The City of Dunbrough

Thanks a lot for the useful tips and encouragement!

I have been downloading lots of pictures from medieval houses - especially Tudors' - for inspiration, and started building a couple of houses. They're very simple projects for the time being, as I still struggle with deciding exactly how I want the houses to look like.

I have done a few sketches, though, just to give myself a rough visual idea of how they can look like. But I agree with you, things can change as we go along - I started building a shed and now it's going to be a fishmonger's shop.

Joao

The Pumpkin Cottage was an attempt at speed building, I wanted to see how quickly I could put one of these houses together. As a result, it's smaller and less complicated than a lot of other buildings I has done. The pumpkin patch is from Faller model railroad, and the little garden is just corrugated cardboard, a simple and cheap way to add detail. THis was the first time I had made a stone wall of individual foam blocks, and one of the first clay and wire trees I've made. All in all, it took a little over two weeks of free time, too much, it burned me out, and I've never done that again, lol.

Love that Pumpkin Cottage (my girlfriend's favourite too - she's into gardening).

Although you say that the house is smaller than the others, it still looks pretty big. It looks like it would accommodate several families.

By the way, I visited your blog (tumblr) for the first time, it has loads of cool pictures and also WIP of some of your houses - awesome stuff!

Joao

VERY WELL DONE! I've been developing a fondness for Pumpkins lately...not as pastoral as yours, but Pumpkins nonetheless.

Yeah, I'm not sure why, but I make my stuff really too big for realism, but it's good for what I do because, in my eye at least, small would look, small. Could just be that all old houses in America are freakin huge.

I don't get the impression that you use your houses for games, but I have found that bigger than life is a must for skirmish game scenery that is going to be gamed in/over. I build a lot of scale models for work and true scale is too small for 28-32mm models to look 'right'.

I think you're both right. I'm currently building a realistically sized house and it looks way too small. I will probably go for bigger houses in the future and see how they look like in the end.

Joao

Theomar, to echo most people here, LOVE your work!

I have a pressing question with regard to some of your techniques if you'd be kind enough to share your mastery?

Your gatehouse (which I think is totally awesome, dont you dare replace it! Unless you feel like giving that one away... in which case *wave*) As far as I can see is build from standard foamy, how did you go about doing such amazing brickwork on them?

Arahain wrote:

Theomar, to echo most people here, LOVE your work!

I have a pressing question with regard to some of your techniques if you'd be kind enough to share your mastery?

Your gatehouse (which I think is totally awesome, dont you dare replace it! Unless you feel like giving that one away... in which case *wave*) As far as I can see is build from standard foamy, how did you go about doing such amazing brickwork on them?

That's a tough question, cuz I used three different brick types on that one!
There is a GW tower, that's obviously injection plastic. I also used plastruct styrene, I talked about that earlier. The carved foam is what I assume you are talking about. First you have to have the right foam, which as I understand, is hard to come by in warm climates. I use either DOW or Owens Corning high density foam insulation. I use a very sharp xacto to cut the brickwork, and then trace over those cuts with a dull pencil to open them up. Use a jagged rock to press detail into the foam. Practice makes perfect, you should give it a try.

Ahh neat! I picked up some insulation foam from a skip the other day (Don't worry, I did ask!) so I shall be trying my hand at that, thanks a lot man. Keep the pictures coming!

The Office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. This is the tax collectors house, with guard barracks upstairs. I built it as a triangle shaped building, based on a round tower.

FANTASTIC LOOKING! All the interesting angles to the Beasty make it for moi. As always VERY WELL DONE!

Excellent paintjob, basing, vegetation and little props (the shield and lamp, for example)!

The variation of dimensions and shapes makes this one very interesting indeed. And it looks very imponent too. The kind of place you don't want to go to in case you're in trouble with the Law!

I must build something similar, to break down from my square shaped houses...

Joao

Great, the mini that stands in the doorway looks like he´s alive, just came out to get some fresh air, love it!

A few city shots this week. The bases are made so that they can be rearranged around the table in different configurations, and still fit together well.

The city wall.


The Gate.


The main street.



Behind the scenes.

Just awesome!

Fantastic stuff! It's great to see these shots! Really feels like you're "there".

Well done with the bases too. They do blend in very well.

The town is begging to get crowded with lots of civilians now!

Joao

When I showed your work on my club's forum (hope you don't mind) they couldn't believe it was home made and not something you bought. I still can't believe you can make stuff this good! that's how perfect it all looks!

Never was Fantasy SO REALISTIC. If it wasn't for the edge of the board the first photo could have past for an photo of an actual town. EXCELLENT WORK!

Simply amazing. Makes me want to try my hand at scenery building!

Spectre76 wrote:

Simply amazing. Makes me want to try my hand at scenery building!

Do it! It's fun!

Going over the supplies I have on hand:
Cardboard, Exacto Knife set, Hot Glue Gun, Sand, and will likely buy some big bags of popsicle sticks tomorrow. Any other items I might need?

You should be very OK with those ingredients, Spectre76. What about foam for the stonework?

I bought some sheets of Depron (similar to Selitron) to do stoned walls (following this remarkable tutorial: http://gidian-gelaende.de/Material_HP/Wolfgang/Tut_Vampirburg/album/index.html ).

The only problem is that I don't think I can reproduce the same kind of effect that Theomar creates with the stone blocks sticking out. I might need to get pink foam for that... Or using FIMO.

Either way, it's great to see people following this thread and getting inspiration to start making their own terrain.

Joao

JoaoS wrote:

Either way, it's great to see people following this thread and getting inspiration to start making their own terrain.

Really? Looking at Theomar's stuff just makes me want to set fire to mine and never do any modelling ever again

monkeylite wrote:

JoaoS wrote:

Either way, it's great to see people following this thread and getting inspiration to start making their own terrain.

Really? Looking at Theomar's stuff just makes me want to set fire to mine and never do any modelling ever again

You're very right; I started looking at my bought houses from several manufacturers and thought: I don't want to have anymore...

Problem is, how on earth can I start building something with more quality than what official companies make - let alone getting anywhere near what Theomar makes!

Joao