I think your problem here is the origional walls are several feet thick and trying to represent that in miniature is difficult. From what i have seen the model railway guys either live with it or somehow paint it to represent it.

I suppose you also have to remember the sort of distance your scenery is being viewed from/

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It looks good but I have to agree with old man willow.
Perhaps if you make the blue part a bit higher (just like polarbird2's picture) you can make it look even better.


Btw did you use a metal or a plastic tool on the crack filler as I find plastick much easier to work with. (the metal ones stick to the filler far to much and that gives the result you got).
Sorry for forgetting to say this earlier

Looking forward to the next update

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My wip

Well, I have to say, you are achieving some great results here. Terrain is a subject close to my heart and I'd like to offer some suggestions for getting a realistic effect with your windows.

If you've read any of my old articles, you'd know I use Polyfilla (spackle) for most of my stone texture work. I use this material for a number of reasons, but one in particular has relevance to what you're trying to do.

Polyfilla can be sanded smooth when it's dry, which is perfect for achieving the look of dressed stone around an ornamental window (see @polarbird2's images). It can also be carved and scribed, which means you can do the mortar joins in the masonry too.

So you can get the effect of dressed stone surroundings very neatly with just a little piece of sandpaper - something that is that much harder with milliput or green-stuff. Cheaper too.

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Dagster

@Dagorlad; I like the idea of using polyfilla, & I have some in the house now. So I'll give it a try. It's always a pleasure to have a post from the big scenery makers

@Aqan/Polar yep I'll give the windows a try, I'm afraid all i had time for the moment was to finish of the brick work.

Here's what I've achieved today

Lovely job on the wall! For a minute there I thought Dagorlad had hijacked your thread and posted pics of his work

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Hmm... what would a chair look like if your knees bent the other way?

nice job on the wall. I like it, it looks great. Those windows are made well to

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Here's an Update of what I've done lately, nothing impressive but the mold thing takes up a lot of time. I used the pollyfilla thing for the sticking out bits, worked rather well - but would be a lot easier on a flat surface. Thanks Dagorlad






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Looking good man. i wish I had the space to make more terrain projects, they are so much fun.

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Did you decide to use cheese cloth to make the mold stronger?
Did the product you are using recommend 3 or more coats?

Judging from the windows great care will be needed to remove the casting with out breakage. I think you can avoid most of this by making the back up support mold in several pieces. The casting will still be seamless. When you build the back up box make it about 1/2 of an inch taller than the buttress. Make a small thin card for each of the buttresses. This will look like the expansion joint for a concrete drive way. Pour the box. When the cast is dry remove the box. The back up will be in several parts but this will keep the latex from stretching out of shape. It will be much easier to remove the castings from the backup mold if you do it this way. The latex will stretch like a sock when you pull it off.

If you have already realized this forgive me. If not, glad to help.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Lovely work

I always use Polyfilla for stone texturing, and definetly agree that it's hard to apply it smoothly and evenly on non-flat surfaces. You seem to have done pretty well with the supports, however, so good job.

Update soon!

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Hmm... what would a chair look like if your knees bent the other way?

Well what i decided to do was first give it a few coats of latex (that's only 3 in the picture above) Once I have that thick enough I will construct a square around it, and add plaster to strengthen the mold.
I didn't quite understand what you meant with the card/window & all.. could you please describe it to me in more detail?
Yes I know I am very special & sometimes slow at times

Thank's Again
Drum

ohh yes you can be very special and VERY slow at times, yes

believe me guys, its REALLY hard to explain something to him some of the time

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time is a waste of life
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I didn't quite understand what you meant with the card/window & all.. could you please describe it to me in more detail?
Sure I am glad to help.
The buttresses are deeper than the rest of the wall. The back up casting support mold will be very tight. When you try to remove the back up from the mold it will stick. The casting will break at the point the thin wall joins the buttress. The card will split the back up into 4 parts. There will be a right and left side of each buttress on the back up so it can't stick.



I hope you can see this. I rapped a piece of card a round a block of wood to make a quick box. I use two small pieces of wood to show what I mean. See how this would break the cast box into three parts.



This photo shows how thin the latex can be. The simple shape of the hay stack is no problem to pull from its back up .These are 15mm and 25mm for ACW.
You can see from this photo how important the plaster back up molds are to keep the thin molds from stretching out of shape.I would use a piece of card for the center of each buttress. 4 pieces will support the latex as well as one. They are not any more difficult to make. The mold can not get stuck and break the casting.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

oh yes I understand you now. Sorry about that. Thanks again for the great advise, I think you could make some great articles with the knowledge you have. I would love to be as experienced as you some time

Thank you, Experience comes with time. It won't be that long before you have the experience to give expert advice.

I think your project will make a good article. Take lots of photos.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Thanks for the comments in the gallery. I did not build that one. The fortress was commissioned by a late business partner. Tim signed it and dated it 4/16/98. See the link to his web site: http://www.modelcastles.biz/

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

oh yes I've seen that site before, some interestin models there. Even though you may not have built that one, I looked around in your gallery and your work is inspriring, and you have so much attention to detail.

@ Drumtastic - sorry for the late post on this question. I thought I asked it a while ago but...

About how heavy is your Helms Deep main structure? I was wondering how easy it is for you to transport ( one or two person lift? ).

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Oh sorry I must have missed that question, I should need to finish it soon anyway, so there'll be an update soon on it. It weights ruffly 1kg, thats just a guess really. Well it is possible for one person to hold it, it's just akward because it's so big & tall. Doors are a problem, at the start mine didn't fit through the door, so we took it out the window (one of these large sliding doors) We trimmed it off so that it then fitted through the door.
I will be taking it to my local Warhammer club soon, there are around 6-7 Lord Of The Ring players so it's rather fun to have a massive battle.

Well recently over this past year I've found no desire to paint my men at all.. but after having my firs match in quite some time i got straight back into it. My painting skills.. ... well.. .. should improve over time hopefully. Plnety of feedback on this one would help me to improve on my painting, for I'm not a confident painter




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