Thursday 23 August 2012

Watermill in 28mm

I have had this project made and delivered for a few weeks now but haven't got round to posting pics etc.
Dave Imrie saw the English Civil Wargame that I had done the terrain for at Salute 2011 and he liked the mill I had done there. A couple of months later he officially commissioned me to make one for him along with  4x4ft terrain boards. I finished it just after Salute this year so the whole process took just about a year!
Here is the overall board:
The 4 boards are my usual 595mm x 595mm size and 50mm thick. They are made from a frame of mdf and a base of hardboard. I then fill them with polystyrene and then add what I need to make the landscape that has been ordered. The whole thing is very robust and give very clean tough edges- there is more chance of the boards damaging you than you damaging the boards. This job saw me finish off with my usual mix of green flock- 3 shades with the first layer being dark green followed by a lighter shade, finishing off with a highlight of very light green. I then soak it all in watered down PVA glue to keep the flock in place. I always paint the earth before I flock so overtime if some flock is lost the earth showing through still gives it a good look.
The river is just painted polyfilla which is then varnished. I do use clear resins for water effects but only for small areas. I find if you get the colouring right then a good paint job makes a very effective river.
The mill itself is stone finished so I covered the foam board skeleton of the building with Daz Pronto (air dried clay). Once it was dry I was able to carve the stone pattern into it. It takes ages but is worth the effort. The sandstone colour is achieved with a yellow ochre base coat, washed with a raw umber and then dry brushed with a couple of shades of cream. The final touch is a bit of weathering with some raw umber- water streaks, splash marks- that sort of thing.



The outhouses were brick and I used brick embossed plasticard for them.
Some quick notes on some of the details
the courtyard tiles are from a dolls house supplier and they are sold as kitchen tiles. They are small pieces of real brick so the texture on them is wonderful.
Guttering from Skytrex and their railway range
windows are my own resin bits.
A small kitchen garden made from a kit that I can't remember the details of now.

Just to finish off with a few more pictures










That is it for this one. Dave is planning to use this for ECW gaming I think but I have made it as generic as possible so can be used for all sorts of periods.



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