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53 minutes ago, Badder said:

would it be any good for making false teeth?

If we are talking about the models, then Crystacal R is better than the materiel typically used to make models for false teeth (Kaffir D), such models are softer and hold detail less well simply because you don't need the detail and also because you are probably going to take a hammer to it later on.  :fight:

 

If you mean for making the teeth themselves.....God no!  :mellow: 

 

But you won't believe how much sharper your castings are just using Crystacal R (assuming you mix it thoroughly).....All those edges and details that currently crumble or break, won't.  ;)

 

PS - Cutting Crystacal R 50/50 with Plaster of Paris will make it go further, but you will lose some of the detail as a result. 

 

PPS - Reading the Crystacal instructions online reminded me about sealing your models.....We used clear nail varnish for the job. 

 

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2 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

If we are talking about the models, then Crystacal R is better than the materiel typically used to make models for false teeth (Kaffir D), such models are softer and hold detail less well simply because you don't need the detail and also because you are probably going to take a hammer to it later on.  :fight:

 

If you mean for making the teeth themselves.....God no!  :mellow: 

 

But you won't believe how much sharper your castings are just using Crystacal R (assuming you mix it thoroughly).....All those edges and details that currently crumble or break, won't.  ;)

 

PS - Cutting Crystacal R 50/50 with Plaster of Paris will make it go further, but you will lose some of the detail as a result. 

 

PPS - Reading the Crystacal instructions online reminded me about sealing your models.....We used clear nail varnish for the job. 

 

Oh well, guess I will just have to go to the dentist for falsies. (Teeth, not breasts)

For the most part, plaster of Paris is absolutely fine for making buildings, what with it being soft enough to carve, cut and file, and porous enough to soak up and bond with CA, and also soak up washes. Of course, your average farm building or rural house isn't bedecked with intricate architectural features, so again plaster of Paris is fine. But I do have some town buildings to deal with in the future, so I will definitely look up the Crystacal R. It may also be good for casting things like kit bags and other stowage. Cheers.

 

Pics of progress shortly.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

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A better shot of the new, taller, side wall:

h23LWoM.jpg

This may look like an entirely new cast, but it's a veneer. Underneath is the older wall. I had to scrape the veneer back a bit because it was warped and this lead to the removal of some of the stonework pattern and the need to recarve it. It's not a particularly neat job, but I will be cutting out another window above this one and will improve the stonework once that's done.

 

And here's the floor:

fS716Kq.jpg

 

It's all looking a bit grey here, but that's probably due to the lighting. There will be more colour added though.

The floorboards are coffee stirrers. I should have cut them up, so each provided a long and short board, then laid them out in an alternating pattern, but I got a bit impatient. I will now have to cut them up in-situ.

 

The window aperture has been dropped so that the sill is now at waist height, rather than neck height. This wall section was of course hollow, as the outer-facing wall was the vacu-formed plastic MiniArt part and the inner-facing wall was a solid plaster cast. The two parts were CA'd PVA'd and plastered together, with cardboard spacers inside to add contact areas for the bonding. Having cut the window aperture lower I exposed the hollow interior, but that was easily filled with plaster. I have yet to block in the top of the aperture, lowering the lintel by the same amount.

 

I plan to build a roof over this room, with no attic space and just exposed rafters. This will be damaged and part collapsed, with debris laying on the floorboards below. I have yet to decide how much of the roof will be collapsed, and how much of the interior will be exposed.

 

TFL

Badder

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I've started on the roof, using thin strips of balsa wood. I am not using rulers, dividers, set squares or any other measuring implements and  I am cutting, spacing and fitting all of the pieces by eye. I figure this Ardennes building wasn't put together by master craftsmen. Anyway, this roof will be damaged and part collapsed, so obsessing over accuracy would be a waste of obsessing. There will be plenty of things to obsess over later in the project.

 

cifVNbk.jpg

I will need to have access to the room for a while yet, so I won't be fixing the rear 'gable wall' in place, and neither will I be adding the rafters to the opposite slope of the roof.

Did I mention that this will be an old ruin, with lots of rotten beams, joists, floorboards, and a fair bit of moss, lichen and ivy growing on it?

