Two more Buildings Started

 I started on these next two buildings after chopping and changing my mind about their sizes over several weeks.Bting the bullet,  I took a further hour to finally decide their sizes.
On the left is the building I call the Bank, its footprint is approximately 10" square (26cm). The building adajcent to it is just referred to as no.4, its footprint is a mere 9"x5" (approx. 23cm x 12cm).

Here's the pics of my progress:

Building #3 - the Bank

Building #4

It took me nearly ten hours over two days to plan, draw and cut-out all the pieces needed. The 'Bank; has double thickness walls that required careful measuring for the inside layer. There's also a step up into the 'Bank' and a raised rear patio area. So a ground floor of foamboard was necessary.

Front of the 'Bank'

Rear of the 'Bank'

The left side of the 'Bank'

Front of #4

The rear of #4 (obligatory blurry photograph)

Three-quarter view to compliment the photo below to show what I was working from.

The only view of this side of #4 that I could find

It was this view that made me re-cut the long rectangular narrow window above the lean-to about 2cm lower than I'd done originally, The original position is just visible in the three-quarter view above.

The lean-to has had the horizontal bricks scored, but the vertical cuts have still to be made.  

The front of the 'Bank' with its imposing entrace

The front of the 'Bank' has a very imposing entrance (my reason for calling it the Bank) and I had to spend a whole two hour session getting it looking even partially similar (and it's still not finished - Ed.)

Progress so far, still a fair bit to do on this.

Mock-up showing how it looks, not glued on yet, for ease of working on it.

I've been well above my 'hour a day' regime, clocking in some twenty plus hours over the last six days.There's a lot of work still to do to get these two models anywhere near finished, windows and panes (a pain to do), doors and of course roofs, the 'Bank' has a flat roof with a parapet (with some decoration)'. 'Number 4' has a very long sloping tilesd roof and a very small bit of the other side, plus of course the stonework and roof of the lean-to has to be done. I doubt I'll get all this finished in a single week and will be taking it much easier. I found that towards the end of long sessions, I was making mistakes that meant re-cutting etc..

 

That's it then for another week, thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully there was something of interest.
As always your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

  

The Banditos

 

With the addition of more 'credit ' cards, I based up  the last horses and brought them up to the stage of all the other horses. I spent most of my time shading all the horse with black, brown and chestnut washes before tackling all the tack. Other than the leader's tack I painted all the others' the same leatherish colour as the saddles of the bandit horses. The leaders saddle and horse tack was black in case you were wondering.

Then began the task of clearing a big enough space to get all sixteen riders and horses; my game table had to have a space cleared and here's the results:

Riding into town.

Half the town was removed to get them all in one shot.

This is less than half the gang !

Overhead view

Gratuitious padding - Ed

Nearest I could get to a rear shot without moving them all

The horses all need a bit of work on their bases and a coat of varnish, but at least they're all but done, the remaining twenty five just need riders and their dismounts:

The rest of the horses in their fancy storage units

I also did a quick paint job on the attemoted conversion using the Poundland modelling clay.It nevr really hardened but was more like the consistency of a solid rubber ball.

Very quick paint-job but at least the 'hair' stayed on !

I've nicknamed him Aaron.

From my perspective I've had a busy week, even today I was painting horses' eyes and nostrils on the few I'd missed. 

Over the next week I intend to start two new buildings and taking the flash off my gunfighters as they'll be the next on the paint tray (I'm sick of Mexicans atm).

 

That's it then for another week, thanks for taking the time to visit, I hope it was worth it.

As always your comments are always  welcomed and appreciated.

A Miscellany of Bits

 Over the last week, I did manage a lot of painting, almost double my regime target of an hour  a day, but still never managed to finish a single piece. Neverthe less, here's some photographs of what I've managed to get done.

The photograph on the right, shows all the horse in their current state, save for three others, that need basing, painting etc. to bring them to the same stage as these.

Luckily I got a new injection of 'credit' cards from a friend, so the three will be brought 'up to speed' this week.

