UMS "Agram" : Making PIETY HILL < Articles < Hobby

Making PIETY HILL

Marko Paunović, 22nd August 2020

In this article, I'll be doing a centerpiece terrain for an old west type table. For a while now I've had an idea of doing a hilltop church with a small cemetary for my games of Malifaux and writing this article presented a perfect excuse for such a project.

Idea and planning

I always say when you start any larger project you should plan ahead first. Take your time and explore your options, design the terrain (in this case), decide what materials would be best, see if you have all the tools at hand and most important check if you have enough glue. There is no worse thing than running out of superglue on a saturday evening when you have a sunday's worth of working planned out.

The idea behind this terrain comes from a terrain I did for my gaming club in 2003. mainly for Mordheim and WHFB. It was done in the usual Vampire Counts style. The terrain exists to this day and has only minor damage and some small pieces missing as can be seen in the picture. However, as much as I love this terrain, it doesn't quite fit in the Malifaux world. And besides I wanted to see how differently I'd make this (more or less) same terrain 13 years later.

With the theme of the project decided, I know started to explore my design options. First thing I usually do is go for my home diorama/hobby library. Usually the first books I leaf through are from old masters Ray Anderson and late Sheperd Paine. The former has done some great Old west dioramas and his book The Art of the Diorama is a source of endless inspiration for me, the latter has done mostly military dioramas and his book How To Build Dioramas offers great advice and tips on building scenery and composition. For this project I decided to refer to Ray Anderson's diorama Piety Hill and thus have decided to name my project equally in hommage to this great artist.

So, with the style and theme decided upon, I began designing the outline of the terrain. It became apparent that the size of the terrain would greatly depend on the size of the church. Since I had an already existing terrain with church as a template I roughly copied the dimensions of the church. With the rough dimensions determined (13x10cm with 5cm high walls), I went ahead and started to draw the design of the wall elements. I wanted to build the model of this church as close to how a real wooden churches were built – by using wooden beams to construct the wall frame segments. Connect those segments and after they are errect, use wooden planks to make the walls. The design of the wall frame segments showed four different setups. One for the front side of the building (10x5cm) with holes for two narrow windows and a door, one for the back side of the building (two such frames would be needed as they are 5x5cm), one for the sides of the building with holes for the windows (four such frames needed as they are 5x5cm) and one for the side of the building and for the church belfry (8 needed – 2 for the sides and 6 for belfry, as they are 3x5cm). I would also need several wooden beam constructions/horns for the roof. When I had all this drawn in 1:1 scale on graph paper, I used a different paint marker (green) to mark how the moulding tool should look.

This sketch provided me with the lengths and ammount of material (tables in the drawing sketch) I'd need for the construction work.

For this project I will need the following materials:
- roughly 7 meters of 2x2mm linden slat
- roughly 1 meter of 5x5mm linden slat
- roughly half of a meterlong plank of 2mm balsa wood (they come in 10x100cm planks)
- 40x40cm of HD styrofoam
- superglue
- PVA glue
- gravel (three sizes)
- static grass
- pine trees (several)
- other vegetation
- sanding paper (2 sheets)
- foil for overhead projector
- thin card
- toothpicks
- one chain ring and two small hinges for jewlery boxes
- one bell from a Christmas decoration
- several tombstones

The tools needed are:
- scalpel blade
- scissors
- modelling saw
- pin vice (or an electric mini drill)
- brushes
– various sizes
– for painting/washing and for drybrushing
- pliers and pincers - icepick

Building the church

As I mentioned earlier, the size of the terrain and the layout of various elements greatly depends on the size of the church so it was only natural to start with the construction of the church first. Since I would need a lot of slats of various sizes which would require a lot of precise and repeated measuring, I decided to help myself and construct two tools that would be used to cut the slats into several desired lengths. Tool 1 would be used to cut planks 13, 30 and 50 mm long, whereas Tool 2 would cut planks 11, 20 and 46 mm long. The geometry of these simple tools would allow fast and precise cutting of the linden slats and true enough after only an hour I had cut almost 7 meters of linden slats into 181 differently sized would-be wooden beams. Using scotch tape I glued them all into groups so they wouldn't get mixed up.

