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Matthew wrote:Maybe I'm in too late, but how did you do that cool metal on the Termi bases? thanks!

Building or painting?

Building: I used textured plasticard and built the bases like this...


I got the plasticard from here:
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/transportmodelsofpreston/

Painting: is just gunmetal over black, a few washes of black and brown and a dry-brush of silver.
The lines were made using Tamiya tape, but they have been mostly obliterated with more washes and dry-brushing.
There is also a couple of splodges of gloss black to look like oil spills.

Give me a moment to get around the auto-append... Done!

Lets see if the door can arouse more excitement then the window did.



The door frame has hinges (bits of sprue with holes in) on both sides and the door's half of the hinges have pegs on both sides.
This allows you to mount the door either way around and you can cut off the unused pegs and hinges if you want.

The door frame is made of two of the posts that are used for all the wall sections and are spaced at the same distance as they are for each wall section (so this section can be placed anywhere around the hut, just like the window, but comes with it's own posts).

Next, I have to do a little more design work...


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This will auto-append, but I'm less bothered about it.

The Terminators are now up on ebay. You know you want them...

This looks very promising so far and I like it! Great work keep it going Doc!

Greetz from S
Take care!

This is a really good idea for a terrain kit, in that it could work for any game system - it'd look just as good on a Fantasy or LOTR board as it would on a 40K one - clever design on the hinges, by the way - moving parts are always good!

Very cool doc, if I didn't know any better I wouldn't know that was all sprue. I love the riveted door, looks a bit draughty mind you.

Best of luck with the termis on ebay.

Thanks 'Ultra.

Thanks Dark Apostle. Glad you think so. Yes the aim is to have it work with any game of the right scale.
I always like to see moving parts and try to have them in my models. A door is just too obvious a target to have moving (especially as I've gone into texturing the inside of the hut).

Thanks OMN. Yeah, all the grey is sprue (the white being plasticard and plastic rod).
The door kept demanding more detail as it started with just the brackets for the hinge, and then I thought that it should be riveted through the door and get those fancy metalwork bits. Then I thought about how those planks are held together: the walls are all "nailed" to the posts and support beams, but the door just had planks magically floating beside one another, so I added the strips to hold them together. I have to have things in my models that work (or look like they work).

Well draughts are a consequence of pre-fab' construction.

Ta.

And here's a sneak peek at the roof end sections:


Now I need to make 2 more of these and then add planks to 2 of the 3 (one being down the middle of the building not needing planks).
May need to add a cross bar in the middle for the planks to be "nailed" to...

Roof support sections, DONE.

There is a gap at the top for a post to fit through from end to end.


Now I need to make the actual roof...

As the hut is being designed to fit any time in history, in any universe, and in any setting (why make life easy and try and stick to one concept, eh?), I needed a roof that would fit as easily as the wooden walls do.

Anything is possible in the future, so I looked to the past and found that it's either thatch or tiles (although there is a choice in material and design of those).

Thatch:
I could have dug out a large piece of rope or a brush and made the thatch like that, and if this was just a one-off build I may have put in the effort. But I have to think of moulding and casting something that is going to work and still look good. There must be a good way to make a thatch look, without the effort of laying down thousands of bristles? And there is...

Using a towel (or similar material): http://muraminiatures.com/aking-a-28mm-scale-thatched-roof.html

And I had an old dressing gown that I had set aside for an experiment in making grass patches, that would fit the bill... so I thought...

I wasn't impressed with the result I achieved, but tried painting some of it to see how it would look... and it still didn't look like a thatch.

Hessian sheet, maybe. Thatch, it is not.

It would work better if you used a towel with denser and longer fibers, then the underlying structure of the material wouldn't show though.

So, tiles then:

Due to cutting the card by eye and not measuring anything, I ended up with 3 piles of (roughly) the same width tiles; large, medium and small (l to r).
I then alternated between the sizes as I laid out the tiles to give a slightly less regular appearance.

As it turned out, I cut exactly the right number of tiles. I couldn't have done that if I had measured and calculated how many I'd need...

Now to make a matching piece for the top of the roof and to detail the underside.

He even gave it a sloped roof!

I LOVE those bases! Very clever and loo really cool! easily adaptable for a dio or terrain piece too.... hmmmmm interesting....

And who knew those Blood Angel chaps were so helpful! Delightful manners!

In all seriousness.... that hut is really looking good! Got me beady wee eyes on this!

shasolenzabi wrote:He even gave it a sloped roof!

Oh yeah, I went there...

MagosBiff90 wrote:I LOVE those bases! Very clever and loo really cool! easily adaptable for a dio or terrain piece too.... hmmmmm interesting....

And who knew those Blood Angel chaps were so helpful! Delightful manners!

In all seriousness.... that hut is really looking good! Got me beady wee eyes on this!

Thanks Magos'. Yeah, that flooring would work well for terrain.

Well all that "For the Emp'ror!" stuff is just for show. Catch them at home and they're as nice as anyone.

Ta.

