Monday 23 June 2008

The Rathaus.

Front quarter view.


Front elevation.
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A couple of days to go before I head for pastures new. Planning is over, packing has begun! In the meantime I pushed ahead and completed a project that has been sitting on the workbench for way too long - the rathaus.
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This building was designed to be the meeting hall or rathaus of a town council. Construction is mainly from Hirst Arts components from their Gothic range of molds. Only the sides of the two upper storeys, the windows and the main body of the dormer windows are scratch-built, either from foamcore or balsa. Although it can't be made out here, the windows are diamond-paned, formed from the type of mesh used for car bodywork repairs. The roof of the main building lifts off to allow figures to be placed inside. The small plinth positioned over the central arch is intended for a statue of some kind. A 15mm figurine painted in suitable colors will go here.
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I used ordinary vinyl emulsion for the main paintwork and Vallejo acrylics for everything else, occasionally mixed with "Klear" floor polish ("Future" in the US) for added durability. The roofs do look a bit "hot," but this is due to the lighting conditions. All that remains for me to do is complete the street surface in front of the building. Time permitting I'll take a photo or two of the rathaus alongside the tower I made in the earlier project.
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Overall I'm reasonably satisfied with the result. As always I can see a few areas which can be improved upon, but that can wait for another time and another project.

3 comments:

Fitz-Badger said...

Very nice! I see a lot of Medieval and fantasy buildings, dungeons and ruins made with Hirst blocks, but I think this is the only building I've seen make specifically for 18th century Middle Europe. Looks right.
(just wait - but don't hold your breath - one of these days I want to make a small Germanic-style mountaintop castle)

A J said...

Thanks, Fitz! I know what you mean about fantasy buildings and so on. Your Germanic-style castle idea sounds promising. Will you base it on an actual castle or create a generic one?

Fitz-Badger said...

Yeah, I actually made some medieval-style houses, church, inn and such before I got sidetracked by 18th century Imagi-Nations.
The castle would be generic (and very small as I tend to go for small footprints for tabletop gaming). I did a dwarven fortress on a "mountain" ages ago, I might be able to add onto that for the Germanic castle.
But first things first. I have enough other projects in progress. My priority at this point is to finish enough 18th century minis to do battle.