Hi folks, or perhaps G'day
This is new ground for me, it's a diorama I'm working on. A lot a of scratchbuilding but at least it's mostly square joins and flat surfaces. I love the style of old timber house you find here in North Australia, built about a century ago. This will be a miniature of a small example.
Here's a ref image showing typical features: open frame external walls, verandas, corrugated iron roofs, on stumps.
Large houses are usually known these days as Queenslanders, smaller ones Miners Cottages.
Small timber for this was hard to source here and I was not sure I could make it do what I wanted so I opted for styrene. I painted some styrene test pieces first to be sure there was a chance I could pull it off. Looked okay to me so I carried on.
I started with the sash windows. The chopper was very handy.
The Dupplicutter seemed pretty expensive for what it is, so I made my own version which has been okay.
Grain was added using course sandpaper, splits were scraped into the members with a hobby knife at right angles to the direction of motion. The resulting fuzz was cleaned up with a kitchen scourer.
Chamfers in the weatherboards were scraped into the styrene. Using my homemade dupplicutter as a guide.
At this stage most of the 'wood work' was done.
It's not going to be a whole house just one side as a backdrop to the side yard.
Most of the main elements are not glued, but held together temporarily with wire dowels. This image also gives an idea of the size.
There's a bit more to show, but I haven't resized the images yet. So that's it for now, cheers.
John
Most satisfactory. Very neat construction. But how on earth will you create the (rather tricky) finish with all that exterior framing? Is every part pinned at this point? -- Russ
Being a plastic type man - I just love it - superb plastic engineering
Barney
Great job! Interesting prototype too.
Very nice construction and convincing wood from styrene.
How do you align the holes for the wire dowels? I have a couple buildings (HO scale) that I'd like to pin the facade onto the thin sidewalls with wire dowels so that the front can be removed to see & photograph the interior, but can't drill through the face of the facade into the sidewall and don't have a drill press to align measured marks on back of facade and edge of sidewall.
Fine I'll repeat myself...."just fab and lovely" :D
Many thanks everyone for your feedback.
Hi Russ, each frame is in one piece, but I kept the weatherboards as separate sheets. I think this will make the paint process possible. Hopefully..
Hi Bill, I just measured the hole centres as carefully as I could. There were just 2 dowels per join, even so with one or two I had to widen the opening. I always start the drill holes by carefully pushing a pin into the centre location first, if that helps. Dividers would make it easier, I'm thinking now.
Cheers, John
hi john
great build really captures the subject.
this design of tropical house were great what about a version on wooden poles with the laundry and a old holden parked underneath .
kind regards kim
Hi Kim, thanks. The plan was to put it on short posts, with the old rusty Ford out in the yard under the window. Model Holdens are not easy to come by but never say never, there's diecasts and a couple of resin models to be had. So the plan could change ;D
Continuing on with the cottage, I made the roofing from aluminium food trays.
Underneath is a sheet of evergreen styrene with a ribbed profile. The rib spacing matches close enough to the scaled corrugation spacing. The rounded end of a mini rotary tool is used to make corrugations.
Ridge caps were made of very thin styrene sheeting, cut and bent to shape.
Another image.
Hi folks
This is a SBS on how I painted the styrene to resemble old wood.
Primed with Mr Surfacer 1200 in the aerosol can, then airbrushed Tamiya white.
This is after the first few washes using Vallejo Air Color 71057 black, heavily thinned down with water and a tiny bit of dishsoap to aid flow. Acrylic washes like this will leave a hard edge (tide mark) if you let them dry out half way across the surface. So work quickly with each wash.
Some Vallejo 71041 Tank Brown and 71017 Russian Green wash to add a tiny amount of colour.
A few more black washes, then the piece was flecked with the black wash and 71001 White in a wash. To do this dip a flat brush in the paint, dab some off on a paper towel then run your finger across the bristles. This will fling spots of paint.
Dry brushed with Vallejo Model Color (Much thicker than Air Color) 70951 White.
A few more black washes will do it.
Here's a look at some results, before adding peeling old paint.
Here some elements are coming together. Gum tree leaves made from teabag paper, painted first then cut out with a sharp blade. The branches are made from stretched sprue.
That's it for now, cheers.
John
Leaving aside the fact that this is disgustingly good (including those unhealthy looking leaves and branches [is this plastic sprue {first heated and then} stretched?]) for my opinion you could have stopped the process of wall weathering at this point:
Quote from: JohnTolcher on June 02, 2015, 07:28:54 AM
A few more black washes, then the piece was flecked with the black wash and 71001 White in a wash. To do this dip a flat brush in the paint, dab some off on a paper towel then run your finger across the bristles. This will fling spots of paint.
