A little overwhelmed in the murky middle. With only 48 hours to go, probably a good time to take stock and make some decisions.
Signage
Relatively painless with modifications. There was no way I was fitting two lilies on that texture with any sense of proportion or detail. Untextured just looked weird and out of place. I probably could have gone wire brush woodgrain only, but I like the rustic grain and it’s fun to burn into foam.
First attempt lacked contrast. Attemped to up the ante with a Micron 0.35 mm, but chasing the inside straight rarely works out. Took a few swings to hit the Goldilocks-zone. I shaved the b-side of the two tallest and glued them back-to-back with wire hangers. Little touch-up for the exposed edges. Wondering if the shape should have been more exaggerated, but bit late for that now.
The last lily made the best use of space, so made that the front with the willowly attempt on the tavern facing side. The rear of the building was looking a bit plain, so pried out one of the beams and replaced it with the third attempt, cut-down.
Stucc-faux
Schnikes. What a difference a day makes. Tower section with the arrow window was done with the black sand I use for basing – pretty sure it’s aquarium sand. The sections on the right are the superfine craft sand I probably overpaid for, but I ain’t mad at it. The rear view of the mill is one coat of the super fine mix over one coat of the high grit mix. I think it smooths it out enough to move on. The side view is just the super fine git and its pretty perfect; think I finally got the water ratio down.
Portals
Doors are in. They’re pretty standard beam doors. I used bamboo stir sticks for the banding, but I wish I’d gone with something thinner. I didn’t want to saturate card stock and risk it separating, but some happy medium is out there. Or just use more foam. Whatever.
Next time I will take the Nerdforge route, and do the dormer windows as subassemblies, to be installed on the roof later. I’m ok with the window frames, but not sure how the inserts are going to weather. I either need to start planning for LEDs or find a better mech solution for windows.
The mill arches need brick trim and brick interior, if there’s time. Depends on how well the roofing goes.
Trying out Gallery Glass leading again. So far its just as frustrating to try to apply in thin lines. Will have to see if cleanup goes as smoothly as last time. Its time consuming AF, but if I don’t get to them before Tuesday, I’m not that fussed.
Was also going to try straight acrylic on glass, but a rather timely watch of an older video of Alpay’s (which I can no longer find because I paused my history) reminded me how much planning goes into a well-executed animation-style cel. After literally scratching that, left the whole thing to percolate while I finish what I can.
So now what
Time allowing…
- Touch-up paint
- Roofing
- Details
- Door hardware
- Weathervane
- Weathering
- Tavern Base
- Mill Base
Roof pieces are cut, but need to test installation methods for the coco coir – cut to fit? cut in strips? The cardboard is somewhat sealed with PVA, but I don’t think water shaping in place is a good idea. Maybe a light misting in conjunction with a heat gun set. At this point I just hope I can unravel the edges enough to cover the corrugated cardboard.
Overall, I would say this was a fairly successful, if goopy, dry-run. As usual, next time a plan would be a good plan. The builds themselves aren’t bad for quick and dirty, but order of operations is always a thing. The build phase is my favorite, but shouldn’t be an excuse to tape / glue / secure things too soon in the procress. Next time I build the tavern, it will be in several roofless subassemblies with an open center for LED access. And now I have a place to flop while I plot and watch Rachel Maksy.
