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Oh, I love your miniature artworks.

While the rest of the world is going crazy for this viral lung infection, I thought I'd be different and pick up a bacterial eye infection.
Video nurse suggested rinsing my eye 4 times a day and see if it helps. So this week I've been waterboarding myself and not made much progress with anything.
It's mostly better now, so I can focus on things like typing.
So, update of where I was before the pink-eye took hold.

monkeytroll wrote:Nice, simple, effective. Good little tables, and an interesting shape for shadowplay.

Thanks. Yep, my thoughts exactly.

Could always thread a few strings of fibre-optics down the 'back' of the lamps through the floor and back into the cupboard.

It's going to be tricky painting behind those lights, nevermind stringing fibre-optics, and they'll be even harder to hide than wires due to light-bleed, and without getting good, direct, light you won't get very bright light at the other end of them. I know, I know, excuses, excuses....

Thanks Gits'.

There's always more to come, Graven'. Thanks to you and all, for sticking around.

In addition to the tables I've also made a shelf unit.
And I made / found various things to put on this and the tables.
Bottles, vials, phials, vases, and plates.
Using some milliput, "spare" resin blobs, plastic rod, and beads (nice to find that the large clear ones even work with plastic cement to glue to clear sprue for the necks). A couple of OMN bottles and a skull from Heroquest.


The shelf unit is quite large once inserted into the hut, being pretty much half a wall in width. So I think I'll leave it free to be removed rather than glue it in.

Some painting will be required of all the hut's various pieces now before installing the tables at least.
There's a few other additions about the place, but not much more is going to fit within this, then we'll be full on painting.

 Dr H wrote:
It's going to be tricky painting behind those lights, nevermind stringing fibre-optics, and they'll be even harder to hide than wires due to light-bleed, and without getting good, direct, light you won't get very bright light at the other end of them. I know, I know, excuses, excuses....

H for half-job is it?

Great little collection of knick-knacks, and definitely a bonus with being able to glue the beads to clear sprue. Got to be some potential there....


Got to be different, even with your infections. Glad it's clearing up, eye infections can be nasty.

Good to hear you're on the mend. Looking forward to your furnishing us with distractions

Glad you're getting better Dr H. Those shelf nick-nacks are uber-awesome! You never cease to amaze and astound. Please keep up all the fantastic work and keep sharing! It's very inspirational.

Thank you MT.
Yeah, you don't know until you try. The rest of the beads in my collection are glass/ceramic, but was pleased that those worked.

Bah, the eye was more of an inconvenience than anything else. But still, it's worth having these things looked at as it can always get worse.

Thanks Graven'.

inmygravenimage wrote:... furnishing ...

Now don't start that again... No Lamas.

Too kind, Gits'. Just find a blob and stick a rod on it.
Although the plates were not so simple. Basic shape made on a flat surface, but the dip in the centre had to be carved out after curing, and then lots of sanding to get a smooth shape. I made about 5 and 2 turned out good (I knew I only needed 2).
There is, no doubt, a better way.

Before I can populate the tables and shelves a certain amount of painting is required as painting around these small items while on the shelf will be difficult.
Tables and shelf are painted "wooden", and the knick-knacks are ready for more intricate work.

While I had the paint out I painted the underside of the hut and gave the mound a layer or 2.
With a basic dark paint job I could mount the hut on to the mound.
Pleased to see that, once attached, it is level... enough, the back is slightly high, but within tolerance. I had cut those legs a long time ago and had to find the particular position that I had planned for the hut again.
You will also notice a couple of details added to the top of the stair and platform. Didn't want them getting in the way earlier.


This might be it, the transition from wip to pip...

Hmm, some sort of press mould from a button maybe for the plates? I'm sure there's something the right shape at that sort of size, but it's eluding me at present. Could use a variable hole punch - a ring for the upper level and a disc slightly larger than the ring-hole for the base. I mean, it's done now, and good job on them, but just thinking it through I honestly thought you'd found something that fitted, rather than having carved them until you mentioned it.

Base looks good, like the horse ties, not convinced on the necron artifact...

The steady evolution of this has benmen fascinating and a joy to watch.

monkeytroll wrote:... I mean, it's done now, and good job on them, but just thinking it through ...

Good thoughts.
I had intended to sculpt them fully but had the putty mixed and ready when I realised that getting a good shape AND sculpting the internal dip at once wasn't going to happen. I decided to get them flat and round first and then worry about the dip later.

Base looks good, like the horse ties, not convinced on the necron artifact...

Thank you MT. You are a silly person...

Thanks Graven'. More wip below...

Shelves and tables populated with painted things.


And the populated parts of pretty painted things positioned within the premises.
And a look at how the lighting works.


Now to prime the rest of it and get to painting.

Wow, those props and dishes are *really* amazing!

Errr...... I'll just point at the plates and leave.....

All the PRETTIES

How did you even do the plate, it's so detailed!

Thanks Gits'.

MT; and the plates point back... er...?

Thanks Graven'

Thanks Gwyn'. If you zoom right in you may see the strokes.

Google "Willow pattern plates", you'll see that they tend to have a familiar layout with a house on one side and trees on the other, with space up the middle for birds and the like. From a distance they just look like multi-layer blobs in 2 stacks; so that's what I painted. Plus fill in the rest of the white space with a few dots and squiggles and that's the centre done.

You then have a ring around that.

