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.

New Hobbit Holes 15

 

A much more reasonable wall. 

It's one thickness of foam board coated with filler/glue.

The gate is hinged on garden wire,

thinner this time.

The wall is now capped with thin card.

I think I'm overdoing the aging wood idea.

A lime green gate to match the door would be better.

The garden is yet to be done.

New Hobbit Holes 14

 

So, here's the completed Bee keeper's Hole.

Happy with the skeps, ladder, fence etc

but less so with the rows of Heather.

The next one has a wall in place of a fence.

Rather too big, don't you think.

Hobbits can't even see over it!

Start again!

New Hobbit Holes 13

Delays caused by lots of little fiddly bits (chimneys, pottery, bee skeps, a fence and a gate, tables and benches, and a couple of doorsteps which appear in the next post. Much trial and error, mostly error.

Three different tube sizes for dormer windows.

Kitchen foil and grease proof paper ones seem about right.

One of the new holes is to house a seller of honey,

hence the bee skeps. 

They are made from thin silky thread

bound round a Greenstuff former.

Then a coat of Balor Brown washed with Agrax.

The other was to be a potter though not a very good one.

Then I realised he'd need a kiln

so the other hole will belong to someone else.

The bee skeps are now on small balsa benches

and two other benches are ready for the pots.

The fence is balsa though I'd prefer something more substantial.

It took me three goes to come up with a set of steps that I liked.

Coffee stirrers!

Top soil has been delivered.

For both.

The gate is an improvement. 

A substantial post allows for a garden wire 'hinge'.

The chimneys look OK with pots made of ball point pens.

The pots are perhaps a little large though.

I'm also not sure about the rows of clover.

New Hobbit Holes 12

 

This gap was to have had a back door built into it

but the Hobbit Hole was too small to lose all that living space.

I hacked off the end and put in these pieces.

Front and back of the plastered result

with scratch built chimneys and dormers affixed.