Dunbrough and Gripenhem WIP log

wanna993 wrote:

This thread is so full of awesomeness. Your project is so phenomenal.

What will you do with it when you're done?

Gosh, I have no idea. It'll live at my house, at least for a while. I can't imagine parting with it...

So the village is about 97.5% finished. I could honestly finish it off today, but I'm lacking some supplies. Namely, I want some more foliage to fill out the trees, and a splitter adapter so I can add one more string of lights. The hobby store is about 25 miles away though, and I'm not making that trip. It is however, just 3 miles from work. So tomorrow, I'll pick up the splitter from work, and head to the hobby shop after.

Other than that, the village is complete. I'll paint as many townsfolk as I can in the next two weeks, but the village already has 55 people, about 25 pigs, a dozen sheep, a few cows and horses, if I didn't add any others it would be fine.

I've also got a cooling fan coming on Tuesday to install into the side of the prominence to keep the power supplies to the lights cool, and that's that. Terrifying to be done, but ready to get rolling on Grippenheim.

There are lights? How does that look?

How well does the table travel? Have you thourht about exhibiting it at conventions or a museum?

Sutch a WONDERFUL town! Looks like a good place both for a stroll AND for an horror movie setting! I can easily see a version of Jack the Ripper prey upon unsuspecting civilians from under those lovely trees!

Lovely work, very, very well done!

It is a BEAUTIFUL, IDYLLIC town; the "idyllic" part would, as Soulblight, pointed out make it perfect for a horror setting. However it's used it is WONDERFULLY WELL DONE!

I got a hold of a bunch of these mini garland lights from Michael's, in the floral department. I like these because each bulb is on it's own string, and is quite small, maybe an 8th of an inch across.

I decided a few years ago that I wanted to light these up, back when I built the church. I've been cutting a hole in the base of the buildings to house the wires.

The thing that makes the small bulbs on their own wires good, is that I can get some small beads over top of the bulbs, to act as sconces and lanterns.

This is never going to light up the room like a lamp, but it works as a little bit of an added detail nice enough.

Hahahah (that's me laughing out of pure pleasure)!! That's brilliant!! Love this stuff! The last picture looks amazing. More, please!!!

Joao

There definitely is something about lighting that adds an aura of romance to buildings. The effect when the only light is that coming from the buildings must be SPECTACULAR.

Excellent! Thanks for the photos.

*Stands up an appaludes* Bravo!! BRAVOO!!!

Deafnala hits the nail with his comment; Rommantic is the word!

The last picture gets me all imagining;

"As the sun sets over the little town of Cosywille, Ashley Williams and his girlfriend Linda are strolling down the road.
Leaf in the colors of Autumn lies everywhere and music are to be heard from the good ol´Inn nearby. All in all its an perfect evening for the cute couple. Nothing can disturb the rommantic setting and Ash is getting ready for his plan to ask Linda to become his wife. Its finally time!
As they passed an minor alley 3 pigs, wild in panic, rushes past them, screaming and grunting!

Curious over what had scared the pigs Ash leaves his girlfriend and looks into the alley. Shadows, dark, shadows are slowly moving closing him and extinguishing the soft lamps one by one.
Suddenly fearing for his life Ash takes several steps backwards only to find that his love, Linda is missing. Around him to shadows seems to getting darker and more intimating by the second and Ash starts to run!

Cosywille wont be the same again...

wow that makes this already outstanding project shine even more.

Thanks everybody!

Did I show the sheep yet?

theomar pius wrote:

Did I show the sheep yet?

I think this may be their Grand Debut. The Woolly Ones look GREAT & add to the Bucolic Idyll...a LOVELY photo of an INSPIRING creation. VERY WELL DONE!

I'd seen them a while ago (probably in your blog). I have the some sheep from Gripping Beast. Lovely models, full of character.

Joao

Theomar my man

Officially You become my idol,a god,a mighty paragon,very essential soul I wish to admire with all my strength and heart!!!!

Honestly I can not imagine that I could EVER become as good as You are in making scenery for table top games.
No sir,it could not happen in a million,no ,eon of time.
This thread blew me away ! Completely !
The lights coming from houses,a water on the street, a fence,stonewall,signs on buildings,the TREES,all are nothing but wonderful !
Thank You sir,I have now a wind in my sails to make some terrain/scenery myself with nothing but the hope to create a decent building or two,in a spirit not to be ashamed by them .
As You can see (reed) my English is not good at all,but I hope that You can feel my joy seeing Your work so inspirational that I will now dream a dream about having something beautiful like Your village.

SALUTE with all my heart

Oh my!
Thanks for the kind words, certainly they will put wind in my sails!

It's all just a matter of patience and goals I guess.

I'm starting my new village, Grippenheim, Aka Gryphon Home. Grippenheim is a free city, founded by fur trappers on this island in the eastern frontier, rather than return to their home kingdoms taxes. They named the island Gryphon Home, the griffon being a symbol of freedom in their homeland.

A few months back I built this little mockup, to get an idea on construction and how it might look. April 1st I began new construction. First step is building a base. When I built Dunbrough, I built lots of buildings, and then made a base for them to set on. That's not how the world works though, so this time I'll be building the environment, and adding the buildings and city to it.

The base is a foamcore base, so I started by cutting a bunch of strips and making some shallow foamcore boxes. After they dried, I glued them all together to make a large platform, cat approved. I also added abunch of foam supports, like a house frame, in the boxes, but I forgot to take a picture of it. The glue joins are kinda weak, but it will all hold together quite well once I start building the island on it.

Off to a good start!

It looks like Grippenheim is off to a great start. Like the island city concept a lot.
Also like the idea of making the island first and then adding the structures.

You nailed this one, man!

If I got the idea right, you're first making the natural features and only adding human structures afterwards? It makes absolute sense.

I wonder, though, if it will make it more complicated for you to then create the buildings exactly the way you want it, or if you won't mind adapting to the natural features during the construction phase.

Either way, this is indeed an amazing project! So much to explore and to talk about! Thanks for sharing again!

Joao

Nicee! I'll be watching this closely.

Great, another project i cant wait to see coming along! Is this island going to be connected to your other town?

The mock up is a great idea to see what you are planning and starting with nature is so realistic that it makes me wonder why I havent thought of that!

Ok so I don't get it. what is the foamcore a base for? The island? The table in general? Having a hard time relating the mockup to the 'base'. The 'base' is square, the island isn't. The table looks like a rectangle, the 'base' is narrower in the middle...

Yeah, the foamcore base is essentially the table. The hourglass shape will become a rectangle, I just haven't filled in those blocks yet. The island will build right onto the foamcore base.

I started a new job this week, so I haven't had much time for hobby. Still, here is what got accomplished this past week.

I started by sketching a rough outline of the island on to the base, to give me a good idea of scale and to start planning. I then foamed the very base of the island. Since the structure will be quite large, I'll be making it hollow, staggering it brick style for strength.

I figure I'll need to do the prow of the island first, since it will be a partly man made watchtower structure. This will give me an idea on the height to build the rest of the island to.

I'm starting with a cardboard tube, and the seldom used technique of laminating the thing in foam. Basically I'm cutting many very thin strips of foam, and gluing them to the tube and structure. Once in place, I can carve the foam normally.

Finally, I want this city to be a bit more fantasy, so I'm making a fairly unreal base for the tower, using an old confrontation titan pillar. The watchtower part will sit atop the pillar, and the rock of the island will form around the carved wall.