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2576.0;attach=12167)
I know that there's a kind of philosophy to highlight structures for perception purposes, but at the macro shots the next steps bring in a somewhat artificial impact.
Cheers,
Volker
:o
great sbs!
i am liking the whole "feel" as the scene evolves.
the tree is incredible! i have no luck with stretching sprue......
-marty
"i have no luck with stretching sprue......" Marty
Me neither! Please, if you may, an SBS on stretching sprue in general and making branches in particular.
Most satisfactory and educational. -- Russ
Nice work! I too am interested in how you stretched the sprue -- it really looks great. Until reading that it was sprue, I thought you had used some natural plant material.
The leaves look great too!
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Volker you may be right, if I understand you. Perhaps I'm trying to do too much with this project, in the way of portraying a piece of local cultural interest and indulging my passion for old dilapidated things. It's a fluid process, I'm not averse to stripping and repainting so if it looks overdone I can go back. Hopefully it won't come to that though I've already done it with two parts of it. ;D
With stretching sprue, I've found that some styrene is difficult to stretch. So if you're having trouble you could try a different kit from a different manufacturer. Tamiya was used here.
I use a candle with a steady flame, holding the sprue perhaps 1/2 inch or 12mm above the flame. I spin the sprue slowly as it heats up, trying to evenly heat the area. I take the sprue away from the flame to stretch it.
If not hot enough, it will be harder to stretch and likely to break. If too hot, stretching it will produce a really fine thread. So I just wait till it's quite soft and try to stretch it a little, if too soft wait a couple of seconds then stretch some more. A little practice always helps.
The good thing about stretched sprue is the taper, and it's easy to glue. You can bend it too.
Another image.
The trick is to support the branches until the glue dries, say 2 or 3 minutes. Tamiya Extra thin worked well.
I will probably add a few more twigs and branch stubs but that's the basic method. Then primed and painted using similar techniques to the old wood, with a bit more colour perhaps.
Cheers 8)
John
Quote from: JohnTolcher on June 03, 2015, 07:54:54 AM
Volker you may be right, if I understand you. Perhaps I'm trying to do too much with this project, in the way of portraying a piece of local cultural interest and indulging my passion for old dilapidated things. It's a fluid process, I'm not averse to stripping and repainting so if it looks overdone I can go back. Hopefully it won't come to that though I've already done it with two parts of it. ;D
John, I think there's no need to strip everything ... but if so I'd appreciate you'd restart from the very beginning. If you send the failed items to me I'll look if I can shelter mankind from it ;D. What I tried to say: there maybe is a difference if you're modeling for photographs or for own sight at an exhibition (what I called the "philosophy" with dry brushing and highlighting structures and so on as a kind of additional "impressionistic painting", which leaves the pure modeling behind). For my taste the point of changing between those both paradigms was between this and the next picture.
Hope confusion's complete now :D.
Cheers,
Volker
John, Thanks for the how-to on sprue. I think my past experiments might have been with one of the difficult to sretch styrenes that seemed to have a phase shift from 'breaks when attempting to stretch' to 'liquid' with no range inbetween. But now can try different sources of sprue, and perghaps a bit more patience too. Thanks!
As clever and skillful as your method is, aren't the resulting trees terribly fragile? Also, why do you prefer that method to finding a few appropriate twigs from the backyard or a park? (If the reason is simply that it's fun, I would understand completely.) -- Russ
Wow John,
Great subject choice. Styrene timber result is beautifully executed (nice SBS as well). The gum leaves have spot on colour, with nice mottled variety of greens, browns and oranges in the mix. I might be slightly partial to the subject as an Aussie, but the excellent modelling result is a pleasure to view.
Cheers,
Dan
Quote from: danpickard on June 03, 2015, 07:19:08 PM
The gum leaves have spot on colour, with nice mottled variety of greens, browns and oranges in the mix. I might be slightly partial to the subject as an Aussie, but the excellent modelling result is a pleasure to view.
I see enough of them here in San Diego too, to really appreciate the accuracy of his model! Over here we call them "eucalyptus" trees.
BTW, they were first introduced to southern California by the Southern Pacific RR, in hopes that they would provide a good source of ties that would grow well in our dry climate. Apparently they didn't work very well for ties.
