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[James B]

3 hours ago, Badder said:

As for the tiles... well... I've tried cutting up corrugated cardboard and plasticard and haven't yet had any suitable results. I'm going to have to cut up several hundreds of the beggars.....

 

 

Just an idea, but have you tried that air dry clay stuff? Looking at what you're doing with the rafters, I thought you're basically building a real house just about. Perhaps rolling out clay thin enough, then while still wet, run a blade through it using a metal ruler and you'll be able to knock out lots of almost exactly matching tiles very quickly. In my mind, the nice thing about this will be the minor inconsistencies it should introduce.  Could be worth a test?  Keep up the great work @Badder, and I'll go back to my lurking corner and continue to enjoy watching your dios take form.  As always, thanks for sharing.

[Badder]

3 hours ago, James B said:

Just an idea, but have you tried that air dry clay stuff? Looking at what you're doing with the rafters, I thought you're basically building a real house just about. Perhaps rolling out clay thin enough, then while still wet, run a blade through it using a metal ruler and you'll be able to knock out lots of almost exactly matching tiles very quickly. In my mind, the nice thing about this will be the minor inconsistencies it should introduce.  Could be worth a test?  Keep up the great work @Badder, and I'll go back to my lurking corner and continue to enjoy watching your dios take form.  As always, thanks for sharing.

Hi James,

Thanks for popping out from behind the curtains to comment!

You are right, I am pretty much building it as true to life as is feasible.

Stupidly, I hadn't thought about clay. I did think about casting them in plaster. I have a mould of a tiled roof from my other ongoig diorama. The problem with that though is that the tiles are obviously already overlapping, so if I were to cut the roof up the tiles would be too short and shorter still when re-overlapped.

 

For the moment I have returned to cutting up plastic - TBH they are plastic blood sugar testing strips for my diabetes! I can get 3 tiles from each strip, but can only use those that have already been used to sample my blood, so I can't make a huge number of tiles per day. Obviously, I wash them first! At the moment I'm sticking a line of tiles to a paper backing and cutting them out. I've made several lines and dry-fitted them to the rafters and they look okay. I will need many more lines for testing purposes though, to see how they work with roof edges, gaps, holes, spacings etc.

If it all works, I will I have to give the tiles a stone-like texture as they wouldn't have had slate tiles in the Ardennes. I'll be treating them with grit paints or similar. If it all looks okay I will probably settle for this method. If it doesn't look okay I will definitely look at the air-drying clay, so thanks for bringing it to my attention!

 

Rearguards,

Badder

Edited July 25, 2018 by Badder

[Badder]

More lathes went on the roof before I had another go at the tiles.
The tiles. I've gone ahead with the idea to use used blood sugar testing strips. They are plastic with a metallic backing, possibly brass. I don't know why I'm using them instead of plasticard or cardboard TBH.  I certainly won't have eough to complete the entire roof!

 

Anyway, here's the stage I'm at.

 

I use CA to stick the strips to lined paper, then cut across the strips to form lines of tiles. The tiles aren't actually stuck to each other so the lines are bendable and have some lateral flex as well. This makes postioning them easier.  Clearly I will have to paint the tiles to hide the brass, but I thought I'd give some a going over with acrylic ink, just to see what effect that would have. Quite nice, I think. But of no use here - unless a coat of matt varnish makes a big difference.

 

 

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

Edited July 30, 2018 by Badder

[Graeme H]

On ‎26‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 09:30, Badder said:

For the moment I have returned to cutting up plastic - TBH they are plastic blood sugar testing strips for my diabetes! I can get 3 tiles from each strip, but can only use those that have already been used to sample my blood, so I can't make a huge number of tiles per day.

Rearguards,

Badder

As modellers we are always on the lookout for useful stuff.

Mine are just a white plastic, which I have been keeping, and more importantly the needles from the Insulin makes great tubes, need to work out a clean way to cut them better though.

 

Love how the roof is coming together

[Badder]

1 hour ago, Graeme H said:

As modellers we are always on the lookout for useful stuff.

Mine are just a white plastic, which I have been keeping, and more importantly the needles from the Insulin makes great tubes, need to work out a clean way to cut them better though.

 

Love how the roof is coming together

Hi Graeme,

Thanks. So far, so good with the roof. That may all change when I try to model the collapsed bits!

