School project - Anglo Saxon hut/house - Finished!!

[adt70hk]

Neo - thank you for feedback.  I'll bear you're idea in mind for future builds!

Leon - thanks for stopping by.  Comments passed on.

Peter - glad you like it.  As for the roof.....we have started it but it's a long way from finished and is proved a bit of a challenge to start with....


So now onto the grass.....

Again keeping it simple so Junior could tell school what he did, we used an idea I came across on the South African Wargaming blog - very fine sawdust (Neo - guess what I used to get the sawdust so fine!! ) and green food dye.

Obviously the more dye we use the greener it is, so we played around with different ratios to get different colours that we then mix up to get a more realistic non-uniform green finish.  The darker green below was 45ml of saw dust and 10ml of dye, the mid green was 45ml sawdust and 5ml of dye - the lightest one is an old batch of indeterminate ratios.  When we finished he even said he enjoyed making it!

We just then 'painted' the base with thinned PVA glue, sprinkled the 'grass' on and let it dry a bit before pressing it down into the surface more to help it adhere.  The colour variation is more obvious in real life.

Apologies but the middle picture may be a bit blurry - either that or I REALLY need an eye test!

As always ACW.

ATB

Andrew

[Leon]

Nice work! What happened to the other pics?

[k1w1]

Like the shades of green. Roof a bit of a challenge - After thinking about it I think I know why. Gluing some fibre lengths to the roof base would be easy but getting some thickness would end up with it all soaked in glue ? If that is the hiccup - looking at the photo of a thatched roof back near the start of the thread - it appears to be made in to bundles then tied before being fitted. So bundles of fibres could be tied together with sewing thread in a suitable colour then the bundles glued side by side ?. Only an idea. I appreciate you have probably already found a solution by now. Anyhow we look forward to seeing how you tackle it. 

[adt70hk]

Apr 23, 2018 9:42:46 GMT -5 Leon said:

Nice work! What happened to the other pics?

Leon

Thank you very much indeed.  I'll pass your comments on.

As for the missing pics, I'm not sure if you mean the roof?  If you are apologies for the confusion but we don't have any yet.

ATB

Andrew

Apr 23, 2018 10:09:05 GMT -5 k1w1 said:

Roof a bit of a challenge..............

Peter

How right you are!!!!!!    The hemp is a nightmare to work with and really tried my patience and temper.......

I also thought of bundles after the first layer went on and although a trial bundle showed some potential promise we're almost out of time on this anyway, so we haven't got time for experimenting.  I managed to improve on the method a bit but it's far from perfect - at least to my pedantic eyes.....

More pics to follow this evening.

ATB

Andrew

[Neo Phyte]

Can't see the problem. I would lay down a row of thatching across the bottom quarter of the roof, and only glue (PVA) across the top. Wait an hour for glue to take hold, then lay down another row, etc.,

[adt70hk]

Hi all

Well, we're calling this one done.  We have to as we've run out of time.

The plumbers hemp was initially quite tricky to get the hang of, plus we didn't have a lot of time to get the process perfected and so it is nowhere near as straight in places as we would like..... .  I also don't think it helped being so low to the ground as it made it hard to trim the bottom level.  In short we'll be better prepared next time!

Another lesson learnt was to leave putting the grass on right to the end as the hemp regularly got caught up in it, especially the trimmed off bits.

Junior also decided it needed a sign and came up with the design all on his own.

Thank you again to everyone who has stopped by and for all the suggestions; even if we didn't use them this time we'll bear them in mind with future builds.

All comments welcome as always.

All the best.

Andrew

PS apologies for picture lighting but getting the light right in the kitchen was tricky

PPS it turns out it's about the right size for 1/72 wargaming!!!

[adt70hk]

Apr 24, 2018 8:35:03 GMT -5 Neo Phyte said:

Can't see the problem. I would lay down a row of thatching across the bottom quarter of the roof, and only glue (PVA) across the top. Wait an hour for glue to take hold, then lay down another row, etc.,

Neo

Thanks for the tip.  Wish I'd thought of it at the time.  I tried another technique someone else suggested but it wasn't great.

Unfortunately we ran out of time to try anything that was too involved but I'll definitely give the idea a try.

Thanks again.

Andrew

[Neo Phyte]

[mustang1989]

Man that's friggin' awesome!! Hats off to "The Project Manager".

[Leon]

Congrats to your son and you for doing an awesome job on this!

[k1w1]

This turned out really good. Great job !.  I hope we will see more of his work in the future. 

[adt70hk]

Apr 24, 2018 16:38:28 GMT -5 Neo Phyte said:

Neo

Thx for taking the time to do something a little bit different on the feedback front. I'll make sure he sees it.

ATB

Andrew

[adt70hk]

Apr 24, 2018 16:38:30 GMT -5 mustang1989 said:

Man that's friggin' awesome!! Hats off to "The Project Manager".

Joe

Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

It's fair to say we're pretty pleased with it, accepting the hemp needs some work next time.

I'll make sure I pass on your comments.

ATB

Andrew

[adt70hk]

Apr 24, 2018 17:05:00 GMT -5 Leon said:

Congrats to your son and you for doing an awesome job on this!

Leon

Thx. Most of the credit goes to Junior though.

Yes, I had most of the tools and materials already but it was his idea, his design and he did most of the work.

I'll make sure he sees your post.

ATB

Andrew

[adt70hk]

Apr 25, 2018 4:43:50 GMT -5 k1w1 said:

This turned out really good. Great job !.  I hope we will see more of his work in the future. 

Peter, thx for following this all the way.

I think you will!! We the other night talked about doing something with a corrugated iron roof next time. So watch this space.

ATB

Andrew

[afvfan]

Looks good, Andrew. Another couple more and you'll have him trained to do all of your diorama bases.

[adt70hk]

Apr 25, 2018 12:15:05 GMT -5 afvfan said:

Looks good, Andrew. Another couple more and you'll have him trained to do all of your diorama bases.

Bob

Thanks for stopping by and hope all is well with you.

I'll make sure I pass your comments on.  Interestingly when we had finished he made a comment to the effect that enjoyed it a bit more than plastic kits, so we'll see what the future brings.

All the best.

Andrew