FFO Hobbit Houses 1+2 (d)

 

The 'floor plan' of the second house.

As usual, I made error after error on this.

I first made the building too high,

then, by burying the base, made it too low.

It was supposed to look as if it was on the top of a mound

but looked as if it had been swallowed up by it.

I wanted a different shape for the windows on this one.

At first I chose yellow as the background to the windows

 with bright red surround.

However, they looked like warning signs round Chernobyl.

DANGER!

Do not enter.

Risk of death and foot baldness.

Orange is bright enough.

FutureForgeOnline Hobbit House 1 + 2 (c)

 

Here's how it's looking.

The cat is from a kit 'Farmyard Animals'.

As are the pigs, finally painted in Dwarf Flesh.

The 'straw' was snipped from youngest grandchild's fringe.

Close down altogether now. House full of kids!

FutureForgeOnline Hobbit House 1 + 2 (b)

 

A start on the second Hobbit House

The best of the gates, so far.

The hinges and catch are from plastic shelf edging.

After half a dozen stabs at the right colour for pigs,

I found and old pot of Dwarf Flesh which seems about right.

A start on the pig sty.

I've realised that the progress on the house and yard

 has not appeared on here.

It will be a nice surprise for you when it does.

FutureForgeOnline Hobbit House 1 + 2 (a)

 

As you can see, the roof soil has been delivered 

and sown with good quality grass seed.

The grass is up already and the chimneys finished and potted.

Both pots are pieces of ball point pens.

I've topped the chimneys with card painted in Dark Earth

as I thought the FFO one was rather too smart

compared with my home made one.

The 'caps' bring them together. 

A bit of wall washing now needed and a garden of sorts.

As I'm out of rocket stick I've tried to make window sills etc

from coffee stirrers glued together.

The first Hobbit House might have had pigs in the back yard

but I thinks it looks too smart for that.

It will still need some fencing though and here are a couple of experiments.

Split coffee stirrers and barbeque skewers.

The darker pieces are the window sill/fence post experiment.

A start on house number two with corner verticals as on the first one.

Unfortunately the rocket stick supply problem

brings thing to a halt.

FutureForgeOnline Hobbit House 1

 

Two blocks of polystyrene topped and tailed with foam board 

make the body of this Hobbit House.

I know we are all used to these characters burrowing

but Tolkien does say that Michel Delving has some houses.

He suggests they are brick built

but some are of stone construction, as you see evolving here.

The stone plasti card was donated by Bob, across the village,

along with many other goodies.

Many thanks Bob!

Rescaled windows provided by Future Forge Online.

The planking is coffee stirrers inscribed,

painted with Dark Angels Green,

then dry brushed with Camo Green.

The beams were a piece of luck.

I'm nearly out of rocket sticks

but the kids turned up with Toffee Apples!

More windows awaiting varnish

(glazing)

The front door in situ.

Again FutureForgeOnline.

The central beam is a Magnum stick, inscribed etc.

Painted with Rhinox Hide, dry brushed with Balor Brown,

as were the main roof beams.

The corner verticals are of timber corner moulding.

Door and windows now all fixed.

Styrene 'roof' being shaped up.

Roof support beams (RHS) are awaiting paint.

Here those beams are painted and fixed.

Styrene cut down to size using hot wire cutter.

A layer of filler/glue mix now applied.

Started to apply Brown Earth

but realised that chimneys were not fixed.

Now they are but awaiting pots.

The left one is rocket stick, the right one is FFO.

Computer has had problems for past fortnight or so,

hence delay in posts.

FFO Hobbit Holes 7

The 'Mayors house' has been grassed

 and a fence of balsa (posts)

 and coffee stirrers constructed and painted.

As it's a fiddly job,

I sprayed it using 'Firefly Green' from FOW.

The stepping stones are from a cork beer mat

bought from Madeira 20 odd years ago.

Painted dark grey and dry brushed light,

they look OK, if a little large for Hobbit strides.

Think of them as stops when weeding.

The fence glued in and some flowers planted,

and from above.

A balsa post with a chain pinned to it instead of a gate.

I'd hoped to use a similar idea for the Mathom House

 but couldn't find any chain.

I might go back to it.

Overview.

 

FFO Hobbit Holes 6

Many moons later-

I've made a decision about that chimney and, using a 6d rocket stick painted in 'Dark Earth', marked out, then dry brushed light grey, I think I have a reasonable looking partner to the bell-tower chimney stack. The pot itself is just the usual hex bodied pen.

A big improvement on this type of building

The addition of rock balls* for the gateposts and a large post box for all the Mayoral mail

 makes this one complete.

*I did wonder about having gold balls for the gate

but thought that would be a tad too showy.

FFO Hobbit Holes 5

 

At last I'm moving in the right direction.

The walls and gatepost are in place and look OK,

thanks to a daughter's suggestion.

Unfortunately I'm now dissatisfied with that rugged chimney stack.

It belongs to a smaller, more artisan hobbit hole,

not the Mathom House.

The bits in the foreground may turn out to be the new chimney.

Three months up?

 The three month-ish of various odd bods occupying my room will soon come to an end. I'll, at last, return to Michel Delving.

FFO Hobbit Holes 4

 

I might say that, at this point, I've hit a brick wall,

though it's actually a stone one.

I've been faffing about, fixing the capstones on it.

Wood? Plastic? Greenstuff?

Anyway, this is as far as I can get until the house sheds it's load of visitors.