Next up, it was time to construct the moulding tools to simplify the production of wooden frames and ensure the right angles of the beam connections (as much as possible). For this, I used one sheet of transparent plastic foil. I simply placed it over the sketch and glued the 5x5mm linden slats over the green marked areas on the sketch. Inside I put the linden slats of according sizes (I had previously written the sizes in red on the sketch for easier assembly) and put just a dab of superglue making sure it didn't run onto the plastic foil or the thicker linden slats of the moulding tool. A great advice is to use Rapid Cure. This is a chemical of sorts that instantly cures the superglue the moment it comes into contact with it. However it leaves some white marks which in this case won't matter as everything will get painted in the end.

Once I had all the wooden frames for the bottom part of the church I glued them onto a balsa wood base. I now had the outline of my would-be church. It was time to construct the belfry and the roof. Using the same method, I made the roof horns – basicly a set of triangles glued to gether. To make those, I used only one mould tool as all I really needed was to construct the right angle between the horizontal and perpendicular beams. Once they are fixed, I just connected the hypothenuse of the triangle that would hold the roof. I made several sizes of the roof horn in order to have an appearance of a wobbly roof. When the roof construction was done, I glued 2mm balsa wood over it that would hold the roof tiles. (Note: I didn't glue the roof construction to the wall frames so the roof will be removable) With the roof construction done, I proceeded to make the belfry using 6 smaller wall frames and some roof triangles.

It was time to fill the walls with planks. Using 2mm thick balsa wood I cut strips about 30cm long and 5mm wide using an icepick. The shape of the icepick enables the bevelled look of the plank in one stroke (both cutting and bevelling at the same time). If I had used the scalpel blade, I would have to chamfer the sides which would prolong the process. Afterwards, I again resorted to my makeshift tools for cutting planks and made a bunch of 20, 30 and 50mm planks out of the balsa strips. These I then glued to the floor, making sure I followed a certain pattern. It does not matter which pattern you use, but you need to follow it to the end. In the case of my floor, I used the following pattern: 40mm-50mm; 20mm-50mm-20mm; 50mm-40mm; 20mm-50mm-20mm and repeat. I used a similar method for all the walls. Where the length of the plank protruded from the wall frame, I had cut the excess material only after the glue had set (which is best seen on the roof part). Once both parts of the church were done (roof and building) I glued them on a stick to make the undercoating with a black sprey easier and to prevent spreying over my hands.

Making the base

With the church done, I could now make the base for the terrain. Same as in the original from 2003, I opted to make it from HD Styrofoam. Although these days I opt for the more sturdier materials for the base (like MDF), I went for the styrofoam because I wanted the extra height that 3cm thick styrofoam provides. First, I drew the church outline with a marker and then arranged all the elements according to their position to the church. Once I had all the elements in place, I drew the outline of the top side of the base and around it the bottom side. Using a scalpel blade I cut the base along the outmost line. In several steps I cut the base until I reached the inner outline of the base adding more angle to the blade with each step. Once the cutting part was done, I sanded everything using sanding paper. I also made a couple of stone boulders from leftover pieces of styrofoam and glued them to the base using PVA glue and toothpicks as pins.

5x5mm linden slat was used to make the gate to the church graveyard. Using my electric mini drill (which can be replaced by a hand-held pin vice) I pinned all the pieces together and to the base again using toothpicks as pins. Once the gate was done, I made the wobbly wooden fence from toothpicks and balsa wood planks left over from church construction. Before adding texture it was time to dryfit the two pieces together. Upon inspection I discovered several damaged places on the styrofoam that needed fixing. Had I more time, I would probably have filled those with DAS airdrying clay. However, several strips of masking tape provided a perfect quick fix.

