Second Forge World Hobbit-Hole - two from one? Scouring of the Shire

In my previous post i explored the idea of cutting one of the Forge World Hobbit Hole fronts in half to get two fronts. As you can see its pretty thick, I measured approx 10mm, the line is where I proceeded to cut with a razor saw...

It didn't go exactly to plan, on a second attempt it might have gone a bit better, however i knew this was still usable. The razor saw was very thin so i didn't waste too much resin in the saw kerf. The top front finished very thin approx 3mm, and at the window it was only 1mm or so

In this photo you can see the back of the successful front, and the remaining detail of the window that should have been attached to the bottom front

I could have put some plasticard behind the centre window, and then drilled out the left window with some plasticard behind that. However I wanted this build to be unique, so set about changing the front. Looking at pictures on the web of Hobbiton created for the LOTR films, I noticed some of the Hobbit Holes have chimneys at the front or have angled fronts. So from here i decided to make a step in the front to take out the missing window and build in a chimney. The original chimneys and windows i'd used in my other Hobbit Hole build so i set about creating my own.

Using some small pieces of slate and some small bricks I'd made from plaster, i knocked up this chimney. Then thinking ahead in case i wanted to use this in another build, I made three different chimney tops and two smaller pieces to use to build up the height if needed. The mixture of bricks and slate would simulate the ramshackle appearance of some of Hobbit Holes, and also give some versatility when painting.

The round tubes on the chimney top on the left are actually the tubes you get on new paint brushes cut down to suit the height i needed. 

Then making a silicone mould and casting in resin I was able to reproduce the chimney, here you can see it with three different tops

And here with the smaller pieces to increase the height..

Then I set about making a dormer window. I'd previously had some A4 sheet of wooden planking made up in green stuff, which i'd reproduced in resin, so i cut a piece of this to give me the circular  wooden part. Then found a nylon washer in my plumbing bits and bobs to use as the window surround. Styrene sheet was cut up and grooved to simulate wooden grain for the roof shingles, and the whole thing was glued onto a piece of foam. Here is the window I made with the reproduced resin piece on the right

I then made a temporary mould of the circular shaped window front, with some reusable silicone ( I think its called Oyrumaru, or Blue Stuff) and made a copy of that in milliput. From there I shaped it to suit a square shaped dormer window, and repeated the process with styrene roof shingles. From there i made a silicone mould of the whole window and reproduced again in resin

Then i set about converting the remaining parts of Hobbit Hole front. I cut out the part of the front with the missing window detail at convenient locations and added my new chimney

A bit of balsa to simulate new beams and some new plasticard was used to get it close to a 90 degree break front. The thin piece of chipboard was used at the back to give the converted front some strength

Here you can see what had been cut out, I think from length its almost as long as the original casting

Construction of the rest of the build was a copy of my last one with 3mm MDF for the base, and some foam for the hillside. Interior filler was applied to all the foam areas and to blend in any gaps, with sand over the top and PVA to seal everything in... 

With the part i cut out, i incorporated this into one of the windows. I cut it at the window ledge then glued it to one of my dormer windows..

With some plasticard at the back for support...

and glued into the hillside...

Here is the finished piece, painted flocked and sealed for durability. The boxes in front are resin pieces from my own designs, the bottle, tools and coffee pot are metal pieces I've picked up on the internet somewhere. As with my other Hobbit Hole I've used various types and length of flock and static grass to simulate a natural appearance...

This will go up in my Ebay shop very soon. The previous Hobbit Hole sold in a matter of hours, so I'm wondering if this will be as popular... 

Forge World Hobbit-Hole Upgrade Set review and build - Scouring of the Shire

Forge World sells this kit as an Upgrade set, but it basically it consists of a very thick Hobbit Hole front (double sided so you can choose which side to use) along with two dormer type windows, and two chimneys. You need to supply your own foam and basing material, They are all very well detailed with no major flashing, and just the usual type blobs of resin you'd expect from pressure or vacuum casting. Here is the link for the kit https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-GB/Hobbit-Hole-Terrain-Set-2019-FW

As you can see from this picture the front is very thick, i measured approx 10mm. It lead me to thick whether it is possible to cut this in half to get two fronts. I did set about this with a razor saw, and did manage to cut this in half, but i will cover this in my next post.

For now I've decided to make a Hobbit Hole using this front, with the two chimneys and windows.

I'd cut some 3mm MDF for the base and some high density foam. This was actually an off cut of Kingspan, a high density foam used in the building trade with silver foil on each side for insulation. Peeling the foil off both sides gave me a nice size chunk to use in this project. In this picture I've roughly shaped it to suit the MDF and stuck it down

I use Gorilla Glue to stick foam to MDF, it pretty much sticks anything, but you need to dampen one side before you put the two parts together. It then expands as it sets so you need to use some weights or clamps to stop parts lifting away from each other. You have to be careful not to allow moisture to get near the nozzle or it will get inside the bottle and set the remaining glue.

As you can see I tried to be conservative with how much glue I used near the edges so only a little bit squeezed out. The bond was very good after a couple of hours

A slight over-sight in that I should have cut the resin front into the foam first before i stuck i down.  So with a knife and a few minutes later, the eventual resin front sat inside the two edges of the foam, and wrapped around it nicely.

Before gluing the resin front in place i shaped the block of foam a little better and worked out where the other features were going to be. This picture shows the finished placement of everything along with a bit of plasticard to simulate some paving in front. 

One thing i found handy before gluing the windows and chimneys in place was to pin them much in the same way you do when pinning miniatures. This also stopped the bits from sliding around as the glue expanded and set.

Some more strategically placed pins helped to keep everything in place as the glue set up.

Next job was to cover the foam with filler, blending in any gaps... 

Then cover the filler with sand, blending in the plasticard, and seal it all in with some watered down PVA. Here it is ready for paint..

Here it is painted, flocked and sealed for durability. I used a variety of lengths and colours of static grass, with a few bits of flock in places to give it a more natural look...

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, the detail in the resin parts made it a pleasure to paint. The resin barrel is one of my own sculpts, the miniature bucket i picked up on the internet somewhere. This will go up in my Ebay shop very soon....