This update ends with another picture of the “Botter”. The best ship I made thus far. I will write extensively about this project asap.
From this angle you also have a nice view on the pavement of which I also will post an article soon.
Well this is it for now. I have still some things under construction but I thought it was time for an update so you will have to do with this for the moment.
I hope you like the update and as always, any comment, feedback and or ideas are most welcome.
July 29 - 2010: (Hobby Holiday is over..... and is not!)
Three weeks after my last update I can report the following;
Officially the holidays are over but since I had surgery and two out of the three weeks leave went down the drain,
I can extend my leave for another two weeks.
Apart from this misery I was able to do some hobby during my first week of leave and the last week during my recovery.
I know you would like to see pictures but for now I give you a small summary of my progress:
Assembling and painting 8 dock elements including one bridge and one harbor door set , one catapult, a 6 pieces cliff set,
and 2 separate doors.
Designed and sculpted 5 new one person wooden barrel submarines, 3 individual row boats, one palisade wall,
2 types of pavement, a new extension for the harbor dock series.
Designed another dock element which is holding a crane, 3 medium boats, one bigger vessel, one type of pavement.
Actually I was able to do quite a lot of hobby if you see the list above. With the upcoming two weeks off I expect to make
some good progress on the boats in particular. Apart from that I have to make molds and casts of the new items and
paint them. Furthermore I need to paint some extra dock elements for my convention display.
Pictures will follow soon.
July 2 - 2010: (Hobby Holiday!)
Hobby Holiday is starting today!
We are set to go on holiday. Car is packed and most important, the hobby crate comes along as well.
Hope to do lots of fun stuff with the family and also a fair bit of hobby.
I brought along all my painting stuff since I must paint some of my items.
If I have the choice between casting/sculpting and painting I always go for the first option so now it's time to paint!
But I did bring my sub and palisade sketches along so I might do some modeling also.
Hope to update within three weeks.
Cheers
June 23 - 2010: (General Update)
Working on a lot of things at the time.
The New mold of the Merchant is a big success. Working with Dragon Skin Silicone and Epoxy is a successful new development for me. Cast the merchant 8 times now and they are all perfect.
I am busy redoing the dock molds and the first casts of those look great too. Next thing is to remake the mold of the 2 houses and start working on the new mold on the buccaneer ship.
Finished my last resin yesterday so I must go get a new batch of that. Dragon Skin is also going fast so I think I will pay my supplier a visit after the upcoming holiday.
I also want to try a new material that is called “Shellshock” a kind of fiber pasta that is working similar as Epoxy. If so then this might even work better and faster.
I have some neat ideas I want to test with this stuff.
Packing up hobby stuff for the holiday so I can keep on doing hobby stuff while on vacation.
Not sure what to bring along. Might be painting or sculpting or both.
No updates for the next few weeks but hope to report soon after I get home again.
June 15 - 2010: (Merchant vessel rotation form)
Time out on sculpting and started on remaking some molds. I started with the merchant vessel and will try to make a mold for
my rotating casting machine. If this works then the Buccaneer ship will follow shortly. I also have to remake the dock molds
so I guess I will be bussy with this for a while.
"link".
Sorting out priorities I want to make some castst of facades, ships and docks and paint them while on holiday. So my hobby crate
(I take along a crate full with hobby stuff every year when on holliday) will exist out of casts and lots of paints.
June 14 - 2010: (Some hobby progress I made last week)
Last week I had little time for hobby. Not complaining since I had loads the last few month.
I managed to rearrange my hobby corner in the garage "link",
made three more silicone molds from another three facades "link",
and started to base coat the first set of facades "link".
Upcoming week I have to redo my hobby priority list because I have too much on the table right now.
June 6 - 2010: (Casting Frenzy)
I made the first three silicone molds of three of the twelve facades last week.
One of the three plaster facades didn't survive the mold making process but in the end I got a good form which is the most important.
Always exciting to do the first few casts. I ended up casting them 9 times.
"link"
June 2 - 2010: (The 2nd Stepped Gable & 2nd Wooden Gable pages are up)
Updating my site is as important as sculpting new items.
So after a period of sculpting frenzy I started to write content for the website.
Now I am in a flow of producing page after page.
Today I post two pages of two facades that where fun to cut and with a satisfying result.
"The 2nd Stepped Gable"
"The 2nd Wooden Gable"
June 1 - 2010: (The 2nd Baroque facade page is up. Nickname; The One Day Project)
And yet another facade is posted. In this case a special one since this facade is made in one day.
I documented the whole process from start to finish.
“the Second Baroque Facade”
May 30 - 2010: (Rotocast page, Rotocast Form page & the 2 warehouse facades launched)
After doing some test with the rotocast machine I put up an article about it.
I am still in the testing phase so I will edit this page while I go along. First results look promising.
“Rotocasting Machine”
Although I had planned to do some sculpting again today I ende up writing another article about making my first rotocast form.
“Rotocast Form”.
And in the end I managed to write a little on the “two ware house facades”.
