Display board continues...

In my last post about this, I had figured out the layout, and what I was planning on doing with it all.. am not sure if this will still all fit, but I will see if I can keep as much of it as I can now that bigger parts are put to the board.

First up was finishing the bricking of the rest of the buildings. I did some random designs throughout them to keep them interesting. And soon thereafter I would go through and do the plaster work like the one on the right. Tiring and tedious work, but work all the same.

The next test was to figure out the roofs. The walls and such were working well for me, but the tiling of the roofs was/is causing me problems. 7 tiles wide. Not a lot when your looking at such square millimeterage happening on these buildings.

I had found a webstore selling a mould for roof tiles for 5 gbp. I had purchased it as at worst it will be only 5 gbp lost. I can say it was not a full loss, but it was not the best thing to work with. As it only provides 3 levels of tiles, and I need a lot of stamping per roof ( even for the small one above ) to make it work.

Biggest problem of course is keeping it straight, level, and organized. Something that my first test ( above ) was anything but!

Due to this problem, I got a bit depressed.. as this is looking to be way more work than I really wish to be doing for this project.. and so I gave just wood shingles a try for the roof instead.

I can honestly say that this took no more nor any less time to make, though I suspect I can speed it up some over time.

That and the shingles do not look as good as the tiles would be, and would not fit the style of house that we are looking at here.

So my current plan is to remove the DAS Air Clay from the tile portion, and move to Milliput soon. See if that solves more of my problems overall or not. It might hold the shape better, and not warp or crack while drying 24-48 hrs later.

Moving from the buildings though I focused on the board itself. My idea is to make it so that the buildings can be removed so that I have not spent 200 gbp on buildings for a board that will be pulled out once to a single show this year. So the buildings can be used for gaming later on as well.

This is proving to be a bit difficult as I do want it to be covered in Sand.. and this is not always a straight line beside the buildings :D Slight problems, but I hope when I get to the paint and foliage stages I can hide most of the more terrible sections of it ..

But we are getting there.. I only have the last large farmhouse to brick and plaster. The roofs to figure out. Some holes in the rock sections to fill with clay and milliput, before adding more gravel perhaps. Then perhaps I will have time to do some painting on it.. maybe... but lots of steps to go as yet for this project.. one that I can honestly say is my largest to date! So hopefully I complete it in time for SMC in Eindhoven this October! Which is only 5 months away!!!!

Best get cracking!