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

[bzn20]

On ‎8‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 11:03 PM, Badder said:

pyrtized ammonites

Interesting subject . They're good too .. I do like  weathered pyrtized ammonites

[bzn20]

4 minutes ago, Badder said:

moving to the Ukraine though

To coin and modify a line from Python's North Minehead Bi election

 

Not much fun in Donestk,  nyet !

[Badder]

17 hours ago, bzn20 said:

Interesting subject . They're good too .. I do like  weathered pyrtized ammonites

No weathering on the ammonites. They've been in liquid clay since the day they died 150+million yrs ago, and were only exposed to air for a few seconds when I took them from the spring and put them in water, then again for a few seconds when I took them out of the water and gave them a coat of varnish. The 'sheen' on them is pyritized mother of pearl.

 

Rearguards,

Badder                          =

[Badder]

Superb bit of luck today! Went to a supermarket and they were just dismantling a promotions stand. Guess what it was made of? Yep, that plastic 'board' that I just ran out of!

I now have 24 square feet of stuff! I could have taken more, but what I have will probably last me until the end of my modelmaking days!

 

TFL

Badder

 

[bzn20]

2 hours ago, Badder said:

I now have 24 square feet of stuff

Brilliant , 10 minutes later you could of missed it ! You could take on Lego now ! Which Supermarket ?

[Badder]

2 hours ago, bzn20 said:

Brilliant , 10 minutes later you could of missed it ! You could take on Lego now ! Which Supermarket ?

Waitrose.

 

 

 

 

[bzn20]

2 minutes ago, Badder said:

Waitrose

Rats... The only one we don't have, Norwich is probably the closest 30 ish miles and full of tractors .

 

[Badder]

1 minute ago, bzn20 said:

Rats... The only one we don't have, Norwich is probably the closest 30 ish miles and full of tractors .

 

I'm sure other supermarkets will have the stuff. Look for temporary display stands or signs etc.

 

[bzn20]

3 minutes ago, Badder said:

I'm sure other supermarkets will have the stuff. Look for temporary display stands or signs etc.

 

Yes but like you proved they've only just got rid of it . I once ask a shop for some display stuff when they've finished with it and they said yes ,no problem but we've no idea when it will be removed  and can't save it for you. You'll have to keep an eye out !

[Badder]

8 minutes ago, bzn20 said:

Yes but like you proved they've only just got rid of it . I once ask a shop for some display stuff when they've finished with it and they said yes ,no problem but we've no idea when it will be removed  and can't save it for you. You'll have to keep an eye out !

I go to the store regularly so I do keep an eye out.

Another tip.... if you go to a supermarket cafe, or coffee shop, etc, ask them if you can have their waste bags from their coffee machines.  I now get a regular supply of wooden coffee stirring sticks. Some people even collect the compacted coffee 'pellets' and put that on their flowerbeds as fertilizer.

[Badder]

So, the wall made from 'foam-board-that-is-not-foamboard'.

 

To make a 'copy' of the existing wall, I first laid balsa wood 'rafters' over the originals and tacked them on with a dab of CA. I then glued the new rafters together at the apex. The new rafters were then removed. These were used as a form for cutting the foamboard to shape.

 

Here I've replaced the rafters and new wall against the 'master', just to check for accuracy:

 

The new wall fits nicely here:

 

The new section of wall didn't extend to its full width as, at the time, I only had 2 narrow bits of 'foamboard' left. After this photo was taken, I CA'd the other strip down RHS of the wall and now have a complete supporting wall.

This will be damaged at a later stage.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

[bzn20]

4 minutes ago, Badder said:

flowerbeds as fertilizer

That's Gardening .. That's not fun . Don't do growing , handy with round up though .  I've gone a minimalist  , heavy on the Min in the garden, patio slabbed it out and SWMBO's blue slate for her Kung Shway ( Black Belt) and decking with art deco balustrade ( I made it) I finished it 19:30 Sept 2015 so its okay for Art Deco period , I checked anywhere between 19:08  and 19:.35, made it by 5 minutes !

Coffee machine waste bags ? What do use those for ? Got enough hassle hoarding regular stuff , convince me and I will be in a world of trouble !

Sorry about the gardening but might be open to a bit of bag collecting.. Coffee pellets, , I  aint doing.

[Badder]

9 minutes ago, bzn20 said:

Coffee machine waste bags

More commonly known as the coffee machine bins. A good source of coffee stirring sticks.

Or you could just risk stealing a handful from the counter.

Meant to say, Self-service coffee machines.

 

Edited September 4, 2018 by Badder

[Badder]

Well, so far, so good with the 'foamboard-that-is-not-foamboard' wall.

 

 

 

Using the board is a lot quicker than making a wall from plaster.

Measure out the wall and cut to shape - with no risk of shrinking or warping.

Cover with graph paper and scribe the stonework pattern onto the graph paper using a ballpoint pen, pressing moderately hard to imprint the pattern onto the board.

Remove the graph paper. Hey presto.

 

As is usual, I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do to this wall yet in respect of damage, or where the doorways on the upper and ground floor are going to be. But I do know that I'll be using the 'wet-brushing with plaster' technique to give some texture to the stonework.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2018 by Badder

[Badder]

Decided where one of the doorways will go.