Texturing

At this point, I was nearing the end of the construction and all that had to be done before the painting was to add texture to the base. Before doing this, take a look at the picture of the old piece taken in 2016. You will see that there is a damage to the road just on the rim of the base. I'm not sure what happened or how it got torn off, but my best guess is that the styrofoam base was not fully protected before undercoating with a sprey so it damaged the undersurface of the base and during time the stress broke off this piece. In order to prevent this (as much as possible) I decided to cover about 5mm around the edge of the underside with PVA and thus protect it from damage. While it was drying, I took out all the gravel I was to use on this project:
- chinchilla sand – smallest grain
- GF9 medium basing grit
- chinchilla sand – largest grain

Once the PVA protection was dry, I smeared more wattered-down PVA on the surface that would become the road/yard. I first sprinkled over some largest grain gravel, next I sprinkeld some GF9 Medium Basing Grit and to finish I poured over the smallest grain chinchilla sand. If you sprinkle gently and with care you can end up with nice variations in texture – for instance the middle of the dirt road usually has some larger stones as opposed to the sides of it. When the road was dry, I repeated the process with the rest of the base, sprinkling the two largest grains over the ground part and smallest grain over the boulders and graves.

Preparation while waiting

While I was waiting for the texture to dry, I made the roof tiles from finest grain sanding paper. It has nice texture when painted. I also put metal pins to the pine trees I was going to use on this terrain. The easies method of pinning metal pins to the plastic trunks of the trees is to heat the metal pin using a candle and just stick it into the trunk. The heat will melt the plastic locally. As the pin goes into the trunk it gives over heat (to the trunk that melts) and once the pin is cool it will become lodged into the trunk without any need to glue it.

Painting the base

After the texture had set, I undercoated the base using black sprey and it was time to paint the terrain. Unlike my minis, I like to use minimal/limited pallette when painting my scenery. These are the paints used during this whole project (manufacturer: Pebeo Deco):
- White (41)
- Antique White (69)
- Ash (70)
- Ochre (51)
- Brown (29)
- Grey (54)
- Black (55)

On all my scenery I use Pebeo Deco colours as I find they have just the consistency needed for quickly painting the terrain. They are quite rubbish for painting minis, mind you, as they are too thick. For terrain, however, they are perfect and their price of 3USD per 45ml bottle is well worth it. When the undercoat was dry, I painted brown all over the yard/road/graves area and just drybrushed the rest of the base. Using drybrush method (without cleaning my brush from previous paint) I applied ochre over the entire base. On the road part I added a final highlight of a mixture of ochre and antique white. Once that was done, I used black paint to pick out all the details – fence, stones, gate and when this layer was dry, I drybrushed them all with a mixture of black and grey. I highlighted it with pure grey. Now all my grey surfaces were the same, both wooden and stone. To make variation to them, I put a final highlight of pure white on the stone surfaces (stones and gravestones). I also added a highlight of ash to both the ground part of the base (without the road/yard) and the wooden parts. To end this part of painting process I decided to make hommages to two works of art very dear to me. First is the sign on the church gate that says Piety Hill in reference to Ray Anderson's work and the other is the two tombstones – one marked Arch Stanton the other marked Unmarked in reference to one of my favourite movies of all time. This being a terrain for Malifaux, I figured a reference to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly couldn't miss. All three signs I wrote using my 0,05mm micron marker (you can get those from Ebay for quite a reasonable price, and they come in several colours if you need them).

Vegetation

When I was done with painting, I glued the four pine trees to the base using PVA glue and assmbled all the vegetation I would use: tufts of flowers (found on Ebay), extra long static grass/fibres (Noch), Poison Ivy (ArmyPainter), and a wide assortment of tufts of various colours, sizes and lengths (Gamer's Grass). All these I would use on the base to hopefully get that prairie feel to the piece. Starting with the longest fibres and going to the shortest length tufts I glued each using PVA glue. In the end I added some flowers to the graves. With all the tufts glued, I still had some awkward empty places on the base so I decided to mix some static grass and glue it. I used green, pure yellow, ash and almost black green stuff to get the mixture of the right colour. When I was happy with the shade, I glued it using PVA glue once again.

Painting the church

While the flock was drying, I painted the church. I decided to go for the brownish interior and grey exterior. Inside was painted using brown, ash and antique white. Outside was painted using a mixture of black and grey, then grey and pure white as the final highlight. While this was drying I added some poison ivy to the base and proceeded to paint the bell. This element was the only one painted with paints I normally use for painting minis. Scalecolor Dwarven and Viking Gold and Vallejo Sepia Shade. When everything was painted, I added the roof to the belfry and glued the church to the base.

