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I think it's superb. It's exceptionally reasonable given what some commission painters charge. I would suggest tarting yourself about a bit more though, need get the exposure up

I think that's very reasonable considering it's a scratch-built, extremely well painted, custom piece of artwork.

My only recommendation is that you make sure your buildings are built as solidly as possible so they will not fall apart easily. Nothing will ruin your rep like someone paying a premium price for a beautiful object that falls apart in 6 months because the glue seems have failed.

inmygravenimage wrote:I think it's superb. It's exceptionally reasonable given what some commission painters charge. I would suggest tarting yourself about a bit more though, need get the exposure up

Thanks Graven.
Yeah, due to building this in many separate stages, I've not kept track of how much time I've spent on it.
But it's purpose is to show what can be done with my hut kit, which I think it does,
And I don't have the shelf space to store it anyway, so sending it off to someone that might actually use it is a good thing.

As for splashing myself about a bit, I do have a facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Dr-H-Painting-and-Modelling-766353710145525/timeline/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
It doesn't get the regular updates that DDakka gets, and only shows finished pieces. I'm still working out what I'm doing with it really; not quite feeling how FB does things at the moment.

But feel free to "like" it (if you are on FB) and maybe more people will find it, that will encourage me to post more over there as time goes on...

Gitsplitta wrote:I think that's very reasonable considering it's a scratch-built, extremely well painted, custom piece of artwork.

Thanks Gits'.
Maybe I should be charging more for things... Get it while you can...

My only recommendation is that you make sure your buildings are built as solidly as possible so they will not fall apart easily. Nothing will ruin your rep like someone paying a premium price for a beautiful object that falls apart in 6 months because the glue seems have failed.

Yep, know what you mean. I do build things to last though.
If the material is polystyrene, then I'm going to use poly cement (the lookout is such a case, another advantage of using sprue), and I make sure to use as much of any glue to make as permanent a join as possible. The roof, in this case, is even pinned to the walls.

The only things that would be "easily" broken are the ladder (which is glued to the base and hut by 3 small points), and the external tank (again attached to the base by 4 small points). I wouldn't attempt to pick up the whole piece by either, but you can move it about a surface using them.
The ladder itself should be fairly durable, again being PS it's cemented together, and the rungs are drilled into the uprights. You are only going to pull it off the hut.

I would hope that someone who pays a premium price for a model is not going to be throwing it in a box with a load of other "objects" and throwing the box into the boot of their car before going off to take part in a demolition derby.

I would like to think that what I build will last the distance though, and should be as solid, if not more so, than the owners own models.

I'm sure Graven can testify to my build quality for gaming?

For fully painted, the price sounds fine. I am always bemused by people who complain about paying for a nice paint job. Something along the lines of, "Why am I paying $50 for paint on a $7-$8 dollar mini." Perhaps we should point out how much people pay to have a $15 canvas painted

Edit: for the cardboard tubes, these

are 130mm diameter with ~1mm walls. Easy to thicken the walls too. Mentioned in case you have not considered them. Plus, good for the cholesterol. I have it on good authority that horses eat them in England but people eat them in Scotland

 Red Harvest wrote:
For fully painted, the price sounds fine. I am always bemused by people who complain about paying for a nice paint job. Something along the lines of, "Why am I paying $50 for paint on a $7-$8 dollar mini." Perhaps we should point out how much people pay to have a $15 canvas painted

Thanks Red'. Yeah, skills cost money; for the customer it always seems high, and for the seller it's often not enough...

Edit: for the cardboard tubes, these...

Ta. Will have to have a look out in the shops when/if I need them.

I have it on good authority that horses eat them in England but people eat them in Scotland

I shall need to acquire a horse to dispose of the contents then.. or a Scot... Sorry Cam', Graven, Magos, and the many of you that seem to be in Scotland. It was Red'... It was Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedd...

Anyway, final photos of the example hut build.






If we get these on the Dakka gallery home page, together with my tower and trench pictures that are up there, there won't be any space for anyone else's pictures...

I'm willing to sell this to a good home for £80 (plus postage), first come, first served; this is a one-off, unique piece for a good price. If you want it, let me know before someone else does...

Now now, I was making a Samuel Johnson reference it's on the page somewhere. After Jobbernowl. Hmm, an interesting word that.

I do eat oatmeal, and I'm... well, a fair number of my relatives were Scottish, but they left Scotland for America in the 17th and early 18th centuries. I do like it in a stout

Ah yes, that's where I remember it from.

Aslong as the porridge / oatmeal is made with "good quality" tap water then all is well! And for a wee treat if its a special occasion.... a sprinkling of sea salt!!! MMMMMmmmmm!!!