"Poundlandworld" impulse buy

I also had an attempt at using my newly acquired "air drying odelling clay" from Poundlandworld.

It's a peculiar substance, feeling like rubbery 'Plasicene", very malleable and soft.

I used one of my Marx robbers as an experiment in cutting off hats and moulding a head of hair on him. The photograph shos the result, but even afte 48 hours it still hasn't hardened, so is impossible to work on atm ! 

There are Seven packets of 'clay' tubes each about two inches long by about half an inch diameter (50mm x 12mm approx.).

The now hatless Marx gunman.

Huge Gorilla and 'farmer'

I also purchased another two figures from "Poundlandworld's" 'Play to Discover" wild anuimals range (2 for £1), in this set they're a gorilla and a baby elephant. Both are manifestly to scale, but not the same scale ! However I'm pretty sure that both can be used in Jimland, though the Gorilla will dwarf my current model !

The farmer in the photographs is about 25mm tall and is a cheap 'knockoff' of the old 1/32nd (54mm) "Briatains' " figure.

The other figure is an "Old Glory" native that had his staff repaired and hasn't seen Jimland yet.

A few mold lines on the beast, but he's still a very usable figure imho

THe elephant is a good 'baby' size imo - but those toenails!

Bonus rear pic of Farmer and "Witchdoctor" (Padding  -Ed.)

That's all I.ve got htis week but I have still been planning my next two buildings and the week was interupted by a routine hospital visit on Friday. This week I have another annual eye review that leavesme unabe to see clerly for a coupke of hours. It's a diabetic check-up (I'm not diabetic) but I do have a degenerating eye condition to add to by slight colour blindnesss, And you wonder why I don;t like painting ?

Thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully something was of interest (I doubt it - Ed.) and of course your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Horses

Even though I've kept up with my "at least an hour a day" hobby routine, I feel I've done next to nothing this last week, but acccomplished quite a lot.

Photograph on the right shows the sum total of my efforts !

 

 

 

 

 Here's my week:

Remember these ?

Monday Blog -3 hrs approx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About half of the'herd'

Tuesday, scoring the plasticard bases for the horses,  ten scratches one way, then ten the other way to make a criss-cross pattern. repeat process for reverse side. For nearly forty bases this amounted to over fifteen hundred score marks (just a tad boring ) - approx 2hrs.

 

Wednesday, glue horse to bases - not enough superglue gel for such large bases so uses UHU - works fine on the two types of plastic (horse and 'credit card' - an hour at least

 

 

Part of the results of Thursday to Saturday's efforts

Thursday - applied ready-mix filler to bases, run out half way through and had to find old supply and
mix by hand before applying - 3+ hours  (I  did it in approximately three lots iirc). Waited 24 hours to dry.

 

Friday- seperate bases from tray, repaired some flaking (especially where there were no scoring marks) and then covered the whole base in PVA filler and allowed to dry for 24 hours - approx two hours, maybe three.

 Saturday -  a break in the awful windy, wet weather  allowed me to take the oppotunity to undercoat all the models about an hour's work.

Saturday evening watched England beat Ukraine great end to a very satisfying day..

Flank view of the three hurriedly finised horses

Sunday - started painting horses, managed three before being interupted by family commitments and had to go shopping to buy enough food to last a small seige.

Bonus rear view for those that like this sort of thing

'Essentials' from Poundlandwold - £9 well spent

Took advantage of the situation to visit Poundlandworld for 'essentials'. Managed to just about finish only three horses taking eight hours overall but only about an hour's painting!

Three banditos with their new mounts

Today finished this post and took some stage pics:

The horse had a quick wash ver them and still need a quick spray varnish.

As an experiment I used three different washes, from left to right

Quickshade, homemade brown wash and an old black ink wash. 

With my eyesight I see very little differences.

 

Three down , just these few to go (note fancy storage tray)

That then has been my week, I'll be more than likely continuing to paint horses for the rest of this week - some sort of punishment no doubt.

And that's it for another week, thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully you've found something of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and truly appreciated.