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!!!)

Less Bangs but Bigger Bucks?

A November Update

(*) For a Who's Who see below.

You may have noticed that I’ve not got much in the way of model building done recently. That has something to do with the fact that I’m not only working with Tenth Planet Events signings and Doctor Who conventions these days but also Fantom Films as well. This has meant that I was at seven events over six weekends not leaving a lot of time for building work.  These are fun to do and if you’re into science fiction and fantasy, especially but not limited to Doctor Who then why not come along to an event. These are held in Barking, Chiswick, Newcastle, Peterborough, Slough and South London – so covering quite a few miles travelling as well. 

Also, if you do come along and would like me to bring a set of Karl books for you then drop me a line, because then I can offer them a special event price. You can find the next event I’ll be at featured in the right hand rail of this site.

That’s not say that I didn’t take time to do my Dagenham walkabout following the national celebration of my brother’s birthday. Ok, so maybe November 5^th has other significance as well which is why the fireworks are let off. It might have been because the date fell on a Thursday this year, that when I took the walk this year’s haul was incredibly small by comparison to previous years.  But before anyone starts to shout, I’m in total agreement that fireworks should be restricted, they do scare pets and wildlife and it is not fare on them at all, but whilst they are still sold I shall continue to round up what sticks I can to recycle into these buildings. All the frame work on the haunted house was built from the rocket sticks from the last couple of years.

Building work aside I am also dedicating a lot of time again to writing, working on the new project that has been in progress now for a year or so since Karl was completed. 

There are currently two volumes planned to the new series of books – I’ve given some hints out in the past but not going to reveal too much at the moment, only to say that I was very excited by one of the figures in the recent Lego Minifigure series that was released, you might be able to guess why from this photo.








(*) Seen here with Barbara Windsor, Ralph Watson, Andrew Hayden-Smith, Peter Purves, Jimmy Vee, Daphne Ashbrook, Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Bonnie Langford and Nicola Bryant.

Moss on the Roof

The standalone haunted house model is almost complete. I’ve finished the white dry-brush/dusting around the woodwork and turned my attention back onto the roof. I felt it needed a little something, and that was a greenish tint for moss. I got the idea after missing my train on Saturday and whilst stood on the platform at Romford, I found myself looking out onto a roof that was tinted in such a way. So using a deep moss green paint, which I also picked up from a pound store as part of that shopping trip, I mixed with it some PVA glue and a sprinkle of dark green flock and proceeded to tint the roof in patches. In most cases it was a fast flick of the wrist in downward strokes using the paint in the same dry-brushing approach, and on occasions picking up a little of the thicker mix just to add that little extra depth where the moss has actually taken.

I also gave the front tower a light brush with the green as well just to age the tower up and make that feel slightly more decayed than the rest. Something more sinister about the tower, maybe?

I’ll take some more photos in outdoor light before and after I varnish.

Finally I’ve glued the stone pillar in place on the bottom corner, and now I’m leaving that to dry before making a final check prior to varnishing. My next stage will be to build a baseboard to set the model off in its grounds, maybe a crumbling outer wall and an old gate, an over grown path leading up to the front door.  Who knows?

For anyone who might be interested in the first volume of my trilogy, a heads up, the first volume will be available at a discounted price for a week starting this Friday, 28^th August. It will be part of the Kindle Countdown Deals which will have the greatest discount at the start of the offer but then the discount is reduced as the week goes on. That will be on Amazon.com & Amazon.co.uk from Friday morning.

Previous post in the Haunted House series: Woodwork Painting

Next post: Coming soon

Woodwork painting

A few close up photos of the front of the haunted house. I have now moved on to painting the woodwork. The whole model was given a black undercoat, and the stonework and roof tiles were painted up with varying shades of black and white mixes until I dry brushed with white.

The woodwork, likewise, is painted with a limited pallet of black, burnt umber and white in different mixes. The planking on the walls of the model were given one less coat than the beams which had a lighter burnt umber applied in a light application before I started dry brushing (or I like to call it dusting) with white over both the planking on the walls and the beams.

Front part dusted with white, shows as contrast to yet to be dusted section

I'll post a further update once this part of the painting is finished.

Previous article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:
Stonework Painting

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Moss on the Roof

Stonework Painting

Today was very wet, so there was no chance of working out on the table to start the painting of the stonework. So the painting work was brought inside. I built up the layers of varying shades of grey. 

Although over several hours I managed to cover several rounds I was unable to complete the whole cycle in one go, so a further session will be needed. I decided to also use the grey layers for the roof tiles as well, rather than the terracotta I usually go for with roof tiles.

As this is such a large model, holding it and painting it is quite a task. I have found a way to support it and paint it whilst in the living room, a bean bag. The model can be held in a snug embrace by the bean bag keeping it in position whilst I work on it. It also allows me to take interesting angled photos. 

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

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Woodwork Painting

Haunted Undercoat

Just a quick update this weekend. The haunted house has now been rubbed down and the undercoat has gone on. I used a basic black acrylic paint. This took several hours to cover and used an entire 120ml new tube of paint, plus a couple of squirts from another tube when I was touching up around the windows.

The next job will be to clean any paint off the broken glass, then start painting the stonework around the base.

