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Nice start, H. I don't know off I could bare to do that over and over again!

Thanks dudes. It's not too bad, the cutting of the "boards" to size is more difficult and takes longer than the grain effect.
It's almost relaxing to do for a while (until the fingers start to complain). Got Wood zen.

The first, painted one was a test to see if it was possible and how it looked, before I committed to the competition.
It worked and so I was in. I'll probably make the final wood lighter than that one though.

I got 20 planks done yesterday before going out for beer, just about to settle down to more... I may do the framework bits for the hut and then I'll have something to show.

Got Wood zen.

that sounds as if you are about to enter rivet zen then^^

Awesome. love a bit of hobby Zen. Fire on Feeder's 'Elegy' next time your at it.

Viktor von Domm wrote:

Got Wood zen.

that sounds as if you are about to enter rivet zen then^^

It "wood" be possible I'm sure. I just haven't made something with quite enough rivets on yet (although I do have a collection of spare-putty rivets).
There are some rivets planned for the roof of the hut.
I also get a zen-like feeling when I'm doing the wiring and tubing/piping on my models.

Casey's Law wrote:Awesome. love a bit of hobby Zen. Fire on Feeder's 'Elegy' next time your at it.

Yes, that is quite pleasant (and one song I didn't actually have in my collection). I do however, have quite a large amount of zen-like, ambient music so I'm sorted for that...

I tried out a wire brush that I found in the garage and it didn't quite produce the desired result.
It was quicker, but the marks are too uniform in depth and they are all too parallel.
Below you can see the scalpel wood on the left and the wire brush wood on the right.


And this is all the wood so far

The long poles are the uprights for the hut (the two slightly longer ones for the front and the shorter at the back).
And two "flavours" of plank; the thinner ones from the upper half of the sprue trapezoid and the thicker from the lower half.
I'm aiming for as much variety as possible.


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Just a quick tutorial on how I make my sprue wood:
1.
First find yourself a piece of sprue and remove all the sticking out bits (clippers will be fine for this as it'll be tidied up later).
Then, cut it to length. I use a Number 10 blade in my scalpel and this allows me to use a rocking motion to cut the sprue, little by little, into two (Don't try to go all the way through in one go as you'll likely end up snapping your blade and/or cutting yourself).
Clean up any rough edges from where you removed bits before continuing.
2.
This is probably the most difficult step (yep, it's downhill from here).
Using the same technique that you used to cut the sprue to length, cut the sprue in half, lengthways (the shorter the plank/sprue the easier this step is).
There's two ways this can be done and will give you the results shown in the diagram (I'm cutting along the green line as this leads to a variety of sizes of wooden planks. The red line will give you all identical pieces. Probably just a matter of taste).
You have to be careful to get the cut as straight as you can, but a little unevenness can be solved afterwards with your scalpel and/or gives a bit of variation to your wood.
3.
You pieces will likely end up bent after this but can just be straightened by hand.


4.
The texture is built up by successive scratches with the side of the point of your scalpel (this gives thicker lines than using the "front" of the tip).
Starting at one end, make many small scratches of roughly the same length and try to cover the whole width of the sprue, the more lines the better the result.
5.
Moving further up the sprue, keep making small scratches of even depth to the same length, making sure that you fit in as many lines as possible.
However, continue your scratches to the bottom end of the sprue and allow the scalpel to follow whatever path it likes. This will deepen certain grooves that were there from the previous step and eventually the scalpel will only fall into those grooves and will therefore leave some of the grooves as smaller scratches.
6.
Continue this way along the sprue.
Once the grooves are deep enough at the lower end of the sprue you do not need to keep going over them and you therefore work your way up the sprue, all the time keeping the leading end of your scratches as evenly spaced as possible and allowing repeated passes to deepen grooves at random.


7.
Keep this going until you reach about half way up the sprue, then turn it around...
8.
Using the same technique, start at the other end and work your way towards the middle.
9.
Make sure to go over the middle, where the two halves meet, until the grooves are an equal depth and appear to continue the whole length of the piece.


10.
Repeat this for each side of your piece of sprue.
Then paint in your desired manner.

The uprights are done...ish. Some need to be shortened, but that's all.
This picture shows the layout of the hut, the positions of the uprights and Terminator number 1 for scale.

I decided that this terminator (with his raised hammer and 40mm base) will be the limiting factor for the hut's dimensions and layout.
The door of the hut (the short upright at the front right) will be only partly there; the two very short pieces laying next to the "door" are the top and what's left of the other upright that will be hanging down. This allows the door to be shown as if it was made for a small being, but allows access for a 40mm base.

