March Update

Stitching, Crafting & Writing - a busy March

Tapestry

The last few updates have concentrated on the Doctor Who Tapestry. I've been keeping a record of how long the work on the ancient one and the background area for him has taken based upon the playing time of the audio books I have been listening to whilst stitching. 

The previous post had the time at 43 hours 20 minutes. Additional work undertaken since then.

I completed most of the work on the Ancient One whilst listening to the first of the two new Target Novelisation Audio books: The TV Movie & Dalek a total of 9 ¾ hours. Then I moved on to the background. Backgrounds need to be simple, so I’m going for the green gas cloud that was used to kill the Ancient One at the end. This also includes binding the edge of the material. This takes some time. This was started listening to the other new novelisation audio books:  The Crimson Horror and the Witchfinders.

Doctor Who – The TV Movie by Gary Russell

Read by Dan Starkey, BBC Studios (5 hours)

 

Doctor Who – Dalek by Robert Shearman

Read by Nicholas Briggs, BBC Studios (4 ¾ hours)

 

Doctor Who – The Crimson Horror by Mark Gatiss

Read by Catrin Stewart & Dan Starkey, 

BBC Studios (4 ½ Hours)

 

Doctor Who - The Witchfinders by Jay Wilkinson

Read by Sophie Aldred, BBC Studios (4 hours, 10 mins)

 

So here I am, working with 20 shades of green to try and blend the smoke swirling up around the Ancient One. 

After another 8 ½ hours of the latest Big Finish Doctor Who releases.

Doctor Who – Stranded 2 

Doctor Who – The Lost Stories 6.1 Return of the Cybermen

Doctor Who – The Lost Stories 6.2 The Doomsday Contract

Bringing the time spent on this one character to over 61½ hours so far.

 

Next Tapestry Update

Building the Gateway

This has taken a backseat over the last couple of months again, but I have managed to make a little progress as the below photos will show. The left side now has basic wood and Daz clay coverage. I will get the basic coverage done before trying to clean up and add any details.

 Previous update

Writing.

As you will know, I seldom reveal too much about writing projects whilst they are still in development.

All I will say is that work on the new werewolf trilogy is going well, we are proofreading book two and I’m making final edits to the text for book three.

Book three has had some additional writing added to it, so I returned to the original notebooks, pulled out the pencils and got scribbling.

First draft is always handwritten in pencil. This filled the second skull book that was used for book three so I had to take up a new notebook, not having another of the skull books I found this nice little denim covered book in my collection of notebooks to use for the next 20K or so words.

Hopefully, I’ll be revealing more details of this project soon.

 

A few hours later

After several weeks of staring at computers screens all day, every day,  my brain finally went flip this week and refused to start up one morning, a deep thudding resonated throughout my skull resulting in me having to take a day off.

Surfacing late in the afternoon I avoid the monitor screens and took a couple of hours of just sticking wood onto to cardboard, smearing PVA glue everywhere and then followed that up with some DAS putty crafted to look like stonework.

In other words, a little more finally got done on the stone archway project. Photos below.

Of course this is going to be a location setting from either the Karl trilogy, or maybe from the new work that is currently in progress...

Next update on this project

Remedial Work

This morning I took on the Krynoid, Vervoid and Triffid tag team, I fought back, and armed with Flymo and sheers I think I won. After that, with a tidier garden, I got back to work on the haunted house model. I had already completed the windows and the other day I had a first bash at the door. However I was not happy with the door and promptly stripped it back and started again.

The first door filled the whole door space; this was too large for the model. This would have meant that inside the building the floor would have been too low for the position of the ground floor windows. The initial design was with the assumption that the floor was higher. I raised the position of the front door with some extra foam board and covered it with sticks to establish two steps up to the door with an additional doorframe added around the door.

After this I started an additional round of clean up and decided that some additional remedial work was needed before the final clean up. I had hoped to get on to the undercoating, but not today. I felt some of the stonework did not look robust enough. This house is supposed to appear unlived in, but it has to appear as if it would have stood up to time and some of the stonework looked too weak, like a thin coat of clay on the foam board and would never have held up the rest of the structure. I mixed up more of the DAS clay paste and added extra depth to the stones that form the base of the model, ensuring that the stones are built out to fit with the wooden framework.

Once all this is dry then I can do a final clean up before the mass undercoating begins.

Previous article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:
Another evening spent on broken windows

Next article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:
Haunted Undercoat

Weekend Roofing

I took a long weekend off work last weekend, spending Saturday in the company of several Doctors from a certain long running BBC science fiction series, at the Day of the Doctors convention in Slough.

Sunday was some dutiful housework, but Monday I had intended to venture into the garden and make a start on the spring clean up. The weekend prior had been very nice, weather wise, but Sunday never got light and Monday was little better – a few glimmers of sunlight every now and then to tease - but certainly no chance to drag everything out of the shed or attempt to mow the grass.

So I turned my attention back to the haunted house model. Before starting on the new idea for the windows, I wanted to get the roof finished first. However I had to admit that the roof on one tower was not as I would have liked it. That has had to come off, and get reshaped. Extra card glued inside along with an additional round of tiles at the bottom to attempt to get a better fit.

