TheTowers of Ilium

[steve_pickstock]

Sorry , no update today.

Mrs P has been doing an assignment for her degree all about the apparent magnitude of galaxies, and how that is affected by the dust between them and us, and the uncertainties that that creates. All of this needs to be worked out on a spreadsheet and it needs to be compiled on something called a Herzsprung-Russell diagram.

She needed me to help with the spreadsheets and graph..

Plus today was a small show in Crewe, with some friends. I picked up some bits, not much but it made the trip worthwhile.

Hopefully will get more done this week.

[steve_pickstock]

Went out with Mrs P, risking our marriage by going to our local IKEA (other cavernous furniture stores are available), short version, I ended up buying a pyrography set from HobbyCraft. The idea being to do the brick work and other details better, with the hot iron. This could get interesting.

[Minuteman]

Went out with Mrs P, risking our marriage by going to our local IKEA (other cavernous furniture stores are available), short version, I ended up buying a pyrography set from HobbyCraft. The idea being to do the brick work and other details better, with the hot iron. This could get interesting.

Ah yes, the smell of scorching wood/mdf !! You may find that you become hooked on pyrography, an absorbing art form in its own right. Will be interesting to see what effects you create with this tool, Steve.

[steve_pickstock]

Ah yes, the smell of scorching wood/mdf !! You may find that you become hooked on pyrography, an absorbing art form in its own right. Will be interesting to see what effects you create with this tool, Steve.

It's early days yet, but I did try a little test this afternoon and I think it really does have some interesting possibilities.

This week has been very low key - Mrs P's astronomy work was priority. She had an essay on the science of Cosmology and needed my input - and by input I mean acting as a thesaurus and dictionary and then casting an eye over it to check spelling etc. I'm afraid that it all sounds like something out of Star Trek to me, but I am quite handy when it comes to building a sentence.

Back to the job in hand.

Last week I cut a load of blue polystyrene foam blocks to size, made some generic bases for them, and started the fine shaping of the .



Rather than make lots of boxes, I decided to cut the blocks and then engrave them, perhaps add detail out of the filler and then paint them. this gives an impression of what they will be like in relation to the walls. The black line around the walls marks where the stone foundations for the walls will come up to. This is the lower line on this view.



Below this will be a section of stone work. Above this , the 'beams' will be painted, and the walls line washed.

I don't know how much I will get done this week, but at least the weather is warming up.

Stay safe all, and thanks for looking in.

[steve_pickstock]

Just a quick update - nothing!

My motivation has been taking a serious battering the last couple of weeks. It's all around a couple of things - I'm not going to go into it all, but I have a number of things going on, some of which have hit plan is to get my 'get up and go' got up and went, so to get it going again, I'm having a sort out, boxing some stuff up and farming one job out to someone, clearing some space space on the work bench and just getting myself organised before I push on.

Blocks like this happen, it's nothing to panic about, it's actually a good thing - I needed to make some room.

If the next weekend is a holiday where you live, enjoy yourself.

[Santi Pérez]

I agree with you, Steve. Sometimes it's very good to take a break, rest, meditate and take up the task with even more enthusiasm.

...If the next weekend is a holiday where you live, enjoy yourself.

Yes, it is. Thank you for your advice. That's exactly what I was thinking of doing.

Best regards.

Santi.

[Minuteman]

I know what you mean Steve, the same happens to me from time to time.

Let's remember that this is a hobby, not a production line. Take time to refresh and re-motivate, and then come back with some new creations when you are ready. Your model engineering is always first class, and well -worth waiting for.

[steve_pickstock]

Going to the Phalanx show at St Helens on Saturday, Blotz have said they're going, so I will pick up some more little bits to finish this project off. I need some external bends, perhaps another long wall, and some Right angle external corners, to act as the ends of the walls.

[CliosPaintingBench]

Lot of planning involved for this, can see the foundations coming together, the engraving sounds complicated. Let's see how it goes!

[steve_pickstock]

Interesting chat with the proprietor of Blotz who make the scenery. I showed him the WIP images of the barbican and I think he was impressed.

I was a bit nervous about showing someone how you have (literally) plagiarised their work, especially as I built elements into the piece and copied his style for the rest of it, but he seemed quite happy with it, and that made my day.

I bought a couple more pieces and pressed him to add another element to the 20mm collection.
He has produced a corner bastion - https://blotz.co.uk/product/corner-bastion-square-28mm/ - in 28mm and in 15mm, but just not gotten round to doing it in 20mm. I was hoping I could get him to get around to it.

I should point out that there isn't much evidence for this as a feature of Troy VI, not the round version he also does, but i think these are a feature for the ends of my walls.

I also asked him to think about making some Trojan house. I did think about doing these in blue XPS foam but without a Proxxon, cutting them square and getting the sides straight is a major job, plus if done right an Ancient town house could be very useful.
So we shall see where that conversation goes.

Thanks for looking in, stay cool/safe with all this lightning about. Apparently the God of Thunder isn't as nice as that Australian chap makes him appear.

[Minuteman]

Interesting chat with the proprietor of Blotz who make the scenery. I showed him the WIP images of the barbican and I think he was impressed.
..........
I bought a couple more pieces and pressed him to add another element to the 20mm collection.
He has produced a corner bastion - https://blotz.co.uk/product/corner-bastion-square-28mm/ - in 28mm and in 15mm, but just not gotten round to doing it in 20mm. I was hoping I could get him to get around to it.
.

Thanks for the link to Blotz, Steve. Not a company that I was previously aware of, but having had a look at the website it looks as if they do some nice buildings etc.

[steve_pickstock]

Thanks for the link to Blotz, Steve. Not a company that I was previously aware of, but having had a look at the website it looks as if they do some nice buildings etc.

i thought, I'd put it up before, but yes they do make some interesting stuff. The owner is into Model railways and he makes stuff for his own layout - he made a station and he explained that he does the same as me, when working on a real building. By imaging the building and then scaling it into the software. I use a screen grab and Powerpoint - it works for me.

The thing that impresses e most about the Blotz stuff is the clever engineering that goes into them. Okay, you do need to follow the instructions on some parts to get the order of assembly right, but the fit, and the way that the parts support each other is very impressive.

[dykio]

This is a really interesting tread to follow ! and like the other members already mentioned im also very interested in the final result. So go on Steve ! and keep up the good work