Thanks folks for your feedback. ;D
Sorry for my misunderstanding Volker, actually I didn't really like the drybrushing in that instance and went over it for the next shot with some more washes to subdue it. In armour modelling circles, dry brushing is often considered a superseded technique and I rarely use it, but I thought it might lighten and highlight the really sun bleached areas. Thanks for your comment I think you confirmed what I already felt. ;)
Hi Russ, when I used Mr Cement S (which is usually my favourite) it was fragile and joints broke too easily. Tamiya Extra Thin has been much better; it dries significantly slower (normally a drawback) but seems to really melt and weld that joint.
Theres no twigs this fine or in scale round here. You can buy them but in my humble opinion this looks better, and is quick enough to do. The trouble is they don't look like Gum tree branches, so they will be generic leafless or dead plants round the house, I will have a go at gum branches though. Because it's fun ;D
I suspect aussies call them Gum rather than Eucalyptus because it's a shorter word, easier to say, spell and remember... :D
Cheers
John
Excellent! :o Fantastic ::) ::) Thanks for the inspiration I love it It helps me with my current project,
thanks for sharing!
MPH
Excellent styrene work! Thanks for sharing.
Nice SBS John. Thanks.
Thanks for the feedback, cheers!
I had a few ideas about using sprue to make gum branches, which I decided to play with. One thing lead to another, now I have a (fairly thin sick looking) tree. Which I guess is in keeping with the theme of an abandoned and somewhat spooky house and yard.
The leaves were cut from 0.13mm Styrene sheet (.005"), and glued to stretched sprue.
The stems were bent and glued to branches.
Here's a small branch. Repeat another 20 or 30 times.... :-\ :-\
The branches were made from sprue, heated, bent and or stretched.
Put it together.
I've started painting the gum tree, here it is with one of the walls and leaf litter as props for the photo. I can't really go much further with it until the rest of the scene is more advanced.
Cheers
John
Satisfactory. -- Russ
Wow, really nice!
not a bad looking ghost gum at all. Are you going to add some eucalyptus oil for some scale smell?
Thanks guys. NK that would be nice, so far it just smells of lacquer paint! :D
Here's another shot of the gum with the rusty Ford I intend to park underneath. With fallen branches and leaves made using the same techniques outlined before.
Here is progress so far on the side wall of the cottage. The peeling paint has been done using the hairspray technique, which entails spraying hairspray from the can followed by Tamiya flat white. When dry the paint is wetted and can be removed in chips and peels, using a paint brush, toothpick or various other tools.
You can clearly see how inspired I am by Chuck's amazing work, though I used a different technique. And there aren't actually loose flakes, something I can live with at this scale.
Cheers
John
Good looking paint. Er ah...well you know what I mean.
The car adds a nice contrast too.
No you need some cobwebs ;)
Marty
That is shaping up into a very adequate diorama. The car doesn't hurt it. -- Russ
John, That's a neat car, by gum!
Great job on the peeled paint!
Lovely stuff - loads of atmosphere
Barney
The results continue to provide entertainment and inspiration John. I saw some one of your posts of FB the other day where some roofing iron was starting to come into the scene...looking forward to seeing and hearing a bit more about your processes regarding this step when you get around to it here on the forum.
Cheers,
Dan
Many thanks for your comments. I have started painting the roofing, you can see the progress below. I haven't organised a decent SBS yet because they're not finished, I'd like the steps to be together. The roofing is not attached yet either, as they appear. Thanks for following!
Another image.
Acceptable. -- Russ
Nice!
I really like the arched roof over the porch.
Do you have wasps nests on the bottom of the world? Around here a building that looked like yours would be held together by them.
Thanks for your comments, yes a few wasps rounds these parts. But termites would be devouring this if they could, they're a real menace here.
Here is a SBS for the painting of the roofing.
First I cleaned the aluminium with soap, warm water and a paint brush. When dry I primed with Mr Surfacer Primer in a rattle can. The primer was built up gradually in thin coats, and with the final coats I sprayed from a distance of 60cm (2 feet) or more in short bursts. The purpose was to create texture, as large droplets of almost dry paint fell on the surface. So the paint droplets are not inclined to level out.
This was followed with Tamiya Hull Red sprayed from my airbrush, then a wash or two of Vallejo acrylic orange. This was sealed up with a spray coat of Testors Dullcote.
Next step: All colours used in the next steps were mixed from Tamiya paints by eye. They are thinned with Tamiya Lacquer thinner and airbrushed. A dirty orange.
Light grey.
Medium grey, just a thin layer.
Then some of the paint was worn away using a brush damp with Windex mixed with water, about 50/50 by ratio. Windex is a glass and household cleaner available here in Australia and the US, but hard to get in Europe I believe.