So in
all another productive weekend with hobby related stuff.
May 28 - 2010: (Amsterdam Canal Project page launched & Fifth facade)
This big project needs its own space on the website so I made a larger introduction page for this project.
From there you can access all the seperate parts of this project.
“Amsterdam Canal Project”
I also added the fifth facade page of the “The Neck Gable”
May 23 - 2010: (The second classical gable is finished)
For now this is the last facade in the planned series.
Twelve in total forming a street of 108 cm long.
Will post overall shots later on.
This facade looks rather dull in a way that it is nothing more then a rectangle shape.
Then again houses like these, buildt between 1660 up to 1800 can be found by the hundreds along the canals.
So I simply had to add one. .
”link”
May 20 - 2010: (Update website, Stepped Gable)
The fourth facade article is posted on the website.
“The Stepped Gable”
May 19 - 2010: (11th facade skylight remake, cast of the last facade & Fodor house page upload)
Yesterday I wrote about my doubts about the skylight of the 11th facade. Today I altered it and the result is much better. ”link”
“link”.
I also made the plaster cast of the 12th and final façade for now. After this one I really have to start thinking about roofs, walls,
and other accessories. Finally I uploaded the page of the 3rd façade, “The Fodor house”
May 18 - 2010: (11th facade finished)
And another façade is done. This baroque style façade is called a “halsgevel”. In English the word “hals” is neck so I guess this would be a so called neck gable.
This version is decorated with a half circular pediment, two dolphins on either side of the top section, an “Oeil-de-boeuf” in the middle of the top section,
two festoons underneath the windows with a plaque in the middle and a skylight above the door.I am not fully content with this skylight so I sleep one night over it
and make my mind up if I wnat to change it yes or no.
”link”
May 16 - 2010: (2nd medieval wooden house finished & start of the 11th facade)
I am going like crazy! Yes I planned to finish the second wooden house façade but I did not expect to get as far with the next one as I did today.
The wooden façade started with doubt but ended with having a good feeling about it. I did step away from the original design a bit and I am glad I did.
”link”
Right after finishing the wooden façade I cast the second “halsgevel” (Could not find the proper English translation).
With the progress I made today I might even finish this ne tomorrow.
”link”
May 15 - 2010: (2nd medieval wooden house started)
Last two days I worked on the second medieval wooden house. I wasn’t sure if I would actually cut this one because when I had the fresh cast
form in front of me I did not like the basic form that much. I did however started with the idea that I would give it a shot.
I altered a few things and after a while I started to get a good feeling about it. So the 10th façade is well on its way.
Not sticking to the original drawing completely though.
”link”
May 13 - 2010: (stepped gable and cramp-irons)
”link”. Completed another facade today.
It is the second stepped gable. The one that goes opposite
”this” one. The progress on the facades
is a bit more slow since I also put lots of time in updating my website.
Fine by me since it is all part of the hobby. Also made the first casts of the cramp-irons.
May 11 - 2010: (Temporary Casting Forms page added)
Posted an article about working with temporary casting forms in the Tips and Tricks page.
Since I use these types of forms more and more I decided to make a little topic of it.
"Temporary Casting Forms"
May 10 - 2010: (Progress on stepped gable & Baroque facade page added)
Made some nice progress on the stepped gable. See this Link
I also completed the web page on the first Facade which you can read here:
"The Baroque Facade"
May 9 - 2010: (Progress on stepped gable facade)
Today I visited a friend to help him out with casting miniatures in metal. I also went throug his stuff and found some nice
items that I might want to cut myself in plaster. Took some pictures and placed them in my file of possible projects to be.
I also worked on some of the pages on my website and started to draw and carve the first lines in the facade I cast yesterday.
Link
May 8 - 2010: Start on stepped gable facade)
Start of the next facade. A late medieval one this time. Made the cast from the temporary form this morning. Original drawing of the next facade.
(the middle one)
Link
I also read with great pleasure in my new book about stone tablets in the city of Amsterdam. I wonder if I am able to cut stone tablets
for my facades. I might give it a go.
May 7 - 2010: (Baroque facade created in one day)
Having a day off from work I started working on my 8th facade for the Amsterdam canal project.
The idea is to do a single facade in one day and document it step by step so I can write a kind of tutorial for the website.
It went quite well. It took me 9 hours in total to cut this baroque style facade.
Link"
Being bussy with the cutting I did not even open the package in the mail that must be the book about stone tablets in Amsterdam.
Guess that is something for tomorrow.
May 5 - 2010: (Making 5 temporary casting forms)
I still need at least 5 facades for my "Amsterdam Canal” project.
Today I decided to put my hobby time to good use in making 5 temporary casting forms.
It took me a whole afternoon but it must safe me loads of time during the cutting process.
Link"
May 2 - 2010: (Cutting up accessories)
While carving the facades I decided to make a series of accessories that I can use on them.
So alongside the façade cutting process I try to carve cramp-irons, lifting beams, balustrades stone tablets etc.
Started with some types of wall anchors and did a balustrades test.