Here's a bit more on the roof.
I was trying to make a flat roof topper by making "bent" tiles from plasticard. But I didn't like how they turned out and so have resorted to cutting a tube up. The curves are not quite half a circle as that makes them stand too high.
These are glued together in one line and will be cast like that, but they are easily cut up if you want a missing section, etc.
The flat of the roof will be cast as it is and you'll get 2.

You can also see how it will all roughly come together at the end with the wall.

I cheated on the inside of the roof; that's just one sheet of plasticard with the planks and the texture scored on. The two beams are just two strips of plasticard stuck on.

The inside of the roof is not going to be looked at by many people on a regular basis, so I'm spending time on what will be seen.

I had to spend a fair amount of time today straightening this roof out as it had dried further overnight and curved. As I bent it back into shape the card tiles broke away from the plastic, so I re-glued it and left it under some heavy weights.

It's straight now, we will have to see if it remains so...

Ta for now.

I am very excited by the moving hinges. And the wood texture is spot on. I'm not 100% on the tiles, they need a bit of texture on them maybs? Still, better tiles than I did on my house!

 weetyskemian44 wrote:
I am very excited by the moving hinges. And the wood texture is spot on. I'm not 100% on the tiles, they need a bit of texture on them maybs? Still, better tiles than I did on my house!

Thanks Weety.
I'm pleased at how the hinges worked out. I expected to have to tweak them after gluing them on, but they worked perfectly first time.
The wood texture, I toned down a little from my wooden boxes (which would still make ideal accessories to this hut ) and I think it looks less "cartoon-like" or exaggerated. Glad you like it.

I'm not sure what I can do to texture the tiles. Real world tiles are fairly plain, with only a little roughness up close. I can't think of a way to exaggerate that sort of texture. There is the clamp and sandpaper technique I used on my UFO crash's wall, but that's more of a concrete look than ceramic tile...

Also, these tiles are made of card, but the curved tiles for the top are a hard plastic. Trying to get the same texture on both would be difficult (a clamp would not work for a curved surface for one). There is a fine texture on both from some sanding and scraping and excess glue, here and there. But this will only come out when painted (and painted on texture would probably be more effective anyway).

I may paint all these bits before casting, just to see how they look and solve any problems that present themselves before committing to silicone.
We can see how the tiles look then. If anyone has any ideas for the tile texture, let me know.

I don't really want to add much in the way of damage to the tiles (or the wood) as this would mean more obvious repetition across the surfaces. It'll also be easier for the owner to "add" broken tiles to the resin copies than it is for me to do so on the card original.

So, a quick check of what I have:
3 unique wall sections. To be cast to make 12 sections.
1 window section.
1 door section (with 2 posts).
1 reversible door.
4 unique posts. To be cast to make 12 posts.
1 central roof support section.
2 unique roof support end sections.
1 long roof beam.
1 tiled roof section. To be cast to make 2 sections.
1 curved tile roof topper.

I think that is all that is needed to make a hut.
The final cast kits will therefore have 34 parts.
That's not too bad, considering I did once think about making just the frames and supplying the planks to glue on... that would have made 100's of parts.

I think though, that I may make some accessories to add some more uniqueness to the final huts...
Hatch for the window,
Need to look at these corners,
What else could a hut need? Let me know.

Chimney attachment , water drain and rain barrel,

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Chimney attachment , water drain and rain barrel,

You don't ask for much, Shas...

I'm not sure how much space I'll have in the moulds at this stage, and I may not even have enough space for all I have at the moment. If I do have to buy more silicone to fit this in then I'll likely have space for larger things (although there's also the possibility of more Fallout stuff).
Yes, yes, I did ask for more things to make even though I may not have the space for it...

A Chimney. I suppose I could do the outer part and a ring fitting for the inside, if I go for metal cylinder type (A brick one would be too much work as that would basically replace a whole wall and/or be a large addition), and not have to make the boiler if I keep it to standard drinking straw thickness.

Water drain and rain barrel would also need guttering. That's quite a fine object to cast and would therefore be quite fragile. If there's no guttering then there can't be a rain barrel... maybe a future addition (and depending on mould space).

I've added some tags on the roof supports to... support the roof; the cross beams on the underside of the roof sit on top of these to give you the correct placing. I still need to add some marks on the underside of the roof so that you get the right spacing of those supports... note to self.

The hatch for the window is done. Just a separate piece. Can be placed either way up and can be added closed or open any way you like. I think adding hinges would make it ugly (as they need to be large enough to be cast and not fragile), so you'll need to do that yourself if you use the hatch.

I've also made some things to fit into the corners and make them less ugly. Again, optional.


I'll have a look at this chimney...

Looking good, I have been waiting until you got a bit more done to comment and so far it looks awesome. I think once you have done this you should try a brick building workshop or something. As for adding stuff to this, what about a screen door to go in front of the wooden door or a porch?

Thanks C'Lion.
Next... Still got to go though the "fun" that is moulding and casting of this. I usually need a rest after that (and by "rest" I mean making something for my army ).

I'll add workshop to my ever increasing list of things to do.

I think a screen door would be really difficult to cast as it'd be fairly thin and would cause a lot of back pressure / not fill up properly. I'm far from an expert in casting things and still learning how to do things in the best way.

