Town Center/ big project

[Theomar Pius]

First off, the idea of it. I don't really plan these out so much ahead of time, which helps with the look of it being built up over time. I do however, start with a basic idea.Also keep in mind, this is going to be a rather large project for me, but the techniques are the same if you want to do a smaller building, or a watchtower, or whatever.
The basic idea here is town houses, built on top of a stone foundation of apartments. This is basically the homes for the non-land owners in the village. I don't know how accurate this would be, but hey, it's fantasy!

I'm starting with the foundation, which will have a tunnel through the center, a staircase that leads to a common area on top, with access to the half timbered town houses.

Materials I've used so far, masonite, a sheet of pink foam, and lemax cobblestone street, roughly 30 New Zealand dollars all together.

I cut and beveled the hardboard, and glued the cut street in place. The street is glued over some very thin foam, to make the street bumpy. I made the tunnel by cutting many arches and gluing them together. The stonework is done by drawing out the brick pattern, then re-tracing it with a sharp knife. Once cut, I go back over the scribed lines with a pencil, to open them up. Finally, take a rough stone and press it into the foam to give it texture.

More to come tomorow.



In the top pic, you can see a cover-up job I did on the main stairs. They were looking quite rough, so I cut a very thin piece of foam to cover it, giving it a fresh surface.
However, this led to an issue. With this thin cover, it would most likely not hold up to the processs of being sliced up and spread with a pencil. Instead, for this, I just drew the brick pattern on with a ballpoint pen, pressing hard. Now this method is a double edged sword. On the one hand, it is much quicker than the knife and pencil method. On the other hand, it lacks a bit of detail, and is harder to paint. If you have to have a piece done for a game on friday, do it this way, but if you have the time, I suggest the other. I'm hoping that this will look ok after paint.

The other pics are a couple of windows made from silver buckles, picked up at a craft store. The other is just a basic progress report. It's going to be a few days of brickwork this week.




I finished (mostly) carving the back side of the foundation, and glued the whole lot together. Once the glue is dried, I'll flip it over onto a larger piece of foam to trace out the opening for the top. It's going to be an ugly process, just because instead of using math and measurements, it's just tracing and hoping for the best. The plus side is the foam is pretty easy to work with, so you really can't screw up. Even rips, dents, cracks etc can be re-painted to look like weathering.

[Keeper]

Stunning Theomar :D  You make it look so easy!!

I'm tempted to have a go myself, as soon as I can find time :)

[Perv]

I cant believe how much detail you have to carve into the pink foam, I would be there forever and a day !!!  You obviously have a knack for it and you make it look great in such little time.  Hat off to ya mate !!!!

[dargrin]

Really cool start.  You must have gone through a ton of x-acto knife blades.

[Hawkins]

looking great. nad thanks for the heads up on how you did it, i was wondering.

[Theomar Pius]

Really cool start.  You must have gone through a ton of x-acto knife blades.

You have no idea!
Actually on any given project, I'll go through probably 5-10.
Having a sharp blade is critical to keep from tearing the foam. Usually I'll switch back to an older blade when I'm doing the woodwork.

[Caerban]

That's astounding. Can't wait to see more!

[Theomar Pius]

Just finished with the base for the upper level. It took a bit of time to do thecobblestone, but I think it will turn  out really well. I basically did the same thing as the pen on the stairs from earlier, but this time used a dull pencil. The reson behing this was because the base cote will be lighter, a grey, which I know from experience will not cover ink. The pencil tends to rip the foam, not as smooth as the pen. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for at the time.
The other picture is to show an idea of scale, this thing will be pretty big.

Up next, figuring out how to put houses on this thing.




EDIT: This is getting away from me, and not at all what my original concept was. I think I'm going to set this aside, and come back to it later as part of the outer walls, perhaps a secondary gatehouse. As it is, it is just too massive for anything non-civic.

[Theomar Pius]

Alright guys, sorry for the delay, but now I'm back for more.

First, I must explain the major changes to this piece. As part of a two part project, the two piece need to work together. Unfortunately, I began to realise that this piece would not work with the other half, which is already completed. So, this had to go on the back burner. I do like what I have, it will just have to be adjusted to fit a new role, as a wall section and gatehouse. It will work out I'm sure.

Anyhow, on to this one.
Instead of one large, grand building, I've broken it up into two smaller buildings. One is a tavern, the other a townhouse with living both downstairs and up.
Since we already went through the process of the pink foam earlier, we'll pick up with the foamcore structures. These go together rather quickly for the basic shell. Even with regular white glue, they bond in about a minute or so. What I do is build the foundation out of pink, then the building with a slightly larger footprint out of white.
Once the basic building is together, I do all of the add ons to hang off of the building. After that is simple balsa windows. It's essentially matchsticks glued together to make frames. If I could afford it, I would just buy model railroad windows, but I'm on a very tight budget right now.
So that's where I  am right now, building windows, cutting the openings out, and gluing them in place. It's kind of a tedious process to be honest, probably my least favourite step all in all.

[Bungle]

this is looking great.

Its a shame some of the pieces are so big, you could make money by selling them to a building producer as masters for resin versions.

[Theomar Pius]

this is looking great.

Its a shame some of the pieces are so big, you could make money by selling them to a building producer as masters for resin versions.

Eventually, I'd like to go into business casting and selling my own. My Father was a pattern maker, my Grandfather was a pattern maker, my Uncles were pattern makers...

[Bungle]

Have you thought about doing it now..... there is a guy on the forum who does very nice resin casts... he might be interested if you ask.

profit split would be no risk to him... but a pain to administer.

if he isn't I could put you in touch with someone who might be interested.

[Theomar Pius]

I have my irons into a few different fires.
Eventually, I want my own fire. I've been out of work for so long though, that until I get back on my feet, the best I can do is commisions (which is not at all bad).

The job market here in Detroit is dreadful. There are about 300,000 unemployed, and about 60,000 jobs available. :icon_ermm:

[Theomar Pius]

A couple more updates here.
First, I finished the windows, both construction and installation.
Secondly, I painted the interiors flat black. If you don't plan on building detailed interiors, this is really the only way to go. It keeps any of the interior from showing through. The last thing you need is the pink foam appearing as pink walls in your town!

[Theomar Pius]

Quick update: The Construction of the roof is done. Now I'm working on the timbers. I start with the horizontals, then the window frames, and the verticles. Although, I think I will make the townhouse all wood.