Welcome to Grimm's!

Here is a walk through the build process.  I'll try to give some detail about how things were done or about new techniques or materials that I tried out.  If they worked for me, they can work for you too!  This was a fun project, a bit stressful as I had a lot to do and a little time to do it in.  I worked on this off and on for about three weeks at night - maybe 2-4 hours a shot. I'd say I probably ended up with around 50 hours in it so far. 

I wanted to do this page a little different from the normal small thumbnails, so I'll be posting big pictures with descriptions. The comments for any picture will be right below the picture.  I'll need to split this into different pages to keep it loading quickly.   Use the menu below to conveniently jump around OR start on this page and keep going forward at the end of each page. 


  :: Intro  ::  Tower  ::  Walls  ::   Door ::  Stairs  ::  Roof   ::  Bay Window  ::  Conservatory  ::  Fountain  ::  Scenery ::

The conservatory was a big project in itself.  To keep this page loading quickly, I'm going to go to 2 pages for this one.  I wasn't sure how to do what I wanted and I was looking for some Grandt Line windows at the local place and I couldn't find anything decent, so I went with an Sn3 store front kit that I had picked up.  I spliced two windows together (left) and then had to scratch a matching set for the back side (right)

Here are the rear doors, the front windows and the back windows.  I'm putting acetate in again.

The storefront (left) and the scratch back (right) are almost ready to go.  I could have detailed the scratch ones more, but, why do what no one is going to notice?

I used a small sharpie to add the black mullions. The center has my stained glass effect. I tried gold in the middle panel, but decided against it. 

A close up of the back doors. 

I had already made a double door and opening into the building (similar to the front in design) and had those in and painted, so I notched out a piece of styrene to fit and made a floor.  It is painted with acrylic dove grey with plaster dust and then scribed with the same sharpie as the windows. 

 

Here's a better look at the doors.  The cool floor pattern was made by having my wife cut me a bunch of black paper squares that I then glued on the intersections.  I then weathered the floor a little with chalk. 

The walls sit right on the base and I put them together so I could determine the roof shape.  The strip wood is to cover the crack in between the panels.  I hadn't painted it yet.

Here's the top after the walls were in.  My casket and table and stuff were just waiting for a funeral service. 

I knew the sort of angle I wanted for the sides, so I made this piece from styrene for the top and then beveled all the edges. 

This frame of stripwood was going to be an inner support for the roof cap I was making....

Here's the first part of the top.  I cut a piece to fit the angles and then started adding wood one piece at a time. 

before and after.  I used canopy glue to try to keep the smudging down. 

Final shot with the lines added.

On to the second page!

 

  :: All Contents Copyright Surreal Studios 2006 ::