 

I switched to a new meter a couple of weeks ago, so now I'm using white testing strips as well. They're still laminated, but the metallic bit is inside and too hard to get to. So when I've used up the last of my old strips I'll have no more 'free brass'!

I've not found a use for my needles yet... They're about the right scale for bored-out rifle barrels I suppose, but I don't fancy trying to cut them to length or handle them in any way whatsoever TBH! If I found out a way to refil my insulin cartridges the I could fill them with ink and reuse the needles to inject ink into very precise points like the irises and pupils of eyeballs!

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

[Badder]

Here I've dry fitted the tile 'mat' to the roof, checking it for shape. I gave the tiles a going over with neat Red Earth acrylic ink followed by some Antelope Brown ink washes. Again this was an experiment. This has made a fairly good terracotta effect, but I intend to make the tiles look more like natural stone.....

 

I added some more lines of tiles to the mat, gave them a wash with Olive Green acrylic ink, dusted them with plaster of Paris powder and then dabbed over with a brush wetted with dilute Olive Green. The powder added texture and lightened the Olive Green to a 'Lichen' colour which looks just right for old roof tiles.

 

 

 

 

I will extend this mat a bit further, most definitely making a tidy edge along the gable, then will probably apply varnish to the whole and add some pin washes: green for moss growing under the overlaps, and very dark brown just to bring out some of the gaps between the tiles.

 

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Badder

[Vince1159]

What a fantastic job Badder.....

[Badder]

1 hour ago, Vince1159 said:

What a fantastic job Badder.....

Hi Vince,

LTNC, hope you are well?

The pale green doesn't really show up in the photos, but I suspect it'll show up better after some more washes. The good thing about these acrylic inks is that you can get away without using a varnish, but I WILL use a matt varnish just before the last of those washes as you can often get a nice 'bleed' into the matt.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

[Vince1159]

3 minutes ago, Badder said:

Hi Vince,

LTNC, hope you are well?

The pale green doesn't really show up in the photos, but I suspect it'll show up better after some more washes. The good thing about these acrylic inks is that you can get away without using a varnish, but I WILL use a matt varnish just before the last of those washes as you can often get a nice 'bleed' into the matt.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

I'm fine thanks mate,i've been following this with a lot of jealousy (i haven't got the patience for a start)...When are you going back to your ever evolving dio......

[Badder]

9 minutes ago, Vince1159 said:

I'm fine thanks mate,i've been following this with a lot of jealousy (i haven't got the patience for a start)...When are you going back to your ever evolving dio...... 

Jealousy? That's like being jealous of someone going down with chronic athlete's foot! This diorama making is never painless - well for me it isn't! I sometimes wish I could just knock out something small, quick and easy! That bloomin' @PlaStix has it down to a tee! Tea. 'T'. 😂

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[RichO]

Great Roof!

[Ozzy]

Those strips look effective, nice job Badder.

[Badder]

On 8/1/2018 at 6:13 PM, RichO said:

Great Roof!

 

3 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Those strips look effective, nice job Badder.

 

Thanks chaps. I will have to use something else for the other side of the roof, but hopefully it'll look the same!

I have something in mind.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[PlaStix]

Hi Badder. Hope you are keeping well. Well you seem to be creating a very believable roof. Lovely modelling. I'm always impressed by the way you manage to create realistic scenic details. I also like the way you experiment with materials. For some tile roofs, that I made over 30 years ago on an N Gauge model railway, I used some fine emery/wet’n’dry papers. One came in an orange colour which seemed to work quite well. The only photo I can find of it was on the internet and I set the permissions quite high with no right-clicking! But hopefully you'll get the impression of what it looks like:

I got through a lot of Stanley knife blades cutting them out!!

 

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited August 3, 2018 by PlaStix

[Badder]

9 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Badder. Hope you are keeping well. Well you seem to be creating a very believable roof. Lovely modelling. I'm always impressed by the way you manage to create realistic scenic details. I also like the way you experiment with materials. For some tile roofs, that I made over 30 years ago on an N Gauge model railway, I used some fine emery/wet’n’dry papers. One came in an orange colour which seemed to work quite well. The only photo I can find of it was on the internet and I set the permissions quite high with no right-clicking! But hopefully you'll get the impression of what it looks like:

I got through a lot of Stanley knife blades cutting them out!!