Lol.... but as for that hut..... its pretty amazing! You really do have the timber painting technique nailed!

Epic stuff!

Steel cut oats are the way to go, lad. Take longer to cook, but worth it. Stir in some apple pieces and sprinkle on some cinnamon. Breakfast for a brisk autumnal day. And the big selling point around here, 'gluten free'.

No modelling updates at the moment. Working on birthday presents and planning the "tube" commission.

However, in other news; Who got through to the top ~12 in the world championship of conkers... Me.
Got to the 5th round and was knocked out by the women's champion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-34486280

I'll be back with some modelling soon-ish...

Congratulations! What the heck is Conkers? The article was most uninformative.

Ha
It's a game (usually) played by children, using the seeds of the horse chestnut tree.

Drill a hole in the centre of the nut.
Thread a string though the hole (tie a knot in one end).
Take it in turns to hit your opponents nut...
Keep going until one breaks.

I've not touched a conker since I was a child, and was worried about how well I did ("surely, I couldn't win it with no experience/practice/technique").

As it turns out technique is a big thing, Amy, the one that knocked me out and won the women's crown, was really, really good at it (and had won it before).

Was just a fun day out really, not serious in the least.

 Dr H wrote:

Anyway, final photos of the example hut build.

Over 9000!
Amazing work, Dr H

Can't believe it the Doc is leaving us nerds to become a jock in the world of professional sport, what's next going to the sand pits and kicking sand in our faces

@gitsplitta how dare you say you have never heard of our great long time sport of "Conkers", where do you think "William the Conker err errr " got his name from

Seriously. Next he will regale us with tales of his prowess at Rounders

Sounds like a grand day out, Doc.

StarDrop wrote:Over 9000!
Amazing work, Dr H

Thanks StarDrop. 9000 what? Am I showing my age, or are you offering me money

LDD: I'm not leaving, top 12 is nothing in the world of conkers, it's all about the king and queen conker.
It's an annual event, and anyone can enter. http://www.worldconkerchampionships.com/index.php
I saw the Italian champion (knocked out in the first round) and a team from USA (with embroidered jackets) amongst the people there. Many though were, like me, there for the first time and hadn't touched conkers for years.

But of the people that got though to the quarter- / semi-finals, they were pretty much all past champions or team champions.

Red Harvest wrote:Seriously. Next he will regale us with tales of his prowess at Rounders

Actually, I was pretty good at rounders at school...

Sounds like a grand day out, Doc.

That it was.

Ah, how about baseball then?

I think the 'over 9000' comment is a reference to some meme or the other. I've seen it before. Never researched it though. This internet thing is lousy with memes.

Fantastic to see the hut finished, and that tower really does make a difference.

Red Harvest wrote:Ah, how about baseball then?

I think the 'over 9000' comment is a reference to some meme or the other. I've seen it before. Never researched it though. This internet thing is lousy with memes.

I see. Showing my age then.
Let's see if I can find a thing that's relevant and more from my time (it reminds me of something I've seen before):
Found it... Kings of power 4 billion percent.
It's a lot more blasphemous and bloody than I remember... NSFW or the easily offended, or anyone with photo-sensitive epilepsy.
Link in spoiler for those that want over-the-top 90's computer graphic violence.

hk1x1 wrote:Fantastic to see the hut finished, and that tower really does make a difference.

Thanks hk.

It's still available (as well as the kits and other casts I make).

Birthdays presents are progressing nicely, you'll be able to see them soon-ish, and I'm waiting to hear if I can actually show the "tube" commission test that I'll be starting this week.

In other news: I've been looking at graphics cards. This is baaaaaaad.
The imminent release of Fallout 4 (which will be on my Christmas list) has a minimum requirement of a 2GB graphics card. I have a GeForce 8800 GTS 512, that's 512 MB...
However, This card has seen me though Crysis on near full settings and runs Skyrim perfectly well (with the HD texture pack and many "prettiness" mods); which has a minimum requirement of a 1GB graphics card.
What has helped my old card is the TV/monitor I have is relatively low resolution (1280x768), so the card can focus on doing other things instead of MORE PIXELS.
Hopefully, I'll be able to run Fallout 4, if not I'll be splashing out on a new graphics card... such is life...

 Dr H wrote:

StarDrop wrote:Over 9000!
Amazing work, Dr H

Thanks StarDrop. 9000 what? Am I showing my age, or are you offering me money

Ah ok, Thanks StarDrop.



