This is a set of German town walls I made for David Imrie in 2006. Apologies for the distracting background to these photographs: too much blue sheet and too much of my old back garden in Coventry! The dull light also reminds me now of being up at dawn that day, between an all-nighter to finish the model and driving to the Partizan show to hand it over. Anyone who makes models will be familiar with being up all night to finish a model before a deadline. It is an iron law, somehow, that every model always takes longer than you expect: sometimes only a bit longer, sometimes twice as long. But there's a satisfaction in hanging in there and getting the job done. Anyway the final photo here was taken recently by Dave himself and shows the benefit of a proper foreground, a proper background and some nice figures to set the model off.
As you can see, this project comprised a gatehouse, three round towers and four lengths of wall, one with a stairway. The usual techniques and materials have been used: foamcard, balsa, Wills sheets and resin cast parts. There were some big castings here: the roof of each wall section is cast as one piece, as are the tower roofs.
When I look at this now, I can see a lot of difference from the similar model I made for myself almost twenty years earlier. This one is a lot "crisper", as modelmakers say, by which we mean neater, cleaner and more sharply defined. You can see what material every part is supposed to be made of. I like the colour better too, as it's atmospheric and pleasant without being garish
Another beutiful bunch of models John, I have run out of superlatives to use!
ReplyDeleteDon't worry mate, we will soon be out of photographs taken, so hopefully your supply of superlatives can be eked out, perhaps on a half-rations basis?
DeleteLovely town walls, they've given me some ideas to upgrade my existing set of modified plastic ones.
ReplyDeleteThanks, tidders. Would those be the Games Workshop "Mighty Fortress"? I've got a set of them tucked away myself, from a brief phase of Lord of the Rings gaming.
DeleteI have a set of heavily hacked old toy castle walls and turrets I use; they had a quick refurb this year -
Deletehttp://tidders-kingdomofwittenberg.blogspot.com/2021/04/walls-and-gatehouses.html
Ah, I see. I went and looked. They are a blend of styles really: part realistic, part stylised/ old school, part toylike. One of the nice things about our hobby is we can all make and paint in the style that most appeals to us.
DeleteJohn once again wonderful looking models. You achieve a very clean look with your models which I really like . I hope you might spend some time on a future post to tell us how you paint the buildings. Even when there is rubble or a distressed look you achieve a clarity that works brilliantly at this scale.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Martin, much appreciated. You've made me think there though: is there a particular approach I am taking to get a "clean effect"? I'm not entirely conscious of one. But I think sometimes when people paint terrain or buildings, they optimistically hope that an overall paint effect will make everything look OK: drybrushing, a wash or a dip. I suppose that was my approach when painting the first German town walls, back in 1989. I slapped a wash over the whole of the walls, then a drybrush, then another wash. It looks alright, but I suppose on the later work I was thinking more meticulously. What are the materials here? Then carefully painting each material separately: the wood, the stone, the render and so forth. Some effects do go across the materials however. They are the last bits I paint: shadow in the corners and recesses, an attempt at representing damp and dirt where the structure meets the ground. Does this make some sense?
DeleteExcellent feedback , very helpful , thank you John
DeleteAh, pulling an all-nighter to get a job finished; that brought back too many memories! Jobs always seem to take twice the time allocated to them based upon my experience:(.
ReplyDeleteHave you been a modelmaker then, Steve? I'm sure the same thing happens in other fields of course.
DeleteHi John,
Deleteyes a modelmaker and on/off designer since 1986! Some of my colleagues used to work with Tim Adcock before he joined GW many moons ago. Mainly product design models and rarely architectural, which I didn't enjoy!
Ah, well you know about it then!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh this is my favourite so far. After a visit to Rothenburg in southern Germany a few years ago I decided that my TYW project would have to allow sufficient room for a walled German town on the tabke. I have set out to build it arounbd commercially available railway buildings with painting asnd weathering from me.
ReplyDeleteThese photos are wonderful inspiration.
Thanks
Richard
Didn't you briefly give us a link to view the 'N Gauge' model railway buildings you had worked on? I thought they were very nice, and showed what good use we can get out of well-chosen model railway buildings.
DeleteThanks for your comment. I had linked and then thought to remove it as I didn’t want to detract from what i was seeing here. I’ll put it back - lots to learn and do.
Deletehttp://rctlittlesoldiers.blogspot.com/search/label/Kleinstadt?m=0
I have added your blog to my favourites and the links here, as I found a great deal of interest there. You have very wide interests and technical skills: I regard 3D printing as akin to black magic, I'm afraid.
DeleteIf I could offer one constructive criticism on your town buildings, the colour seems a little bit dull to me. I am thinking of the wall surfaces and tiled roofs. Black-brown is where I would start myself, but I would be lightening that up via terra-cotta to flesh-colour paints for the highlights. I described the method in my Mediaeval Tower post. Where there's the opportunity to realistically use strong colour we should seize it!
Very nice indeed.
ReplyDelete