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Wow, looks great so far. You're making excellent progress!

Theophony wrote:I've got so much to catch up on its not even funny . The hut is looking good Dr . Have fun with the friends.

Thanks Theo.
Lucky for you this hut has taken quite a while, so there's not as much to catch up on as there could be.

Much fun was had, and now I'm back.

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Wow, looks great so far. You're making excellent progress!

Thanks 'boss.

There will now be another slight delay as I have something to make for Father's day first...

Happy Father's day to those of you that are.

This is what I made for my Dad;


It was difficult at first to get into 2D painting again, and I didn't even know if it would look any good until I started adding the final details, but pretty pleased with it now. Works well in the hand, looks rough when zoomed in.

Hut will be next up (and hopefully won't take all week...).

The latest round of the League of Extraordinary Riveter's terrain contest finished on Monday morning, and as I was running it this time around, I have been judging the finalists. The contest thread can be found here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/643658.page#7734224

There is also a voting thread that you can visit and vote on your favourite piece to crown the People's choice winner.
Go here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/653409.page#7922403

The winners of both will be announced on Monday.
Thanks.

And now back to my wooden hut kit.

You know the problem with my style of painting wood?
It's really difficult to match it on a second attempt.

After filling holes in some miscast pieces (as the best casts have gone into the kits I want to sell), I have been throwing various shades of paint at them to get them as close as I can to the original pieces, so it doesn't look odd when I build the example hut.

Here's the results, see if you can spot which are the originals and which are the resin miscasts (note that the door, window and roof support sections are all original).


Now I can find the best way to put it together and write some instructions, hints and tips.
Also, I've realised that I can't make this a permanent construction, as I'll need the original parts to re-make moulds (in particular the wall sections) when they wear out / warp / tear (which the wall section mould pretty much has).

However, once I've "built" a full hut and photographed it, I can re-build it as a broken hut from the rest of the miscasts that are in an even worse state than the ones I used here... and use that as another example hut.

Now... which were the originals again...

I would expect the whole thing arrives unpainted?

 shasolenzabi wrote:
I would expect the whole thing arrives unpainted?

It would yes. Although you could always commission me to paint it for you (in pieces like this or as a whole hut). But that would increase the price quite a bit.

I have been thinking about offering a "cleaning up" service with these. As I realise that my casts are not the tidiest in the world of models and that may be putting some people off.

What these two services would cost (as well as the kit price) I don't know yet. Need to nail this all down soon though.

Thoughts on whether these would be services people would use are welcome.

Well, as you saw, with the Hammer APC's was to do my own cleaning, (man were thy a mess!) and then I paint and wash myself etc as I do like the painting as seen by my own uploaded images, But I know there are folks who would probably commission the cleaning and even the full painting, a deluxe edition as it would be called of the shack.

Indeed, Shas. Although from the amount of work you had to do on that APC, I'm sure you would have been happier if it had arrived all clean and ready to go.

On the plus side, the resin I use is really easy to clean up with some gentle scraping.

Post construction instructions! And also a finished piece! Looks great.

A nice little painting you've done there. I respect you as an artist more now I see this little beauty.

Damian Hurst cannot paint to save his life. I bet his eyes couldn't even see something on this scale. It would be a blur.

I'm looking forward to having a genuine Dr H hut.

Excellent work. looking fantastic.


On the extras, I would suspect that people would go for a fully complete hut no worries, and pay what you will ask for it. I would say that the cleaning up "cost" will probably not be viable for you, I think your time, will "cost" too much and put people off that option, compared to buying a straight kit. We people that will be purchasing your hut in kit form are used to cleaning up kits and indeed it is all part of our hobby, I know we bitch about it sometimes, but it is good for our modellers souls to clean kits and make thousands of tiny rivets at a time.

Having said that, the price you charge for your kits to date is so cheap you could sell them all as cleaned up kits and not have the standard as an option, That way you could charge a bit more for the kit, covering your cleanup.