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

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I gave the rafters several washes with acrylic inks and weathering powder, mostly browns, but also some greens and a bit of black. The colours don't really show up here:

Vx2pGnb.jpg

 

I also added a strip of stonework to raise the inner wall to meet the rafters.

aAna5lt.jpg

 

 

 

Also visible above and below.... more work on the floorboards.

FCCgFK4.jpg

I continued with some more washes and then sprinkled crushed plaster over the floor. I then scrubbed this into the floor with a stiff brush, intending to leave everything looking dry and dusty. But then I remembered that the roof had collapsed and it would have been exposed to snow, and the thaw, and the floor would likely be wet. So I got a large water-loaded brush and proceeded to wash the plaster off. I thought I'd removed all of the plaster dust, but as the floor began to dry areas of plaster reappeared - now basically, a white wash, looking a lot lighter than the still wet floorboards. The contrast between the glossy wet floorboards and the paler dusty ones was rather nice and I wondered if I could capture this look. (The 'look' would be lost as the floor fully dried) I considered using a gloss varnish but then remembered that I had some Humbrol 'Gloss Oil Stain' wash and decided to give that a go instead.

The results were perfect.

OEw3uC6.jpg

 

In the photos above, the gloss oil stain has fully dried, and that looks like a soaking wet floor to me. 

 

And here's another interesting effect:

tqvsDKa.jpg

 

The above shows a section of interior wall on the ground floor. This section (with the black line scribed across it) is a piece of 'foam board' (although it's not actually foam board, but that's the closest similar material to it) It has a gloss surface and although it will only be visible through the window, I wanted it to have a matt finish. Through pure laziness, I thought I'd try giving it a wash with the black acrylic ink I was at that time applying to the rafters. Of course, because the surface was gloss and the acrylic ink was diluted with water, it mostly ran off... but it did 'stick' in places and gave this rather nice effect. Some accidental 'spatter' aslo added to the effect.

 

TFL

Badder

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12 hours ago, Graeme H said:

Boy this dio building is really full on, really nice carpentry work, pity it has to be damaged 

Thanks Graeme,

Diorama building can be simple, or more complicated and involved, often moreso than the models that inhabit them.  I plan to finish two 'epic' dioramas: this one and my Ever Evolving Diorama. They will be the only two I will do, what with the amount of time they will take up of my my expected lifespan. 🤩

And because of that I  want them to be the best I can manage. Often I will make something and then think 'it's not good enough' and then replace it. I fully expect that to continue.

 

The building above was originally intended for my Ever Evolving Diorama depicting a winter scene, but the theme changed to a summer one and the building turned out not to be suitable anyway. It was perfect as a starting point for this diorama though.

 

The 'carpentry' isn't perfect, having been cut, shaped and fixed purely 'by eye', but as I said, it will eventually end up damaged and part collapsed so it didn't have to be millimetre perfect. I think in most cases it's better to make a whole object and then break it, than try to make the broken object from the outset. I think things look more realistic that way. There are also other benefits. For instance, there will be no guessing the number of roof tiles to have scattered around the diorama because the roof will be fully tiled before it is damaged and collapsed and I will have a definitive number of tiles to play around with.

 

Finally, a good collapsed roof looks more interesting than an undamaged one! Hopefully mine will look realistic.

 

Rearguards

Badder

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

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Hi Badder. Hope you are keeping well. Hope the teeth are okay!!!! I think that wooden dentures were invented in Japan sometime in the the early part 16th century and, as Graeme said - your capentry skills are very good.......................just a thought!! :winkgrin:

Your building work is looking amazing! Even at this early stage the floorboards/walls have a real world look to them! Awsome modelling!

Kind regards,

Stix

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3 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Badder. Hope you are keeping well. Hope the teeth are okay!!!! I think that wooden dentures were invented in Japan sometime in the the early part 16th century and, as Graeme said - your capentry skills are very good.......................just a thought!! :winkgrin:

Your building work is looking amazing! Even at this early stage the floorboards/walls have a real world look to them! Awsome modelling!

Kind regards,

Stix

Hi Stix,

I am doing okay, thanks. I did wonder about carving some teeth from wood. I have a small supply of ebony that  might be just the ticket. Now, if I can find some ivory as well......😁

 

I am a bit tired of casting, filing and carving plaster TBH. The dust gets everywhere so I've taken to dampening it first, but then that clogs up my files, sandpaper and saw blades. Swings and roundabouts. I'm hoping to have the main building structure finished by next weekend and think about setting it onto the base.