Adding the door that can be opened

During my build of the Malifaux modular gaming board for Figure Painter Magazine, I discovered a nifty little way to make doors that can open. Apart from a couple of linden slats and some balsa, it requires smallest (that you can find) hinges for jewlery boxes. The process of making is really easy, but you need to make sure the hinge is fixed between two plates both on the door side and on the frame side. This way, there is no (or little) chance of the door falling off during opening. Once it was done, I painted it following the process described above and when the paint was dry, I glued the whole thing to the church and the base.

Final product

The fitting of the door marked the end of the project and all that was left was for me to take it to the club to take a picture of it with it's older brother.

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	In the next two articles I will cover the making of the Alps diorama. The main “actor” of the diorama is a 1/87 scale oldtimer bus. In addition to it, the package also included a few figures (but more about them in another article).

	  

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	Kroz naredna dva članka obradit ću izradu diorame Alpi. Glavni “akter” diorame je oldtimer autobus u mjerilu 1/87. Pored njega u paketu došla je i nekolicina figura (ali o njima više u drugom članku).

	  

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Marko Paunović, 16th December 2024

TOP TIP – Wooden Beam Flooring

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	Construction:

	I used 1 mm thick balsa. I used a balsa cutter to cut the beams to 4 mm thick and cut them to 68 mm long (dimensions of the floorboards in M 1:35). I sanded the edges and placed them on a 2 mm thick balsa base. I glued everything together on a wooden base from swood.si .

	

	Painting:

	First I applied Sephia Wash, then sanded a little. Then I filled the cracks with Agrax Earthshade and stained the spots a little. Sanded a little harder and then repeated the Sephia Wash. When it was dry, I used a fine sanding sponge in a few places to simulate wear.
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	Izrada:

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Krunoslav Belinić, 10th December 2024

Back to Basics workshops at Zagreb City Libraries 2024

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	In 2024, we started a new program called Back to Basics miniature painting workshops for the youngest in collaboration with the Zagreb City Libraries. We held a total of four workshops during October and November with 29 participants, our youngest fellow citizens.

	

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	The second workshop, also at the Children's Department of the Medveščak Library at Zvonimirova 17, was held on October 26, 2024.

	

	We held the third workshop in the VN Reading Room and Gallery (Vladimir Nazor Library) at Ilica 163-a on Saturday, November 9, 2024.

	

	The fourth workshop was also held at the VN Gallery on Saturday, November 23, 2024.

	

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	Easily available materials are used, as well as those obtained through the upcycle method (upcycling - creative reuse, is the process of converting by-products, waste materials, useless or unwanted products into new materials or products that are considered higher quality, such as artistic value), which makes the entire project environmentally friendly and innovative.

	

	

	

	

	

	

	

	

	

	After the workshops were completed, the children received diplomas for completing the workshop and, of course, took their work home.

	

	As a token of gratitude, we awarded Certificates of Appreciation to the Medveščak Library, the VN Gallery, and the City of Zagreb Libraries. We presented and presented all of our publications and manuals written so far to our colleagues from the Libraries.

	

	For larger photos, visit our social networks.
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	2024. smo započeli novi program pod nazivom Back to Basics radionice bojanja minijatura za najmlađe u suradnji sa Knjižnicama Grada Zagreba. Ukupno smo održali četiri radionice tijekom listopada i studenog sa 29 polaznika, naših najmlađih sugrađana.

	

	Prvu radionicu održali smo na Dječjem odjelu Knjižnice Medveščak u subotu 12.10.2024. 

	

	Druga radionica, također na Dječjem odjelu Knjižnice Medveščak u Zvonimirovoj 17, održana je 26.10.2024.

	

	Treću radionicu održali smo u Čitaonici i Galeriji VN (Knjižnica Vladimira Nazora) u Ilici 163-a u subotu 09.11.2024.

	

	Četvrta radionica održana također u Galeriji VN u subotu 23.11.2024.

