Monday 6 June 2011

Medieval Hut ( How to )

Quick and easy...and cheap as mud :-)

Medieval hut or stoneage or fantasy or whatever
The Materials.....Green insulating foam, sharp blade, scissors, stapler, pins, woodglue and some paint and some thin card (the sort from a cereal packet is good. You also need a handbrush or a softbroom (not shown in picture)
Cut a strip of insulating foam across the lines. if the strip is cut along the lines it doesn´t bend easily..in fact it snaps. Using a biro score the brickwork pattern. Do not cut out the door at this point. Glue the whole thing to a base and hold in place with some pins. The join at the back will need pinning as well.
Here I have smeared some sand mixed with woodglue on the basing. Leave the whole thing to dry.
The roof. Mark a circle on some card, cut out and cut a line to the center. lap one side over the other to form a flat cone and fix in place with a staple.
Put the cone over the house and cut back (remove the bottom) as necessary so you end up with about 1cm of overhang all the way around. At this point you can cut the door out. If you do this earlier, it creates a weak point in the wall which almost immediately will break when you start to bend the wall into shape.
Then I paint everything in dark brown. if a door is going to be added you don´t have to paint the floor inside. If the doorway is left open and you don´t paint the floor it looks a bit odd, as if  the owners are burning logs that produce a fluorescent green glow. Either that or witches have set up house.
Shade, highlight or whatever. It´s a good idea to paint the roof as in the pic. If left just dark brown it can show up through the thatch ...Oh yeh...glue the roof on!! :-D
Cut bundles of bristles off the handbrush / broom. These should be about 3-4 cms long. Smear some wood glue on the roof and then dip one end of the bristle bundle into the glue.
Attach  the bundle to the roof, spreeading it  flat. Keep going around until one layer is complete, then add another overlapping layer and so on.
Let the whole thing dry..trim the thatch to tidy it up a bit..add flock or whatever....finished.

20 comments:

  1. Very nice Paul, simple but a great result!!

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  2. Very nice tutorial Paul!

    Greetings
    Peter

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  3. Nice tut, your dark brown is like chocolate, wonderful^^. I hve to get hold of some of your weird insulating foam!

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  4. You're even better than Blue Peter, good work my friend.

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  5. Hello Paul,

    beautiful buildings you made!
    I have a special question and need your help:
    for the first time I tried to paint 1/72 plastic
    figures (Zvezda Persian Chariot) and I do not know how to glue this stuff! Sekundenkleber didn't work. Can you please give me a tip.
    Also is undercoating nessecary?
    Thank you very much.
    Wolfgang

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  6. Yeah! More awesome how-to from Paul! Thanks

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  7. Was it you that talked about teddy bear hair for thatch roofs?

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  8. Thanks :-D
    @Wolfgang..I have left you a message
    @ Mike..no that was Paul of the man cave
    http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/
    Cheers
    paul

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  9. Great tutorial - the simplest things are often the most effective (and also resilient or at leaste asy to repair). Now to find a local source for this brilliant insulating foam material you've introduced us to!

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  10. Very interesting, Another excellent tutorial Paul. Sometimes I wonder where you store everything you build.

    Cheers
    Will

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  11. Thanks for the link to the FIGZ event!

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  12. Paul, Paul, great timing on the hut tutorial! On the side I've been making a ring-fort and huts for my Celtos game. Will post it when I'm done, kinda on hold till the figures I ordered come for better sizing. The way you made the hut roof is what I figured out doing. I was going to take the broom in the garage and use it, but wife got ticked at me, so have to wait to get whicker brush.

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  13. Great work, thanks for sharing!

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  14. Very clever Paul. Simple but very effective.

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  15. Very nicely done Paul. Simple when you know how though not sure I would have the patience to stick all those bristles on!

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  16. Пауль ,добрый день!А что это за материал?Точнее откуда его берешь?

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