Friday 14 August 2015

Medieval Cottage/Farmhouse

Also for use in  Bodstonia as the village at the centre of the farming community of Boddingham.
And with one that was made as a "test build"
I´m not too happy with the lower floor..(all that White!!) but I prefer the thatch effect over that of the second building.
Fronts
Backs
Gable Ends.

Quick "how to".
As ever..the template. This time I´m using thicker card...1mm thick, or thereabout.
I was Clearing out a few old dogeared plastic covered ring binder folders and to make them more compact so they didn´t take up too much space in the bin,  I sliced the spine off one and found it had a loose Card core. Not glued in at all..a perfect Sheet of heavy Card.
With a modelling knife it took seconds to remove the Card from the front, back covers and the spine....and reduced the amount of space taken up in the bin by a massive amount.
Both the buildings are produced from one lot of Card from one Folder and there´s enough left over for further Projects.
When creating the Tabs it´s important  to make the gap between them as Close as possible. The Tabs were a bit "devil may care" on  the test build and   as the clay dried the Roof covering warped, pulling it off the small tabs which meant having to  contantly  re-attach the Roof by gently pushing it down.
This time, for a bit of variety,  I´m going to add walling on the ground floor so I´ve added a 2cm wide recessed Strip so that 1cm is sticking out the bottom.
Thin strips of high density foam added to the recessed Strip  along with some steps from the same material.
Thin strips of Card added to represent the Boarding. Window Frame made with thin strips of the "thick Card"
The thatch. I´d tried Teddy bear fur etc in the past but it just didn´t look right to me ....and took Ages,so....
..Clay. Bog Standard modelling clay. The Dries White, pots can be made from it, type of clay. Rolled into thin sausages, squashed to about 3-4mm thick and glued on with PVA.
One Problem, apart from  the roofing warping if it isn´t properly stuck down,  is that you Transfer some of the dried clay (from your finger tips) onto the house walls etc..but it isn´t a lot and gives it a bit more of a  "lived in" look.
I suppose I could paint the rest of the building after the Roof..but I´ve got into the Routine and it works so why Change?
The Chimney now gets added (pushed into the clay to make a hole and then glued into place with PVA) and the thatch  scratched into the clay with the tip of a needle.
All that´s left to do is wait a couple of hours for the clay to stiffen, then paint it. I added a bit of PVA to the base colour. Shame that the clay goes White when it´s dried.. unpainted (below) it Looks fine already.
The combination of the thick Card and the clay makes These quite heavy Little buildings.



8 comments:

  1. Nice use of recycled materials. Good looking buildings. Thanks for pointing out some of the fiddly portions of the process.

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  2. Lovely building and really useful 'how to'. Thanks for posting.
    Aaron

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  3. Two nice builds, I never thought about using clay for the thatch before, only ever for stone work. Looks good. I also love the way you plan out the beams, I tend to just go with what I feel like at the time.

    If the base of one model is too white, you could always just add some very light yellow/white mix patches just to take the vividness away slightly.

    But I love how you can just discover something and think, I can use that and then get inspired.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Derek.
      The clay has been stored in the fridge for about two months now, my son brought a couple of Pounds back to use in an art Project but never got around to it. The White wall. I´ve been considering cutting off the bottom cm and replacing with a Stone wall.. but that would involve using a hacksaw (the Card is thick ) and would probably end up with it getting wrecked. I´ll use your idea and also add some other bits, moss, muck, a Barrel, wheel or even a potatoe shed when it gets based.

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  4. Those are splendid houses, well done! I find it fun to build my own buildings but the roofs (clay tile, thatch, etc) are always a royal pain. I had not thought of using clay as you did, it seems such an obvious choice now that you have done the work! Thanks for posting this. Jim

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  5. Thanks Jim
    I´ve seen houses made using clay for the walls but I never thought to use it for the roofing. I don´t know wether it´s cheaper than teddybear fur but it is easier to create the layers with clay than using fur.

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