 

 

 

TFL

Badder

Edited September 8, 2018 by Badder

[Badder]

The other doorway has gone here:

 

I reckon the upper room doorway is a weak spot in this supporting wall......

 

BTW, the new white wall is shown behind the old plaster wall. It will in fact be camera side of it, and a corresponding doorway will be cut into the old wall.

 

The next job though, will be to scribe the stonework pattern into the other side.

 

TFL

Badder

Edited September 8, 2018 by Badder

[Badder]

I spent a few hours yesterday painting the wall. I wanted a similar effect to that on the other wall - a tricky thing as the other wall is made from plaster while this one isn't.

With the plaster wall it was a simple case of painting and washing, sraping, washing and a bit more scraping, the exposed plaster taking on the look of worn whitewash.

Unfortunately, 'foamboard' isn't so easy to scrape or sand and even when it is, it isn't porous like plaster and so doesn't soak up the washes. This last fact may seem unimportant, but it makes a vital difference.

 

I did get pretty close to replicating the effect with numerous washes, washes with plaster dust, scraping, washing, varnish, more washing, more scraping, more washing and repainting and scraping......

But not close enough:

 

As you can see, 'foamboard' scratches rather more than it sands smooth and so the 'whitewashed'/painted effect isn't the same.

 

So, I've reverted the wall back to it's main colour and I'm going to attempt to give the whole thing a skim of plaster, and sand that back to get the effect I want

Wish me luck!

 

TFL

Badder

[Badder]

This is looking much more promising.

 

I poured plaster over the wall and spread it out to cover it entirely, to a depth of about 2mm. Once the plaster started to set I scraped it down in some places and completely off in others. I deliberately left the plaster in an uneven state, with a few deeper gouges, raised areas, lines and 'judder' marks. This will all add to the effects once it's painted up. Alternating sanding and washes will further add to the effects.

 

TFL

Badder

Edited September 10, 2018 by Badder

[Badder]

Next, I painted the wall with Antelope Brown. This turned rather more reddish than usual.

Maybe that was a result of painting it over plaster that was still curing and was generating heat? Whatever, some chemical reaction must have taken place to alter the colour of the ink, because in the following photos the Antelope brown is the more usual yellowy-brown. 

 

Here, I scraped back the red-brown using an emery stick, and gave the wall a wash with antelope brown.

 

Then, a sprinkle with plaster dust (re-cyling the plaster scraped from the wall)

A large wet brush was used to wash this plaster over the stonework and into some of the mortar gaps.

 

Finally, a damp cotton bud was used to remove some of the plaster dust wash from some areas.

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the result. Matt varnish next.

 

TFL

Badder

Edited September 10, 2018 by Badder

[Badder]

Edited September 10, 2018 by Badder

[Badder]

Not much progress today. I've been suffering severe fatigue due to hard graft at work, and keep falling asleep when I should be getting on with this building! All I've managed to do today is get the matt varnish on, and get a marker in place for the floor joists.

Hopefully, I will be able to get the opposite side of this wall roughed out.

 

TFL

Badder

[RichO]

  I really enjoy watching other artists layer on the colors and textures used to get such a beautiful randomness!  This a real treat to watch.  It's like I can smell the damp and decay as your building this.  More great work my man.

[Badder]

17 hours ago, RichO said:

  I really enjoy watching other artists layer on the colors and textures used to get such a beautiful randomness!  This a real treat to watch.  It's like I can smell the damp and decay as your building this.  More great work my man.

Awe shucks,

Thanks Rich. I'm often 'winging it'. Sometimes I mess things up, and have to start again. And when no one comments I think maybe what I've done still isn't any good, so it's nice to know that you like what I'm doing! Your comments alone are 'reward'  enough for me!

 

Rearguards,

Badder.

[Badder]

Work on the other side of the wall progressed fairly rapidly.

 

As mentioned before, many old Ardennes' buildings were double thickness, with a gap between which was filled with a loose rubble and mortar mix. Occasionally, during the construction of the wall, a stone was placed sideways across the gap, tying inner and outer walls together. Although I've modelled the filling in the other walls, I never bothered with the 'cross stones' as they would only be visible at the tops of the walls, if it were not for the fact that they would be hidden by roof tiles. With this new section of wall, however, the tops of the walls will be exposed, so I felt I had to show at least a couple of these cross stones. These can be seen in the photo below.

 

Here, I placed the two walls back to back and cut through them both, making a recess into which I fitted the stones.

 

 

 

But of course the wall sections will have a gap between them, into which the rubble and mortar will be placed. Spacers were made from coffee stirrers, 3 deep, and CA'd onto the back of the newest section of wall.

 

The older wall section was then CA'd to the spacers.  The cross stones were painted with antelope brown, and another wash of the same was applied to some areas of the stonework.

 

So, now I've built a complete wall.

 

Originally, I had intended to build this wall to fit around the existing one..... highlighted below:

 

But I was only going to do that because of the shortage of 'foamboard'. Since acquiring more of the stuff I figured it was easier just to make a whole wall and remove the original.

That will come later though.

 

TFL

Badder

 

ps, Mr Luddite here has only just realised I can edit my images on Imgur and add text, arrows and things.

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2018 by Badder

[Badder]

Thinking of having some graffiti on the wall

 

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2018 by Badder