I also found several other areas where tiles did not hang correctly along edges of the various roof sections, so additional remedial work and extra tiles were added in various places. I think building the roof pieces separately and tiling them before putting them on might have been a bad move after all.

Once most of those patch ups were set I turned my attention to the edges of the roof sections, along the joins. I’ve still got some of that solid DAS putty left over from last year, I soaked it down and make it into a thick paste. I then added some PVA glue along the edges and moulded the paste along the gaps, shaping it as I went. I also added some additional shape to the top of the chimneys with the putty.

This has to then be left to dry out completely before anything else is done to the model. The dampness does spread along the cardboard tiles, but if left to dry, this does dry out ok, as I think you’ll see in one of the photos.

Now all I have to do is wait for the rebuilt piece of roof to dry out and then attempt to reattach it. At the moment it’s still clamped up. I seem to be having difficulty finding more of these claps in the local hardware/pound stores where I previous bought them. Somebody has suggested this might have something to do with a recent film release, but I wouldn’t like to comment.

Previous article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:

The House is Back

Next article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:
May Day, Breaking Windows

Mystery Model Takes Shape - Part Two

And the second session on the Mystery Model from Sunday.

Rear view of ground floor

The next piece to get my attention is numbered #4 in the grand scheme of things.

As you can probably guess this is the main roof for the building. Made in the same way as the last roof pieces from foam–board sides with an old cardboard envelope used as the main roof section. I used the existing fold in the cardboard at the apex of the roof. This made cutting the shape and size a bit easier since you are cutting both sides at once from the edge of the envelope.

Roof showing various stages of building

Each of the chimneys is made from two pieces of foam-board off cuts glued together with a V cut at the same angle as the roof slope. These were glued on before I tiled up to them, but were held in place with a couple of pins to allow be to continue work on them.

I then covered them in the DAS putty spread that I had reduced the old block down to, and like the walls, once semi dry I carved in the stones. The tiles are just more of the same small squares cut from the remains of the same biscuit box used previously.

Now comes the exciting bit. Piece #2. Seen here in all its glory. First Floor.

Piece #2 Which up does it go?

I fooled myself when I marked this piece up. I wrote the details and number on upside down. It took me a while to figure out when I went to glue it in place what was wrong. Then it struck me, it was upside down. What seemed to be the top was the bottom, once I had this figured out I was able to glue it in place. This is the main part of the first floor of the building. I wanted to get this in place before I put the wood work on the exterior of the ground floor so that they sit snugly in place.

Piece #2 now fixed in place

(Oh & BTW -  it appears that the local council do not care that they have missed collecting the garden waste from an entire street and we now have to wait another 2 weeks before they can be bothered to have another attempt  - just thought you’d like to know.)

Next article in this series: Piece #7 the Corner Tower.

Previous article in this series: Mystery Model Takes Shape

Mystery Model Takes Shape

This Sunday was quite a nice day, and since our beloved council failed to collect the garden waste from my street this week my wheelie bin is full preventing me from taking on another of the overgrown bushes. This meant I spent the day working in the garden in a different capacity. Up went the sunshade and out came the Mystery Model. I still have not found the original plans I drew up for this, which went walkies sometime during the winter months when my attention was elsewhere. Fortunately I had taken some photos of the original foam-board construction when I had pieced it together, so I have those for reference still. The advantage of these smart phones where we simply photograph just about anything that does not move these days. (What is with all those plates of food on Facebook and Twitter?)

Piece #1

Anyway I digress. I got a couple of sessions done on the Mystery Model along with a period of rewrites for the final installment in Karl’s story. The Beta Readers are sending their feedback through and I’m responding accordingly.

But you want to know more about the model. Piece number 1 came into play today. This is the main body of the ground floor of the building. It was marked out with a row about 3cm high which has been covered in DAS Putty. 

One of the two corner pieces attached

The reclaimed putty has been turned into something of a paste and with a little PVA glue it has been spread over the bottom part of the ground floor. Once it had dried out a little, I carved the stone effect in. I will certainly be taking the advice offered by Greg, when he commented on the last model post. I had kept it wrapped in its original foil but it was not sealed and not kept in the refrigerator either.  I will certainly remember this for the next packet I open, but I think it’s just a little late for this one. But it is still being used to good effect.

Piece number 5 also stepped forward today. This is the front reception area. It was attached to the front and the brickwork brought round the sides. Pieces 13 & 14 from the other week were attached to the rear of the ground floor making most of the base framework complete. 

There are still a couple of pieces to add yet to really finish the structure of the ground floor.

To allow me to continue working on the model whilst the glue holding the pieces together dried I held them all in place with the old favorite Dressmakers Pins. 

Mystery Model takes shape

Next article in this series: Mystery Model takes Shape - Part Two
Previous article in this series: Mystery model parts #13 & #14

Mystery model parts #13 & #14

The hard brick of DAS putty has spent some time soaking and once it became soft enough I was able to break it down and use it again. 

So time to get started again on the mystery model. 

I’ve misplaced the note book with the designs in but I still know how the model goes together. 

