Red Harvest's Relocated Terrain Blog

[Claudius Sol]

If you have a dremel, could you use a coarse polishing brush to get that brushed steel look?

[Mob of Blondes]

With fine foil? Better hand methods if you don't want to waste a lot and restart constantly. Once I found some images of circular polish pattern, it was done with wood sticks and rotation, just that.

While trying to smooth the damn micro stamp pattern it was pretty common to get all kind of scratches, so coarse is not the way to go. It's also a matter of scale.

[red harvest]

There are a few polishing cremes that will leave the microabrasions needed. I'll keep experimenting until I find something I like. And of course, post the results here. Plus the actual foil needs to be the right color. Chrome and aluminum foil has a bluish tint to it, and brushed steel has more yellow. To my eyes anyway. Ah well, problem for another day.

A little more work on the guest house that I'm building from some floorplans. The interior walls are dis-assembled at the moment. Re-thinking how to do them.




The patio under the overhang? Tiles that match the interior or something else? Perhaps hexes but a different color, more a brick red?

Need to figure out how to do the attic crawlspace and make it playable, if possible. Otherwise that will be one really thick roof piece.

Thanks for the input guys, and of course, for stopping by.

[UnBroken]

truly great work, cant say that ill make comparable terrain but you have set a bar to strive for.

[bugbait_nz]

I like the shape of this one
Patio tiles need to be different IMHO.
Patio roof is nice, continue that height over the main structure?

[red harvest]

Thanks. I agree about the patio. I'll experiment. I'm enjoying doing that at the moment. The roof will be higher on the building. The lines for it are sort of visible in the photo. Top set of double lines for the roof, bottom set for the ceiling, and in between a crawl space.

[MARC C]

Yes they need to be different.
A concentric wave pattern would that matches the shape of the building....
did you really think I would make it easy for you? ;-)

[red harvest]

Quelque chose comme ci?



Several people have suggested breaking up the regularity of hex patterns. This I think is a reasonable solution. Needs refinement though. But for a first try, I'll take it.

[MARC C]

That Hex is the perfect place to put a flower pot.

[Mob of Blondes]

Hexagons are the way to win

[red harvest]

Thanks for the heads up MoB. I've alerted my legal team.

That Hex is the perfect place to put a flower pot.

Someone else suggested a man hole cover. I like your idea better, since it would make a nice lo viz zone in front of the windows. One way to deal with shooting into a building.

Anyway, I intend to put panes in the windows, and have decided on a more stucco like texture for the exterior.


I hope to finish this this week. We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by.

[Mob of Blondes]

Man hole? Ewww. Plant, fountain or a combination... but man hole?

[jherazob]

Yes, a manhole right in the entrance of a house feels wrong, but a potted plant doesn't

[mbdeyes]

Meh... I've seen drain covers in stranger places IRL, but I too like the plant idea better.

[red harvest]

I believe the commenter was joking about the man-hole cover. Just the usual scratch-builder banter. But it did give me an idea, that I need to break up the long wall of the back of the building, so I'll use one of those exterior cellar door pieces like and maybe an HVAC unit.

I wanted a bit more detail to the roof, since it is the thing most seen on these buildings during play.


The holes are for gabled skylights, and the cut-outs for vents. The metallic area bordering the roof is actually and idea for a gutter I had. Arid climate, catch all the water you can and funnel it into an underground cistern. I suppose I could have mounted them externally, but that would have been...visually unappealing to me. Plus, too fragile.

Such slow progress. I hope to have more building time this September.

Thanks for stopping by.

[MARC C]

Excellent stuff as usual. Love the detailing of the roof. I used to live in an apartment with such skylights. Zenithal light is a cool feature. I'm guessing the roof is removable?

[Harlekin]

Just perfect. The details are great and I really like the design of the building.

[bugbait_nz]

Roof detail adds so much to the look of this piece, got me thinking I need to do something with what Im making.

[MacAttack001]

An old model railroader axiom, hyper detail your roofs as it is the first thing that people see and it will lead them to believe that the entire layout is highly detailed.

[red harvest]

I did a little of that model RR stuff many decades ago... Loved those old RR boards. Since the interior will also be quite detailed, a plain and 'unrealistic" roof would destroy the effect. There is even aluminum flashing along the edges of the patio roof, although only barely seen in the top photo.

Thanks for the compliments, Gents.

Excellent stuff as usual. Love the detailing of the roof. I used to live in an apartment with such skylights. Zenithal light is a cool feature. I'm guessing the roof is removable?