I have never had any issue with any of the kits and even the mishapes I have had from you, your kits are fantastic, I am positive this is going to be a great success.

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Post construction instructions! And also a finished piece! Looks great.

[Churchill]Oh yes[/Churchill]
Will be, and here's the first wall:

Thanks, 'boss.

weetyskemian44 wrote:A nice little painting you've done there. I respect you as an artist more now I see this little beauty.

Damian Hurst cannot paint to save his life. I bet his eyes couldn't even see something on this scale. It would be a blur.

Thanks Weety. Means a lot coming from someone with your qualifications.
I have plans to do more paintings at this scale and sell them to the doll house makers for (hopefully) lots of money.

Ha, yeah don't get me started on half-an-animal-in-formaldehyde (or pile-of-bricks, unmade bed, etc...) Vs. real artworks.
I like my art to involve more work and less "interpretation" (excuses for why anyone could have done it but it's really art, honest).

I'm looking forward to having a genuine Dr H hut.

Good to hear. Thanks.

Camkierhi wrote:Excellent work. looking fantastic.


On the extras, I would suspect that people would go for a fully complete hut no worries, and pay what you will ask for it. I would say that the cleaning up "cost" will probably not be viable for you, I think your time, will "cost" too much and put people off that option, compared to buying a straight kit.

Thanks Cam'. Yeah, as easy as the initial clean up of a model is, it's does take a lot of time compared to the later stages of a model.

We people that will be purchasing your hut in kit form are used to cleaning up kits and indeed it is all part of our hobby, I know we bitch about it sometimes, but it is good for our modellers souls to clean kits and make thousands of tiny rivets at a time.

True. It is part of the fun.

Having said that, the price you charge for your kits to date is so cheap you could sell them all as cleaned up kits and not have the standard as an option, That way you could charge a bit more for the kit, covering your cleanup.

I have never had any issue with any of the kits and even the mishapes I have had from you, your kits are fantastic, I am positive this is going to be a great success.

That is a thought. I'll have to experiment and see how the timing goes.

Thanks again. It's good to hear.

The example hut is built. Here's a few photos to show how it looks.


There's a few things I need to iron out and clarify in the instructions (so you can make the most of the kit) before I'll post them up, you may even see a few of the issues in the above photos.

All will become clear soon.

ah yes, how to deal with the gaps between walls and upper section

Awesome.

shasolenzabi wrote:ah yes, how to deal with the gaps between walls and upper section

Yeah, that is the more obvious problem. But easily fixed during the build.
This arises due to the way the walls are built and the slight variation in the post dimensions: while they are all the same length, overall, the slots vary slightly from one to another and around the same post.
In fitting them to the wall sections you can end up with some of the posts peeping above the wall.

I did make them to be slightly longer than the wall sections, but sometimes the gap could be too big for some people.
The offending posts just need a little trimming to get the perfect fit.

Other than a few other little fit / gap variations that I've addressed in the instructions, the only other issue was with my clever roof alignment markings that I moulded into it. The X's on the wood of the roof are not quite far enough apart, so that when you attach the roof support in the position I intended, they end up not quite as wide as the base of the hut. Which is an even worse result than the above mentioned gap. This is addressed in the instructions also.

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Awesome.

Thanks 'boss.

After much head-scratching and photography and fiddling and correcting my English... These are my hut instructions and tips (some may be obvious but I had to put it in for completeness, and much of it is suggestions rather than hard rules). See what you think (it's quite long) and let me know.

And to have it all together, these are the parts pictures as well.


This is how it is supplied (the name tags are what I refer to during the instructions):


Instructions:
1 of 4

2 of 4

3 of 4

4 of 4


and now, after you've waded though all that, how many people actually want one of these and would part with cash for it?
I'm looking for interest levels. As I only have 4 casts available at the moment, I want to know if these will be hanging around for a while or I will have to make more casts in the very near future.

