PIT STOP. click on link on my 'signature' for vids

[Badder]

 

 

On 11/16/2019 at 9:06 AM, Prop Duster said:

I have been remiss in keeping a close eye on your shenanigans'  and what do I find after coming back from safari to outer reaches of middle earth? Why you have made enormous strides in creating or shall we say once again recreating the wall or a wall -its all a bit hazy. That it seemed to offend  your fine since abilities is easily understood by all of your loyal minions and followers of this project. I'm sure this latest recreation of a stone wall will show through with all the skill and daring of your past land mark parts (well except for this miscreant wall ). 

Regardless! Mortar board and trowel at the ready, I  euphemistically, once again stand poised to dash in at a moments notice to add my humble troweling to keep the project on an even keel.   So, as a unabashed admirer and accolade. I once again sing your praises 😌----------------- 🙄Oh, brother!-sigh

 

Hi Steve.

My apologies for the late reply, but I can assure you I read your post at TOP (Time of Posting) with the usual enthusiasm.  That being that I read your post feeling enthusiastic about it, not that your post was full of enthusiasm, although of course it was.  You know what I mean.....

 

The lateness of my reply has been down to illness, lack of sleep due to pain, and, having said all of the above, a decline in enthusiasm for model-making! However, I am now more enthusiastic again, bolstered by the fact that I'm feeling a bit better, am sleeping a bit better and, more pertinently, I have solved the issue of 'things that were niggling me'.

 

You can probably guess just how I solved the niggles.

 

Yes, you may all call me an IDIOT!

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[Badder]

Yes, you may all call me an idiot! And a BIGGER idiot that even I was afraid of!

Not only am I replacing the last section of the 'rear' wall of the building, but I'm replacing the whole bloomin' lot - the entire rear wall from end to end!

 

The problem was the difference between the FTINFBISS wall and the plaster cast walls. The FTINFBISS wall is too smooth, clean and tidy when compared to the rough-texutred, slightly warped and more rustic looking plaster cast walls. And no amount of work was going to solve that problem. I COULD have pretended that the FTINFBISS wall represented a repair to the building or a new extension, but I wasn't going to resort to such see-through lies. 

 

So, the first job was to measure out the rear wall from end to end and produce a blueprint for the new wall, complete with the stonework pattern. Getting the stonework pattern right isn't easy, and is very tedious, but I got there in the end.

BTW, it is now IMPOSSIBLE to pop into town and buy anything but the most BASIC and rubbish of drawing instruments. Damn you CAD!!!!

 

The blue-print was then stuck to a piece of FTINFBISS and a biro was used to scribe the drawing through to the board, which, as I've said many times, is just soft yet stiff enough to indent permanently. I then removed the paper and began to pen in the mortar gaps so as to make them more visible to the eye... then ditched that 'old' idea and went for washing the entire wall with black ink instead....

 

Here it is after a wash and a bit of a rub-down, and an empty mince pie dish for size comparison:

MINCE PIES! THEY ARE NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS!

 

Next, I'm going to remove the last sections of plaster wall outer so that the new wall can be slotted into place. Then I can check the alignment of the cornerstones.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

[Badder]

Today I spent an hour or two taking off the outer plaster walls. It would have been a lot easier if I hadn't originally filled the cavities with plaster and glued things together with CA.. But a couple of saws and scraping with a knife did the job, aided with lashings of water to keep the dust levels down.  I quite like the look of the remaining faces and have decided to leave an area exposed to represent the piff and paff filling in the wall cavity., That area will be where the outer wall has part collapsed above and around the LHS window. Having said that, that window and the adjacent one will each be moved to the right first. 

 

 

 

And here's the new length of wall after the ground floor windows have been cut out. I cut them out using a scalpel, scoring through about half way then slicing through with firm pressure for the rest.  Note that I am in the process of roughing up random stones by 'dimpling' them with a biro nib. (the black stones) Oh, and I also finished off the cornerstones, matching the mortar gaps with those on the adjoining gable walls.

