And now for something COMPLETELY different......FINISHED!

[Out2gtcha]

 

 

 

Still a long way to go here, but getting there. I still have to finish the bridge and imbed the lighting to forge on with the finish coating and paint

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a view of what the cottage will look like in place:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come, but getting some good progress.

Thanks for checking in on me!

 

 

 

 

[chrish]

Kinda reminds me of…..”In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty dirty wet hole filled with worms and an oozy smell or a dry bare sandy hole with nothing to sit on or eat, it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

well, the warm glow from the window is a inviting thing.

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Chris

 

21 hours ago, chrish said:

Kinda reminds me of…..”In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty dirty wet hole filled with worms and an oozy smell or a dry bare sandy hole with nothing to sit on or eat, it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

well, the warm glow from the window is a inviting thing.

 

 

Indeed! That is the warm, cozy, homey feel I am going for with the cottage and even the whole dio, although you do sort of have to be into this sort of thing before it can feel that way. 

[chrish]

17 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

Thanks Chris

 

 

 

Indeed! That is the warm, cozy, homey feel I am going for with the cottage and even the whole dio, although you do sort of have to be into this sort of thing before it can feel that way. 

Nailing it in that case! 

[Out2gtcha]

Making more progress!

 

With my wife's B-Day looming on Nov, 1st, I have 25 days to complete the little moon garden. I have a contingency plan that I definitely don't want to rush things, so if I don't get it all 100% complete to give her on her B-day on the 1st, I may have to give her a bit of a white lie and tell her I ordered her something that isn't in quite yet. 

So be it, I've kept the surprise this long!  She has been into my workshop near a dozen times since I've started it, but I always have noticeable things she would like (which is about everything) hidden under tarps, aka paper towels or wax paper. 

 

Ive gotten a start on the base and the pool at the top of the moon. This consists in the bases case, of some heavy duty foil coated with some candy green followed by candy purple, with a lighter layer of "holographic" paint. Same for the pool at the top of the moon, but instead of foil, it was  a base of black gloss, followed by some chrome, followed by the same candy colors.

 

Harder to capture the holographic paint well in pics, but it makes things REALLY cool looking, especially the pool. The base will get its edge finished off later after I add the lights, as it will help to shield seeing the lights directly, and will take care of the rough edge where the foil meets the ceramic base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the pool got nearly the same treatment, the two other holes that will have crystals in them received chrome paint only so as to maximize reflectiveness for the forth coming lights. 

The pool is going to look SUPER cool with these colors reflecting off of the lights, all under some blue tinted resin:

 

 

 

 

 

 

All for now!  Lighting is  going to be started tonight!

 

[Out2gtcha]

Happy Sunday all!

 

I made a marathon session last night and finished the basic construction, clay covering and overall surface texturing.

 

Before this happened, I needed to get the lights imbedded into the upper part of the moon garden so I could start paint.

I used an extra set of LED camping light strings for the overall lighting. This worked, but with the string being 15' plus and a light only every 3 or 4 inches, this was a TALL order stuffing all that copper into steps then a surround for the pool and crystals.

 

 

 

 

 

I finished off the bridge and all the steps, including the upper ones lit with amathist stones that I liberated from the wife's Rick collection:

 

 

 

 

 

At the moment, all the stones and previously painted areas all have masking, liquid and tape on them so things still look a bit funny:

 

 

 

 

 

 

A glimpse at what it will eventually look like lit up. Again, colors are way off due to the liquid masking

 

 

 

 

 

Back at it now....

Hopefully to prime things in all black, then a start on paint!

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

OK, speeding up here but not actually because of the looming deadline of my wife's birthday on the 1st, but more because I am SERIOUSLY enjoying myself! Things are going super right...........fun? Not sure how to describe the feeling when the vision in your head actually comes to life, and fairly close to what you had envisioned. 

 

The little fairy cottage is fully complete now and only needs wiring, which will come very soon, as I have been working on ancillary things to go with the larger picture, but the cottage is the main event and now that the base is complete (yay!) I can start to think about how best to wire/light up the cottage. 

 

The gold topped roof section to the tower and the mushroom cap on the chimney are just precariously balanced by gravity alone here as I need the roof off to wire the top two windows and I can't fit the mushroom on without the roof already being on, so both will be finalized in place later.

 

If i were 3/8" tall this would be a pretty sweet pad IMHO:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORE.............

 

 

 

 

[LSP_Ray]

That is sweet!

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Ray!

 

The paint and weathering phase of the base is also complete.  This of course is minus the massive amount of greenery (it IS a garden after all) and landscaping including an extremely rare Moon Oak that is left to add. I'm VERY much looking forward to that phase after having fun with the cottage! 

 

The base is of course XPS foam covered mostly in DAS stone modeling clay, but with texture paste added over just some areas consisting of stucco patch, water, acrylic paint, and some Mod Podge.

After that was all dry, I painted the shadow colors from only the bottom side with a very dark gray, then the light colors with a light gray from only the top.  Next I dry brushed the entire base with a neutral grayish/tan. All this was followed up by various washes of gray, brown, black, green and yellow, some overall like the black, and some in very specific spots like the green and yellow washes. 

 

The dry brushing really made the surface detail pop! That is exactly the effect i was going for too, with a wide variation of hues and surface textures to look at. After ALL of that I added some gloss black, then Alclad II chrome, then some candy apple green then candy purple followed by some of the holographic paint to the "shore line" around the base. This turned out SUPER cool imho, and blended much better than I had anticipated.

Almost too well, as you really have to look even though that bottom is highly reflective and extremely "mineral" looking. In this world I envision its something in this spring and subsequent waterfall that gets into the soil here and makes this amazing coloration........so after time anything touching it also turns brilliantly colored. Hence I also colored part of the dock too.

 

I am SUPER-DUPER pleased with the way the whole base is coming out so far. All unmasked too:

 

 

 

 

 

Lots and LOTS of interesting textures brought out by the washes and dry brushing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a look at what things will look like lit up. The pool and waterfall are going to look SUPER cool once filled with bluish resin:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day, VS night (the crystal tree, single crystal & Moon Oak all have yet to be placed here):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still MORE..........

[Out2gtcha]

I also got the itsy-bitsy row boat w/gold leaf ores, fishing poll w/line & bucket done along with the accompanying dock. Super pleased with these as well for how utterly small they are. The row boat is about 5/8" - 3/4" or so:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wife and I are taking a short 3 day end of season camping trip this coming weekend so I'll try to get some more work done tomorrow before we go on Friday afternoon.

 

Thanks for checking in on me! 

 

 

 

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Looks fantastic, Brian!

 

Kev

[A-10LOADER]

This is very cool !! Your wife is gonna love it, can't wait to see more.

Steve

[chrish]

Just awesome!

[RadBaron]

Truly beautiful work!! It's fantastic to see what your mind has created:D

[JeepsGunsTanks]

That's clearly the boat a Halfling Wizard would go with! 

 

Super awesome build!