray of superglue accelerant. 

Apologies for the blurred photo, I hope you can see what is going on here.

Two completed windows

Once I had the windows built I was able to start the timbering. 

I started with the timbers along the base of the building, I presume the builders started out with a wooden frame marking out the footprint of the building. I then moved on to the corners, which ended up as pretty chunky bits of timber. 

I then superglued the windows in place then added balsa around, roughly matching the pattern of the original model. 

I used three different thicknesses of balsa to try to emphasise the main frame and the secondary support timbers, I'm not sure how well this comes out. 

The daub texture was simply filler, watered down slightly to help coverage and applied with a stiff bristled brush. 

Finally the wood for the doors and the lean-to was added, thin balsa with planks marked in first with a craft knife and then with a pencil. 

A bit of extra texture was added to the woodwork simply by carving off a few corners pto make the building look worn.

Next, my favourite bit (not).  Tiling the roof.

The Great Terrain Build Off - Part 3

Still more progress on my version of building 19 from the Warhammer Townscape. You can see part 1 here, and part 2 here.

I've got the base for the roofs done. This is simply a card cover that I will later tile. The card is another delivery envelope from that well known online delivery company; its just a bit thicker and stronger than cereal box card, and I'm tempted to use it for the tiles as well.
I also drew guide lines at 5mm intervals to help when I stick the tiles on later.

I pinned the card in place while the glue dries, after first making holes in the card.

You can see where I've sketched in the positions of the timbers, though I've still not finalised this.

I mentioned previously that I suspected the scanned Warhammer Townscape might not be to scale. A quick bit of comparative measurement proves it, the Townscape is about 115% the size of the originals, at least with the buildings from Terror of the Lichemaster. It doesn't matter of course. In any case I suspect minis themselves have grown more than that in the thirty odd years since original publication.

Next will be timbering and texturing.

The Great Terrain Build Off - Part 2

I've made a bit progress on the Bake House, as I am calling my version of building 19.

I've made a suitably imposing chimney out of an odd piece of XPS foam. I cut a notch so the foam would slot over the wall. The gaps between the stones were lightly penciled in, then I used a scalpel to make cuts along the lines and then textured the foam using crunched up foil. The cuts were deepened with a pencil and I hollowed out the top of the chimney.

The chimney was then glued in place with tacky glue and pinned while the glue dried.

When I built the extensions I added foam board strips along the base to strengthen them. This was a last minute thought, mostly because I had just trimmed the lean-to down and so had a piece already the right size. 

I decided to do the same for the top of each extension to give the roof bases extra stability. These were cut to size, chamfered to match the slope of the roof, then glued in place. The main roof got a double thickness piece along the ridge. 

These would, of course, have been better fitted as each extension was built, though the bake house bit has had a section cut out to fit around the chimney.

Next up will be fitting the roof base.