 

 

TFL

Badder

Edited November 30, 2019 by Badder

[Badder]

I've added the lintels and window sills to the wall, and have begun to add variation in the stonework by scoring into some of the mortar gaps with various metal implements.

 

 

 

 

 

The very large window, rear RHS will be going. I did imagine that room might be  worksshop or even a farm shop and would have a large multi-pane window, but I now rather like the idea of creating another pair of barn doors there instead.

 

TFL

Badder

Edited December 1, 2019 by Badder

[Badder]

With the washes rubbed back again, I could judge as to whether the improvements to the mortar gaps have worked, and what areas still needed. attention. There are still some areas I am not happy with so work along those lines still continues. I also added the window surrounds. The'stones' for the surrounds were made from flower pot labels, the type made from card with a laminated? photo on the front. I CA the 'stones' card side down as this side bonds better to the underlying FTINFBISS.

 

It's not really evident in these photos, but I've also been using metal sculpting tools to press down hard on individual stones and sink them deeper into the FTINFBISS.

 

 

And whilst I haven't yet decided the extent to which part of this new wall will collapse, I went ahead and began preparing the 'piff and paff' cavity filling behind it.

Oh, and I also cut out part of the inner wall to match the new position of the window. As you can see, the new window will be a fair bit smaller.

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

Edited December 3, 2019 by Badder

[Badder]

 

Dammit! Ten mins of typing, editing and pasting links all up the spout due to my stupid laptop!!!!

 

Abridged re-post.

Wall treated with antelope brown, burnt umber and acrylic ink washes with some colour variation. Then gloss varnish. Then plaster of paris dust washes with the heaviest wash towards the RHS of the building. Plaster wash rubbed back to leave plaster in mortar gaps. Plaster 'picked out' of one section of wall. Moss added using pale green Japanese Grit Paint.

 

 

The original post had the word 'botanization' in it. which I may or may not have invented. In this post it's a quote so it isn't an invention. It really does exist.

 

 

 

Just a tiny bit of neat burnt umber wash showing through here and there.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by Badder

[Badder]

Oh no! Part of the wall has collapsed! There I was, messing around with a scalpel, picking out some of the mortar gaps, when suddenly 'crash!' and the next thing I know there's a pile of rubble on the ground!

 

 

 

I am in the process of creating cracks in the wall to explain the collapse. I'm simply pushing a scalpel blade into the mortar gaps and wiggling it side to side to widen the gaps and clear out the plaster

 

 

 

 

And yes, of course, I am still messing around with washes!

 

TFL

Badder

Edited December 7, 2019 by Badder

[Badder]

It was common for the wall cavities of these rustic Ardenne's buildings to be filled with 'piff and paff'.  I don't think that's spelled correctly because googling it doesn't bring any results, but I did find the correct spelling early on in this project. Piff and paff, or whatever, is a French term for rubble and clay and maybe a little bit of mortar. And it whilst thinking about this I suddenly realised that I'd forgotten about the 'tie' stones (any brickies, please forgive my guess as to what they are called) which bridge the cavity and 'tie' the inner and outer walls together. So I added three. Of course, they should actually be integral to both walls, but I figured I'd just glue them onto the face of the inner wall. The CA wasn't being very CA'ey, so I used a little trick of mine. sprinkling plaster dust over the glued joint and dripped on some thin CA

In the photo below, the outer wall is not in place, but is being used as a guide for the placement of the tie stones.

 

And having done that, I then thought three was too many, so I took the middle tie stone out. In the photo below, the outer wall is now dry-fitted in place and the two remaining  tie stones have been trimmed so as to sit snuggly into that wall.

 

And when I sprinkled plaster dust over the  tie stones to improve the CA bond, some spilled onto the floorboards inside the building. It looked like plaster had fallen off the walls so I thought I'd thin CA that down as well.  Half a dozen drops did the job. Probably it won't be seen, but hey.

