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.

FFO Hobbit Holes 3

Sorry about the delay.

My room has been inhabited by a host of folk

who claim to be family.

The result is that I've been able to do nothing for yonks

though the building below now has grass.

Of course you'll immediately recognise it,

despite its unfinished condition,

as The Mathom House at Michel Delving.

I've assumed that a small amount of learning goes on here,

so have used our village hall's chimney/bell tower as the template.

 

FFO Hobbit Holes 2

So here are discovered dormers with correct paint colours.

I'd found them and the GW frontage in a box, already painted up.

It was put there due to one of these invasions that I suffer frequently.

I figured the GW dormers would offer variety to the FFO hole

so they all had to be painted in new colours.

Bricks Balor Brown washed with Casandora Yellow, panes Shadow Grey,

frames Xereus Purple, dormer roofs Rhinox Hide

brushed with Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The GW front will be for an 'ordinary' hole,

When I have some other items.

All three and GW chimneys applied.

I left those in red brick

though it might have been better to match the yellow.

This is to be the Mayors house. Room for paperwork.

The homemade dormers nearly ready.

There are four but I can only use three

as FFO have a delay on deliver of the other window.

I've ordered them but they'll be a while.

In situ on the Mathom House.

The fiendish chimney will be the tricky bit.

Watch this space.

(Though not for a bit as we are in the midst of another in invasion)

This post is simply to show that progress is being made,

if exceedingly slowly.

FutureForge Online Hobbit Holes 1

 

As you can see,

the people at FutureForge Online have some excellent products.

The facia above is slowly becoming the Mathom House at Michel Delving.

Here's the same frontage with both ends removed.

A bit daft really as FFO make something similar.

As usual, doing before thinking.

Here's another example of that. 

I've 'plastered' the Mathom House

and then made these dormers too large to simply fit to the outside. 

They'd have to be partially 'buried' through the filler/glue shell. 

Another stab at with a smaller tube.

I tried for completely round dormers.

However, there were then difficulties with the timber beneath the windowsill.

I finally cut off the bottom of these round dormers

and returned to the half round idea.

One more to go.

New Hobbit Holes 16 (and the last)

 

The latest Hobbit Hole is be be the home of a washer woman.

For description, think Toad.

I tried making the laundry from Green Stuff.

A grandson was convinced but then, he knew what it was supposed to be.

The wife guessed at 'Someone's dinner?'

The original table for the tub clearly required Mrs Mop to be stood on a box,

hence this design from a wooden fork handle.

The water in the bottom of the tub is PVA glue.

The washing on the line is Green Stuff and some cloth.

Most material frays.

The mangle is the only left handed one in Michel Delving,

probably in Middle Earth.

A little more washing was added to the line.

It's glue soaked kitchen roll painted white.

Because of the small base 

(I was running out of hardboard)

the garden is too small to take the mangle and wash tub in comfort.

Accordingly, she may move to a better class of hole later.