Blacksmiths

As with the other buildings, it only just fits in the lightbox, so photos may not be the best, but, for better or worse, the Blacksmiths is finished... 

As I said in the WIP, I removed the wall extensions from the wooden frame, it made more sense without the roof to only have them on the walls - they are now on the inside of the roof which I neglected to photograph...

 

It is of course an absolute swine to get a good photo of the inside, but hopefully this covers it. The forge floor was a conundrum at first, I didn't want wood, and stone seemed a bit too posh, so, after a pleasing result in the plague house, went for a compacted dirt/clay floor within a brick frame... didn't quite get the same result as the plague house, but it will do... I added a few clumps of grass where the floor could have cracked and seeds taken a foothold... strange fisheye thing happening with the photo, it is straight... honest...

 

and of course, the Smithy himself... rather than track down a blacksmith mini, I decided to go with stuff I already have (a sign of things to come I feel), and this chap is from the Warlord Clubmen set... as a cleaver was included in the weapons options for the set, I had always seen him as a butcher, but a g/s hammer and a brown leather apron and a perfectly compact and rotund blacksmith will do...

 

blacksmiths ooops

ok... this is really for anyone following/copying what I've been doing and buying the window packs from 4ground... the blacksmiths has been a bit of a slow slog, the thatch really annoyed me so I kind of stepped away for a bit and got distracted with some tents I started a while back and did some pressmolding and stuff...

anyhoo, back on with the blacksmiths and painting is all but done (getting the compacted dirt floor right was a pain), which is when I fit the windows... now I bought the market hall windows pack as it had more windows in it than the cottage windows pack so better value I figured... sadly, the market hall windows are a different fricking shape to the cottage and of course I used the cottage as the basis for the frames in the blacksmith... so they won't fit...

my fault I guess (not sure if it's on the 4ground site) but there you go, I'll find a use for them, but now need to order a new set of windows before I can get finished with it... sigh...

September is looking like a dry month for updates, but I have been doing stuff, just not finishing...

Mast Beast...

and the Mast Beast is painted...

happy with this one, painted two at once - the one on the d/s base will be destined for the Fenris display case and webstore...

and the resin master - see, a new foot!

Black Dog

painted the Black Dog... not 100% happy with it to be honest, the eyes work quite well, but the paintjob as a whole isn't winning me over, but I figure I better step away from it... and annoyingly it's still shiny, after several coats of dullcote...

I did resculpt the muzzle from the WIP shot though, the nose is narrower, but the snout is slightly shorter and taller, makes it a bit less wolf-life hopefully...

and for size comparison...

so, he'll do for now - I have more of the basic Wild Warg model, so can always revisit this...

blacksmiths part 2

very productive couple of days... quite surprised actually, I'm such a good procrastinator... anyway, the basic build of the blacksmiths is done...

foampvc with bits of plasticard in spots and dressed with balsa, need to do the render, and add woodgrain texture to the supports and beams of the forge area which are plastic girder and foampvc for strength (balsa would have been a non-starter)...

not sure what to do with the chimney, will probably do a couple of extra layers of brick on the chimney so it has a hole as it were... the forge pieces aren't attached yet, I need to texture and paint the main building first, the base is made from thin plasticard layered to a decent thickness and to allow the forge and bellows to sit in cutaways designed for them... it's reasonably sturdy now, and should be quite solid when finished...

the building is based on the 4ground buildings (obviously), so the room has the same footprint and it will take the same windows... learnt a bit as I was going, and had to add a wee bit to the side walls as I hadn't allowed for the gap once the roof was added (may remove those from the forge sides and add them to the roof)... but it's been a fun job - although the roof was a complete pig, I've got it good now, but it was a bit disconcerting... the roof alone is making me rethink my plan for the pub...

Black Dog WIP

a quick WIP of the lone phantom dog...

it's a GW Wild Warg, the head was cut down, lower jaw removed, back hair removed, and generally the whole head got trimmed down to a vaguely more doggy head shape... loads of g/s so far and it's looking ok, I need to redo the lower lip as that was left from when I'd given it a thicker lower jaw, but that is thinner now to help make the snout more pointy... new ears were a quandry, as I didn't want it too wolf-like but floppy mastiff ears didn't look right and as it looks like it's stalking, the forward pricked ears helped with the body language... the problem is, I don't want it too wolf-like as they are always described as big black dogs - although the last wolf was killed a hundred years before my planned period, the sightings of the dogs go back far enough for the witnesses to know what a wolf looks like... I plan on making the feet slightly bigger, and am pondering on the tail... a short tail would remove the wolfishness of it and a bushier tale would just add to it, so a short tail seems likely... but would make it a bit more hyena-ish, but I can live with that... and of course, as it's a Warg under there, it's big, and is currently on a 30mm base...

now, the various Black Dogs are usually harmless, but mostly the theme is that they were a portent of death... in game terms, aside from some tweaking for the shapeshifting Capelthwaite, this doesn't really offer much in the way of a danger, unless of course the reason that they herald a death, is that they are doing the killing...

erm... and yes, I added the demon dogs lipstick down there as well, just seemed wrong not to... no balls yet though...