	

	Tijekom radionice, polaznici su sastavljali maketu dvorca, potom ju bojali, a na kraju obojali i zmaja koji čuva kulu.

	

	Koriste se lako nabavljivi materijali, ali i oni dobiveni upcycle metodom  (upcycling – eng. kreativna ponovna uporaba, proces je pretvaranja nusproizvoda, otpadnih materijala, beskorisnih ili neželjenih proizvoda u nove materijale ili proizvode koji se smatraju kvalitetnijima, poput umjetničke vrijednosti) što čini cijeli projekt ekološki prihvatljivim i inovativnim.

	

	

	

	

	

	

	

	

	

	Po završetku radionica mališani su dobili diplome za završenu radionicu i naravno, svoje radove su odnijeli kući.

	

	U znak zahvale, dodijelili smo Zahvalnice Knjižnici Medveščak, Galeriji VN kao i Knjižnicama Grada Zagreba. Kolegicama iz Knjižnica prezentirali smo i poklonili sve naše publikacije i priručnike do sada napisane.

	

	Za veće fotografije posjetite naše socijalne mreže.
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Krunoslav Belinić, 26th November 2024

Big Panda and Tiny Dragon drawing workshop

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During this year's Interliber, the author of the books about the Big Panda and the Tiny Dragon, James Norbury, held several different events and meetings with readers. On Friday, November 15, I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop on drawing characters from his books. Since James is an illustrator and his works include abstract landscapes, fantasy art, SF and cyberpunk comics, drawings and graphics, it was interesting for me to see how the panda and dragon characters are created in the technique of Japanese Zen painters.

James drew with a felt-tip pen and explained the structure of the characters and their characteristics. For example, the dragon has no eyebrows, so the expression of emotions is partially limited to a couple of eye shapes and hand gestures. While the panda rarely has a mouth in his drawings, so his expression of emotions is also sparse. However, it is precisely through the position of the body, the relationship between the characters, and the text below the picture that James's books convey the story and thoughts of a Buddhist view of life.

One of the messages is that not everything needs to be perfect, both in drawing and in life. He is not satisfied with some of the drawings that James made and published in the book, but as he himself says, if he had waited to make them perfect, he would never have published the book. You start with what you have and improve along the way. A philosophy that we often apply with our figures, dioramas and models.

I enjoyed copying and learning to draw the characters and tried my hand at making a few frames. At first the panda looked more like a Teddy bear, but with practice it took on a panda-like appearance and body position.

I recommend that anyone who has not yet read James Norbury's books find them and read them. They are quick to read, but can leave a long-lasting impression on your mind.

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Tijekom ovogodnišnjeg Interlibera autor knjiga o Velikom pandi i sićušnom zmaju James Norbury, održao je nekoliko različitih događanja i susreta s čitateljima. U petak 15. studenog imao sam priliku sudjelovati na radionici crtanja likova iz njegovih knjiga. S obzirom da je James ilustrator i njegova djela uključuju apstraktne pejzaže, fantasy art, SF i cyberpunk stripove, crteže i grafike, bilo mi je zanimljivo vidjeti kako nastaju likovi pande i zmaja u tehnici japanskih zen slikara.

James je crtao flomasterom i objašnjavao strukturu likova i njihove osobine. Npr. zmaj nema obrve pa je prikazivanje emocija djelomično ograničeno na par oblika očiju i gestikulacije rukama. Dok panda rijetko kad ima usta na crtežima, pa je i njegovo prikazivanje emocija oskudno. No upravo položajem tijela, međuodnosom likova i tekstom ispod slike Jamesove knjige prenose priču i misli budističkog pogleda na život.

Jedna od poruka je i da ne treba sve biti savršeno, kako na crtežu, tako i u životu. S nekim crtežima koje je James napravio i objavio u knjizi nije zadovoljan, no kako i sam kaže da je čekao da ih napravi savršeno ne bi nikada objavio knjigu. Kreneš s onim što imaš i putem se usavršavaš. Filozofija koju često primjenjujemo i mi sa svojim figurama, dioramama i modelima.