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2019 by Badder

[Prop Duster]

Badder

Once again you have turned a sows ear into a silk poncho---or something like that🤭.  Hearty congratulations on the recovery from both the "wall fall" and the re-repair  of same.   Again your skill with the various materials you have to hand is inspiring  for a novice such as my self. I hasten to add that I am just now filling out the 57th parchment sheet with my notes of your workings.  On a local note: We had a bit of rain here and though the roof held-for the most part- I was able to whisk all the roles of parchment to a dry secure area just behind the hearth. Sad part is we couldn't have a fire for fear of compromising the parchments- alas.  But for now we expect good weather, until it isn't. Regardless, on to the  paeans of praise for your work to date-🙌

 

 

It really is inspiring to see the recovery progress and in my  view the new work is much better  and more cohesive  than the former.

[Badder]

Hi Steve,

Sorry to hear about you suffering from rainfall. It must be very disconserting enough to have things falling out of the sky, and especially wet things. We get them rather a lot and even as I speak there are quite literally millions of them lashing down. Luckily, we are used to such things and have windows, roofs and such like to prevent them getting in. And where as you might feel the urge to go out and dance in them if they haven't fallen for a while, we tend to stay indoors and watch crap on TV.

 

That aside, I thank you for your continued support. If you find my continual chopping and changing of things (in both the figurative and Iiteral senses )'inspiring' then I am, as always, humbled. Sometimes my chopping and changing is a win-win situation, as is the case with this wall. I did state earlier on in this WIP that I wasn't worried about the scruffiness of the original wall as there was going to be a lot of ivy covering it up, but with the 'improved' wall I can get away with less.  Ivy takes a long time to apply, so the time I've spent making the new wall will be offset by the lesser amount of ivy I need to grow. As I said, it's been a win-win situation.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by Badder

[Badder]

I'm adding the last few details to the wall, such as the remains of a couple of dormer windows at the extreme right of the building.  The dormers in the central section of the building are gone,  having collapsed completely.

 

I've made a start on adding single blocks of stone to the wall where it abutts the internal supporting walls (extreme top left in phote below. I've also started work on the inner wall of this same section, using FTINFBISS, a tiny part of which is just visible to the right of the single block

 

 

I've done a bit more work on the collapse, and the cracks, but probably it isn't very noticable.

 

I will mostly be concentrating on the inner walls in preparation for returning to the roof.

 

 

TFL

Badder

Edited December 8, 2019 by Badder

[Badder]

I'm tidying up the join between the rear wall and the transverse supporting wall. I don't want to fix them together yet, so I have just added a block to each with no 'bridge' and have filed them both to shape. When it comes to fixing the rear wall in place I will insert a 'bridging stone', skim some plaster over the face of the supporting wall and improve the stonework pattern a bit.

 

 

Whilst I have been working on this new rear wall I've taken the opportunity to check the squareness, horizonatality and perpendicularness of all sections of the building. Some adjustments have been made by sliding and gluing a sanded coffee stirrer under one corner of the building, and one internal wall has had a slope filed down to lower its height  With everything now looking correct I am moving on to the roofing. Why? Because I'm bored of doing stonework and need a change.

 

I'm starting with the roof of the 'main' living quarters. The roof will be damaged; how much I'll discover when I'm in the process of making it. Probably though, the roof will be missing tiles along the ridge, and gaping hole(s) either side. I've made a start by adding the first of the rafters, each made with doubled-up coffee stirrers. I've braced the rafters with doubled-up coffee stirrers to their sides as I will be sanding/filing the rafters down, lowering the roof height, but I shall probably remove the bracing stirrers once the roof assembly is ready to fit.

 

TFL

Badder

[Badder]

Onto the roof proper then. I'm using the same method and materials as I used way back near the start of this thread; coffee stirrers and bristles from a yard brush. This time though, the bristles will plastic.

I began by lining coffee stirrers up on a piece of graph paper and CA'ing them in place.  Beams were then made from doubled-up coffee stirrers and were CA'd across the rafters. I decided to leave the bracing stirrers where they are and counter-sink the roof beams into them.  Steps were filed into the ends of the roof beams so that they would drop into those bracing stirrers.