 

Hope you and yours are well,

Rearguards,

Badder

 

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I just need to interject here with a quick:

 

:wow::wow::wow:

 

Some of those photos are spectacular, this one in particular:

 

OEw3uC6.jpg&key=a6d5dcb9456cdda37a3cb91b

 

Is just awesome.....That could easily be one of the rooms in the ruin at my secret country residence (sorry no pictures of that place are allowed online), you would just need to fill the room with rusty junk to have it exactly!  :lol:

 

Don't be quite so self-critical.....IMHO you have a real talent for this,  :thumbsup:

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6 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

I just need to interject here with a quick:

 

:wow::wow::wow:

 

Some of those photos are spectacular, this one in particular:

 

OEw3uC6.jpg&key=a6d5dcb9456cdda37a3cb91b

 

Is just awesome.....That could easily be one of the rooms in the ruin at my secret country residence (sorry no pictures of that place are allowed online), you would just need to fill the room with rusty junk to have it exactly!  :lol:

 

Don't be quite so self-critical.....IMHO you have a real talent for this,  :thumbsup:

Thanks muchly Sarge,

Your comments are always highly valued. I am very pleased with the effects above. How much will be visible when the roof is on, I'm not sure yet, but the wet floorboards are one of those things that just HAVE to be there or I'll feel I've been skimping on details. I had imagined this as an old ruin, not a fresh one: more of a building falling apart due to neglect than having been blown up, so I'd have thought anything useful would have been removed by this stage. But I will have another think about it. I wanted this to be an old ruin because then I could have lots of moss and ivy growing all over it and through it. Most ivys are evergreen, so I can have ivy with a sprinkling of snow over it. That should look pretty cool!

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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Hey Badder,

I'm with Sarge on this one!  Some of these shots are like looking at the real thing.

 

On 7/9/2018 at 2:51 PM, Badder said:

 

 

And here's the floor:

fS716Kq.jpg

 

That's floor is some impressive work.  Thanks for sharing.

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When I was referring to a room filled with rusty junk I meant at the secret place, your room could be filled with almost anything or nothing.....If it's got a roof sleeping or resting GIs might be a good candidate.  B)

 

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11 hours ago, RichO said:

Hey Badder,

I'm with Sarge on this one!  Some of these shots are like looking at the real thing.

 

That's floor is some impressive work.  Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Rich, although it's nowhere near as impressive as your launch pad!

 

Rearguards,

Badder

11 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

When I was referring to a room filled with rusty junk I meant at the secret place, your room could be filled with almost anything or nothing.....If it's got a roof sleeping or resting GIs might be a good candidate.  B)

 

I suspect they might get a better kip on the ground floor The problem is sorcing US Army figures in winter clothing. Although I just had the idea of maybe to have them in sleeping bags? That way I only have to worry about their heads! I did search for US tank crews in winter clothing and found a kit by Dragon. Unfortunately the figures were nowhere near as good as the box art and were in fact rather naff! I shall have another look though. Suggestions welcome!

 

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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Here I've done some prelimanary work on the side wall beneath the rafters. (The rafters aren't cut to their finished length yet)

 

Once again I've continued to give the wall alternate washes of Dark Earth Weathering Powder and plaster 'slurry'.  The plaster slurry gets into the grooves and highlights not only the stonework pattern, but also the marks left behind after scraping the wall to remove warp. Being filled with plaster, the scrape marks are level with the surface and can be hidden with a bit of dry-brushing or some carefully applied washes. 

 

The doorway will go in the obvious place.

b4LFhnw.jpg

 

 

 

tZ88KB8.jpg

BTW, the building looks a bit wonky here due to the fact that it's sitting on a messy work surface.

 

 

Here's the other wall section sat in place.

B5aZH76.jpgThe roof will obviously be at right angles to the main one and I plan to have them intersect.

However, I'm playing around with the idea of placing an extra 'room' between the two sections and having a barn door type entrance.

 

TFL

Badder

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  A great opportunity to to do some really cool beam work on the roof intersection there.  Also a barn door type entrance would be a nice way to show off your wood skills, maybe some broken glass?.  Great job.

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15 hours ago, RichO said:

  A great opportunity to to do some really cool beam work on the roof intersection there.  Also a barn door type entrance would be a nice way to show off your wood skills, maybe some broken glass?.  Great job.