Uživao sam kopirajući i učeći crtati likove i okušao se u izradi par okvira. U početku je panda više sličila na Teddy beara, no s vježbom je dobila pandasti izgled i položaj tijela.

Svima koji se još nisu upoznali s knjigama Jamesa Norbury preporučam da ih pronađu i pročitaju. Brzo se čitaju, no mogu ostaviti dugi trag u promišljanjima.

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Krunoslav Belinić, 26th November 2024

We visited: Slovenian State Championship in plastic modelling, Ljubljana 16.11.2024.

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	On Saturday, 16.11.2024. in Ljubljana, the Slovenian Nationals in plastic modeling was held. Our delegation performed in several categories.

	  

	After arriving, registering and placing works in the appropriate categories, the most important thing was to meet again and talk with colleagues from other cities and countries such as Slovenia and Italy.

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	It was a special pleasure for us to present and present several copies of our latest edition to our partners and friends from Back to Basics!

	  

	Also a real refreshment is the discovery of the (so far the only) manufacturer of real wooden bases and plinths in these areas - swood.si!

	  

	A little after 11:00, it was time to open the even officially and inspect the exhibits.

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	Given that, after several years of ugly weather, this weekend was sunny, we decided to use that time for a walk in beautiful Ljubljana.

	  

	  

	  

	Kruno: "This year, Slovenian Nationals were also an opportunity to see new and interesting works by colleagues from Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Austria and other countries. An opportunity to encourage your own creativity and ideas, to admire the craftsmanship, effort and skill of people with whom you share similar interests. The day was beautiful, so the walk in Ljubljana was quite legal and filled the impression of this year's Championship. Marko and Vanja made sure that some "precious" metal was attached to Agram's name, so I was carefree and enjoyed the nice trip."

	  

	  

	After sightseeing the city, we returned to the competition just in time for the awarding of medals. Our members won a total of 4 medals - 2 gold, silver and bronze!

	  

	  

	  

	On the way back, our team refreshed itself traditionally at the Reset brewery in Brežice!

	  
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	U subotu, 16.11.2024. u Ljubljani održavalo se Državno prvenstvo Slovenije u plastičnom maketarstvu. Naša delegacija je nastupila u nekoliko kategorija.

	  

	Nakon dolaska, registracije i postavljanja radova u odgovarajuće kategorije, najbitnije je bilo ponovno se susresti i popričati sa kolegama iz drugih gradova i država poput Slovenije te Italije.

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	Posebno zadovoljstvo nam je bilo predstaviti i pokloniti nekoliko primjeraka našeg zadnjeg izdanja našim partnerima i prijateljima iz Back to Basics!

	  

	Također pravo osvježenje jest pronalazak (za sada jedinog) proizvođača pravih drvenih baza i plinthova na ovim prostorima – swood.si !

	  

	Nešto iza 11h došlo je vrijeme za otvorenje susreta i pregled radova.

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	  

	S obzirom da je, nakon nekoliko godina ružnog vremena, ovaj vikend bio obasjan suncem, odlučili smo iskoristiti to vrijeme za šetnju predivnom Ljubljanom.

	  

	  

	  

	Kruno: “I ove godine je DPS bio prilika za pogledati nove i zanimljive radove kolege iz Slovenije, Hrvatske, Italije, Austrije i drugih zemalja. Prilika za potaknuti vlastitu kreativnost i ideje, diviti se umješnosti, uloženom trudu i vještini ljudi s kojim dijeliš slične interese. Dan je bio lijep, pa je i šetnja Ljubljanom sasvim dobro legala i popunila dojam ovogodišnjeg Prvenstva. Marko i Vanja su se pobrinuli da se i nešto "plemenitog" metala zakači uz Agramovo ime, pa sam ja bezbrižno uživao u lijepom izletu.“

	  

	  

	Nakon razgleda grada, vratili smo se na natjecanje taman na dodjelu medalja. Članovi su ukupno osvojili 4 medalje – 2 zlata, srebro i broncu!

	  

	  

	  

	Na povratku naša ekipa se okrijepila već tradicionalno u Reset pivovari u Brežicama!

	  
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