Two ground floor corner pieces are going to be stone work. (These are #13 & 14 on the plan.)

I smothered the pieces with PVA glue then spread the putty over. 

Left it a few minutes to dry out slightly then carved the stone pattern into semi dry putty, then left them to dry out.

It’s not much, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Next article in this series: Mystery Model Takes Shape

Previous article in this series: New Mystery Model, parts #9, #16 & #18

Bar room, fixtures, fittings and furniture

Whilst moving the contents of various storage boxes around this bank holiday Monday, I dug up the pieces I made for a game session set in a bar. At short notice I needed a bar set, and although I had one set of resin tables painted up there was certainly no time to shop for more and even then only one in the set was a basic table top; one had dishes set out for dinner and the third was more a study table. 






Keeping in mind the last part of the first book in the Karl trilogy I set about putting together the necessary fixtures, fittings and furniture for this scene as a starting point.

However for the game session I also needed the upstairs rooms, so not only bar room tables were needed in bulk for this session but also beds.

For part of the general bar room I built a couple of style bars, a fireplace and additional chimney stack, and a staircase. The bulk of the materials came from the usual source, the coffee stick collection.

The tables were small lengths of coffee sticks cut to size, joined together by additional smaller pieces on the underside with legs cut from matchsticks. The beds were built on basically the same principle, and so were the smaller bar stools. 

A single length of coffee stick with tiny angled pieces made a couple of benches. The bedding was made from cut up coffee cup holder, one of those extra cardboard bands you get sometimes if the coffee is too hot to hold. The pillows were slices of packing chips.

The basic paint job of black under coat, brown top coat and a dash of white dry brushing completed the effect.

The fireplace and chimney started life as a thin, tall cardboard box, the type used for toothpaste tubes. Cut down and shaped it was covered in DAS putty and had a brick effect scored in whilst the DAS was still wet. Again a quick red brick paint job completed the build. The colourful flames and occasional tankard came from tiny coloured plastic beads I found in Hobbycraft. The red, orange and yellow ones were cut up to form the flames on the fire, and the light grey ones were stuck on to surfaces for mugs or cups.

The bars and stairs were again cereal packet corners cut to shape, covered in coffee sticks and painted up, decorated with a man behind the bar and some barrel pieces I had already bought I think the effect worked.

Anyway, enough reminiscing, back to work, it is a bank holiday after all.

Vorsteck in ruins

The final part of Vorsteck was an area of derelict buildings, where the stone buildings had collapsed. Of course if I was making a display version I’d include a lot more rubble, and if these buildings were external then grass and vegetation would have been added but these were more the war torn results of previous invasions for the old city.

I suspect nasty things would have lived there ready to pounce from the ruins at us as we passed through.

These ruins were built in the basic same way as the main buildings, that being foam board covered in DAS putty hand made tiles to look like stone blocks, with the exception of the arch way which was covered in putty but had brick work etched in before it dried.

The main difference being that instead of full squared buildings they were just slithers of half walls, and cross ways and T shapes designed to look like exposed interior walls.

Some of the earlier pieces that became the ruined castle were originally made for the Vorsteck layout.

Combined with some elements from the ruined castle set the old town would have been quite a scary place to visit.

NEXT : Test layout photos

Vorsteck versatile buildings

Continuing my short collection of posts about the Vorsteck Rock Town.

I think I mentioned that these buildings cost more to make than my usual projects, due to the nature of the building and thus the materials used. For this reason I wanted to be able to use them in more ways than one once their original purpose was finished. So aside from being the underground houses of Vorsteck I wanted to add adaption packs for them to turn them into various other countryside cottages.

The images that I had in mind came from the Torchwood episode Countryside where a small community of locals had some very unpleasant dietary habits, and the stone cottages of the recent remake of The Wolfman.

I built the basic house shape from four sides of rectangular foam board. I did not use the usual shape for the small sides with triangle roof as I had envisaged the Vorsteck houses as having flat roofs as there would be no rain to content with underground.

I built the flat Vorsteck roofs as being detachable from the main building, and then started to build additional separate roofs that could rest on top, and built them so that these roofs could be swapped when required for the flat stone of Vorsteck, or thatched or tiled country cottage roofs.

The windows and doorways I cut out so that they were open, the wet DAS putty I used to frame the cut edges of the foam board so that the frames were still stone looking but also more robust than just the tiled stone effect.

Because I was going to curtain the windows and doors with fake algae (see next post) I needed to have a way to fix them inside and still be changeable. I built up the insides with off cuts of foam board and covered them with card making insert areas to mount different effects for windows and doors. For the doors I made additional wooden doors stuck to card which could be slid in to these slots when I wanted the buildings to be cottages on the moors and the windows were shuttered by the addition of inserted clip in wooden panels made to look like closed shutters.

As each building was slightly different in size and shape each building had to be numbered and each set of adaption pieces made separately and also numbered so that they could be easily attached to the right buildings. I haven’t yet completed the adaption pieces for all the buildings as these were not priority but I think over all this is going to work to allow these buildings to have a varied lease of life.

NEXT: Vorsteck the algae curtains