Hi Rich,

I'm having second thoughts about the roofs intersecting. I am struggling to find a justification for building them that way. i will have a think about it some more.

Yes, I absolutely do like the barn door idea. I will be fitting it in somewhere. And yes, a fair bit of broken glass.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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Here's the doorway giving access to the upper room. The staircase up to this door will be aligned with the paintbrush.
 

Fdtc1cj.jpg

 

I decided not to use the fancier plastercast window surrounds as filing them down to the correct thickness is a delicate, tedious and sometimes fruitless task due to breakages.  Instead, I stuck with the original design, making a copy in plasticard and sticking it in place with medium CA.

 

Notice the exposed cavities in the doorway. These are the gaps left between the two back-to-back plaster casts that form the wall.

 

 

 

TFL

Badder

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In the post above, I drew attention to the cavities in the wall around inner surfaces of the doorway aperture. These are always present in my thicker 'sandwich' walls as I do not bother to sand or file their facing surfaces flat so that they sit flush together. Instead, I use cardboard or wood, or even rolls of paper as spacers. These are CA'd to the back of one wall section and then become the contact/glue surf'aces between it and the other section. Once the walls are fixed together with CA and/or PVA, I then push near-to-setting plaster of Paris into the 'sandwich' into and around the edges.  I always 'overfill' the sandwich so that I can file the edges of the walls flush. However, sometimes I want the cavities to be exposed, usually along the tops of walls, or on exposed breaks. Here, I do not fill the cavity with wet plaster, but rather insert crumbled cured plaster into the 'slots' and CA that in place to mimic the rubble/mortar mix which was used to both strengthen the walls and add insulation.

Returning to the doorway however, I do not wish to have the cavities exposed. I could have filled them with plaster and filed it down flush, but there was no need to do this as I was going to face the doorway with plasticard anyway.

So, I filed and sanded the doorway as true and square as I could and then CA'd plasticard strips around the inner faces of the doorway. These facings will be treated to look like wood.

However there were gaps in places, between the facings and the wall. 

474Ixfi.jpg

 

 

Again, I could have used plaster of Paris to fill the gaps, but I can be very lazy at times, and rather than mix up a tiny amount of plaster, I used plaster dust which I'd produced while scraping and filing and cutting out the doorway. This dust was pushed and brushed into the gaps and then fixed in place with thin CA. Once dry, the excess plaster dust was sanded off. During this process, some paint was accidentally removed from the surrounding wall, but this was fortuitious as it now looks as if the wall had once been painted/plastered.

 

okfM99s.jpg

 

I rather like the effect here and will probably now use the same technique on the other wall surfaces inside the room.

I8DaqFV.jpg

 

Regarding the wall section above...  There are SOME areas where the stonework pattern remains after I'd scraped the wall surface flat. I'm going to emphasize these by recarving them. I'm also going to add more pattern, especially along the right hand roof slope, and down that side of the wall. I now plan to collapse part of this wall, this collapse being the cause of the roof's collapse.

But before that... the staircase....

 

TFL

Badder

 

PS, Some of you will know that I often build/paint/weather something to an 'interesting' or 'realistic' standard, and then ruin/spoil/alter it at a later date. I've lost count of the times I've thought 'wow, this looks perfect', only for me to fiddle around with it and ruin it. But I stick at it and experiment and nearly always end up with something that looks even better. This is especially true of old buildings, I think. The fact is that it takes decades of sun, wind, rain, snow, ice and intrusion by ivy, mosses, lichen, woodworm, rot, damp, mould etc etc to turn a building into a ruin, and no one can replicate that accumulation with a couple of washes and a bit of dry brushing.

I therefore do not worry if my buildings are spoiled, then worked on again, then worked on again and again. These are the layers that make for a realistic effect.

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Oi! There's nothin' a couple of washes and some dry-brushing cannot replicate perfectly! :fight: :winkgrin:

As others have said already - your abilty to model beautifully weathered structures is truly amazing. You do actually manage to recreate the appearance of years of aging..........even if it takes actual years to produce!!

Kind regards,

Stix 

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18 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Oi! There's nothin' a couple of washes and some dry-brushing cannot replicate perfectly! :fight: :winkgrin:

As others have said already - your abilty to model beautifully weathered structures is truly amazing. You do actually manage to recreate the appearance of years of aging..........even if it takes actual years to produce!!

