"Chinese Tower from Birdhouse" Topic

Took a break from painting Russians tonight to work on a terrain piece for the table.

This is a Chinese tower from the Michael's birdhouse.

I pulled the walls off the two upper levels, sanded them down, and added the detail work (where the white area is) using some balsa wood.

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I did not have aChinese fan sitting around, so I pulled out the old standby, cross-stitch plastic grid. I clipped a simple pattern out and will glue that to a corner post.

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Still a bunch more to do with it, but this is the start.

Clever!

This is my favorite part of the hobby. Finding some mundane artifact and turning it into something cool. That building will be very cool indeed. Kind of you to share again.

Very clever – I have the same birdhouse, but am not so ambitious – I am only trying to make a medieval watchtower!

Kind of you to share again.

Sharing is one of the aspects of this hobby that I enjoy. I love seeing what others do and love being able to share what I do.

Dang, I saw this on the weekend, all their birdhouses are on sale this week for $6.99 USD (CDN), but passed on it – have a bit too much already collected from their $1.50 USD mini-birdhouses and this tower one:

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But now I may have to go back to see if I can find this one…

See Chapters 28, 29, and 30 of Bill Protz's General Pettygree blog generalpettygree.blogspot.com for the tower that boy wundyr x mentioned.

I've looked at it at my local Michaels several times but haven't broken down and bought it yet.

Jim

I almost bought the stone tower one a well. It just didn't quite fit with what I was working on. I only picked up the Chinese tower because I could use it for my Back of Beyond game at Cold Wars.

There are a lot of great "birdhouses" at Michaels. They have rocket ships and pirate ships, pagodas and windmills, and some really great barns, houses, and churches. One such barn has hinges on the roof so you can get inside it.

One thing I noticed about Michaels in my area is that they have 2 aisles of unfinished wood crafts and at my local stores they are across the store from each other. So make sure you walk around just to make sure you've seen everything they have for sale.

-Ken
Radioactive Press

Ken: I had the same issue with the Michael's I went to. They had unfinished woodcrafts in one place, but the pagoda and windmill were in another.

I've seen similar, including the mini-birdhouses all alone in one aisle, the mini-birdhouses with the regular birdhouses in another aisle, then the regular birdhouses all alone in a third!

I've bought them for use with SLM's Splintered Lands fanasy animals, the "unrealistic" look of some fits in well, IMO. Besides the big tower, I have a mini square tower, mini round tower (conical roof), mini windmill, and mini house.

The Creatology 3D puzzles have also provided me with some nice wood pieces for the Splintered Lands – ships, sphinx, and a "Temple of Heaven", which may eliminate the need for the birdhouse pagoda…maybe.

Chris

Well, I hurt my back this morning and that meant all the work I planned for the Russians got put on hold. Could only work on "big" things since I had to keep getting up from sitting.

Here is the latest work on the tower.

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I uses the same plastic grid that I did the railing with to create the roof pattern.

I also completed the detail work on the lower level. Now to finish painting that.

Nice!

Fantastic modeling, very impressive!

Say Operator5, any tips on removing the walls? I'm looking to get a few more mm so I can fit figures on the upper levels (on a couple of birdhouses).

Thanks,
Chris

I used a dremel on the walls. If you have a cutting disc for the dremel, you can see where the floor piece meets the wall piece easily enough. Then just cut just above where they meet.

Once the walls are off, they are easy enough to sand down.

If you don't have a dremel, just break the walls with a pair of pliers. Then, use some sandpaper to sand smooth.

I think the walls are softer than the floor piece, so it should be easy to sand it off without hurting the floor.

And a new picture soon! Been working on mine on and off for the past day.

And here is the beauty with my first finished Russian squad guarding her.

I still need to touch up a few spots, but that should be quick work.

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Thanks for the tips! The final piece looks great.

Chris

…the miracle of paint!

Nice work, very inspirational!

Amalric

It's amazing what a coat of paint, a little balsa wood and some plastic mesh can do. The whole piece was probably less than $12. USD

Will it win any awards? Probably not. Is it a functional bit of terrain, absolutely.

:-)

Scenic pieces add to any encounter, nicely done up ones that fit into the genere add to the imersion of the players and also give the moderator quick reference pts that a book or stack of cards dont :)