Link"
May 1 - 2010: (Warehouse no.2 finished)
During the family weekend I brought my hobby crate along and started to cut the next facade.
The second warehouse is done and will be the counterpart for the first warehouse façade.
Link"
April 25 - 2010: (Basic Warehouse facade finished)
Finished another facade today. This time a I cut a warehouse.
Have to add details still but that is something I will do later on,
just before the process of making silicone molds.
Link"
April 23 - 2010: (Serious shopping)
This Friday I took the afternoon off from work. I went to Amsterdam to get my ordered vacuum machine.
And while I was there I also bought some special rotocast resin and dragonskin silicone for my rotocast forms.
I also showed the people in the shop my work and they were very enthusiastic about it.
They even took picture for their website. Quite motivating so I try and keep up the good work.
Link"
April 20 - 2010: (Yet another facade is ready)
Another Facade is added to the collection. This time a common seen house with a “halsgevel”
which is the Dutch word for neck gable. Not sure this is the right translation though.
Link"
April 18 - 2010: (Stepped gable facade finished)
With the third facade finished a kind of series is starting to form now. It is very motivating to see these
3 types of structures lying side by side. It already gives the idea of a small part of an Amsterdam canal.
Link"
April 15 - 2010: (New facade with a great design)
This time I finished a complete different facade. Actually this façade is too young to my liking since
it is a house that has been built in 1863. I do however like the design of the elegant but tight structure.
Nowadays it is the “Foam Photography Museum”.
Link"
April 10 - 2010: (Medieval wooden facade)
Finished the second facade today. I try to make a series of facades that you can still find in the city of Amsterdam.
There are only two medieval wooden houses left in the city and one of them is the wooden house in the “Begijnhof”.
Although I was focusing on that particular building I came across another fine example of medieval architecture.
It is the house “the devils” (de duiveltjes) in the Belgium city of Mechelen.
Link"
April 6 - 2010: (First facade is cut)
After some smaller projects like the outhouses I made a start with cutting a façade. I have a project in mind that I
call “The Amsterdam Canal” (working title). The idea is to cut a certain number of facades to form a series of houses
that will form a typical view of an Amsterdam canal. If this idea works I realize I have to cut new docks and bridges
and even boats for this project. Let us see how far I get with this.
Link"
March 27 & 28 - 2010: (Annual wargame weekend)
The annual war game weekend held for the 19th time. While all the guys are battling on the tables I started painting some of my resin casts.
So actually this war game weekend is more like a hobby weekend to me.
Link"
March 14 to 21 - 2010: (Making Rotocast forms)
This entire week I worked on producing a few “rotocast” forms for my “rotocast” machine.
I worked with new materials and new techniques. First results look promising so I expect to use
this techniques a lot more often in the near future.
Link"
March 10 - 2010: (Finished the rotocast machine)
Finished the “rotocast” machine! Now I am anxious to test the device but in order to do so I need to buy materials to make the proper
forms that go in to the machine. My list of stuff to buy is complete (I think) so have to go to my favourite store and buy stuff a.s.a.p.
Link"
March 8 - 2010: (Started building my rotocast machine)
Last weekend I bought materials for building a “rotocast” machine. I made the design last weekend and its is a device that must
help me in casting larger projects more easily (and quicker). The first steps in building the device you can see here:
Link"
March 5 - 2010: (Oeps, not good)
While looking over the materials I found the two large bins of resin in the garage. They haven’t been touched since I moved over and it
looks like that what’s still in it is not usable anymore. It does say on the bins that you have to store it at room temperature.
I guess this was a good but expensive lesson for me. So have to add resin to my list of stuff to buy as well now :-(.
March 4 - 2010: (Armoured Outhouse)
And yes there we have another outhouse. A special one this time that is called the “Armored Outhouse”.
This one was great fun doing. The concrete and structure metal wher fun to make as well as the roof for which I used a new sculpting tool.
Link"
March 2 - 2010: (Organic Outhouse)
Yesterday I wrote that I might try another outhouse and so I did. It is called the “Organic Outhouse” Besides that I made an inventory
list of all materials I still have and also what I need to buy to get me up and running once again with modeling and casting.
Link"
March 1 - 2010: (Outhouse deluxe)
It is still 2 weeks before I start at my new job. After getting back from the Tactica in Hamburg Germany I got this great hobby boost and want to start
on all kinds of projects. While planning and thinking over what to do first, I started cutting a small piece which ended up as the “Outhouse Deluxe”.
It was fun making it and I might try another.
Link"
February 27 & 28 - 2010: (Hobby is alive again)
The Hamburger Tactica is the event that helped me to get back on track. Two days of fun, having a great time hosting plaster cutting workshops on both days.
During these sessions I picked up my sculpting tools once again after two years of no modeling at all.
Thanks to the enthusiastic people I went back home with a big smile and a big motivation boost. Guess I am back on track to do some serious hobby!
I added the tiniest impression on the events page through this "link"here.
Back to SHIFTINGLANDS
Back to the top