Kind regards,

Stix 

Hi Stix,

I just KNEW you'd react to that! :tease:

I did of course have the 'Stix technique' in mind, knowing how seffective it is on AFVs/aircraft etc but I had hoped to differentiate between that and weathering old buildings.  I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to take a file and sandpaper to their nicely painted Tiger 1 and expose the plastic in the same way that I have exposed the plaster on my wall! Nor would I expect them to smear semi-cured plaster all over their model and get it into all the little nooks and crannies, panel lines etc, before cleaning off the excess.

I am basically discovering new techniques/methods through both accident and experimentation and I'm finding it a very enjoyable and rewarding adventure,

It's an honour to have you and all the others along for the rideI  I thank you very much for your appreciation of my work, and for the kind comments you've made.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

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I ran out of coffee stirring sticks. There's bags of them at work, but I cannot steal them or even buy them, so I have to resort to picking up and collecting used ones. Today I only managed to find half a dozen or so. This MAY be enough to make the staircase.....

 

TFL

Badder

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Surprise, surprise, I've made a layout change.

 

Qo5azZP.jpg

 

I decided that the longer layout, whilst providing a nice backdrop across the rear of the dio, would mean having to cut off and leave out some of the ruin. Also, being a backdrop, it would mean that any detailing of the rear of the building would most likely not be seen. (Unless the dio were placed on a table/plinth with an all round view.)

 

So, the new idea is to model the entire extent of the ruin and to place it on a diagonal either to one side of the diorama, or more centrally. I've yet to decide which.

 

BgZlLnq.jpg

 

 

I have now fixed the 'staircase' wall to the main structure. But first I had to make sure that everything was square and true. I knew that some of the wall sections didn't quite sit right when placed together - a consequence of plaster shrinking and warping, poor filing and sanding on my part, and the use of only basic tools and measuring instruments.

So, I set the main building up on lined paper (graph paper would have been even better) and then dribbled thin CA around the bottom of the building to fix it to the paper. This sheet of paper then became my datum for checking right angles and parallel lines etc. I then positioned the 'staircase' wall, as in the photo below, using the lined paper as a guide, and also for the first time employing a set square to ensure it was true to the vertical. Again, thin CA was then dribbled along the bottom of the wall, to fix it to the paper. Unfortunately the 'good fit' which I had thought I'd made between this wall and the main section, wasn't. It turned out that once on the true vertical, there was a gap between them. Still, I had anticipated this and it will be a simple job of filling in the gap with plaster. I was going to have to rework the join with plaster anyway as this is needed to carve and blend the stonework.

 

 

4AhFCNL.jpg

 

Witht the staircase wall fitted, I can now go ahead and fill in the gaps, blend in the stonework and finish off the window and door apertures.

 

 

The 'T' section of wall will be the most heavily damaged part of the building. I will be extending it a bit, mostly with more damaged bits. I still like the idea of a barn door type thingy in this part of the building.

 

 

IeEKBRm.jpg

 

TFL

Badder


 

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Playing around with ideas for the roof. Obviously, I've been looking at real roofs and how they are/were tiled, different types of tile, and what materials I can use to make them. I've messed around with cutting up little rectangles of plasticard for flat tiles, and slicing up corrugated cardboard 'inners' for curved tiles.

 

I will try other materials as well, and will eventually settle on a method. Whichever that is, it won't be quick and easy. Accurate measuring, cutting, spacing and fixing will be required, even for a 'rustic' building such as this.

 

Meanwhile, I've tidied  up the plaster skims over the corners of the building, filing and sanding them flush in preparation for carving the stonework.

 

TFL

Badder

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Who can guess what this is going to be used for? 3 quid from ASDA.

The better half said 'Oooh I need a new broom!'

I said 'You can have what's left of it when I've finished with it!'

 

C5MWEwm.jpg

 

I had tried making lathes from balsa wood, matchsticks, plasticard, coffee stirring sticks, but I couldn't cut any of them fine enough without snapping them. I purchanced upon this broom and hey bingo!

BhAw0Bk.jpg

 

The rafters aren't fixed in place yet, and won't be until most of the tiles are on. 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.....

 

TFL

Badder

 

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