The outside of the plate is also a "cheat". The real plates have a very intricate pattern that is more dense towards the outside and "spiky" towards the inside.
I painted diagonal lines around the edge, angled one way and then the other to give many overlapped X's, I made sure the paint was more dense towards the outside of the plate and the ends of the lines meeting like ^ than x. I then added a few larger blobs at intervals to give the impression of larger features and break up the regular crosshatched pattern.

I used my smallest brush (5/0) and tried to keep the markings as small and as sharp as possible (minimal paint on the brush each time), going over some features, with smaller and smaller brush"strokes" to make them darker and more distinct.
Gloss coat and the illusion is complete.

Something of note I noticed while painting the black edges of the windows of the hut.

As with all things I paint, there's always the odd slip here and there. No problem, says I, a moist brush of white spirit works well as an eraser for the enamel paint I use, even when touch-dry.

I thought nothing of it and continued to do this on the tissue windows, and it works fine.
I then thought of the rest of you, using water-based acrylic paints and how this tissue usually reacts to water. Even neatly painting around the window would lead to you effectively "cutting" the rectangle out.
Something to keep in mind for those of you likely to do something similar. Maybe use tracing paper, like I did for the doors, to avoid paint issues.

First few layers of paint on the hut.


Not decided on the colour for the tiles on the roof yet. Will see how the hut turns out and see what matches best.
Other than that it looks like it's mostly going to be brown. May find some more ways to throw in some colour depending on how it looks with the furniture in.
Basic colour on first... decide later.

All very impressive ever. I think I'm going to have to make something scenic now.

Sweet! Nicely done.

Thanks chaps.

Progress involves the painting of the wood to look more wood-like.

The floor still needs a wash or 2 to bring out the texture.
Can't do that until I get the box in.
Can't put the box in until the lamps are painted.
You can guess what I'm doing next...

 Dr H wrote:
.
You can guess what I'm doing next...

The roof? Adding a small peacock to the grounds? A multi-dimensional clock monster hiding below the stairs?


Nice work, all looking suitably wood-like. Particularly impressed with the cabinet.

Cool terrain! Skyrim style cupboards and the Japanese style house looking all great!

Thank you MT. You were close, really close, but not quite. No, not the roof.

Thanks Shas'.

Progress. The interior and main body of the hut is done.
Overview and lighting effect:


View through the doorway:


Battery compartment:


As you can see, with it all in there's not a terrible amount of room for miniatures in there, so the shelf unit and the box are going to be left removable.
Even with the battery compartment and the tables there should be enough room for objective markers and/or a small fight with a few mini's.

Now to work on the roof and the base.


And, fellow Dakka-member, the LoER terrain contest is back up and running. If you haven't seen it yet or are unaware of such a thing, it's a friendly terrain contest that anyone on DDakka can join. Build terrain, learn tips and tricks, be rewarded with a piece of terrain. If nothing else, follow along here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/787913.page#10785587

Very nice. The shadows work a treat, very atmospheric when lit up.

Yeah, looking at it now I realise how big the battery cabinet is. Still, there is definitely some room for manoeuvre in there.

A really wonderful creation.

Thanks MT.
Ja, with the way I built the battery/switch piece, the box couldn't be made smaller. I could have cut almost a centimetre off the height if I really wanted to, but that wouldn't actually take up any less space in the hut.
As it is the installed battery is right up against the inside of the "door", and while I might have been able to cut 5mm off the width if I did away with the base of the internal piece that would have meant creating the "complex" bit of the circuit on the floor of the hut without an easy way to test it as I did.

And width isn't really the "problem". I needed the space behind the switch for the crossover circuit, so I can't push it all back as far as it might look.
Rearranging the whole battery/switch layout so that it was accessed from above and then creating the circuit underneath that would be the best way to save space.
This is what you get from learning as you go. Next time, it'll be smaller.

Thanks Gits'.

Progress...
The underside of the roof is painted and I've started on the base.


Now to think about what colour to do the tiles.
I'm thinking a pale colour so that it doesn't jump out at you or overpower the whole piece. Maybe a pale blue / slate grey.

Painting on the base is done. Needs some plantlife added after a bit of varnish.
Just the roof tiles to do? Quite possibly. It's been so long I don't really recognise the finishing of a project. I tell a lie, I have finished numerous presents in the intervening time.


And a small side-project inspired from some things that have popped up in my online circles.


Look up tensegrity "tensile integrity". The "strings" don't have to be hidden, but I wanted to use my thinnest to heighten the illusion.
If you pop over to my Twitter page you'll even find a video. https://twitter.com/Dr_Steve_H
I have a larger, different version of this sort of thing planned, stay tuned.

Lovely tensegrity, my lego obsessed eldest did a Duel on Mustafar one. It's a fascinating thing. The house is beautiful; what's next on the agenda?

The house is lovely Dr. H.

Thanks Graven'. Yeah, they've been doing the rounds of the internet recently, although it's been about for ages it seems. I had to make a tiny one though.
Next, will be something for my personal army, back over in my other (original) blog. There's no point making more things to sell if nobody's buying and my shop is shut.
I do have a couple of presents to get done over the next month, so those will show up here.

Thanks Gits'.

The roof is now done.
Not as pale as I originally intended, but I'm happy with where it's at so not going to make it any paler.
It's a darker, more navy blue than the photos show, I've tried adjusting them as this is as close as I can get. Hopefully this will be easier when I take the final photos.


Now to stick some green on it and take final photos... coming soon...

Amazing work doc!