Yes, it is about housing but in no way related with "where can I put those gazillion miniatures". Neither about actual property market in the elven kingdoms. But let see.
So I decided to base my own little story on the Barony of Nimtala’, in the settle of (duh) Tor Nimtala’, one of those last colonies after the war of the beard.
Hih elves bored with the usual chit-chat and back-stabbing of the court in Ulthuan may settle here and experience new places where scheming. Not so barbaric and with the smell of a furniture store like the land of the wood elves, the colonies offer new opportunities for our adventurers.
I swear I'll make a pretty map for this, ok?
But housing problem is a common problem in the real world. I can barely fit the miniatures I have in my own space. If I want to have some terrain both for some playing in my house and good photographs accompanying the miniatures as promoshed, we should relay on more portable options. Today resin and mdf terrain are amazingly detailed and diverse for almost all imaginable scenarios , yet, bulkier (and sometimes expensive). I wanted to keep a bunch of houses and other buildings in a box, and I thought in the old Mordheim terrain.
In this entry I resume an old project of cardboard scenery for this small army of elves currently in the “to do” list. It is also a little experiment as the main goal is to see if it is possible to have magnitized cardboard scenery, that is easy ,
I have used a ef house because is something that was half baked, but it is not the easiest way to start. And I foresee a problem with the curved roof. But I am secretly a slaaneshy devote and any achievement have to be pain and torture to be enjoyed.
The basic floor plan, designed also for 25mm square bases/tiles roleplay. And the main walls of the mannor.
First is the material, any cardboard from cereal boxes or postage can do the job. Nowadays that many products are shipped from online e-commerce even from your local store, it can be a good way to reutilize all that cardboard. We will be working with three layers (~1.5 mm combined).
For mounting our buildings we will need for most parts a magnetized rubber band of 20 mm wide or so. And for the squares, each pair of walls will be attached by an iron square. The bigger the wall, the bigger the magnet. If we are building a huge elf temple or the old Townscape (molino) we can use a 40 x 20 mm magnetized band put in the end of each wall. And both walls attached with a 40 mm iron square.
I also use magnetized rubber band instead of other magnets like small neodimium ones (that are also cheap) because I want to keep it simple AND...
Simple magic. The usual width of 3 cereal carboard layers or 1 amazon or other wider online shop cardboard envelopes is mostly the same of those rubber bands. So I can put a layer of the complete wall, attach the magnetic rubber band, and the other two cardboard layers with the cutout for the magnet.
I applied a lightly watered mi of glue in thin layers to put together the wall and applied pressure during the curing. Several old books can be useful, and time might vary.
Under pressure
After curing it is time to cut the details like windows and the like. With this elf house I am cutting all the windows, but another option could be putting a printed detail. Like the windows already present in Tears of Isha, black windows in the buildings in Vengeance of Drong, or the ones in Townscape (Or other designs you like). And you can play with the deep cutting the space for the printed details in several of the cardboard layers of the wall and then adding extra detail on the outside. Like I also did with the windows (and a more complex design will be added later in green stuff).
Also we can fix all the holes and light mismatch in several spots with putty, or in this case, a mixture of flower, water, salt like in paper mache.
At this step you can try yourself the hardness of the multilayered carboard. But we will add a final coat for preservation and protect for humidity and inevitable friction. Also we can preserve the putty filing gaps and holes in the edges. Many people use several thin coats of watered glue, but I used instead découpage glue for the outermost layers. This type of glue includes varnish in the mix, which adds extra protection.
As you might also noted, several details will not be magnetized and depend instead on the traditional clipping extensions of the wall corners. One carved downward, other upward in the other wall. I added some extra reinforcement with wire or modeling brass rods can be used. The coat of decoupage glue will also add protection and as they are sprayed in thi layers, they will not impede that both walls contact together.
This one was taken before cutting the last small wall and the windows. Check every time that the walls do not bend during curing and each one can be placed in the corresponding position.
And voilá! For now we have our main walls made, and the magnets permit us to put together the building. Next entry, the roof.
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