I can show you the progress I make on the commission piece.
This is for myself and the customer to ascertain how long this kind of model will take, and therefore how much it will cost. and also to see if my quality is up to scratch.
If all goes well then I'll be commissioned to make the whole piece that will be at a larger scale and involve a third internal platform, double the length (and then some for the larger scale), a large outer platform (with crane), and many ladders, railings and other things,

The point of this model is accuracy, not excitement; so no "lasers", battle damage, weathering, bloodstains, OSL, etc..
But everything has to scale correctly to the engineering drawings I have been supplied with.
This means a great deal of calculations, measurements, very careful cutting, and sanding to fit.

Hopefully, it won't be too boring to you, dear reader, and I may be able to pass along any useful tips (as usual) for accurate modelling.

#1, for free, is cut slightly too large and sand down if you want a really close fit.

and so, this is what I have done so far:
This is an air-tight platform that will have two hatches and two flange-topped tubes.
You can see all the measurements and guidelines I needed to do just this.
Two circles, one had to centre removed and became the raised lip around the edge, This is from 0.25mm plasticard, which is why you can see though it. In scale, this is slightly too thick but (thankfully) won't be noticeable in the finished model. But you get the idea of how little wriggle-room I have to work with; no "close enough, I'll putty the gap" here.

Then I cut the holes for the hatches and tubes,
Then I made the support from lengths of different plasticard, laminated to get the second dimension (e.g. 2x 2.5mm strips of 1.5mm thick plasticard, stuck together to give me 2.5 x 3mm, or 2mm strips of 1.5 and 0.5mm plasticard to give me a 2 x 2mm piece...)
While I could have carved these from sprue, as I would for a gaming model, this is much quicker and easier.

More measuring and guidelines and then these were glued to the bottom of the disk.


This is 1 of 2 platforms that I'll be making for this piece, the other one is slightly more interesting and involves mesh flooring and railings etc...
Stay tuned for more thrills next time.

What is this going to be?

If you ask me to guess Id say it looks like a simple differential driven 2 wheel robot chassis minus casters. Edit 1: and the size would say a maze solver
Though you really need to get a compass cutter.


Edit 2: wait, is it a section of submarine hull?

did I not mention that? Oops.

This is part of the tower of an offshore wind turbine.
The whole part that I may be asked to make is known as the transition piece; it is the part that sits half in and half out of the water.
It is the yellow part in this picture (which is about 5m across if you want to know the scale):

But that's only the top half of that piece (what with being under water).

What I'm making at the moment as a test is just the inside of part of the transition piece; a couple of floors for engineers to wander about on.

Here's the lower working platform.
This is "hung" from lumps of metal around the outside (inverted L-shapes) and has a railing around the inner ring.
The mesh flooring is some 1:72 scale mesh plasticard to represent the actual mesh (which is a different design).

I've placed the joins of the two rings where the posts should cover them up.

Wow, that's... ambitious! Very interested to watch this my friend.

Strap yourselves in... this is gonna be awesome!!!

 MagosBiff90 wrote:
Strap yourselves in... this is gonna be awesome!!!

+1
Go Dr H! Go Dr H! Go! Go! Go!

Thanks for the enthusiasm chaps.

Today's tip: when building something from engineering drawings, don't forget that you don't have to use the same number of parts. The little L-shaped pieces you can see below, in reality are made from straight steel tubes and joined at 90deg; I nearly did this before I realised I could just cut out L-shapes in plastic that would be stronger as they don't need to be glued together.

Progress:
The air-tight platform got it's flanged tubes (I thought it best to start in the middle and work outwards).
and the lower platform got it's railing posts and the aforementioned L-shaped hangy pieces (that's the technical term ), I'm going to finishing the railing before attaching those.



While details like rivets are not necessary for the commission, things like those flanges wouldn't look right without them, even if they are supposed to be hexagonal bolts and not 0.5mm round plastic rod pieces. As far as trip hazards go, I think they do the job for the purposes of the model.

You can also see the template for the main flange under the lower platform. This will be a ring attached to the walls of the tube that the L-shaped pieces attach to. The dots on it are to be holes that I'll drill (84 in total), just 'coz I can.

Ah I see now

Looks like a good start

Thanks OMN.

Ahh, it was going so well and then I came to make the tubes for the hatches, cut a length of plastic to wrap around, check the length and find it too short...
The strip is correct, that means...

...the hole is wrong. too long.

Too far out to be usable, can't patch it or use putty to fill it (the plastic is too thin, and is the thinnest plasticard I have).

But before I start again, I can still try something to fix it...

Use the underlying framework to cut out a section and replace it.
You can see the difference in the holes there and the result after some sanding (a little filling and more sanding will be needed).

On the plus side, I did get the railings done on the lower platform.

Ah, you made a Dutchman, as that sort of repair is called in woodworking

Are you having some difficulty cutting the circles? I think I see some irregularities. Perhaps scribe the lines first, using a compass with some sort of metal point in lieu of a pencil?