New Hobbit Holes 4

 

After patching in the windows I had a thought.

Wouldn't it be good if these Hobbits could actually see out of their windows!

Unless there are stairs in these Hobbit holes (unheard of)

it would be impossible unless they were stood on the furniture.

As you can see his head is above the centre of the fascia window.

The base gives him a leg up.

After hacking out all the windows and lowering them,

this is what you get.

Too low?

Here's as far as I could get before the arrival of our Christmas guests.

Not sure of the detail on either of them but this one has a pond

or is that yet another pot hole on the A429

New Hobbit Hole(s) 3

 

After a further hack or three with the saw,

I was still not happy.

So I made two more using the recently arrived hot wire cutter.

I'll find the other one now!.

I've been tinkering with ideas for extra windows.

The right sized card tube and coffee stirrers.

The arching window frame is a problem.

I've tried Greenstuff (recently arrived)

and Balsa but neither worked.

I've re-thought the window arches.

Coffee stirrers are too thick, see above.

One of the new hills coated with Brown Earth.

No pantiles* on the fascia yet though.

Sorry, I've been calling them pantiles but they need to be wobbly! 

Tiles then.

Here's the other hill complete with windows and chimneys.

I've added the two cross pieces to the door as further disguise.

The lean on the chimneys is only partly the closeness of the camera.

John's mixture sinks and maybe shrinks when your back is turned.

I'll sue!

New Hobbit Hole 2

 

Here's the finished front 

(though I do have thoughts on a couple of bars across the door

to change its looks further)

Another bit of tinkering is with the chimney pots.

Both these ideas come from existing ones around the village.

Much to do with them yet though.

Having searched all hiding places for my hot wire cutter,

I tackled  the new Hobbit hill with a couple of saws.

I'm not happy.

New Hobbit Hole 1

Well, sorry about that folks. Covid, kids and carrots with a healthy smattering of Settlers have caused me to ignore this blog for nearly a year.

However, I think the stubbornness of the donkey had something to do with it so I have turned to Hobbit Holes.

I decided to use the same side as the previous Hobbit Hole

to see if I could disguise it.

I've cut two pieces of coffee stirrer and four of Karndean flooring.

The Karndean is the dividing strips they lay to provide patterning.

It has a wood texture.

To change the look of the door frame,

I put a layer of Milliput on the bricks.

I would have preferred Greenstuff (stickier) but I'm fresh out of it.

So here's the stirrers, Karndean and Milliput all in place.

I've also used John's glue/filler mix around the left hand window.

The right hand one already has a similar texture.

Now mostly painted and dry-brushed.

I also thought about modifying the chimney stacks.

However, the double pot piece is slightly wider than the single

so a re-think is needed.

The brick arch over the right hand window is now wooden.

This time I 'simply' sanded and scraped it down

rather than adding Milliput.

Of course, the truth is that, even after all these mods,

it will hardly look different to the first Hobbit Hole.

It's the equivalent of tying a red ribbon on the tail

of Lady Godiva's horse and expecting people to notice the difference.

Their eyes will be elsewhere.

Rohan Donkey and sheep

 

I'm afraid his nose rope is a bit taut.

I'll sort something out next week, after half term.

Does that hill look totally ridiculous?

I'm hoping that the grass will improve things.

This is how I made the fences using matches and coffee stirrers.

There must be a better way.

The grain takes ages.

Rohan Donkey Mill etc

Working on three projects at the moment.

Above is the situation with the Donkey Mill, as of yesterday.

Then, remember the six sided pen?

These are them thar hills that it and three horse heads will grace.

Cut out.

Glued atop each other.

and in the last shot of this post, an experiment.

The mill roof took a while.

'Graining' the wood, then placing reasonably accurately.

Better than the stables anyway!

Project three is fencing. Matches cut in half for the uprights.

Coffee stirrers marked with 'grain' and split for the bars.

The hills experiment.

I've frequently ended up with 'steps' rather than slopes.

On the left I've tried smoothing out the steps using John's glue and filler mix.

On the right, I've gone straight to the Dark Earth jar.

 

Another Blog change?

What's happened now? Have 'they' been changing things again! I used to be able to see all images from one post if I clicked on just one. Then I could easily go from one to t'other. Now only one comes up so you have to return to the main view to see another and click again. Or is it something I've done?