 

Here are the stirrers CA'd to the graph paper. The graph paper will stay in place and will guide the fixing of the laths (which the tiles are nailed to)

 

Roof beams were added and the roof was placed on the building to test for fit. Here the roof is actually upside down. The graph paper should be the visible surface.

 

Like this:

 

Obviously the roof will be extended sideways and will be trimmed at the ridge and eaves.

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by Badder

[Prop Duster]

I Stand in Awh ---though my wife continues to insist   its really mud--HA! I say, I know an awh when I see.....never mind.

To the current improvements/additions/re-engineering they look to be coming along with great speed- not that having done them before would be any component of that (😋). 

sadly I am in a bit of a rush as I am required to attend a meeting soon ( No, not the head of the armed forces this time but  lesser one with some strange little people---wish I looked good I green tights and curly toed shoes and cap but it is what it is). Again  Great job of work to date. eagerly awaiting your next missive 

[Badder]

23 hours ago, Prop Duster said:

I Stand in Awh ---though my wife continues to insist   its really mud--HA! I say, I know an awh when I see.....never mind.

To the current improvements/additions/re-engineering they look to be coming along with great speed- not that having done them before would be any component of that (😋). 

sadly I am in a bit of a rush as I am required to attend a meeting soon ( No, not the head of the armed forces this time but  lesser one with some strange little people---wish I looked good I green tights and curly toed shoes and cap but it is what it is). Again  Great job of work to date. eagerly awaiting your next missive 

Hi Steve,

As always, thanks. BTW There's a very famous anecdote about 'awe' which involved John Wayne and Charlton Heston during the filming of the crucifixion scene in 'The greatest story ever told'.  I was gonna suggest you search it, but I've done it for you:

 

Producer and Director George Stevens did many takes of John Wayne's single line, "Truly, this man was the Son of God." A rumor has long persisted that at one stage, Stevens pled with Wayne to show more emotion, an overwhelming sense of awe. During the next take, Wayne changed the line to, "Awwwwwww, truly this man was the Son of God."

 

 

 

 

A search might throw it up. I bring this aside up (aside, aside?) because it distracts me from imagining an adult male in tights.

 

As for the 'great speed' of progress, I'm afraid it's slowed somewhat due to my running out of coffee stirrers. I shall endeavour to find alternatives though. No. Not tea stirrers.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[Robert Stuart]

Having heard about this project in the small hours of the morning, I've skimmed through your build B (still be on page 3 if I'd read properly).

This is a beautiful, stunning build.  Are you still going to include the Sherman in this scene? (or did I read something about a Tiger?)

[Badder]

9 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

Having heard about this project in the small hours of the morning, I've skimmed through your build B (still be on page 3 if I'd read properly).

This is a beautiful, stunning build.  Are you still going to include the Sherman in this scene? (or did I read something about a Tiger?)

Hi Robert,

I don't blame you for skimming! Yes, it's a long thread, but still less than half the pages of my Ever Evolvin Dio thread! To explain, I feel I have to photograph and write about things in great detail, and offer advice and tips, because some people might find them helpful for their own projects. Saying that, there are some who are either not aware of members providing tips and advice, or choose to ignore them, and who merrily stumble along on their own projects making  a hard job even harder! Yes, one can learn by trial and error, but I regularly skim though other people's long threads and hone in on those topics I'm eager to learn about.

 

 I started this thread intending to provide a winter scene for my Up-armoured Sherman Easy 8 in winter camo from the M3/M4 STGB, but having made 2 more winter camo AFVs (Nashorn and Tiger) I decided that the dio would become a setting for all three - with the vehicles and figures, and some of the scenery, interchangeable. With that in mind the building will now be placed more centrally on the board, so that I can take photos around 360 degrees, thus providing different 'backdrops' for each of the vehicles.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

 

 

[Badder]

I'm still not ready to fix the new wall to the internal features of the building, but I have reached the stage where I could fix the new wall to the gable wall. I tacked the long wall to some graph paper using medium CA,  used the graph paper to assist in the positioning of the gable wall, and tacked that in place as well. Obviously, the join at the corners was a bit ragged where I broke the old wall away, and a gap was created, thus:

 

Since taking this photo the gap has been filled with very wet plaster which I trickled in in drops at the top of the gap, letting it trickle down and fill from the bottom up. The gap is not actually very deep, the hollow between the MiniArt facia, and the plaster inner wall having long ago been filled with cardboard and paper and hardened with thin CA.