Don't forget the Karl mug competition - details here

BTW if you want to try and work out how long this took, add together the running time of these albums: Buffy the Musical + Rent (Original cast recording) + War of the Worlds + Rocky Horror (The Full Gory Story)

Previous article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:

Remedial Work

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Stonework Painting

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

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Haunted Undercoat

Another evening spent on broken windows

Ring ring. Ring ring.

Hello?

Can I interest you in double glazing?

I’ve got around fifty windows here...

Click burr...

Another evening spent fixing up broken windows on the haunted house, and the other night I miscounted, there were actually another seventeen to do. One Bon Jovi and one Eagles album later this evening, I had got through ten of them. So now there is another seven to do on another night or over the weekend. I think given fair weather and the garden gets done first, then there might be a chance they could be finished by the weekend. Let’s hope so, but I am now running very low on the plastic box so the glass shards are going to be getting much smaller in the windows that are left to do, as you can see in one of these photos.

Smaller shards of "broken glass" from slithers of plastic

Previous article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:
Eight More Done, Another Fifteen To Go

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Remedial Work

Eight More Done, Another Fifteen To Go

Having loaded up the garden waste wheelie bin to bursting point this evening, I once again took a short time out to continue with the windows on the haunted house. I managed to get another eight on one side completed, although you can only see seven of them in this photo. At a quick count I think that leaves me around fifteen on the front face of the building to complete.

Before anyone asks, yes the grass is now almost up to my waist out in the back garden, thanks to the fact that the green bins have only been emptied TWICE so far this year. 

Previous article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:

The Price of Moonlight

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Another evening spent on broken windows

The Price of Moonlight

Okay so the title of the blog post is a little strange. 

Sunday was a very warm sunny day, and since I managed to get up a couple of hours earlier than I usually do on a Sunday this week I managed to grab a few extra hours to work on the haunted house model. Several hours have now gone into the window sections, and at least the same amount of time is left to get the rest of the windows done.

This Sunday I worked on one side of the building, and completed eleven windows. Some cracked, some broken, a couple whole, one with a stone hole with radiating cracks, and oh yes, one with the moon reflected in it.

The plastic box from the old Christmas card packaging is beginning to run low, I don't really want to wait until next Christmas to finish this. 

In one corner of the box there remained the remnants of a circular price tag, top layer peeled off leaving a fading semi circle of white that would require spirit to remove it. 

However, I had a little brain wave, comes from keeping an eye on the phases on the moon and having to sew up my socks when it’s full.

With the ghostly price tag being circular and white, and a reasonable size I figured rather than waste this piece of the box I would use it, ensure I cut the square neatly to fit a window fully and it would look, with the black backing, as though the moon was being reflected in the window.

Personally I think it worked out for the best and gives the model an extra little bit of character. If I ever wanted to hide the reflection I can always make a pair of shutters to cover the window with.


Previous article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:
More Cracked and Broken Glass

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Eight More Done, Another Fifteen To Go

More Cracked and Broken Glass

A little progress update, (no the rubbish hasn’t been collected yet - we’re still wading through THREE to FOUR weeks worth of uncollected refuse) the progress is on the rear of the haunted house.  All the rear windows have now been finished, except for some remedial tidy up work.

The windows are all different in their degrees of damage. One window has miraculously survived in the bottom right of the building. I wonder what forces are at work in that room of the house?

Some are broken with just small fragments of jagged glass in place ready to catch and injure any ghost hunters that might try to get through the windows. On the ground floor where the glass is broken the windows have been boarded up. 

The boards are the same cut coffee sticks as the rest of the planking on the house, but these boards I’ve distressed the edges first before fixing them in place over the broken glass.

For a couple of other windows, they remain cracked rather than full broken. For these I cut a full window square of plastic then I scored it but did not cut it through.

To ensure the glass stays in place, a bit like fixing in old window panes I used thinner strips of the coffee sticks to build window frames which I put in place like beading around the glass.

I think I’m getting the effect that I’m aiming for.

Looking forward to being able to start painting soon.

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

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The Price of Moonlight

May Day, Breaking Windows

Finally, after the local council the other day so kindly did what we pay them to do and cleared the first lot of garden waste that has been festering for nearly a month in our green bins, I was able, with some sunshine today, to clear the rest of the grass and cut back the bushes that were almost preventing you from getting through the front gate. No doubt it will be another month before we see the back of this rubbish. With the bin full I gave up on gardening and whilst the sun still shone turned my attention to the haunted house model, since I could make use of the garden table to work on.

Broken window on model

I said a while back that I was thinking of trying something different with these windows. Earlier attempted mock-ups have not gone quite to plan but now I think I’ve got something that is working. I wanted quite a number of these windows to appear broken, with dangerous shards of glass left in them. 

Whilst wandering round one of the many pound stores we have, I found a packet of chalk sheets; these are dull black sheets with a sticky back. I wanted a black background which could be dropped in place without having to paint the whole model at this stage.

Next window panel

Cutting a square to drop into place, when stuck I used the backing sheet as a template to cut a matching square from the packaging of an old Christmas card box. 

Materials: Chalk sheet, coffee sticks and old Christmas
Card packaging

Then I cut the window up with a jagged edge to make the fitting piece of broken glass. I laid this over the black background and fixed the plastic shards in place with the wooden sticks used to form the frames.

Whilst I was working on the model I also managed to complete the front tower, including the boarded up window.

Chalk sheet and cut plastic in place before frame added

Previous article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:
Weekend roofing

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More Cracked and Broken Glass