These first 4 will likely be £20 each (my earlier price estimate was a little low as it turns out), and unless I get more casts (and less miscasts) from future batches, the price may go up to about £30. It's difficult to estimate and price these things.

Thanks.

Excellent step by step, Dr H! Looks great.

Thanks again, 'boss.

The plan now is to pull this hut apart, clean the glue off the original parts (save them for re-moulding) and then use some of the miscasts to turn this into a damaged hut / variation.

Some progress on the example hut build.

From the pile of miscasts I have enough wall sections to work with (and still have plenty spare) and a have roof parts that I can use.
But no spare posts and no roof support bits...

So I made some quick plaster casts of posts (which all promptly broke at the narrow parts and I've had to glue them back together) and have used some of them for the new walls. I may have to do something similar with the roof support...

I also decided to make this example hut a bit more interesting with not just a broken section (necessary for the use of the miscasts) but an extended section at the front, a kind of porch. Depending on how I attach the two halves of this hut together, it may only require 2 extra wall sections, 2 extra posts and 1 or 2 extra corner pieces (and some more roof that will need to be scratch-built). With the extras I have, I may be able to include these extras in the first 4 kits (although they will be plaster posts, not resin, and you will have to sort out your own roof for the porch), for free.

This is how the new hut is looking now:


I'm now gluing some CDs together to make a base for this one to be mounted on.
Once that is ready I'll glue down and stick together the two halves of the hut and then think about this roof...

If you are interested in buying one of my huts, let me know. I'd like to know interest levels of people willing to part with cash.
Thanks.

Very clever idea to use the mis-casts to create a new variant... looks really cool!

There could be multiple variations using those parts... very impressive!

Thanks Magos.

Yeah, I don't like to waste material, and miscasts are no different from leftover sprue or plasticard off-cuts.

I designed this kit to be a versatile as possible. Only limited by your imagination (nearly).
It doesn't have to be built as a basic hut, in fact I'd love to see other's making something I haven't thought of out of it.
This is the blank slate, the basic structure, the skeleton, for you to build on.

Another brief diversion from the diversion of the diversion that I'm on...

Another birthday present.
Work in progress, can you guess what it's going to be?


I'll return to whatever I've been working on eventually...

Funky race car

 Theophony wrote:
Funky race car

While "Funky" is a matter of opinion, one of those words is partly right.



Still building up the shape. There is much clean-up to do, but more to add first.

Pod racer , it's what caused the spaceship to crash.

Nope, Police cruiser from Blade Runner

 Dr H wrote:
...and now, after you've waded though all that, how many people actually want one of these and would part with cash for it? .

To be honest, while it looks awesome, it also looks like something that could be easily replicated with some balsa and cardstock.

There is a market for terrain like this amongst those who don't know how to build it, or just don't want to... but to make the most of that, you need detailing that is harder to replicate from scratch.

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Nope, Police cruiser from Blade Runner

Yep exactly

Sorry Theo, Shas and Jehan are correct; it's going to be the police Spinner from Bladerunner.

Thanks insaniak.
Yes, I don't expect the scratch-builders to want it. I see it as somewhere between scratch-building and the kind of kits that come with 4 walls and a roof in two parts. I've done the hard work of the material prep' (as you get in a model kit), but there is potential for the personalisation of a scratch-build.

But true, the only tricky details on this hut is on the door, the rest being mainly wood. Part of the design of this kit is that I can add more interesting sections later (maybe sooner) that can be swapped in without a complete kit redesign.

This was an experiment to see just how hard it is to produce a model kit with the materials/tools/skills I have here. As it turns out, it's quite hard work, but a good learning experience.

Back to the Spinner...

Pretty much finished bulking out the shape now (still some more sanding to make it smooth yet) and started adding details to the underside.


And don't forget to check out the latest round of the LoER terrain contest. Join in, have fun, fabulous prizes to be won.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/654377.page#7941687