 

In fact, here's the other end of the gable wall where the internal cardboard and paper stuffing (hardened with CA) has been exposed. It's been exposed because I'm rebuilding he entire length of the other long wall as well and I'm having to cut, file and sand all of the walls to accept that new wall.

 

 

 

So once again, it's out with the FTINFBISS, the paper, ballpoint pen, files, scalpels, set square etc etc....  Here the FTINFBISS is in the process of being offered up to the underside of the eaves to test for fit. Note also the provision for constructing a dormer window above.

 

 

Rather than cut out a new pattern for the long wall this side of the building I simply used the previous pattern and flipped it over. I obviously had to match the mortar gaps at the joint with the gable wall, but used the old imprints as horizontal datum for the new ones. This saved me having to use a drawing board. The 'biro'd'  lines are now imprinted into the FTINFBISS. The adjacent section of wall (LHS) is where the 'barn doors' will go. I will cut those into the FTINFBISS and will be constructing another dormer window above those.

 

Meanwhile, I've tidied up lots of little areas, filling gaps, squaring thing up, adding window sills, adding new plaster to some of the interior walls, fitting woodwork in preparation for adding rafters and beams, etc, etc. Oh, and I managed to get a bundle of coffee stirrers so I'll be returning to fiddle on the roof soon.

 

TFL

Badder

Edited December 23, 2019 by Badder

[Robert Stuart]

Sherman, Nashorn, and Tiger ... but the mill has four sides.  Sounds like you are one winter tank short of the set?  I'll be interested to see what you go for there.

 

Looks like good progress with your mill (I wonder how you'll unify the old and new sides).

[Badder]

11 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

Sherman, Nashorn, and Tiger ... but the mill has four sides.  Sounds like you are one winter tank short of the set?  I'll be interested to see what you go for there.

 

Looks like good progress with your mill (I wonder how you'll unify the old and new sides).

I have Tamiya's classic 7 tonne half-track  with the flakvierling AA guns in my stash, that's a definite winter camo job, but I also have a KT that might end up wearing white. (though I actually want do ambush camo on that.... depends if I make a mess of that, or not!

 

Not sure if my building here is a mill, although there's no reason why it can't be. …. food for thought!

 

Festive rearguards,

Badder

[Badder]

I've filed back the outer verticals of the internal supporting walls so that the new length of FTINFBISS can be fixed to them without increasing the width of the building. Previously, the external wall was in 3 pieces and each was slotted between those supporting walls.

 

Just to clarify things, my building is currently in four parts: the internal supporting walls with a spanning floor and internal wall, the gable wall and long 'rear' wall assembly, a long front wall (under construction) and the 3 walls making up the sides of the 'last' room. In the photo below, the long front wall is laying flat on the drawing board and the last room has been left out.

Note extra plaster of paris has been applied to the internal walls in places, to represent... er…. plaster.

 

 

And below, double-checking (for the hundredth time) the squareness, parallelity  and verticality of the assemblies when dry-fitted together with the new front wall (at the rear)

 

All that turned out hunky-dory, so I can carry on making the new front wall.

 

TFL

Wishing you all a great Xmas,

Festive rearguards,

Badder

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by Badder

[Prop Duster]

   Your progress   adding items/walls/bits to the structure is a pleasure to watch. When I saw your  corner gap, first thing I thought was Downspout! ( downpipe?) that would cover and disguise the willy FTINFBISS as it try's to take control from its minion   er  Master.    

Thought your solution, however, was far and away the best and more correct.

