And the Municipal Buildings Are Underway!

 Unlike my previously scratch-built buildings, this time I have made a number of simple drawings and sketches of how the finished structures will look, more or less.  This followed several weeks of examining many old buildings, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, that still exist in Denmark, across the north of Germany, Northern Poland, and into present-day Lithuania and Latvia.

The last week or so has been fairly relaxed around Totleigh-in-the-Wold in general and, more specifically, down here in Zum Stollenkeller Mk. II since my return late last Sunday evening from the big annual conference organized by The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Minneapolis.  So, I have had lots of free time to make headway on the latest building project.  Other than a rear wing for one, or possibly two of the planned buildings (the hospital and the university), the walls of the basic structures have all been cut out and cemented together. 

Next up, some internal reinforcements in the corners (these are all somewhat larger than most previous structures), and then the various roofs.  These should be tedious, time-consuming, and will no doubt result in my quietly filling the air with occasional blue language given the complicated angles of the planned half-hipped and mansard roofs.  You know the drill.  Measure everything, cut it out with a hobby knife, check the fit, trim where necessary, check it again, scratch your head, curse your miscalculations, throw everything away, start over again, hold your breath, turn blue in the face, and finally get it right the second or third time around.

Seriously though, channeling one's inner Ian Weekley is good fun, and a nice way to ease back into the hobby after a few months of forced inactivity due to the pressures of work and domestic life.  Still lots to do before I can paint these, of course, but the biggest step is getting off one's behind and to the workbench to start in earnest.  Procrastination is the devil, something that plagues many undergraduates each semester.  And yet so many of them (it's not just freshmen who suffer from the malady either), too many, never manage to figure it out.  But of course, they won't be told.  Sigh.  More students could achieve so much more if only they were to follow directions and (timely) procedure.

-- Stokes

And another drawing of a planned town building.

Yesterday, Sunday, the Grand Duchess and Young Master were away all day with her visiting parents, so it was time to sit down, begin cutting wall sections, and glue everything together.  The previously built barn section, from 2011 I think, is there for reference.  A few tools of the trade are also visible here, including a heavy craft knife, a metal ruler, a small metal square, four right angle mini-claps, a stack of heavy card (2.54mm thick), and two types of water soluble glue -- Elmer's Carpenter's Glue and tacky glue.  Internal ruins will be constructed with bits of balsa wood and mounted on heavy card, which will match the length and width dimensions of each structure.  Painting  and 'windowing' will be the final steps.

A close-up of two of the four mini-right angle clamps that I ordered from MicroMark -- The Small Tool Specialists a few weeks back to hold parts together more precisely while the glue dries.  They seem to work well.

This time around, I am taking greater care to get my cuts and angles right and, thus, avoid frustrating surprises (and wasted materials) when it comes time to glue pieces together.

This small square, purchased through Amazon, has proven extremely handy so far.  There are many highly interesting videos on YouTube by various model train buffs explaining tips and tricks for scratch-building layout scenery.  Ideas that are, in most instances, eminently adaptable when it comes to making one's own wargaming scenery.  Tip #1, make sure to get your cuts and angles precise, so everything fits together exactly.  The time and bit of extra care spent doing this helps to ensure nicer looking buildings once everything is finished.

Finally, here are the final results of an uninterrupted Sunday afternoon's work.  Nine new buildings in progress!  And here I thought there would only be seven.  Ah, well.  The footprints of these new structures are in the neighborhood of four to six inches long by two to three inches deep.  As mentioned in the previous post, vastly underscale, but they should still look good once painted, resemble actual buildings that might be seen in the older parts of larger towns or small cities in Northern "Yurp," and liven up the ol' gaming table.  The structure drying at the far right, by the way, is slated to become a small replica, more or less, of the main part of the old Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Luebeck, Germany (pictured in the last post).  I'll even take a stab (I hope that I'm not jinxing myself here given the sharp instruments involved) at cutting tiny towers and turrets that adorn its facade from some small heavy cardboard tubes that I've had squirreled away in a box of odds and ends for two decades!