The Shire

[dykio]

Hi guys,

Here we go again

First a little lesson about the shire:

The Shire is described as a small but beautiful and fruitful land, beloved by its inhabitants. The Hobbits had an extensive agricultural system in the Shire, but did not proceed with industrialisation. Various supplies could be found in the Shire, including cereals, fruit, wood and pipe-weed (a favourite treat of Hobbits).

The Shire was quite densely populated in parts with many villages and a few towns, but it still was open enough to allow for wide forested areas and marshes. There were green, rolling hills and freshly tilled earth, along with gardens and flower boxes on window sills.

so... for those who have not yet fallen asleep during this lesson i will now continue with, tatatara tata :
Landscaping

Now dont expect to much beause this is what i have done so far:

I first started with 3 plates of 2cm thick polystyreen(?) the cheap isolation material. And these i placed according to my plan just to get an impression of how it would look.


Next i made some templates for the roads and the small river and started playing around with that


Then i cut the plates and glued them on a plate of mdf. This plate is 61x122 cm. This is the biggest size i'm allowed by the "boss". Now i could have taken the risk and even make it bigger but then i think she would made me sleep on it


Then the front of the hobit holes came into the game. I played around with these and when i was ok with the place....


I buld up another layre of ploystereen to get some height


And put the hobbitholes in it.


Thats it for now guys.

Laterrrrrrrrrrr

[Peter]

Oh, what a pity we can't see you sleeping on that hobbit landscape! It would have been great fun......... for us!

Looking good so far Dykio! Looking forward to the next steps of this wonderfull topic!

In the mean time:

[dykio]

Hi Guys,

as the days rush by the work on the shire continues. I must say although the result isnt always what i was hoping for it is great fun to be busy with something like this.
Last time i was making the landscape and so next step was integrating the hobbit holes into the landscape and giving some detail to it.

i had made loose components for the hobbitholes but that wasnt a great idea. After i placed them on the terrain there was "some" space left that had to be filled in. So i decided to do that with "self made stones"

As you can see on this picture (the blue ones )


Now i can hear you scream...please please tell us how you made these incredible stones.
Well dont worry i will tell you. Mind you this method wasn't stolen from the internet but i discovered it myself !!
Well... most of it...euh okay halve... well i did look it up myself so....yeah ok...i stole it

I have this blue (i know it looks white but it is blue) kind of foam and i cut it into very small pieces. Now this stuff was some kind of static so it sticked to everything exept to the plastic cup it should be in. But after peeling the small pieces from everwhere (and believe me i realy mean everywhere) i think they look nice.

first i cut small pieces


then i put them in a cup and added some real stones..... heu? why???


well, when you shake this (and put a lid on...) the smooth outside (top) changes to a more weathered look (bottem)


and then this is the result


and with these you can make walls like these. Timeconsuming ? Yes ! Fun to do? Double Yes !!



After building these walls i started putting a lair of plaster mixed with brown paint on ...well almost everything.

And so here we are now (ps the chimneys are made out of one piece)








At the moment with only the brown plaster on it i have to say that it looks more like mordor so still loads of work to do

thats it for now

hope you enjoy

Laterrrrrrrrrrrrrr





.

[MABO]

Even if it looks more like Mordor, one can already hear the birds sing and the Hobbits laugh. The will be happy when their new homeland is ready. Thanks for the stone tutorial. When I saw the pictures I was screaming: Please please tell us how you made these incredible stones!

[Peter]

I must check forum rules if they say something about stealing. In the mean time "carry on"!

Seams to me that it all looks fine for now! It may look like Mordor, but as long that the Nazgül not appear I have no problems with it.

[sberry]

This landscape already looks really beautiful and serene, I would like to spend my next holidays there...
And the trick with the stones to create stones is clever, thanks for sharing!

[dykio]

This landscape already looks really beautiful and serene, I would like to spend my next holidays there...
And the trick with the stones to create stones is clever, thanks for sharing!

