Hi All -

I just posted this here - posted previously in "Under Construction." I am a newbie at this and trying to figure out what works best for building a Roman House. I am using two different kinds of "stucco/plaster." One is regular all purpose stucco. the other is "light spackle." I also used the LIGHT SPACKLE to fill in gaps/seams in between the columns.

Also used CLAY on one side. The clay was harder to use. I had to smear a yogurt consistency wet clay/water mixture over the clay as it dried to keep it from cracking too much (it would shrink and crack). I also sanded it and sanded both the light spackle and the stucco after dry. The stucco seems TOO ROUGH for this scale. sanding did not help much.

i put in a figure for context of scale.

The columns were made from plaster molds, glued together to get the right size. I had to sand them and put in filler to hide seams. Sanding the columns made them NOT vertical. i could not sand them perfectly straight. they would be slightly off and then when placing together they would end up NON VERTICAL. any suggestions?

ALL SUGGESTIONS and comments welcome. THANK YOU!

Hi
First my congratulations for attacking such a complicated building as a newbie. Good work on the columns also (mostly)

Do you guys in the States know the comic hero Asterix from France? Well, in one of his adventures he is going to Egypt to help his friend and architect Numérobis finish a temple for Cleopatra.
His talents as builder are somewhat questionnable
Here is the only picture from the cartoon i found on the Net

You notice that you are in good company!

Honestly , i have no real good idea how to get something better out of it now.

Obviosly smoothing some walls a bit more, the last picture really shows the problem. Replacing the first column, if this is the only one slightly off?

You may smooth everything back to the max and then cover with straight Plaster. What do you risk?

Using the roof and redoing everything else! You learned a lot already and it may only get better the next time.

Keep going , you will be good!

Claude

Claude as a young boy I used to read the adventures of Asterix and Obilix, there were so many great cartoons back then. I still have a few of the books somewhere. Pat

If you can find a specialty store that sells cake baking supplies and accessories they would probably also have plastic decorations for anniversary, birthday, and wedding cakes. The most useful of these accessories are columns, both Roman and Greek style, in two or three different heights. They are used to separate layers in wedding cakes. The tallest ones are probably around 6" high - and look good in 1/35 scale. They may be only cake accessories, but when painted look pretty good.

That's funny because that's the first thing I think of when I see those decorations

David: I agree with Claude's points. A finer texturing of the walls would be helpful, and it appears to me that several of the pillars are leaning, but this could just be the angles of the photos? You've done a nice job overall and certainly have caught the feel of a Greco Roman home, and whatever material you have used for the tiles and window panes are very convincing scale-wise.

For a finer stucco texture try a thin layer of spackle or artist's acrylic and dab (or daub) with a piece of sponge.