Varnished At Last

It’s been a long time coming, but finally the haunted house has been varnished. Last weekend, after blowing up the mower, I decided that Sunday would be dedicated to the models, weather permitting. 

Fortunately the weather was, quite breezy but warm, so with the shade up I finally got the mother of all varnish jobs finished. After a few hours with the tin of varnish and the brush the haunted house is now all but complete. 

The only thing left is to reattach the stone ‘support’ pillar which keeps coming off. I also got four of the larger ghost town models that had been recently painted up varnished as well in the mammoth session. 

The painting of these had not gone as well as I would have liked. The Wilko paint I had been using for ‘Burnt Umber’ has been changed since I originally discovered it. 

Although the tube are much larger, so more paint yay! this new version of Burnt Umber has come out more redder than before and I was forced to add a lot of additional black and white into the mix to tone it back to the darker wood effect I had previously taken to.

With Hobbycraft having had a special offer running this month on their acrylic paints I have taken the opportunity to pick up a selection of black, grey, white, umbers and others from their range and will be trying those out soon. 

Meanwhile, whilst the mower was blowing up, I’ve also suffered a hard drive failure, some data was recoverable from backups but other data wasn’t. Hence the blog silence for a bit. I have however made good progress on the tapestry and will be posting some new photos soon. 

(Oh and I not mention the boiler... They say things come in threes so I hope that’s me off the hook for several years now please!!!)

June Update

Thought I would share a quick update on some of the models that have been gathering on the workbench.

The four larger additions to the coffee stick ghost town have all now been undercoated and have received their first round of brown shading, the burnt umber & black mix. Next stage for these will be the burnt umber layer.

The other smaller buildings are beginning to start taking shape. These have all been given roofs which have been tiled with tiny pieces of cut cardboard. Chimneys cut from foam board off-cuts which will be covered in putty and the rest wooden exterior walls.

And finally this one, with cardboard shuttered windows – still not quite sure about them, but we’ll see. The wooden overlapped roof has now been finished.

And so it begins

Now that I have finally succeeded in the annual rediscovery of the back garden, hacking through the undergrowth that looks like a scene from the 'Lift After Humans' DVDs, I can venture forth and start sanding down and painting some of the models built during the cold dark days of winter.

This is not this year's photo, but the scene before and after from a couple of years ago, however it was very much the same.

Hopefully from now on I will not be delayed posting as the problems with syncing the photos from the phone to the laptop have mysteriously gone away (after trying many online resolutions regarding turning settings off and on, deleting profiles and sacrificing chickens - none of which worked) it just started to work without any prompting, just as I was about to resort to manually transferring them.

The first three buildings have been rubbed down and had final fixes made to them, and two of them have now received their base coat, when this is dry I'll check for gaps where crevices need to be touched up before starting the first round of varying shades of brown.

Two Minutes Modelling

With my attention somewhat distracted on other projects at the moment, the collection of boxes saved for recycling and the stack of sticks are stocking up and the ghost town remains as a pile of pieces. With all of the materials stacking up in the kitchen I’ve taken to performing two minutes of modelling at a time making use of  the time I wait for a kettle to boil or the microwave to go ding. It’s funny what you can achieve in a couple of minutes.

Over the course of a week I’ve been dismantling the small boxes, turning them inside out and gluing them back along with slices of toilet roll tube as reinforcement.  When turning the boxes inside out you need to leave time between each step for the glue to dry, you can only work on each box a little at a time. This is one of the reasons I’ve not engaged in large scale work recently. But working like this I have at least managed to make a little progress in building up a collection of boxes ready to form the base shape of the next building.

This week alone I have got seven boxes ready over the course of making a few cuppa soups, coffees and hot chocolate drinks.

Step 1, split the box down, fold back each flap and re-glue the main edge. Clamp and leave to dry.

Step 2, (next session) glue down the flaps from one end. Leave to dry. Probably about enough time to repeat step 1 on another box.

Step 3, Insert a cut length of tube to strengthen the box, glue and fix down the last end. Place weight down to hold in place. Probably enough time to perform step 2 on the next box. And so on...

Little House on the Pile

A quick photo update this time of another of the coffee stick and box buildings for the Ghost Town collection. This is one I started towards the end of last year, which has finally reached the stage where it is ready to be sanded down. Like the other three that reached this stage over the winter months it will be boxed up until the warmer weather allows me to do this outside in comfort. Once that is done it will be painted up. Looks like there will be a lot of brown paint used as soon as the warmer weather arrives.

I like to try experimenting with each model in some way. 

This time instead of the vertical planks I usually use for the roofs of the buildings I took smaller random sized planks and applied them horizontally.  Maybe they should have been slightly layered. Although I think the effect has been achieved.

Tissues at the Ready

Oh my, we’re nearly a week into February and this is my first post of the year.

Oh well, better luck next year with that. Anyway this post is to request some creative input from my blog friends. I did ask on my Facebook page but the suggestions didn't really help.  I’ll tell you more about them later. So what is the story?

It started when I updated my profile photo to this poorly soul photo. It was suggested that I would need plenty of tissues; little did I know that very soon that premonition would come true.

The next post was to ask what I should do with the collection of debris. You can sing this to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Three Tissue Boxes

Two Lemsips

And a packet of Para-ceta-mol (*)

Some suggestions were to Google Blue Peter videos on YouTube, along with a Tracy Island, Bad TARDIS, monster feet and a guitar. Two people instructed me to recycle, hmm don’t know me very well; I’m looking for a more constructive way to recycle them into something for the Ghost Town.