 

Kind regards,

Stix

Wow! That's fantastic. It's a shame it's the only photo you have because I'd love to see some close-ups. I assume it no longer exists? Or did you sell it to someone?

 

I've used fine-grade sandpapers before.... as plaster rendering on walls etc and found it highly effective. I cut it up with scissors though and only used a scalpel for the finer detailing. As for blunting the blades, well, I found that tilting the blades and rubbing them across sandpaper re-sharpened them! Funnily enough I had sandpaper close to hand and didn't find it a chore. :-)

I did have a mess around with sandpaper for this roof, painting a sheet with a terracotta acrylic ink and then applying a varnish and washes, but I couldnt get the effects I wanted because of the regularity of the sand grains. In the end I went for plastic as the smooth surfaces allowed for more randomisation.

Sandpapers and Emery cloths certainly have their uses though.

 

I am well thank you, getting my blood sugars down to acceptabe levels on a daily basis. I'm hoping to impress my consultant with my next blood test results!

I hope you and yours are well,

Rearguards,

Badder

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Superb work on the roof tiles with a very novel & effective materiel.....I've never been jealous of diabetes before! 

 

Seriously though, that is some lovely work.   

[Badder]

5 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Superb work on the roof tiles with a very novel & effective materiel.....I've never been jealous of diabetes before! 

 

Seriously though, that is some lovely work.   

It's a habit of mine to produce something that looks really good, then mess it up! And that's what's happened with the roof while I was adding more tiles. Unfortunately, the plaster and ink mix was a bit too rich and produced a much more vivid green. And whilst trying to tone it down with pure water and washes I ended up spreading the vivid green onto the older tiles.... and yes, ended up having to spread the wash further. Now the tiles are all blended in, but I've lost that patchy randomness and the underlying tile colour. Here's some pics of how the tiles look now:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not saying the tiles are ruined, or look awful, it's just that I preferred them as they were earlier. I will continue to try and return them to how they were using some carefully applied dark washes.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[Sgt.Squarehead]

There's an old saying with weathering.....When you think it needs just a touch more, leave it! 

 

I'm absolutely confident that you can restore the effect you are after and IMHO the heavy dust effect you now have is probably more appropriate for something on a battlefield. 

[Badder]

Hmmmmm... a quick wash with acrylic black ink has improved

1 hour ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

There's an old saying with weathering.....When you think it needs just a touch more, leave it! 

 

I'm absolutely confident that you can restore the effect you are after and IMHO the heavy dust effect you now have is probably more appropriate for something on a battlefield. 

Hi Sarge,

I had to blend the new tiles in and tried doing so without touching the others. As I said, I didn't get the 'lichen' colour right and so the patch of tiles looked odd and couldn't be left. Unfortunately this acrylic ink is too good! It can be spread around widely and easily if kept wet, but as soon as the water evaportates, or is blown with an airbrush, it dries very quickly and becomes semi-water-resistant. So, it can't really be re-activated with water. The plaster dust though, can be reactivated, and as that was 'dyed' with the ink, that incorrect green spread onto the other tiles... and had to be spread again, and again to get all the tiles looking the same. Now they all have the same kind of finish, as seen above, though not like the original finish. I have given the tiles a wash with what amounts to black ink, which has helped to bring out more variation, but I've lost that random lichen green 'spattering' type effect. I know I can get that back easily enough, but I'm just going to leave things as they are for a while:

1, because I have some tiles to add along the gable end and will run the risk of repeating the whole mistake again,

2. because it might turn out that given time I will come to prefer this second version.

3. I had always intended to give the roof a dusting with snow anyway, so it may be that all this worrying about the lichen is immaterial.

 

As for the old saying 'when you think it needs just a touch more, leave it!', in general, I'd agree, BUT now and then by going too far and having to 'repair' something, you sometimes come up with something better, or, even more pleasingly, something completely new.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

Edited August 4, 2018 by Badder

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Whichever way you proceed, I'll be following with interest. 

[Badder]

23 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Whichever way you proceed, I'll be following with interest. 

Hi Sarge,

I tidied up the gable end of the roof by adding some tiles and half-tiles, gave them the base coat and primary wash and then decided that I am going to try to revert the roof back to the previous weathering.  As I still have tiles to add to this section of roof, I thought it best just to go for a half-way house in respect of that weathering.

