The Basic Town Structures Are Assembled. . .

The nine assembled structures now await balsa chimneys, a few external stairways, and some other outer details.

Righty-oh! The nine new town buildings are mostly assembled save for the addition of a few external features. And all made from thick card and balsa. Several of these feature some internal framework made from the latter given the rather complicated roof schemes. Funny how the plan was originally for seven new buildings, but I've ended up with nine. Kind of like rabbits I guess.

I learned a new word while looking around online for a few minutes last night before turning in. Apparently, there is a large group of hobbyists out there -- real eccentrics -- who make miniature buildings to scale from paper and thin cardstock in what is referred to as "papertecture," and they are not all necessarily wargamers or model train enthusiasts. Who knew?

Anyway, once the external features are added to the buildings above over the next few days, then the fun stuff can start, i.e. the painting, the timbering (fachwerk) in a few instances, and the windowing. I'm looking forward to these steps.

-- Stokes

And the final building in the batch. Getting this particular dormer right given the roof line was a lengthy, frustrating experience, but I finally managed it after just about 90 minutes and numerous "almosts" that didn't quite work because I got one or another angle not quite right in the trimming.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Stokes, I've just caught up with your town plan. They are cracking buildings and will look fabulous when painted. I've always liked your buildings, they have just that little something that makes them stand out from the crowd...authenticity, no less. Best wishes, Simon

4:17 PM

Bloggerator said…

I swear, I turn my back on you for a minute and see what you get up to..!

5:44 PM

Archduke Piccolo said…

I can imagine gambrel roofs are tricky! Nice buildings, those, even unfinished - sturdy looking and practical. I have made a few of my own buildings using light card or embossed card that you can get from model railway hobby shops, but not from the more robust materials you have chosen.

6:27 PM

Steve-the-Wargamer said…

Will you go with your Charge!/minimalist/naive (?) style same as the last one's you made, or more detail?

6:51 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Thank everyone for your comments and kind words! As far as style goes, I'll stick with the naive style of previous buildings with most external details suggested via simple painting although I do have a few surprises up my sleeve. I'm off to the arts and craft store, among other places, now in fact.

Best Regards,

Stokes

8:48 AM

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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