A change of tree.

The more I looked at the fallen tree on my Christmas card picture the more I disliked it.  I found a suitable twig in my collection of things magical and replaced the original. I think it looks much better.

The Rio Bozo under the Plughole Falls bridge.

A few snaps. The water needs a fresh coat of pledge but that'll have to wait until some dusty work is finished.

Season's greetings

Just playing

I really do have to finish replacing the backscene and its mounting board on the long wall but keep putting it off till later.  In the meantime I've been having fun on the Rio Bozo down in the Plughole Falls gorge.

Finally got me a bear! He's not interested in the ceanothus he's looking for honey

I decided to model a fallen tree down in the gorge.  A suitable twig with some distressing by an Exacto saw blade then some paint and away we go.

A twig and some seafoam,

The wildflowers are enjoying the early summer micro climate in the gorge.  The fir tree is a cheap n nasty plastic one dressed with flock "needles" I think it's pretty good for something I'd normally throw in the junk bin.

A few details

One of the things I'm very lazy about doing is painting up details and sundry castings. It's tedious!  Trouble is the layout soaks them up. I'm going to try and discipline myself to do a few each week.  Here's this week's worth.

Various bits and pieces

Interior and lighting for St Griswold's

Did I say the church project was finished? Whatever was I thinking?  I've ordered a bunch of 12 volt, pre-wired LED's from China at negligible cost so I needed to make a rudimentary interior just in case anything can actually be seen through the windows.  A few strips of wood and card for pews and a stripwood altar with a paper altar cloth and a figure. He is an old fashioned German chimney sweep but in a formal type of garb so might look a bit churchified if viewed.  Anyhow he would not have found a home outside in Cuspidor, that's for sure. The tile floor is a paper texture from the web.

No need for fine modelling here!

I got some pre-wired white LEDS from dear old China for pennies and fitted a ceiling to hold two of them. Routed them out through the floor and tested the output.  Needn't have bothered with the interior detail you can't see it!  But the effect in the dark is nice.

Yet another silk purse - A Church for Cuspidor - Finished

Here are the final stages of construction. Once again the old Plasticville delivers.

Stained glass, I'll have to figure some decent internal lighting.

The door is too nice to be left static.

Cut down the middle and glued in an open position. I think church doors are mean to be open.  Porch needed a floor, plastic sheet with brick paper. 

I added an internal door graphic, dunno why, no-one will ever see it!

Seams blocked with Plasticine to prevent light leakage

 The roof had some issues, I think due to shrinkage over the years. I was able to bodge a fit by shaving of a moulded on lip on one side and offering the other side up under it, worked like a charm. The white bit had to be painted but that was it.

The finished article St Griswold's.

Yet another silk purse - A Church for Cuspidor 2

Eventually I want the church to have a "lived in" look without being dilapidated and a bit of weathering will tie things in all being well. I gave the walls a light wash of tan acrylic as a base stone colour and for mortar. Then I painted the window and door insets grey. The copper clad steeple was painted with a mix of light green and black to represent patina.

Then I picked out random stones in a series of thin browns and ochres and overpainted the windows and door insets with white as the grey was too dark.  The roof sections were painted a mix of blue and black for the Welsh slate that was imported by the parishioners at great expense in the heyday of the mines.  The roof looks like it has shrunk slightly but I think I can overcome any problems. I shall change the stated order of assembly and glue on the front roof before adding the front tower. That should afford me a bit of wriggle room, I hope. I've already eased out the location slots in the side walls of the tower to help out here.

Random stones picked out

Next step will be a spray of Dullcote to seal the colours so far.

A quick mock-up so far.

Attaching the window films with UHU 

The tower needed a floor

The front facade, and yes the steeple is wonky, I just plonked it on for the picture

Yet another silk purse - A Church for Cuspidor

As the last Plasticville kit was a success I scanned Ebay for any others available in the UK and I found what they marketed as a cathedral.  Seeing as the USA  is  and certainly was in the 30s, a rather devout country, unlike here where we've moved away from religion quite extensively, I needed a church and didn't fancy scratchbuilding one.   So I bought it for £12.99  (around $16).  When it arrived I was very impressed with the quality of the castings, zero flash and minimal ejector stud marks and the really crisp moulding. Whoever did the original tooling made a fine job of it.  I was going to distress the stone surface but as this isn't an ancient structure and there is surface detail moulded in I decided not to bother.

The only toylike feature was a set of printed sticky vinyl "Stained glass windows" that looked like a psychedelic kaleidoscope display. They were dumped and I found some suitable pictures of the real thing on google images which i printed on paper and played about with sizing before printing on ohp transparency. I was very impressed with the results even though little of it will be seen.  I might add some interior lighting though and they might come into their own then.

New stained glass

I removed the molded on pips that located the window "glass".

Then I spray painted the walls with red auto primer and the roofs and sundries in grey. 

Then I started picking out the windows and recesses in grey acrylic.

Silk purse finished

Except for a spray of Dullcote this is done and for 5 dollars' worth of ancient kit I'm pleased with the result. It won't make a foreground model but it ain't bad.

Another silk purse from a sow's ear?

The 4 month summer modelling hiatus is at an end and in order to get my modelling mojo back I'm doing a small kit project.

A while ago I bought very cheaply an old (30 years?) Plasticville kit of a tiny barn and silo.  The detailing is ok but crude and the old styrene is a bit brittle but I wanted to see if I could turn this ugly duckling into a little swan.

A similar but smaller Plasticville kit, the sides are smaller and different from mine.

The walls distressed.

Cracks and xacto grain.

I undermined the back of the cracks with a milling bit in the Dremel

Both side walls were identical so that had to be changed. I chiselled of the raised details and opened up a hole and added studs.

First breakthrough

Break enlarged (oops!) and a board added back in the centre

The exquisite workmanship behind the break.

Seamed roofing on one side and Campbell's corrugated on the other

A bit of rust.

Roof pieces and silo primed

Boards let into roof

Roof patches missing shingles

Silo top with seams carved in

Silo