house02

The house of Lady Bloomsburry & Nylon Ykes:

This is the second house of the series that goes with the docks.
With this house there are 2 new facades, each with their own story.
This house also has one flat side (with only stone wall structure) and one side filled with ornaments.

The first story is about the nifty lady Bloomsburry who lives at Sternpost Mansion. You can read about her "here".

The second story is about Master Sail maker Nylon Ykes and his family. You can read about him "here".

Designing the house:

With this house I extend the line of work where realistic architecture is mixed with fantasy elements.

The first house, in this series, has boat shape elements worked in to the facades in the form of hulls. In this second house I tried to use some other ship elements.

“Sternpost Mansion” has the imaginary stern of a ship worked in to it that is used as a larger dormer window.
I decided to let the angled roof shape return in the small roof/alcove above the door.
The house of the “Master Sail maker” has a more recognisable form related to ships. The large dormer window has the form of a sail and the windows on the first floor are set in a half-span that has the shape of a sail. There is also an imaginary mast piece that runs through this half-span. The door on the ground floor is sculpted like a cabin door.

The side that is sculpted with ornaments also has an significant ship feature worked in to them. Looking closely at the side of the Dormer does reveal the use of a rudder turned upside down. (see the picture below)

More historical representative is the use of the crow-step gable (or stair-step gable). The examples I got my ideas from, all date between 1620 and 1650.
The elegant facing-bricks are quite common on these buildings and mostly tells about when the house was build, what family lives there, the profession of the owner or shows the weapon of the city itself.

Information about the actual sculpting and designing of this house can be found on the page of the first house "here".
I do however have a picture of the first foam form I made after I made a sketch of how the possible façade should look like. One of the other pictures that belong to this project is the one that shows the metal foil banners that will go with this house. The toothpicks that I used are all sanded down because the basic toothpick was way to thick to my liking. I experimented with wood glue to make the knobs on the poles. By dipping the tip of the toothpick in the glue, and repeating this a few times after the glue has dries up, I formed a knob that was eventually just right in size.
The lantern has a hole drilled in to it. I glued a needle in to it and used another needle to drill a tiny hole in the wall of the house. A simple and effective way of adding lanterns to the house. A glued lantern might cause damage if one would break it off, damaging the paint.

In this façade I sculpted bigger facing-brick with scroll forms on them. Just below the top of the crow-step gable I made a decorative circle of stones. Often this was a small opening that lead straight under the roof. Great for owls, bats etc. so mostly these openings where filled up eventually.
These little ornaments do give more flavour to the building and I think it is fun to personalize the house by adding your own text or images. (The letters at the top are my initials).

The building kit:

I wrote about the house as being it a building kit but I did not post pictures of how this kit actually looks like. The next two pictures shows you the individual parts. The second picture shows all the necessary parts that make up the two individual houses.

Painting the house:

I almost exactly used the same colours on this house as I did on the first one. It may sound a bit dull but in doing so I will create a better overall look when more houses will be placed along the docks. I will experiment with other colour settings for the bricks eventually. The real difference in use of colour is applied on the banners.
It is not so much the colour but the form of the structure that has to be different compared to the first house.

Finishing the house with details:

I kept the detail sober meaning that I used 2 water pipes that go straight down, the two chimneys and I added 3 lanterns. Basically the same elements as used on the first house.

What’s next:

While painting this second house I wandered about some possible additional details. First of all a storks nest. Not that difficult to make but I also need one or two storks in there so I will try to find suitable miniatures for that or I might even try to sculpt one. Other possible items are the use of rectangular flower pots that can be attached just below the window and sun screens that can be attached above the windows.
The next part of the project is the gatehouse. This part will connect the 2 houses when it is placed between the 2 flat stone walls. There is a small living quarters above the gate which is accessible through one of the adjacent buildings. Possible extensions for this project might be some defence wall elements however this is still in the brainstorm phase.

More dock parts and houses will be painted eventually to produce a more realistic city display. This will mostly be done in between the casting and sculpting of the new projects.

Some shots of the house in the harbour setting:

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