Fire in The Old Church

Following my last posting the new washing machine was delivered and installed, as part of the service the old machine is taken away for re-cycling and so usually is the packaging the new machine is delivered in. This time I asked them to leave the polystyrene, at first there were raised eyebrows but once I explained why and showed them one of the cottages they dug a couple of other choice pieces off their van for me, so here is my new horde of material and I’m already eyeing it up with ideas forming. I’ll let the ideas bubble away for a while before jumping in. 

Besides, there is a lot of other work to finish first.

Mainly this week I’ve been working on the old church ruins, the odd plastic pieces passed over to me by BigLee some (embarrassed cough) years ago. Now, inspired by the set from the first series of The Vampire Diaries I’ve started on this small diorama piece adding a piece of the broken wall originally made for the castle ruin set and some pieces of twig and branches cut down from the garden. 

I based the model onto some thick card and using wall filler made some mounds and fixed down the larger twigs as stumpy trees. The whole effect I was going for was for an area of land around the church where nothing now grows, having compiled my own small legend around the piece as I worked on it.

Three different basing materials have been used, grey stone rock debris (Talus by Woodland Scenics, Fine Natural) a red dusty sand (Javis ‘Countryside Scenics’, Sandstone scatter) plus a brown scatter material which I’ve had in the cupboard so long I no longer know the make or colour scheme I’m afraid.

I mentioned in the previous update that I tried to hide the very straight edge plastic look of the model piece, this I did by mixing a small portion of wall filler in with the second basing coat which I repainted the model with, before adding and blending white to make the stone effect. The same paint scheme as used for the castle ruins, allowing me to utilise one of the pieces from that set.

I found the old handle from a wicker basket down the side of the old washing machine, this I’ve pulled apart and used for some of the wild grasses. The natural brown colour adds to the effect of dead plant life. I also stripped fine strands of stringy bark from the old garden canes; these are the very thin straight strands you can see on the model.

Now for the back story...

Asgar turned to his brother. “So what is this place?”

    His brother glance at him. “An old church, destroyed by fire – or so the legend goes.”

    “Legend?”

   Mendez sighed. “They say devil worship took place here, a hundred virgins were sacrificed to open a gateway to the fiery pits of hell. They succeeded but the fire they unleashed burnt the place down. The land is still stained by their blood.”

    Asgar looked down, the land around his feet was certainly very red in patches.

   “Not quite,” called Dynaclease, the third of the brothers climbing over the old tree stump. “Devil worship was being practiced, but the gods sent a fireball from the heavens to cleanse the ground. It struck the church and brought down the tree over the entrance to the crypt, trapping them all in and so they perished in the fire caused by the lightning strike.”

    “I see,” Asgar said stepping backwards. He cried out as a large area of ground gave way under his feet and he fell crashing through into the darkness below.

To give the effect of the possible lightning strike I actually set fire to the tops of the stumps and charred them. There’s nothing like being authentic.

I have a little more detail more to finish on this piece before it’s finished, I hope to get it completed over the weekend.