Give a girl a photobucket account and she goes wild!

Having had a nice trip around the Tale of Painters website earlier this year (and you should too, great Hobbit painting tutorials!) I found this dark age village that I really wanted to try my hand at making.
http://taleofpainters.blogspot.ca/2015/07/tutorial-making-of-fantasymedieval.html#more

When the bottom fell out of the British Pound, I leapt on the chance to place an order with Warbases. When the product arrived, I quickly assembled the enclosed models...and discovered that people must've been shorter in the dark ages. I blame GW scale creep. The buildings were probably intended for 25mm, not 28mm. I didn't like the idea that my characters would have to stoop to get in the wonderful laser-cut doors, so I tuned to my American friends, and Hirst Arts cobblestones to the rescue!

http://s1174.photobucket.com/user/jschwengler/media/picture000_zps7qqqi2ip.jpg.html?o=8

Silly me, I forgot to add a mini for scale, but hopefully the background will give you an idea of the finished size. The squares are 1". The door is 25mm wide and 40mm tall. I used balsa wood and stuck them on the warbases frames, which although cheap (what I wanted!) are not nearly as detailed as their competitor, 4ground. The boards are 0.5 cm thick. I used 2-3 mm balsa sheet. Yes, that is teddy fur on the roof. 1.5 m x 0.2m for $10.50 CAD at the fabric store makes a much better purchase than what Wal-Mart has, and you can do a whole city with that much fabric! Hirst Arts, being American, still uses inches, and the blocks are 1/2" tall.

http://s1174.photobucket.com/user/jschwengler/media/picture002_zpscyrryev3.jpg.html?o=1

Here you can see just how sturdy and nicely warbases fit together. This one also shows the backs of the buildings nicely. They are sitting on warbases scenic bases. They are ok without a MDF base, but I hope to add a woodpile in the back and some nice sand and static grass to make a nice display for my glass case. Just need to paint them!

Edit: stupid URL tags. Even the ark hit rough water from time to time, I guess.

_________________
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

Here we have an Edoras house. It's a little more opulent than the previous ones. It was also built first, and is the reason the peasant houses are "jacked up" on blocks. Plus they look more Rohan with the stone.

http://s1174.photobucket.com/user/jschwengler/media/picture020_zps0eaamjdq.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5

http://s1174.photobucket.com/user/jschwengler/media/picture019_zpsxuukwxko.jpg.html?sort=3&o=6

This model was built using instructions from the Two Towers journey book, and I think the measurements are there. I decided to make it a nice porch out of Hirst Arts blocks. I rue the day I painted it black, however. I have some really nice plaster dyes from Woodland Scenics I want to try, but you need raw white plaster. Basically, you just wash it all over the whole thing. I tried this with some rock faces and the result was pretty good. I plan on doing a how to/review of these with a rocky outcropping soon. It's hard to tell because of the black paint, but there are steps there. The tiles that form the floor are sitting on top of a flattened cracker box. The scraps created when I cut the roof angles are used to make braces to keep the infernal thing straight. (I have a problem with straight.)

http://s1174.photobucket.com/user/jschwengler/media/picture018_zpsuagu1sma.jpg.html?sort=3&o=7

The measurements on the wood are the same as the above houses. Its form and base are both 1/4" foamcore, which has the advantage of being able to create recessed windows and doors. The doors are cut bigger than the openings and glued over the back, you know, in case anyone was wondering. The windows are just shoved in the holes. I cleverly included a mini for sizing this time, although he is a WoMT. (He was available for conscription at the time.)

I haven't decided whether I plan on making the roof open on this one or not. It would be nice to have one to play in, but it's probably easier with this particular roof construction just to glue it on there. I guess I could build some braces a la warbases houses. We'll see.

Edit: I tried the image tags. They didn't work.

_________________
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

Now I have to build my Rohan buildings!

Use the "direct" photoshop link, and stick it between the [ img ] tags





Looks a great start, I think the stone underneath is a good addition. Look forward to seeing the finished result!

_________________
WIP thread: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=25860

They look fantastic! I've recentley come back to the game after a LONG, LONG time and I've set about picking up some of the BGiME publications to start putting some cheap and cheerful terrain on the ground, one of those projects will be a Rohan house.. They don't look anywhere near that good. Cracking work mate!