A few months ago inspiration hit me - during a game of Magic the Gathering I thought it might be an idea to make a deck caddy to hold the cards during a game. Also, with Theo and Sarid's wedding coming up this gave me an idea for a unique gift for them.
#54 Gothic Church
#55 Bell Tower
#40 Basic Block Mold
I'd originally picked up the first two, as each is a neat project in it's own right, but for what I wanted I thought the elements of the two models would be easily modified to fit the design I had in mind.
After a weekend casting with those two, I ordered the #50 and #40 molds to help bulk out the basic bricks.
I had some fun finding a source of the plaster here in Toulouse, partly due to translation issues and partly to find a decent quality material that was recommended. Fortunately, I found just the place, and then promptly spent the best part of two weekend casting bricks...
These are (still) sorted into piles on the floor of my spare room, although I have a few ideas to use them up.
With the bricks ready, I could start designing the caddy. My first prototype was using simple bricks to check the scale. This included two sections, one for the 'library' and one for the 'graveyard' discard stack.
Dry-fit prototype to check sizes and layout (each basic 'brick' is 1" long, by 1/2" high and 1/2" deep)
Boring plain wall, but it's to get the scale right!
View of cards inside:
Dry fit seemed to work, so these were glued together. The interlocking seen above was ignored; the prototype was made in flat sections then assembled - although not as strong, the glue is good enough to not need the interlock strength. Using this approach allows each section to be made using Lego formers to ensure everything is square.
My original idea for the final model was that the long wall would be one side of a church nave, with the end walls also having some arch designs.
Some dry-fit planning:
Short wall (end piece)
Long wall:
On the day I started assembly the wall sections using this design, I had a game of MtG with Theo (without telling him what I was doing, of course!) and realised I had made a slight error in my planning...
As well as the two bays already designed, I also needed a third for exiled cards.
D'oh.
I modified the design so the 'church' covered only one of the bays, to hold the library stack. The other two bays would be small walled areas, like a graveyard or similar.
The modified wall sections were easy to make, as shown below:
The model base will be 3mm polystyrene plastic card, and PVA glue.
The library stack area has a plastic card base added. This holds the cards at a slight angle, and is sized to make it easy to draw cards:
With the assembled walls I found a few large unsightly gaps that the glue had not filled. These were filled with milliputt (a two-part epoxy putty) that can be sculpted like clay, and dries hard.
With the assembly complete, time to paint.
Undercoat: Since the plaster is white, any areas not covered would show up on the final model. The undercoat was black acrylic paint, thinned slightly to ensure it ran into the deep gaps.
Base coat: Using the same acrylics, a 50/50 mix of black and white was used, with a touch of blue to simulate granite. This was applied using the dry brushing (more a "wet brushing" as I wanted a fairly good coverage of everything except the deeper recessed areas).
Dry brushing is a quick way of adding an exaggerated light shade of the base coat. Most of the paint is wiped off the brush (so it is dry, geddit?) and then lightly brushed on. This means the paint is only applied to the outer surfaces, not the recesses. By applying successive lighter coats (both in terms of shade and brush pressure).
I used a 25/75 black/white mix (again with a little blue) which was dry brushed over, followed by a lighter coat using more white in the mix.
A final very pale grey highlight was added on the sharp edges.
A couple of grave stones were also added, painted in the same way.
The "grass" is Games Workshops static grass flock material, scattered over PVA glue.
Finally, I added a sheet of cork to the underside to protect the table top.
My original plan was to add some suitably Gothic miniatures in the window arches; however I was unable to find something I liked the look of, and instead printed some stained glass windows, trimmed to fit and glued in place.
Of course I had to check the cards fit...
Phew.
Except that, as both Sarid and Theo play Magic, one wasn't going to be enough...so I made a second in a different colour (and slightly different architecture trimmings)...
The last-but-one job was to varnish the model with a coat of varnish, then to finish I made a box to put the models in to transport them to the wedding!
Postscript:
Both models made it to the wedding in one piece, and Theo and Sarid were pleased with them. I'm already planning the next model - a tile holder for Carcassonne pieces
