Friday 16 October 2015

I built a house

This took a while. About six months. Ok, it didn’t take that long, it was probably a few hours but they were stretched over about six months of finding 20 minutes here and there to do little bits and pieces. Unfortunately I hadn’t learned to make notes as I went along (something I’m now doing) so would regularly forget what I had intended to do with it.

I started out by following another tutorial in an old White Dwarf along with some tips in a book my brother bought me for christmas (which I will write about at some point) but deviated fairly heavily fairly quickly.

I managed to not make the same mistake with the base that I had done with the barn previously and used a sheet of MDF cut up with a craft knife. For the record you can cut an oval out of MDF with a craft knife but it’s a massive pain in the arse; I need a workspace that is not our dining table. I did make the same mistake with the roof (lightweight cardboard). It warped and pushed the balsa wood out of alignment, but I’m going to claim it was a deliberate effect, it is after all supposed to be a tumble down cottage.

I may have gone overboard with the floral decorations. The roses are made from crumpled tissue paper dipped in watered down acrylic paint, the pointy alien plants are made of modelling clay, the long grass was made by trimming a cheap paintbrush.

I wasn’t too happy with the log pile but it’s staying there now, also the white path is far too white. I think I was planning to do some extra bits to it but for the life of me I can’t remember what so I’ve decided it’s finished. I’ve started working on three other pieces, so expect an update around 2020.