Will have to see about space in the moulds for a porch, but that's a good idea for an expansion to the hut kit.

That makes sense Doc. I can add texture myself. I suppose the only texture tiles might have is lichen and moss which depends on the climate and the age of the tile.

This is all looking very nice so far
I look forward to seeing the finished version.

The hut is looking awesome!! The fact that its modular is probably my favourite part.

weetyskemian44 wrote:That makes sense Doc. I can add texture myself. I suppose the only texture tiles might have is lichen and moss which depends on the climate and the age of the tile.

See what you think below with just some simple dry-brushing to bring out the natural texture.

hk1x1 wrote:This is all looking very nice so far
I look forward to seeing the finished version.

Thanks hk. There's about a third of it below to keep you going until I've cast the rest.

NobodyXY wrote:The hut is looking awesome!! The fact that its modular is probably my favourite part.

Thanks NobodyXY. I'm glad you like the modular nature, I'm hoping this will be the unique selling point. It's how I'd like to be able to buy kits anyway.

I've been splashing some paint about amongst other things (still working on the chimney, it's fighting back at the moment).
Just a quick going over to check it looks right.
Parts:


And Blu-tacked together to give you an idea of how it fits together and looks at the end:


Thanks.

That looks really cool, comes to life so much with paint (and a good paint job it is too)

Wow, that looks fantastic! if only you'd done a wood effect on the roof, it could be wood shingles. Is it molded up now?

But yea very cool, makes me want to play skyrim for some reason...

You could do a wooden shingle roof as an optional extra...


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Oh and by the way that looks totally pro now its finished up

I wish I could paint this good, I'm completely rubbish with shading and highlighting though (even with washes.)

Calibanite Lion wrote:That looks really cool, comes to life so much with paint (and a good paint job it is too)

Thanks. Yeah, it helps with visualising the material for what it's meant to be. If the texture is already there on the model, wood becomes pretty easy to paint: this is brown base coat, dry-brush "bone", "patchy" dry-brush of white and then an uneven wash of black.

OneManNoodles wrote:Wow, that looks fantastic! if only you'd done a wood effect on the roof, it could be wood shingles. Is it molded up now?

But yea very cool, makes me want to play skyrim for some reason...

Thanks OMN. I did think about doing more wood for the roof, but thought that it would have ended up with the hut being a bit too "woody" and lack a bit of visual interest.

Mm, Skyrim. Their houses are a bit more fancy than mine.

weetyskemian44 wrote:You could do a wooden shingle roof as an optional extra...

That is a possibility for the future. The modular nature of this kit should allow me to produce all kinds of variations to swap in and out.

Oh and by the way that looks totally pro now its finished up

Thanks Weety.

FenixPhox wrote:I wish I could paint this good, I'm completely rubbish with shading and highlighting though (even with washes.)

Thanks.
All it takes is practice, practice, practice and patience.
Read/watch tutorials. Ask questions when you see something you like. Try out new techniques, but don't give up on them after only a few failures. Find what works for you.

All the painting techniques I use now, I've learnt from the DDakka community (directly or indirectly) in the ~2 and a half years I've been here. To the extent that I've started re-painting the models I started with, one of which is the helpful BA marine helping with the hut here.
This is a comparison of before and after:


And I'm still learning, still trying new things with every model I build.

...And seeing the world with the eye of an artist. Something I watched recently was a programme that explained the difference between how a non-artist and an artist looks at the world.
Using eye-tracking technology, they showed pictures to people and found that non-artists would only look at an object to identify what it is and would completely ignore open spaces of colour (sky is blue, kind of thing). An artist would study every shape, area, texture and colour and "see" the subtle shading in things like the blue of the sky.

I thought it was interesting as I hadn't thought about how a non-artist sees the world. I've been looking at the shading of shapes and colours since I was a small child and just thought it was natural to everyone.

Next time someone says that they can't draw/paint/etc. you can tell them that's there's nothing wrong with their hands (unless there is something wrong with their hands), but it's their eyes that are wrong.

The good thing is, this way of looking at the world can be learnt. These people just need to know what to learn.

Anyway, went off on a tangent there... we return you to your usual programming...

So as the hut itself is big kit wise, why not make my suggestions a separate accessory kit? Updgrade for the hut as it were?

 shasolenzabi wrote:
So as the hut itself is big kit wise, why not make my suggestions a separate accessory kit? Updgrade for the hut as it were?

That's the plan for anything that won't fit in this round of casting.

...oh yeah, OMN, no it's not moulded yet...

I don't throw ideas away, Shas. They all get used eventually.

I'm not going to lie, that was extremely inspiring to me lol. I had never thought of the difference in how an artist/non-artist views the world but it makes a lot of sense to me. I've been a musician for a long time now and I can say that the same is most likely true for musicians/non-musicians. When I listen to music I'm not just listening to the lyrics or tune. I hear the key of the music, the timing of it, and can seperate all the instruments mentally and almost visualize them working together to create the track. To be completely honest I almost zone out the lyrics entirely. Which is why I prefer instrumental tracks and my girlfriend doesn't let me pick the music anymore lol.

A lovely design and build!

those trusses/ rafters really add a sense of realism! Love it!