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Friday, 21 June 2024

Search for Las Maisontaal- building the village

 
I've almost got the structures of all the buildings for the village done now. This is the second time of building for them as I did the Townscapes project several years back, but those I put my own spin on, these I wanted to try and get closer to (I expect) Dave Andrews' builds as shown in the pictures. In fact, could this be Dave Andrews' own table? Anyone know how to reach him and ask?


This picture gives the fullest view of the village which is spread out along the curving road. It's the only shot that shows the watchtower and farmhouse lurking in back there. There's also a sneaky little building popping out behind the half-timbered house. Going by the Townscapes origin of the other buildings I suspect this is Fritzy's kennel.


The farmhouse is only shown from the back in the photo and isn't too clear so I took a few liberties scribing stones into the bottom section and herringbone brick on the top. I think when painted the dark/light areas should make it close to the photo. For some reason the panels in the left wing of the house are squarer/wider than they look in the book photo despite the overall house measurements being taken from the actual Townscapes building. It's probably the extra 6mm generated by cladding in Depron foam, strange how a small change makes so much difference working this small.




The watchtower I pretty much made the same as the last one I did. I could probably just have used that but I felt like having another go. This one has the same style roof as the other buildings in this batch (laser cut ivory card tiles with vectors taken from the actual Townscapes roofs) rather than the cast resin shingles I put on the previous one.



The half-timbered house can be seen in both photos, but only from this kind of angle, and largely obscured by hedge. They obviously don't want their neighbours seeing what's going on within. 





Here's Fritzy's kennel, ready to hang out mysteriously behind the back corner of the house. It's quite large, Fritzy must be a biiiiiig dog!


The cottage we have two clear views of, in the black and white picture and the full colour spread. The Townscapes building has a lean-to on one side but it's not clear from either picture if the one on this board does. I suspect looking closely that it does, some kind of ridgeline can be seen projecting from the far side, but I opted to do the house without. Some of the exposed brick visible on the Townscapes card model is in evidence on the front view so I have kept it on the back. I've put a couple of windows on the hidden side of the building to give the poor inhabitants a bit more light... and a nice view of the hordes come to loot and pillage!






The barn can be seen in all three of the photos of this side of the board. It's a pretty simple structure but fun to make. There's clearly some kind of poster on the wall on the river side which I will have to make some decisions about.





Making the front timbers really weathered with a steel brush and my spiky modelling tool was a lot of fun. 


The above photo also gives the clearest view of the privy. I'm pretty certain that the one in the photo is actually the card Townscapes one, not a nicely built version of it. Nevertheless I thought I'd make a nice one out of coffee stirrers anyway.


There are pretty good shots of the mill in these photos too, perched atop the stream. It doesn't show evidence of the wheel (I guess there's a small one inside then?) and preserves the door in a strange position right on the edge of the water. Logically if the wheel is (far too small and) in that archway then the grinding stones are positioned in the right wing and the grain store is presumably the upper floor of the big timbered barn part. I've put some bigger doors on the parts of the building you can't see in the book photos as it makes far more sense for cartloads of grain to be delivered from this side. I've also changed where the openings for winching sacks are on the building as where they are on the card model doesn't really make sense. The rear ramp is clearly not in evidence in the book photos so I haven't built it. Not really needed given the surrounding terrain. 











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Fimm McCool's

Fimm McCool's