You are offcourse welcome! But if youre more then 1.50meter tall you better wear a helmet inside

[Beano Boy]

Hobbits have very large over sized feet, so very large welcome mats would be nice for each heel and big toe to smile upon.
This certainly is a nice sized adventure for me to trundle myself along. Well done scratch builder. BB

[dykio]

Hi Guys,

While the rain is streaming pass the windows (yes spring has finally arrived) it is time to return to the shire for the next part.

I didnt want al the housen to be in the hills but i also wanted to have some thatched roofs. For this i always use an old towel. How to get an old towel? Well, just by a new one and then wait untill i gets öld"

The cut it into the desired shape


Then glue it to some thick paper


Do use enough glue and then wait until its dry


after it dried i put it into place and then i realy soaked it in a mixture of water, white glue and brown paint. Because the towel absorbs everything you really have to use a lot. And then it has to dry again.


Then it looks likes this


This is offcourse way to dark but that will be better after the drybrushing:


Laterrrrrrr

[Ochoin]

This landscape already looks really beautiful and serene, I would like to spend my next holidays there...
!

I'm assuming you mean in Matamata in New Zealand?

https://whereangiewanders.com/hobbiton- ... quet-tour/

donald

[PaulRPetri]

Incredible project!!

[dykio]

Hi Guys,

One of the first things you pass when you leave the highway to the shire is the watermill. So the next chapter is how this was build in the 1st era...or second....or... a couple of weeks ago

I started of by making the water-wheel. first some circles cut out of thick paper from a corn-flake box. As you can see i used an incedible expensive ( i think 1 euro) piece of equipment for this. The circle itself was very carefully measured out and was exactly the right size. Which was easy because being fantasy every size is the right size



Next step was making a sort of wheel





Then i glued it together with some smal pieces beween them. A cocktail stick was put in the middle and then it was painted and drybushed etc.



Then the mill itself was built.

I made the walls again from foamboard and the roof from thick paper. I made a mixture of glue and paint and soaked a piece of towell in it.





this was then put on the roof and left to dry


Then the details were made. As you can see the whole building is quite irregular wich according to my own idea fits more to hobbits then a clean and tidy building. i mean if you drink beer and smoke a pipe the hole day through....



since i had some self made stones left i use them everywhere i can





i think you can gues the next steppes by now...(grey basing, some coloured stones and some drybrushing)



now as you might have noticed i made a complete wheel... and that wasnt to clever because a part of it is ofcourse under water...... so i had to cut a piece of.



final steps weere painting the walls in a blue-ish colour and making the chimneys. So for now it looks like this




So this is hows things look now in the shire.



Im not quite sure what im gonna do next but thats al part of the fun when youre going on an unexpected journey.....

laterrrrrrr

[Peter]

Step by step your "Shire" is coming together. Nice watermill you made there!

Looking forward to what you will make next.

[Pocho Azul]

This is looking great! Very much looking forward to future progress.

[Egbert]

Your project looks amazing and it's moving fast...
It will be a wonderful village for your Hobbits!

[MABO]

Love to see the watermill!

[Minuteman]

This is all looking great. I am very familiar with JRR Tolkiens's pictures (drawn/painted by himself) of The Shire, and have actually seen the originals of these at an exhibition at the Bodleian Library a few years ago in Oxford, UK. What a great imagination he had, as well as quite considerable skills as an artist!

The Watermill etc will be a sight to see. Is your intention to populate The Shire, and if so will it be using the Airfix Robin Hood figures? Some are suitable, although those with beards will need a 'shave'...Hobbits have hairy feet but no beards!

[bothree69]

what kind of miniatures will you use for the characters ???
have a good time

[Susofrick]

Great project! I am also curious what figures you will use as hobbits. I have some, but they are in 32mm.

[sberry]

It's nice to see the progress. I especially like the watermill.
And I still cannot believe that I did not learn this fantastic towel method for creating thatched roofs earlier - it seems utterly clever to me. In the past, I always struggled with modeling clay; the next time I need a thatched roof I will try this method!