 

Oh, and a brief point.  You have help expand my lingua franca by your use of the term "biro" which I had assumed was some kind of stylus. I was unaware of the antecedents of "my" ball point pen.  Thank you google for the clarification   

[Badder]

4 hours ago, Prop Duster said:

   Your progress   adding items/walls/bits to the structure is a pleasure to watch. When I saw your  corner gap, first thing I thought was Downspout! ( downpipe?) that would cover and disguise the willy FTINFBISS as it try's to take control from its minion   er  Master.    

Thought your solution, however, was far and away the best and more correct.

 

Oh, and a brief point.  You have help expand my lingua franca by your use of the term "biro" which I had assumed was some kind of stylus. I was unaware of the antecedents of "my" ball point pen.  Thank you google for the clarification   

Hi Steve,

The corner gaps were never going to be an issue, being easily filled and the mortar gaps re-applied, so the masking properties of a downspout (or to use the more oft used term in my neck of the woods, 'drainpipe') never entered my mind.  On the subject of colloquial words/terms I am almost literally staggered by your unawareness of the word 'biro' and it's origins. Google, as you say, is a great aid.

 

Wishing you and yours a very merry Xmas and a happy new year. I suspect our next 5 xmases and new years won't be so festive, but enough about politics!

 

Reaguards,

Badder

[Badder]

A bit of progress today, continuing construction of the new length of wall.

I decided to add the internal wall, which would slot in the gap here:

 

But rather than start with a new piece of FTINFBISS I used a section of wall from the spares box (one that I'd made earlier and then put aside as a failure) In this case it didn't matter about the poorish stonework pattern as this would be facing inwards and so won't be seen clearly.

 

So, this is is the rear of the section of wall that I had originally intended to inlay into the outside of the original wall. As you can see, it was thinned with a scalpel, and remains rough. But this piece would be flipped over, revealing the stonework on its other side before fixing to the new wall beneath.

 

And here is the same piece of spare wall flipped over. The window aperture is too big, but that's an easy fix.

 

The next job was to fix this piece to the long wall whilst leaving a cavity between the two. Here I've CA'd piers to the rear of the long wall for that purpose.

Usually, doubled-up coffee stirrers are used to hold the inners and outers apart and leave a wall cavity, but as the inner wall is thinner I've used tripled stirrers so as to retain the proper thickness of the entire wall.  Incidentally, I also use 'piers' like these when joining MiniArt inner and outer walls together

 

 

Next. I coated the piers with medium CA, dry-fitted the wall to the building, slotted the new inner wall in place and pressed it to the CA-coated piers.

 

 

 

 

I then cut the window apertures into the inner wall and blocked in part of the 'too large' an aperture mentioned earlier.

 

With that done, I fancied a change and set about making another roof section. This time, I thought I'd experiment with making the laths first.  The source of the laths was the same as before, my plastic-bristled yard brush.

Oh, and you get to see which supermarket kindly let me have one of their old advertising boards.

 

Instead of CA'ing the bristles directly to the rafters, which can be an imprecise method, I thought I'd CA them to graph paper. I have tried this before, but ended up distracted by other things and eventually lost what I'd done.

 

The CA capillariates into and along the graph paper, not only fixing the nylon bristles in place, but also turning the paper into a plastic-like substance. I'm intending to leave the graph paper where it is, but use it to represent wattle and daub that was used to seal the underside of the roof against draughts/insects/small mammals/repitiles and low flying migratory fish.

 

Once i have enough bristles I am going to sand their upper surfaces flat as obviously brisltes are circular in cross-section at the moment. This will make the fixing of the tiles easier.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

PS. Apologies for the hotchpotch of tenses used in this particular thread, but I was popping in and out and typing/adding photos for over an hour or so lost the plot! Beer might also have something to do with it.

 

 

Edited December 25, 2019 by Badder

[Badder]

Remember this?

 

This is part of the chimney that I made for this building many moons ago, and without checking, I think the construction took place in my Ever Evolvin Dio WIP,

 

Whatever, I broke that fireplace/chimney/stack up as I came around to thinking it was more suited to a castle banqueting hall than it was a small farmhouse.

But waste not, want not; here's the new fireplace under construction:

 

 

And it's going to fit here:

 

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2019 by Badder