BADDER'S 2021 MY BRO HAS DESIGNED AND BUILT A REAL HOUSE IN LESS THAN 1/3rd OF THE TIME

[Badder]

What with the Martian invasion of Earth, Atlantis re-emerging from the depths and it's fish-faced King complaining about all the plastic nappies polluting their aquasphere, the revelation that the Earth, and indeed Mars, ARE flat, and my incapacity due to having been polycelled under the dining room wallpaper for the past 2 years, I haven't done any actual gluing and painting of 3D jigsaw puzzles made from lots of pieces of plastic.

All I've been able to do is mess about with my scratch-built, multipose ruined farmhouse

I came up with the idea a few years ago now........ instead of making several dioramas for my various winter-camo AFVs, just to make one and use that as a 'stage set' for photographing different sets of vehicles and figures. And then I thought, if I'm going to swap those in and out of the dio, why not make the buiding multipose to add that extra bit of variation?

 

For the past year I've continued Improving things here and there, adding details, super-detailing and more and more weathering. My thinking is that it's better to get things perfect, than settle for second best, otherwise I'll regret it in years to come! I've also 'invented' a couple of weathering techniques, which have ended up distracting me because I found myself wanting to make videos of 'how to do it', and so set up a Youtube channel: 'Badder's Better Diorama Hacks', but that's turning out to be a really boring, frustrating and sometimes extremely annoying chore, especially when Youtube loses, or messes up your vids! And most of my vids weren't good to start with! lol.

 

But all that aside, here's a glimpse at some of the work I have done............. It's nearly all weathering!

 

Wishing you me and everyone, a much better 2022, and that includes the Martians and the Atlanteans!

 

OOH, OOH, I forgot! I also made an indestructible tree!

ENJOY...........

Badder.

 

The building roughed out, with preliminary painting and preliminary weathering. The roof sections are interchangeable/removable, but only 1 section can be seen at the far right. The wall beneath it is also interchangeable with a more collapsed verison. 

 

 

The whole building pulls apart into 3 sections until that time that the interior is completely finished and the building is fixed to the diorama base.

 

Messing around with the collapsed floor, like much of this building, it's currently dry-fitted.

 

 

 

An invaluable tool for those who scratchbuild buildings or other large structures........... a scribing block............. this one I made from one of my old angling trophies. Top tip! Unscrew the chap from the top of your darts/football/baseball/origami champion trophy, remove all of the 'cup' and 'plinth' sections, and you're left with a nice sturdy metal upright with a nice heavy and flat bottomed base for your scribing block. It's then a case of finding the 'gubbins' to rig up an adjustable clamp for a scriber. I used the 'gubbins' from one of those Modelmaker's 'extra-hands' contraptions with crocodile clips and usually a pretty naff magnifying glass attachment...... This really is the most useful tool I've ever had.  No more using pairs of dividers, rulers, set squares and spirit levels to transfer height dimensions across the building!

 

Tarpaulin on portico......... CA'd paper. Wall render above portico........ CA'd paper

 

 

 

 

Far right.......... the more ruined upper wall section. This is interchangeable with the more intact section seen earlier behind the scribing block.

 

 

Work on the roof sections, all of which are removable and can be swapped with more or less damaged versions, or just dropped into the building, or onto the ground.

 

 

The roof tiles are made entirely from CA'd paper. 840 individually cut roof tiles in just 60 cuts. Vid on YouTube

 

 

 

Working on the end gable wall section, improving the carving of the stonework, and applying quick and easy and very realistic, plaster-dust and plaster-dust bubble washes. Vid on YouTube.

From this..........

 

To this........... in minutes.

 

 

 

Really chuffed how these turned out using my plaster-dust bubble washes to create 3D textures which look like lichen/algae/fungal/microscopic plant life/mosses and leached salt deposits, depnding on the colours used. BTW, I use acrylic INKS exclusively. No enamel beetles had to die to produce this.

 

 

 

 

Moving into the interior, with more plaster-dust washes and plain green and dirty washes. Bubble washes to follow...........

 

 

 

Door constructed from wooden coffee stirrers and faced with CA'd paper, painted blue, then sanded, scraped and scored to produce worn, rotting, flaking effects.

 

 

 

 

Cracked and flaking wall render, CA'd paper.

 

 

 

Work in progress with the door on the ground floor. Door latch/lock to add............. Again, CA'd paper, treated the same as the other door, but with more scraping, less scoring and more of the paper remaining. The remaining blue paper looks like flaking paint.

 

 

The other side......

 

 

And the only other thing I've built this year.......... and not quite finished, is a new 'indestructible tree'. It's supposed to be a Yew tree. It really is pretty much indestructible in the sense that I videod myself throwing it across my workstation and bashing it repeatedly on the worktop, with no damage done to either! lol.

I wanted to make an 'indestructible' tree because they get notoriously dusty, covered in cobwebs, and attacked by cats. I wanted to be able to jet wash and vacuum my tree clean, with no fear of damage, and one that will last a lifetime. I'm pretty sure it'll outlast me!

 

Again, vid on YouTube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Year's Quiz.

This tree stands about 13 inches high. How many metres of fishing line does it contain? Those who already know can't play! Post your guess here. No cheating! Closest guesser gets a virtual kiss.

 

 

Rememebr, a year only lasts a year, so this year, I'm wishing everyone a lengthy and greatly improved future.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Very impressive work. Well done!

[bigbadbadge]

OMG, that is seriously awesome, what a stunning model, great work. 

Chris

[sanfrandragon]

Lovely attention to detail, love the moss.