The last effect uses hairspray and windex to make a speckled patina. I start by sealing the work with a Dullcote spray. A quick, light spray of hairspray is next, just a quick pass to leave a thin layer. Tamiya paint is then sprayed on, a thin coat of light orange or buff that is translucent. Finally I hit the work with a spray of diluted Windex from a pump action spray bottle. The windex is diluted 1 part windex to 9 parts water. Almost immediately, the windex will start to disolve the hairspray so within a second or two I douse the work in running water to stop the action. What you should get is a mottled effect that is permanent once dry.
Stumps with made, here the base is ready for some ground work.
Thanks to Chuck for his tip, about using Jute Thread for grass. Here is my progress so far.
Lastly here some links to larger images, to give a better overall impression.
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1114.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fk536%2Fjtolchet%2FMiners%2520Cottage%2FIMG_1226-03_zps8oigmirr.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=40cc345dea45c8c1286e67c25882b41a718fdd6a) (http://s1114.photobucket.com/user/jtolchet/media/Miners%20Cottage/IMG_1226-03_zps8oigmirr.jpg.html)
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1114.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fk536%2Fjtolchet%2FMiners%2520Cottage%2FIMG_1265-02_zpsweplfik0.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=24fb46f79595dd47439c55d569dd950fc64896f8) (http://s1114.photobucket.com/user/jtolchet/media/Miners%20Cottage/IMG_1265-02_zpsweplfik0.jpg.html)
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1114.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fk536%2Fjtolchet%2FMiners%2520Cottage%2FIMG_1288-02_zpsollonp8x.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=f64a38024ca5afb3011e08c3d233e70aa9bd6517) (http://s1114.photobucket.com/user/jtolchet/media/Miners%20Cottage/IMG_1288-02_zpsollonp8x.jpg.html)
John, Thanks for the S-B-S on the corrugated roofing. The cottage looks really good all around.
Wow, that really looks great! I especially like the "rust showing through old paint" effect on the corrugated metal.
Excellent tutorial and you ain't gonna get much criticism of either the modeling or the finish. The work continues to be acceptable. -- Russ
One thing that's really interesting about that cottage, is the fact that they went to all the trouble of making a fancy, arched roof over the porch, of what is an otherwise cheap, bare-bones kind of structure. I've seen that sort of thing on miner's cabins here sometimes too -- not the exact thing, but just something where the cabin's owner/builder put in extra effort to add one "fancy" feature.
John,
that's great. I love the started "lacquering" on the boot panel and the dry leaves on the car. And the tree and dry bush. I think you got the best out of representing a tree in that scale so far ... I would be happy to see some pictures taken ouside in natural light. In your last pic it looks like the cabin doesn't have a rear wall (I know the model doesn't have one); maybe some black cardboard in the cabin's background for taking the picture fixes that.
That's some fine modeling!
Cheers,
Volker
John, Beautiful scene ;D The 40 ford deluxe coupe really fit's and thanks for the s-b-s on the build.
Looks fantastic. Great tutorial!!!! Allan
Many thanks for your comments 8)
Hi Volker, in that last image I added in the light in the window using an image editor. It was supposed to represent reflection in the glass of the sky behind the viewer. I didn't really pull it off, ah well!
It's very beautiful and realist.
Thanks Sami :)
Here is a SBS to wrap up this project for now. As you probably know this is Chuck Doans technique for making miniature grass, my thanks to him. It's Jute Twine, often used for macramé and crafts. I cut lengths and separated the strands, which as you can see are very wavy. So each strand was put under hot water, before I pinched the strand and ran my fingers along it to straighten and squeeze out the water. It was then left to dry.
The strands were cut into tufts, tapered at one end.
Meanwhile the ground was made from a wet paste. I used a fine dusty sand that I found in the driveway, I think it's the fines from the local quarry. It was sieved through flyscreen mesh. The following ingredients were mixed together:
2 parts of the sieved sand.
2 parts talcum powder.
1 part PVA Glue.
Just under 1 part water.
All things that were easy to obtain.
The ground paste in place, a small area at a time.
Each tuft of grass was picked up with tweezers and dipped in a small amount of PVA glue. It's then placed in the paste; move it around to settle the paste around it.
After the grass is placed but before the paste dries I used a shaker to sprinkle an extra fine mix of the seived sand and talcum powder over it. Leave it to dry 12 hours then blow away the excess, and tease out the tufts.
I wasn't happy with the colour of the grass so I added some dirty grey and brown colour to it. This was a wash made from artists Gouache watered down with soupy water. If it's too strong, the paint can be removed with a damp cotton swab; Gouache remains water soluble after drying.
Leaves and branches were attached to the diorama using small amounts of Acrylic Matt Varnish.
