Excellent work, man! the building looks awesome. Exactly the sort of stuff my lazy butt should be doing.... :rolleyes:

Adding the Substrate
 

Time to add the ground texture.

I walk into a hobby store this morning and go up to a guy and say - "I need some gravel texture for a diorama I'm making". He hands me a large $9 bag of "woodland scenics gravel ballast". Now, there's a procedure for applying this stuff.... You're supposed to just dump it on your ground, then spray it with a water/soap mixture, then use an eye dropper to gently apply "scenic cement", which soaks through the layers of fine rocks and hardens.

Now, I figured that instead of doing that, I'm going to lay down a thick helping of tacky all-purpose glue on my coarse styrofoam panel (floor), sprinkle this gravel on and then coat it with a clear-coat spray paint.

I'm happy to report that my method worked fine. The gravel doesn't come off, so I'm not going to see it around my house on the floor everywhere ;-) I'm sure that if you apply it the "proper" way, you can mold it much better, and apply it to a surface that has bumps etc. Anywho, here's a shot after the application...

Edit Note: Make sure that you cover 100% of the surface with the glue in this method... I used a brush to smooth out the glue. When sprinkling on the gravel, don't do too much, just enough to cover the surface... use your fingers to push the gravel down into the styrofoam and glue. If you see glue coming up through the gravel, just sprinkle a little more on that area, and press it down again. I tried this on a few sample styrofoam pieces first just to get the right procedure.



Here's a close-up shot of Snake Eyes on the new terrain. Looks slick.



You can't see in the photos above, but I used a chisel to carve the building outline down a bit on the styrofoam - that way, when I add the building to the styrofoam floor, the building will sit a little lower, and thus give the appearance of the gravel mixing right into the bricks. Take a look at the following picture to see what I'm talking about ;-)



So there you have it.

Next up is the roof. I also picked up some foilage to add around the building.

Thanks for all your comments!

Cheers! ~ Paul.

Time for a Roof!
 

Here's some shots of the roof.

The building looks waaaayyy better with a roof. We decided to go the simple route and just use popsicle sticks again, painted dark brown. I was going to do shingles, but after trying them, it seemed out of place with the rest of the "shack" feel. Planks look more rustic and low-tech ;-)



Here's a few angles of the roof. Still have to do the wood trim around the roof edge. Coming along nicely... Enjoy!







Once the roof trim is done, we're moving on into the interior! oh, and the front door!

Cheers! ~ Paul.

Onto the Interior! Moving Along Nicely!
 

For the interior, we decided to use wood slats (found at any hobby or craft store). After cutting them to fit the interior, we painted them with a nice tan color. Not much different than the natural plywood color, but adds a little something ~ and painting really brings out the grain in the wood. Glued them down to the floor, and snapped a few pieces for the area near the blow-out hole.



Here's a close-up of the installed and painted flooring. And for the walls, we went with 40lb textured blue-gray paper. Cut it to fit and glued it in. I'll cut another wood door frame and window frame to go on top of the paper. And we'll have baseboards in the room.



My son was dying to slap some Joes in there... Notice that I ripped up the paper around the blow-out hole. Looks good me thinks...



Another look at the outside. Finished the roof trim and touched up the paint on all joints. Nice rustic roof look eh?



Firefly entering the shack via the blow-out hole. Zingerlicious.



Zartan sneaks up to the front door.



Next.... uhm... we'll finish the interior. With the wood trim everywhere, paint it up nice and then make a door.

Project is moving along nicely. My son is enjoying it. He's painted pretty much everything you see. I'm the cutting and gluing side of the equation. We're both learning quite a bit while we do this.

Lots left to do! Anyways, until next time!

Cheers! ~ Paul.

LOL. Most of the miniature gamers call the stuff flock that ya use for the grounds. And yes, you usually use a tacky glue. But unlike you, they tend to dry brush the stuff. HOW they do that w/o getting all the flock back ONTO the brush is beyond me. Your project looks great! MOving faster than me! (NOT that that's saying much!)

That things is awesome!!! I love it! :D

Here's an action shot of the interior.



Drywall looks good. Door is done. Hinges need painting.

Cheers! ~ Paul.

That thing is awesome. Keep up the good work.

I like the idea of the basswood slats for the floor. Cool idea for what you are doing. Amazing what you can do with cardboard. I've never been a fan of it, but you are definitely showing how it can work wonders.