 

So, here's where I am at:

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

Edited August 5, 2018 by Badder

[PlaStix]

Hi Badder. Hope you are keeping well. It's good to hear you are getting your blood sugars down to acceptabe levels and hope you do impress the consultant!

Well despite what has happened to the tiles it still looks amazing to me. The variations are still evident if a little more muted - but who is to say that it's not more realistic? At the end of the day you are the one that has to be happy (or as happy as you can be) about it.

With regards my old model railway. It still belongs to me and it is still basically in tact. I "borrowed" some trees off it for another project about 20 years or so ago but since then I haven't looked at it. I'm pretty sure it's not going to be in a good state. I will see if I can find some more photos. It did appear in Raillway Modeller in January 2008 although the layout was actually completed in 1987.

Kind regards,

Stix

[Badder]

 

I finally got round to adding the second window on the upper floor. I thought it best to get this done before constructing the roof on this side of the building.

 

A few things to note in the photo above:

Firstly, the window surrounds were made from rectangles of plasticard, each 'brick' stuck on individually.

 

Secondly, I modelled the loose rubble/stone and mortar/clay which was used to pack the wall-cavities, to strengthen them and improve insulation. I believe this packing was called 'Piff and paff' or 'Pith and Paff' but I'm unsure as to the spelling. It seems to be of French origin.

 

Thirdly, the Superglue. This was purchased from a local, old-fashioned, hardware store and is far more economical than 'model-shop' CA, being only slightly dearer than the 20g bottles, yet containing 50g.

 

Below: Here's the other window. I decided to leave it at its full height rather than drop the lintel. Not only would it provide a lot of light to an otherwise dark and dingy room, but it could have been used as a point of entry for roof beams, rafters, floor boards and large pieces of furniture prior to the window frames and glazing finally being fitted.

 

Now I have a confession to make: I've destroyed the section of tiled roof. I decided that it wasn't quite good enough. I'd made it 'freestyle', adding bits, painting, adding more bits, painting again - and there were still more bits to add.  Most stupidly, I'd forgotten about the overhang that would have been present along the top of the gable wall.

No big issue, I'll just start again and make the whole thing correctly before painting.  The old section of roof will be broken up and will provide debris. I had said I was going to make a whole roof and THEN damage it, so I could lie and say this was all part of the plan!

 

Today then, I am going to re-build the roof framework.

 

TFL

Badder

 

Edited August 14, 2018 by Badder

[Badder]

Those who follow my builds will know that I have a habit of changing my mind about things quite a lot. So, it will come as no surprise to them to read that I am now going to put the 'T' section of wall here:

 

When it comes to joining different sections of wall, one is often faced with the problem of matching-up the stonework/brick patterns. When joining plaster casts and original plastic walls they sometimes match up easily. Often though, they don't. I don't like to butt walls up to each other leaving a very obvious join. Better to recarve the stonework and get it to interlink properly.

Using plaster of Paris is an option - skimming a layer over the join and recarving the stonework. Sometimes it's better to carve a groove into the join and then fill it with a deeper layer of plaster before carving.

Here though, I will have two large and heavy sections joined together so any recarving will have to take place 'on the model'. This isn't always easy. I faced the same problem while making my Ardennes Building, but there I came up with a solution, and that is to make the interlinking stonework 'off the model' and then glue this veneer over the actual join.

In the past I've used plasticard, but today I'm going to use a couple of these:

 

These plant labels were picked up for free at a Garden centre. Just ask the staff ! They (the labels - not the staff) are made from card with a plastic laminate coating on the face. The card side is best for CA'ing to the model. The laminate side also glues down sufficiently TBH, but does leave the option of peeling it off should a change be required.

Anyway, ihave marked off the courses on the left and have transferred these marks to the label. I can now rule matching lines across the label and then score the stonework pattern into the plastic laminate. A similar process will be carried out using the right hand wall as the datum, BUT then I'll have to work out the pattern where both left and right meet. If this were a brick building this job would be dead simple.

 

TFL

Badder

[Badder]

The black vertical strip is an area of plaster which I've scraped back so that the plant label 'veneer' will sit flush with the rest of the stonework. Rather than scrape a large amount of plaster back on the right hand section of wall, I've just scraped back individual stones and have laid single bits of label over them.  I can now make the veneer proper, to interlink with those bits of label. The veneer will have to interlink with the stones on the left hand wall as well of course, but again, that can be done 'off the model'.

 

 

TFL

Badder