DIY dice tray

getting arty again - DIY dice tray - picture frame from poundland, red felt 50p, some foam for the base so the screws don't scratch anything 80p, paint, glue and card kicking about, so princely sum of £2.30 - will have to see how durable it is...

but don't panic, the Mad Mummers are getting greenstuffed and the newest house is halfway painted, so some proper Folky updates coming soon....

paint

sigh.... problem with not having painted for over a year - paints are fecked... does not help but soldiering through...

and again...

ok, finally have a new laptop and got most things working.... sadly, little progress has been made as I need to pick up a couple of items to get going again, and obviously finances have gone elsewhere at the moment.... something resembling normal service will resume shortly....

... ish.

ok, so that didn't work out as I'd planned

so, partial mojo renewed at least... however the wonders of Norovirus and then my PC crapping out on me have not helped. So, despite pissing out of my arse for a week, having no PC for even longer and then loading a new operating system (and every little program or plug in you needed - seriously, never had that happen before, bloody Linux, back to Windows for me...), I still haven't been back on form modelling wise, partly a rediscovered love of boardgames is to blame, but also mainly Borderlands 2... but, I have been doing stuff (besides trying to remember every reference photo or pdf or link I lost in the crash), so viola:

just a tease for now, as the inside is trying something new (which looks great, but I want a big reveal)... ok, so another building, literally another Old Timber Frame Cottage from 4ground, but I've tried to vary it a little bit - hence the shift of the overhang being all at the front and, if you're sharp eyed enough, the ground floor is a little taller - so it doesn't look too identical to the other one. This one will have a tiled roof, so should be sufficiently different when finished. The chimney is bluefoam with random bricks etched in and then toughened up with liquid g/s. Splits in the chimney for the floors are similar to the big chimney in the Manor House, but I'll do close ups of those another time.

Now the overhang was originally going to take the wonderful Gothic Corbels from Antenociti, but I simply cannot find the damn things, I've looked everywhere and I know I had some somewhere... I would buy some more (£2 for 6), but postage would be £4 - I may yet cave in, as that overhang needs something to offset it and I'm now commited. Another building will be worked on next and then hopefully both will be painted together (with the Manor House, if I can decide how to finish the Gate House upper floor), but will need windows, lots and lots of windows...

EDIT: finally found the Corbels - which was a double result as they were in the same bag as the GW Green Man wall sconces, which would have been annoying if I'd realised that...

and I'm back...

OK, after a period of mojo recovery, I've been busy - sadly some of that was a build up, review, tear down kind of busy, but the corrections (note the plural there) were worthwhile.
 

The bridge slots on nicely and will lead to something I haven't come up with yet, I've decided not to use the hexagonal platforms on the corners as they look odd with the rear bits built up, so I've done a simple platform for security, am still working on ideas for the other corner.

I wanted an open area down into the engineeringy section, but that took a couple of attempts until I got something I liked. Even then, it didn't quite work, so I raised it slightly to give the joining bridge more clearance. That was too tall to join with the far build as I planned, so that got lowered. I plan that part to be quite tall, but haven't the foampvc at the moment to complete the walls. I dread to think how much got used on false starts to get cut off again.

Anyway, I didn't take a photo of the interior of the far build, but a recessed door has been built - I'm trying to take a leaf from BBC set design with the doors and split level floors. The recess should also give Vila some cover while he picks the lock. 

Quite a successful change has been the doors - I stumbled upon some hobby sheet aluminium, with a few scores from a scalpel, it's snapped to size and sanded down - it's quite rigid and has a nice finish, although I initially thought metal would be handy as a material if the paint should get worn off from use, it's kind of works as it is.

And that's about it really - am kind of stalled as I need some stairs in order to really advance the builds at this point, but that is in hand.

blather

firstly, I have a smart phone - and I'm still finding my way around the damn thing - however, it does appear to be smart enough to automatically include pics in my blog in my gallery and I miss my old wallpapers... so stay with me...

ahem - ok, progress on other things has been really slow, I had some time off work and really intended to get some figures painted, but my mojo has done a Burton and I'm stuck... suspect I will get back to the old toy thing as that is pushing me a bit more, but I am painfully aware of how long it's been since I actually painted anything and am getting a bit worried I might not get back in the swing of things... bloody mojo...