Ola fellow modelers!!

Last year of studies has started, but fortunatelly my new timetable is quite easy so I have enough free time to work on my models:)

Today I finished stage one of my tower base. It's basically a piece of styrodur covered with some newspapers, pva glue and plaster. After that I dryfitted the lower section of the tower and glued it in. When it was dry I added another layer of plaster, this time mixed with some dirt. This way the top layer came out a bit uneven, which is what I wanted. After covering the entire base with the dirt+plaster mixture I took a small rock and pressed it against the still wet (but quite hard already) surface of the top layer. This made the top layer even more uneven, but I flattened it a bit here and there with my finger and some water.
The next step is to make the surface wet and sprinkle plaster on it. After that take some synthetic wool or a sponge and press against the still wet plaster to create a half beaten half fresh ground. The harder you press the more beaten it will get. Because that wasn't the last layer of plaster that I'm gonna add I didn't really care how it looked, I just wanted it to be a bit beaten.

Now it stands on a shelf and dries, while I'm thinking of where to add rocks and how big they should be. I guess I'm gonna add one bigger rock and a few smaller ones...hmm, or maybe... but that's a totally different story:)

So here below you can see how it looks like:

- 4 sides of the tower









- and a closeup of the base which is still only in phase 1





If you have any questions, comments, critique don't hesitate:)

Cheers,
dsc.

You have achieved an amazing level of detail Tom, the ground will tie the tower together perfectly. I really look forward to seeing the it come to life once you start to add the colour.

John

Gday Tommy boy...
Ktory patrzy wielki!
Blends well with the ground, which is a blank canvas for your work to continue... A path around the tower weaving amongst a couple of large rocks would look good, with the path worn and dusty, to contrast plenty of green grass?!
Keep us posted
Cheers
Brad

Hallo Tom,

I have a bit of a bad feeling here.
I mean, the tower is going to be to big compared to the base. In other words and IMO, the tower cries for a bigger diorama.
Also, you planted the tower right in the middle of the base. For me at least, it would look better if set a bit to one side, and perhaps you could show a pad leading up to the tower.
But that should be to late now i think.

Cheers
Claude

PS. How are the settings for the pictures you present here.
I can do what i want , my published pictures never appear at the same size you have here.

Tom that is fantastic! Couple questions though did you make each stone outta plaster? And that door looks freaking great! How did you make the door handle/knocker and is the wood balsa? Thanks for posting this great inspiration.

A.J.

Ola everyone

First the answers and after that a small picture that I've prepared.

@John: thanks mate:) I guess it will still take some time before the tower is painted, but I will probably post some pictures of the whole piece base coated sometime soon. That should bring out some of the details and it should be easier to say how the base looks.

@Brad: ola mate!




Wow you wrote smth in polish:) so cool:) I think I know what you wanted to say, but please wrote in in english just to make things clear:) polish can be quite tricky that's why I'm curious what you wanted to write:)




Well aren't you a mind reader:) At first I was thinking of adding some beaten and worn ground only in front of the tower, a couple of stones around and some high, beige coloured grass, like this:



but your idea of a path going around the tower is quite interesting. So interesting that I even created a small "what it would look like" kind of picture in PS. Scroll down to see it.

@Claude: I've added a small base cause I'm not planing to add anything more besides the tower. So too much space would look weird in my opinion. I put the tower in the middle cause it's the main and in fact the only thing to look at:) so I thought it has to go in the middle. I bet you would probably make it look great with a bigger base and a noncentered composition, but I've decided to go simple and centered:) Too bad you don't like it, but I hope you will change your mind as other elements are added:) Think of this as a vignette, only a bit bigger:)

@AJ: thanks for your kind words my friend:) each stone was laid individually, but they all came from a bigger mold I created some time ago, if you want to know more, check this out:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/59758#500075

The door handle as well as other metal elements are made from copper wire (0,4mm diameter) and thin copper plates (0,1mm). You can see more here:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/78941#657911

And yes the door wood is balsa:)

Enough answers, now the picture:

Below you can see a fast drawing in PS which shows a top view of the tower with some elements like grass, stones, path shown (I know it looks crappy:) ):



A small description:
- black polygons are stones
- green/beige/yellow patches is long grass and other grassy thingies
- dark gray patches is the worn, beaten path (on the right of the tower)
- red huge thing in the middle is the tower:)

So this is the actual look I'm planing to create. Any comments?

Cheers,
dsc.

PS. Claude about the pictures, you mean the size or how they look? the size is changed in Photoshop, that's also where I tweak the colors and lighting of the picture, PS has an auto setting for contrast and color correction, which works quite well and makes the picture more close to the original. As for the set up I use a small elastic loundry basket which is made of a cool white material that diffuses light. The whole thing works like a soft box, so there are no shadows on the pictures. The downside is that it's quite small and you can't put bigger objects in it. But hey for 10$ what more could you want?:)