You will also see much shortened uprights on the left front of the hut. This is the extent of the "hole" that reaches to the door and allows access for hands to reach in and place models inside the hut. I'm thinking that the hole will be due to the wood rotting away, rather than battle damage (this allows the hut to be used for any game setting; as a rotten hut is a rotten hut, whatever universe/galaxy/time you are in).

There'll be a window on the right hand side (as you look at it here) and a ladder up the outside of the back wall (for access to the roof. Although why a heavily armoured super-soldier would climb on a rotten wooden hut, I don't know).

I now can work out how many planks I need and can continue to make said planks.

What do we think?

THat looks amazing so far, I can't believe the dedication needed to do this. Great job.

Thanks Theo.
It is quite therapeutic and satisfying, although a few of my fingers and my "cutting" thumb are quite sore after a day of handling sharp/rough bits of plastic and occasionally catching them with the business end of the scalpel. Even took to sticking a bit of a plaster (that's a band-aid) on my thumb.

In addition to the 20 short planks (for the front and side), I've also done 12 long planks for the back wall...

...the back wall requires 24 long planks...
...I haven't checked how many short planks I need...

Nice work on those plastic 2x4s Dr H. They look the bee's knees to me...

Oh, hey Ruglud. Just been having a look at the start of your fuel depot on a cd, look forward to seeing how the drums turn out.

Thanks dude.

You are a zany, crazy mofo! so much tedious mind numbing scalpel work doing those planks, I really commend you on your dedication to the project, i'd start it but give up 'cos that is pretty tricky to get right again and again......and again......and again......and again..... etc...

omg... I didn´t realize there was so much preparation work to be done to get the planks made...I actually thought you just too straight sprue sections and then work the wood grain in... I didn´t knew you really went all the way to produce thin enough planks... wow... I think if you actually complete this you have your winning model right there...

and a very informative step by step I say!

Thanks NF.
Having done the swords I knew what I was getting into and accepted that it would require a lot (one metric ton to be exact) of planks.
and I'm quite happy to do mind-numbing work occasionally as my mind can wander to whatever it wanders to (always been a good day-dreamer ). So long as I have music I can do the most boring of jobs.

The wood grain is easy to get right because you let the scalpel tip do all the work in giving you a random pattern, the most difficult bit is cutting the planks to shape and that's just carefully cutting in a straight line and everyone can do that.

and it pays off to look at the piles of "wood" that are collecting in front of me.


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 Viktor von Domm wrote:
omg... I didn´t realize there was so much preparation work to be done to get the planks made...I actually thought you just too straight sprue sections and then work the wood grain in... I didn´t knew you really went all the way to produce thin enough planks... wow... I think if you actually complete this you have your winning model right there...

and a very informative step by step I say!

Thanks Vik. If it was just going to be an outside of a building, then doing the wood grain on the sprue, as is, would be fine. but as I'm building an open hut, you're going to see both sides of the walls/wood and so they need to look real from all angles.

"If" is definitely the word, there's a lot more to be done. I need at least double the amount of "wood", maybe more.
But at least I'm not doing the roof in wood: I'm thinking a classic corrugated steel look from cardboard (I was considering doing each corrugation with an individual sculpted piece of sprue, but really wouldn't have time for that and corrugated card would look better anyway).
And the hole in the front of the building saves on making wood for that section and saves time there.
The interior will get as much love as time allows, I'll get the hut done first and then see how much I can do inside.

Wow. Brilliant idea! I certainly wouldn't have thought of it. I must get around to having a go myself. Might find a use in da waaaghs army...

da waaagh orkz wrote:
Wow. Brilliant idea! I certainly wouldn't have thought of it. I must get around to having a go myself. Might find a use in da waaaghs army...

Thanks da waaagh.
Yeah everyone should have a go at these, they may be a little time consuming but are really quite easy in essence.

Just be wary of your fingers folks, aside from the obvious issue of razor-sharp blade meets skin, the sometimes sharp edges of the rough-cut sprue (and the whole cutting towards my thumb thing I do, always cut away from yourself ) has covered some of my fingers with small cuts (those that don't draw blood, you know the ones), but my index fingers are both quite sore... You have been warned...


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Also, I might add, that it does produce quite a lot of mess. It's worth having something to catch the scrapings/shavings etc...