Of course. The skylights will provide nice on the roof cover too. Practical and functional. Plus, a way to shoot at units in the building from outside.

[MacAttack001]

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that your interior would not be 'hyper' detailed. Anyone who has seen your work knows that is your SOP.

[red harvest]

I didn't read your comment that way at all. I was just saying that any lack of detail would be glaringly obvious. Nobody sees the insides of model RR buildings, generally. Nobody sees much of model RR in general, these days. A dying hobby I hear. Sad.

[MacAttack001]

I am glad that my post didn't lead you to that conclusion.

There is still a model railroad market out there, certainly not what it was 60 years ago though. Woodland Scenics and Scenic Express still rely on that end of the hobby for the lion's share of their sales.

Between model railroaders, fine-scale modelers, and dollhouse hobbyists I would say that 80% of the techniques I use come from them.

Jumping back to the metal surface suggestions...just finishing up a building where I used foil tape on part of it. It works pretty well, I took steel wool to it looking for a stainless steel finish...I'll post some pics up as soon as it is finished.

[Section9]

Nobody sees much of model RR in general, these days. A dying hobby I hear. Sad.

Yeah, it's a bit old-fashioned. Probably really takes it in the shorts now that trains are so uncommon, and I'm sure that most kids these days prefer sitting in front of their computer playing WoW or whatever to building models. I think the 'modular' guys are a little bit better off, since they at least can set up their layouts in places like hotels or fairgrounds buildings and let the public see what they do for fun. It's a little harder to get the next generation interested in trains unless it's something Dad/Grandpa does in his basement...

I'd love to do a ~1940 New York Central RR layout (or another road that crossed the NYC's main line for the 20th Century Limited), just to have the 20th Century Limited blast down the main line. But sweet baby jeebus do people want a lot of $$$$$$$$$$ for those cars and locomotive (the J2a streamlined Hudsons are beauties)... Last time I looked, I was staring down $1500 for that train-and-cars set!

[red harvest]

I had a neighbor who had a great B&O* railroad board in his basement. I still have my trains somewhere, boxed up, but they are Tyco and the like. So not valuable or anything. And yeah, locomotives have always been very pricey.

That J2a is so Art Deco. Straight out of the Great Gatsby. It would not look out of place on an Infinity table either... no, not going to scratch build one of those... though it would be cool...

*Baltimore and Ohio.

But, onto the terrain. I squeezed out only a piddling few hours of hobby time this week. And really made a mess of things. Won't show the pix of that. So I re-did both the roof vents (originals were waaay too large) and the skylights. Here be the final not yet fully painted bits...

In case you are curious, the black vents are going to be painted copper for the small ones-- they are actually the vent pipes for the sinks...realism eh?-- and probably steel for the large ones-- vents from the water heater and stove. I thought I'd actually add detail that would really be there, were this a real building, even if the location is a bit awkward for playability purposes. Rule of Cool>Rule of Playability. At least for me.

The roof is detachable. For you Marc, here's a photo showing its detachability. No, there will be no light fixtures embedded in the ceiling/underside of the roof. Well, this roof on this building anyway. I think it would be really neat to do sometime though.


And here is the back view

Lot's of empty space on those walls. I'm going to break them up with a HVAC unit, and a cellar door entrance, as previously mentioned, but I may need some sort of flower bed or something too.

Still undecided about how to paint the frame on the skylights. I'm thinking just leave them white (but shade them a bit, of course) I wanted window panes on the gables too, but that proved, erm, problematic. Maybe something to create a shadow line on the ends? They still don't look 100% right. OTOH the vents are perfect. (IMHO, they look just like the photo I used)

At least the only exterior building work remaining will be the windows and the bits mentioned above. Oh, and a set of stairs down from the patio. And anything else I missed.

Looking at the photos, I do like the way the texturing worked out on the walls. I used talcum powder mixed into housepaint and dabbed it on. Quick and dirty. Plus it was scented powder, so nice smelling

Thanks for stopping by.

[MacAttack001]

The venting and the skylights look very sharp. I am impressed with the elegant design and how well it is all tied together. I imagine that it will seamlessly fit in with the other desert pieces you have built.

[Athanadros]

So awesome!! The roof on that came out amazing!! Always love seeing your progress!

[Harlekin]

That is sooooo awesome.

[Arachas]

I bet you could land a pretty good job as an architect mate! Maybe you already are and you're doing this in your spare time...

[Alf O'Mega]

Really great, inspirational stuff. How have you made the curved roof terrace? Just intrigued as to how you get a smooth curved wall.