Rohan Donkey Mill 1

 

I'm determined not to muck up this construction.

so I've Bluetacked everything down while the glue dries.

Only to discover that the darn thing has a pronounced lean backwards.

Nadgers!

Inscribing the roof timbers before gluing in place.

However, the scoring tends to make the timber curl upwards.

Straighten before gluing!

I'm going to need more stirrers.

Rohan Donkey Field almost done

 

What a pile of .....!

A mix of dry grass, Brown Earth, glue and, the perfect ingredient -

tea leaves supplied by the one and only, John Curtis.

Tea bags wouldn't have done the job John.

It has to be proper old tea leaves.

Above is one for the pot.

The gate hinge corrected.

The 'rope', once coloured, is too stiff, unfortunately.

Overhead view showing what is supposed to be wheel tracks

of the little hay delivery handcart

(yet to be built)

Blake and Gracie's donkey hut.

Deeja's and Tarli's donkey.

Must get them to name him.

Homemade tufts but I don't like that blue colour.

Rohan donkey field

 

The 'donkey field' is coming along nicely.

It's taken time because I'm fixing the fencing to the base with 'Dark Earth'

which takes time to set.

The other reason is that the fencing comes from several kits

and is supplied with one side piece to every pair of corner pieces.

Result - if you want this kind of straight run,

is lots of carving apart of beams from posts

and then gluing them on to the next piece.

On a couple of occasions I've assumed difficulty getting a post in

and have put two together.

The building is the one that Blake and Gracie put together.

I've tweaked it, hence the elastic bringing the ridge down.

The next job was the fully opening five bar gate.

What larks!

Carefully constructed of split coffee stirrers inscribed to look like grain.

In this shot it's just propped up in place.

However, last night, that's where it was fixed.

Till 1.30 am when it crossed my mind

that it was upside down!

Even now, despite checking images, I'm not sure.

However, it makes sense to me

that the diagonal ends low on the hinged side.

So I carefully took it apart and inverted it.

That left the protruding hitching post pointing downwards!

Next, drill a hole for a pin on what had been the underside.

What have I done with the gate?

2.15 am and for the next ten minutes I'm crawling about,

feeling around on a grey carpet for a miniature five bar gate, also grey!

Found it.

I'd put it safely in a drawer.

Now, can I find a pin!

Eventually find some pin heads kindly donated years ago

by good friend, poet and rubber truncheon collector,

John Curtis.

Old bottom (now top) of gate drilled,

pin head glued in, painted, varnished.

Dark Earth drying.

Now I wait.

Rohan 'Semi' finished

 

Well, at last the damn thing is finished.

Thatch painted, washed ands dry brushed.

I have to mount it and sow some grass etc but that's it.

Above shows the conventional style of porch.

This is the sideways mounted one which caused such bother.

The only one in the whole of Rohan?

After all that fuss, it finally worked!

Tufts

 

I had a try at using the grass applicator to produce tufts.

Tin tray underneath connected up.

Two different thickness of glues used.

They don't look too successful, do they?

A bit like a youth's first beard.

I was using 6mm  grass and wonder if the only grill supplied is too small a gauge?

Or should I made an effort to pull apart the clumps of grass before using?

Rohan semi - another error!

 

Nearly where?

I'd put on the second porch roof last night - badly.

How many mistakes can you make on one building!

I thought the roof was then holding up on the wall edge.

It may have been, slightly, but grinding off the edge of the wall didn't help much.

I levered it off, leaving glue scars and on it went again,

hopefully in the right place.

I think many of the problems stem from that poor roofing job.

More Rohan scraps

 

From other leftovers, I've made up some small shed roofs/wood drying areas etc.

A shed wall too,

Made from leftover wall joiners.

What's the betting I'll need one?

Scrap horse heads

 

I've removed the joining flange from these horse heads.

I have six remaining horse heads and an old six sided pen.

Watch this space.

Grinder in Rohan

 

I recently treated myself to a nice little piece of kit -

a mini electric grinder.

(I binned the old steam driven one)

I'd thought of using it to make a 'rough wood' look on the stables roof.

So far I've only used it to chop up some pieces of scrap thatch.

(Watch yer fingers)

Perhaps handy for lean-to stores of some sort?

The right hand pair are cut downs.

Producing a decent looking bottom edge is tricky.

Rohan Makeshift gable ends

 

The end gables made from scraps look OK when painted,

though the right hand corner might need some work.

T'other end.