But at least I'm not doing the roof in wood: I'm thinking a classic corrugated steel look from cardboard

exactly... i bet this will look awesome!...

and i expected some of the hurt you told... we all know to cut away from us... but honestly... who does that really all the time? and these nasty blades... they need just that one time of carelessness...

 Viktor von Domm wrote:

But at least I'm not doing the roof in wood: I'm thinking a classic corrugated steel look from cardboard

exactly... i bet this will look awesome!...

I hope so.
And I'll use rivets to "hold" the roof on. It's a league competition after all.

and i expected some of the hurt you told... we all know to cut away from us... but honestly... who does that really all the time? and these nasty blades... they need just that one time of carelessness...

I've spent years perfecting the shaving of sprue attachment points while resting the piece on my thumb, usually leaving those skin-deep cuts that aren't a problem, and I've only cut deep enough to bleed... on countless occasions...

And I'll use rivets to "hold" the roof on. It's a league competition after all.

that´s the spirit

and well... we live we bleed we hopefully learn...yeah right

OK Boys and Girls lets see what's through the square window...

Yes that's going to be the window. Terminator #1 helping to hammer the nails home...

I've also constructed the back wall. That's one of three walls complete.
First build your frame.


Then lay out all the planks that you calculated would be needed to fill the wall... and be initially disappointed.


But after a bit of careful rearrangement and cunning cutting of certain planks...



Now just have to do something similar to the other walls...

Very nice doc. May I recommend to try using a small fly tying vice to hold the sprue in place. You won't cut yourself and it will be a bit easier to cut.

Thanks da waaagh.
I do have a hobby vice (that's what it says on the box), but to use that I'd have to use a saw for the cutting and the only saw I have chops out too much material for use on sprue (I have tried it before).
But it's ok, I found my climbing tape and have wrapped that around my important fingers and now no problems with cutting myself.

 Dr H wrote:
Thanks da waaagh.
I do have a hobby vice (that's what it says on the box), but to use that I'd have to use a saw for the cutting and the only saw I have chops out too much material for use on sprue (I have tried it before).
But it's ok, I found my climbing tape and have wrapped that around my important fingers and now no problems with cutting myself.

The fly vise is also referred to in jewelers circles as "a third hand" its a multi-angle set of fixed alligator type clips some have a screw type clamp instead of the spring loaded clips.

Ahh. Not got anything like that. Thanks Galorn.

That wall looks amazing mate! like really amazing! you have got it perfectly woody with your skills! and the hut wall looks good too!

I missed that...
Amazing job, You're really a sprue-fu master !

 nerdfest09 wrote:
That wall looks amazing mate! like really amazing! you have got it perfectly woody with your skills! and the hut wall looks good too!

Thanks NF.
lol, good to know.

It's nice to sit back and see a piece of the hut actually complete, it's spurred me on to make more planks ready for the other walls.

And it's nice to know that you lot out there are liking it too.


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 SelvaggioSaky wrote:
I missed that...
Amazing job, You're really a sprue-fu master !

Thanks SS. It's nice to know I had this in me.

Hopefully I'm also showing you all that sprue is truly the most useful of things that comes with your models.

Dr H, you gotta come round and do some fencing for me - that's a mighty fine job there

love the look of that wall... and you actually did right to make the clever cuts... those diagonal boards are ment for the shorter boards to be hammered to... otherwise they wouldn´t have had anything to stick to... and if you would have not have smaller boards the diagonal ones would be pointless...so...all is well!!!

Ruglud wrote:Dr H, you gotta come round and do some fencing for me - that's a mighty fine job there

Ha ha, if you want an inch high fence, that's made of plastic and looks like old wood... Thanks dude.

Viktor von Domm wrote:love the look of that wall... and you actually did right to make the clever cuts... those diagonal boards are ment for the shorter boards to be hammered to... otherwise they wouldn´t have had anything to stick to... and if you would have not have smaller boards the diagonal ones would be pointless...so...all is well!!!

Thanks Vik.

Yeah, they both kind of produced the need for the other: I had some planks that would not have reached between the uprights and so I either had to make more planks or find a way to attach the shorter ones to something (each plank has at least two contact points, which will be painted to look like rusty nails)... and the diagonal beams allow me to position the boards in an irregular pattern to give the impression of a hastily erected hut (and for that I needed short planks).

Also the diagonals add strength to the whole structure, and there will be more of them in the other walls.

Crazy, brilliant and awesome,but crazy.

Looks brilliant, Never throwing another piece of spru away.