Anyway, having dragged my carcass back into the office I was rewarded with one of those meetings, whereby the only way to mentally survive is to doodle on a Post-It with a red Sharpie.

The best I could come up with was this. 

There has to be something constructive I can do with the arches. At the moment I just can’t think of it. 

The only rule has to be the exterior has to be a coffee stick building since it is only the Ghost Town that is made from recycled boxes, other models do require a more solid base to apply the clay and other materials.

So now it’s over to you, what suggestions do you have?

Here's a quick photo of one of the current models in progress. Surprisingly I've not got very far with the models this year either.

(*) Do not overdose, always read the label, blar blar blar.

Happy New Year

More boxes from America

Before the sun sets on 2015 and the year is shoved off into the archives of history, I thought I’d give a quick update on progress for the latest models in the coffee stick ghost town. 

To avoid making this post too picture heavy I have set up another page with some more photos which can be accessed here.

Just before I finished work for the Christmas holiday a couple more boxes were added to my collection by work colleagues, you’ll notice alongside the Twinkies are now Ho Hos and Ding Dongs. 

Christmas boxes added

Christmas itself gave a couple of interesting boxes which I’ll be using in the New Year on new models.

This pate box will be used for a roof piece of some kind.

I got a little time to work on the three models in progress, these have now reached a finished state as far as the shape and applying the sticks are concerned. 

WIP: boxes being turned inside out

They need to be rubbed down with sandpaper then painted; I think I’ll save this for the spring when it will be more comfortable working outside to sand the models. In the meantime I’ll add a couple more to the collection.

WIP: adding tube supports
before closing up

I would also like to thank everyone who downloaded a copy of 

Karl – Birth of Mystery during the period we set the book free on Amazon’s Kindle bookshop. I hope you enjoy it and if so please leave a review to help others find the adventure.

That only leaves me to wish all readers of the blog a Happy New Year.

Extra Photos

And some early shots of the basic boxes joined for the next couple of models. 

Still need to add extra shaping to the roof areas.

Rubbish Re-used Part Three

Another photo update showing further progress on the new Ghost Town models built only from recycled boxes, card and coffee sticks. The first model is now awaiting a quick rub down with sand paper before undercoating. I’ll tackle this job once a couple more models are ready and do them together.

Model two is this cycle is progressing well, this looks a bit like a church now it has started to take shape.

Model three has been put together from more boxes and the roof, as before, created from Amazon package card. I find these quite good to work with.

I now have a whole box of boxes awaiting treatment, so I think it’s time to allow some to head back to the recycle bin for now; otherwise I won’t be able to move in the kitchen. However, in honour of the many readers of this blog in the US, imported at great expense I hope you notice the Twinkies boxes in this collection ;-)

Previous post: Rubbish Re-used Part Two

Rubbish Re-used Part Two

A quick photo post update today showing the recent progress on the latest ghost town model which started life a couple of weeks back as a pile of small old boxes. The roof was made from the card out of an Amazon box. Now the model is almost complete as far as being covered in coffee sticks to give the wooden structure its required appearance.

Here is the next one, basic shape brought together with the boxes having been tried in various configurations before being settled and glued together. Again a roof made from the rest of the Amazon packaging, note I’ve used the natural bond on their packaging to give a ridge along the top of the building which will be covered in sticks as well.  I’ve left one side of the roof open, here I intend to have a hole in the side of the roof as if something has broken out.

And finally an exclusive heads up to blog readers.

The Kindle edition of book 2 of Karl’s trilogy

'Karl - The Lost Adventurer' 

will be on special offer Countdown Deal starting October 3^rd. 

Don’t miss your chance to continue the adventure...

Rubbish Re-used Part One

Aborted support, even sticking strips 

together at 90 degrees so that they 

supported each other the support 

was not rigid enough.

I’ve started to make use of the recycled materials I mentioned in the last blog post. The aim here, to add a couple more models to the Ghost Town made from the coffee sticks. 

A couple of these had their base shape constructed from foam board; others were made from old boxes. 

There were a few issues with some of them during construction which I hope I can address this time round.

Boxes turned inside out

The main problem is the weakness of this cardboard to hold up under building, but once they are fully coated with the sticks then they become quite solid. I start by taking the boxes apart and reversing them, so that they are inside out. This turns the shiny sides in, which means when you leave some card bare for the windows it will take the paint better.

It was whilst sitting in contemplation that thanks to an empty loo roll I was reminded of the strength of the humble tube. I tried a couple of ideas to add support to the inside of the boxes before sealing them up, but the tube is the best strengthening idea other than filling them with plaster – but that’s excessive, expensive and too heavy.

With the first of the tubes as support.

The tube was cut down and slid into the box before the end was fitted. Depending on the size of the box you’ll need several of these to support the middle and corners. Toilet roll tubes don't come round that frequently, so other tubes are needed. Some I made by rolling up those annoying flyers that come through the letterbox and what drop out of magazines, glued and taped in a roll then cut to the right length to support the boxes. Other tubes were made from corrugated card from a mail-order delivery. The thing to remember when using this cardboard is to ensure that you cut the card so that the direction of the corrugations is vertical for your tube, if they stand horizontal the tube will collapse under pressure.

New collection of boxes

I put the three boxes together in various patterns before deciding on this configuration. Then started to collect my next set of boxes. I did not expect these to be mainly made up of medicine boxes and ice cream boxes, but with a recent chest and throat infection this became the origin of the next collection.

I used one of the Lemsip boxes collected from the medicinal collection as an additional front entrance to the first of these buildings.

This model doesn’t look like much at the moment, but just wait and see what happens to it.

Previous blog in this series: Rubbish or Raw Material?