The Chateau Krowdrah

[Beano Boy]

_________________________________PART ONE_________________________________________


Old Fools Day of April 1st saw me set out along a brand new course.
Carrying the plans in my head I never really know how things will slip into place.



And so it began,
This place for 20mm to 28mm figures.



Like a charm each shape fell out upon the paper card.

They would oddly go together like a complex dream where three buildings merged greatly into one.



The first line was marked out and soon it was followed by many more.



Raising the stonework.








Slipping the roof on.









Undercoated with emulsion.









A dry run above before painting and gluing in place.





The inside is painted.




20mm Men at Arms practice while this old place falls up around them. "Yeh!"





The second building is up.



As Night Time Falls



A light flickers warminly within.
All the buildings will have grain of wheat lighting powered via a railway transformer.







It needed a double sections of roof.



The roof was soon placed.







A centre walkway needed placing to link both into one for lifting off the entire roof.



The block in the centre is where chimneys will tower and twist their way up.



A slight change is always easy to apply in scratch building like here.





Eventually each building can be viewed on its own or like seen above merged together for a greater looking scene.

There will be other buildings to bring up to scratch.
Meaning the self same level before the entire complex is dressed up in flint and stone.



A French Dragoon sniper.



28mm Dragoon.

Like any old building they can be used in other time periods.



It is called playing the game.

Lots of pleasurable pastime works to amble my thoughts upon so I`ll get back to you later. BB

" So look out for part two Pards!" ____ " yes it might be boringly impressive."
" Or incomplete nonsense."_______ " Without pictures." "That ain`t funny."

[Graeme]

Wonderful! I like the architecture around the doorway and windows. And I really like the floorboards, interesting to see that level of detail inside the building as well as out.

[MABO]

Another great project. You really must have a castle yourself, just to store all your buildings. When I come to England I will visit you and I would like to see all the buidlings, cannels, houses and figures, of course...

[C M Dodson]

Hello Mr B.

This is tremendous stuff.

Your stonework is excellent but I was wondering how you do it.

I understand the raised element but how do you carve the initial lines. I have used decorators caulk as a layer to carve into, but yours looks a lot better.

An intrigued, eager to learn, Chris

[Mr. Andrea]

that's just wonderful, inspirational and instructive. Thanks for sharing BB!!
May you please give more details on the material? I see two layers, one 1-2 mm cardboard and on top of that a 3-4 mm polystyrene sheet on which you carved the stonewall??

[Kekso]

Those scratchbuild houses are wonderful.

[Dad's Army]

Hey Paul,

Again a very interesting way of building.
The stones look perfect, doesn't the glue shrink a lot when it's dry?
And do you also going a likewise methode for the roof?

[Bramble15]

What a great demonstration of skill and talent. Very well done!

[Beano Boy]

Thanks very much guys for comments ,questions and the likes.
The roofing will be kind of special on these.

"o no,not that hot black tar stuff left over from the shed roof ?"
" Yah! I kinda liked the way it slid off the table and slowly zig zaged steamy and sticky-like across Mrs B`s clean floor."___ "That was the only thing hitting the floor that Bella the dog didn`t eat. "

I am thinking twisted chimneys,pan-tiles,flat tiles and medieval monastic lead with some kind of ornamental ridge top, and the odd dormer window slid up into place.
" So nothing to complicated then BB?"
"Sounds like another Fred and MayBell adventure to me."
" Sci Fi and Fantasy then?" Asked Wing Knut.

"One of those probing Trolls has effected Wing Knut,because that`s his first ever question."
"Paul will sort that sticky virus out,and give it a Royal Benno boot out." "Ya!"


Addressing Questions.

Paper is easy to scribe out and there is no need to be neat and trim.
As for floor boards I measure out and score deeply with a pen. Then I quickly weave a few wavy lines on each board between the lines.This makes for a good contrast between each and ever straight line. Pressure point dots using the scribing pen marks where the floor has been `sprigged', nailed down. One coat of dark emulsion is all that's needed,before dry brushing with a couple of lighter colours. Messy colours are far nicer,and I find it is the cameras eye that will pick this simple bit of extra detail out.

All my roofs lift off,so I can place figures, and also service lights when needed. This is why I busy myself improving the inside look of my builds,but nothing to fancy for the abstract way suits me well.As I ain`t no great painter.

Here are a couple of my Forum Links dealing with walls that can be seen from afar across a table.

viewtopic.php?t=15245#p171244

viewtopic.php?t=15307#p171929

I let the glue dehydrate over night,that leaves it thicker in my jar. The glue dries quick is easy to use and goes rock hard and dries transparent which adds to the thrill as one paints over it thus revealing ones own handy work.

I use A Size 841mm X 594mm mounting board.
I order bulk on line E Bay saving 50 pence a sheet
from `Bargainartistshop' Daler Studland Mounting Board.
Pack of 10 £35.49 Just under £3.50 a sheet. Free Post!
When I consider that total pack price,
is the same as two boxes of the model figures I just bought
I feel good about the expense.
Any good high street department store that has an arts and craft department should stock it.

Well that is all the questions dealt with and hopefully fun was had too?
Early days yet Bramble there`s lots to do. BB

[GWR]

Wonderful job on this, I will be following this with interest.

[ironzentaur]

Absolutely beautiful and inspiring! I like your works!!!

[Beano Boy]

Thanx to all you guys,i guess straying off tutorials laugh! was a good thing.
Unplanned but a good thing. BB

[Peter]

I see a beautifull building and an awfull lot of figures to paint.

[Beano Boy]

Peter,painting is easy for me once I start,it is the stopping that`s hard.
The end result might be hard on peoples eyes,but that is where sunglasses come in to stop the glare!
Painting cavalry is a fine way of kick-starting my old paint brush into gear, but I cannot find my visor.

I spend more time typing these days than anything else,that`s how I formulated
the name of this chateau and wrote of it elsewhere.

Turned around it spells out HARDWORK! BB

[Beano Boy]

I often like to apply weight to my paper card buildings and I use large heavy books to achieve that bulky pressure end. With bookend style buildings like these with the walls and floors butt end between them it can be done quite safely.

The building nearest the camera has what appears to be an off centred roof,this is because it is loose fitting and I had not lined it up to the centre point. These things do look odd in pictures so I thought I better explain why?



I left this over night confidant that it would not crumple up and fall. It is a great example of applying quality control



The work was glued up where it needed to be, then the pieces were left to go tacky. More glue was then brushed over the tacky stuff and quick assembly began. As the parts went together the glue made for a much better bounding, fixing them together without the need to hold and support them. The tacky glue and wet glue forms a much better bound than most stuff available out there on the market shelf. I fixed the larger building together using that method,then waited 30 minutes or so before I placed the heavy books on top. The applied pressure helps the formation of the box shape as long as every part is to square. The thin floors support the whole frame while taking all that tremendous weight. Yes these building are very strong and hardwearing and will last years.

Feel free to ask questions, and I will do my best to answer them. BB



My oldest building seen above is well over 18 years old. The picture quality is a bit fuzzy but the scratch building is not. The brickwork was made by using the PVA Glue method, and all the doors and main gate inside and out was scribed using that fantastic tool, the pen! So nothing is carved out.