Correcting Post

 One of my SOG friends across the pond  pointed out I had the wrong post 1801 ensign and Jack on the Bounty with the red Irish saltire. In 1789 during the infamous breadfruit voyage the Union Jack did notyert exist. So I have replaced them with the proper jack and ensign.

Looking back I also realized I made the same mistake on HMS Pandora, the frigate sent to find Bounty. So I changed that one as well.

My current work in progress is a Pyro plastic kit of HM Bounty in 1/190 scale.

I haven't built a full hull plastic kit in quite a while and I am not at all sure what I'll be able to do with it. It has a full plastic sail compliment that I don't really like and really awful plastic ratlines. Not a whole lot of parts either so I may add a few things. The thing that really depresses me is the original $1 price tag!

1/700 Armed Vessel HM Bounty

My first ship after the foray into booknooks is Henry Turner's 3D design for the armed vessel HM Bounty.

Bounty shown with HMS Pandora

Mines of Moria Infinity Book Nook

Ok this is my last booknook for a while! I am going back to the ships and am already have way done with HMS Bounty.

I got the idea for this nook from a North of the Border Youtube video about a similar infinity Moria nook. Mine is quite a bit taller and deeper.

Sorry for the quality of the photos. The nook is best viewed in the dark as the low light of the mines is impossible to see in a lighted room. 

The build

First I collected photos of Moria pillars

Sketching out the pillar blanks 

blanks are 1/2" foam core

Patterns cut from card stock

pieces laid out on corrugated cardboard

The top

Pillar piece box

Pillars under construction

The basic structure with a mirror propped up against the back

two way mirror in place on the front and Finished

You can see the light switch in this shot

My next post will be the Bounty!

Mines of Moria Bridge of Khazad Dum

When I presented the Diagon Alley booknook I made to my older daughter for her birthday it was a big hit with both girls. The younger one was jealous and wanted exactly the same one for her birthday! But after thinking about it for a while, she decided she wanted the fight between Gandalf and the balrog on the bridge at Khazad Dum (Moria). So here is what I came up with after a lot of thinking and deliberation and experimentation. I hope you like it. 

Not really knowing what I wanted, I just roughed out a shape using some scrap Styrofoam packing I saved (I never throw anything away, LOL)

A little more shaping and a bit of mud

Adding some detail with card from a cereal box (I never throw anything away, seriously!)

The front door & viewing pane with bridge support

The sculpt is glued to the plywood base

Dwarf head for the front panel is made from a piece of 1/4" foam core 

I added a little dress up to the door frame

Surface is Celluclay

Front panel glued to base and started some painting

The bridge is added. I was going for a forced perspective so the bridge is smaller at the far end

Testing out the view here

Decided to add a little Mithril silver vein here

Initially my daughter wanted to sculpt the balrog. All she has ever worked with is bisque clay. She purchased some Super Sculpey but didn't know how to work with it. I pointed her to some Youtube videos where she learned she needed to make armatures, but she didn't have wire or tools to do it. She tried tinfoil but didn't like how it turned out. She got frustrated and eventually gave up. So I offered to try and find a 3D balrog I could print and she agreed. This balrog took 9 and a half hours to print!

The balrog was hell to clean up. I finally got the lights and started modifying the model to take them

Lighting Gandalf"s staff and sword took some thought and careful placing on the bridge

This shot is taken sandwiched in my bookshelf. The fire and wing reflection on the left and the pattern on the right are from the shiny book covers on either side. I thought the fire reflection looked pretty cool. Almost made me think about trying to add a mirror to this one.

The camera flash added a pretty cool pillar shadow image in this shot

Since I had both flicker and steady circuits, I split the power source to one battery for the flickers and two for the steady lights. I ganged the switches in the front and painted them copper. 

I tried to give a stone texture to the box

As an afterthought I decided to dress up the box a bit more

Both sides

Not that easy to see but the top and back are painted cream with the heavy brush strokes left visible to try and simulate the pages of a book

This was a lot of work but I am surprised at how fast it went. Most of the time was spent waiting for the various LEDs to arrive. I could get into this, but all of those ships are waiting. While waiting for the lights I printed at least a dozen more ships!