I've finished working on it for now, I think at some time in the future I will add the remains of old gutters and drain pipes. Here is another photo taken outside in the fierce North Queensland sun.
Image taken inside.
"
"
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Here are some linked images, larger than the others.
http://s1114.photobucket.com/user/jtolchet/media/Miners%20Cottage%20Scale%201%20in%2024/IMG_1682-01_zpsn5xiflep.jpg.html
http://s1114.photobucket.com/user/jtolchet/media/Miners%20Cottage%20Scale%201%20in%2024/a%20IMG_1699-01_zps0w1s5kwy.jpg.html
Thanks for looking, cheers. John
A truly beautiful and remarkable job.
Your previous links don't work. According to my software the Photobucket link is no good (the reason I continue to ask everyone to post images, not links). If you linked the most recent photos in the same way the entire thread will become useless soon. I would hate for that to happen.
If enough of you ignore my request this forum could become useless and possibly someday disappear.
Russ
Thanks Russ.
Sorry mate, but I certainly haven't ignored you. If you go back through the topic you'll see all relevant images are uploaded, as you requested. It takes a little work to get them small enough to do this and yet showing enough detail and context, not an easy task. That's why I also like to include linked images that are bigger, and not constrained by that upload size limit. It may be that the links fail but all smaller images should remain making the topic usable.
Cheers, John.
I know what a pain it is to size and post photos here, believe me. I also know links often result in failure after a few months. Many modelers on this forum do superb work and everyone suffers when images disappear.
We active participants tend to keep moving forward but thousands (I'm told) visit the forum and don't necessarily head for the newest thread. I know how annoyed and frustrated they must feel because I myself have gone back to old threads and found the photos gone.
Guys, I'm not trying to be a nag. I simply want to preserve your work but I can't do it alone.
Russ
Sorry Russ, let me restate this:
ALL relevant images are uploaded in this thread. Go back and check. The linked images are only some extra 'finished work' images, unnecessary for the flow of the project and basically irrelevant.
I've been doing this for some time, that is: I've been uploading ALL relevant images to the forum, in the threads I create. I'm probably one of the few members here who does. So why am I getting reamed out about it?
John, I find your diorama great and it is a real asset in Finescalerr Model.
But also good to know that remain with us these outstanding images.
Thank you Helmut.
I should not have lost my cool about this, my apologies to you Russ and all who are reading this. I should not have linked any images, be they incidental or not. I know the frustration that comes when you find the all important photo missing.
Thanks and cheers, John.
John, Thanks for another very handy Step-by-Step on the jute weeds and "dirt". Glad the photos are here on the forum for future reference.
John; Your builds are wonderful. I do so much learning from them as well as just enjoying them. Thank you for sharing.....Allan
Quote from: JohnTolcher on February 29, 2016, 09:16:05 AM
Here is another photo taken outside in the fierce North Queensland sun.
That's outstanding! How did you apply the gouache washes? Each straw/tuft individually by brush? I have to try this method. Looking at my own attempts the fibre's appearance never is convincing.
Thanks for posting those pictures!
Cheers,
Volker
Quote from: Hydrostat on March 01, 2016, 01:23:08 PM
Quote from: JohnTolcher on February 29, 2016, 09:16:05 AM
Here is another photo taken outside in the fierce North Queensland sun.
That's outstanding! How did you apply the gouache washes? Each straw/tuft individually by brush? I have to try this method. Looking at my own attempts the fibre's appearance never is convincing.
Thanks for posting those pictures!
Cheers,
Volker
Thanks for your comments guys. Volker I found mixing the Gouache with soapy water helped it flow. I used both paint brush and airbrush to add the gouache, using a very weak wash to build up the colour gradually. Sometimes I painted individual tufts, sometimes I airbrused in larger areas, trying to get the balance between natural variation and consistency. Note that the dry paint appears different to wet paint. So it's best to leave the work to dry before assessing and continuing.
Cheers
John
Beautiful work John. Is there any ratio for the Gouache to soapy water?
Jerry
Quote from: TRAINS1941 on March 02, 2016, 12:11:20 PM
Beautiful work John. Is there any ratio for the Gouache to soapy water?
Jerry
Thanks Jerry, no I couldn't say. It's not very scientific, just a matter of what looks right. But not much colour is needed, the jute is already a straw colour like grass. Also only a very small amount of dishsoap was added to the water, just a squirt in half a glass of water I guess.
Cheers
John
Hi john I just spent the time to go through you whole thread, thanks for all the SBS they are really very helpful modeling trees is not something I would want to tackle and your work on the Eucalyptus is outstanding. as is the rest of the model.
Michael