Aqua Vitae - part two

Another Wednesday and another update. In part one I wrote about the Lead Adventure contest that inspired this little piece of terrain, details of which can be found here. I particularly like the Catalina Flying Boat by Jonny Todd.

The fireplace was carved out of a block of Pink Foam and textured with a wire brush, while the barrel was a resin casting from Grand Manner. In this image you can see the groundwork built up with DAS modelling clay.

Prior to the DAS being added I spent some time moving the individual pieces around the plastic card base until I was happy with the composition.

It is obvious from this image that I have discarded the simpler Pot Still for a more ornate Chappel Still or Cognac inspires Still. This was built from two resin castings of antique pots or vases giving the distinctive bellied shape pot with the large cooling chamber on the top. From the bottom up the construction goes as follows; The Pink Foam fireplace - a plastic card base with some rivets from an Airfix construction set - a Games Workshop shield - two resin vases (with a plastic card and plastic tube door), a pot lid and then the 'swans neck'. On closer examination there are a number of plastic rod rivets while the joins are filled with superglue and sanded smooth.

My reasoning for changing from the simpler Poteen or Pot still to this more elaborate one is that I wanted it to stand out. In Flintloque gaming terms I imagine The Bog Orcs would have 'acquired' (read stolen) this better made copper still from the Ferach for distilling their own rough and ready liquor.

Once again I played around with placing the various items of clutter before supergluing them down.

This close-up of the Still shows some of the detail I have added. Most inspiration for this shape and detailing came from GOOGLE image searches.

I have a good supply of clutter items kept in a huge spares box. Here are some that were used on this project. The plaster barrels are from a company called Ten Commandments and are very easy to re-carve and detail. The resin box was found at the bottom of my spares box and might have been there for some time while the white metal pot and small barrel are from an unknown manufacturer. The green pot to the front is a modified KNEX joining piece which has been carved and sanded to shape.

In this image and the one below you can see the clutter glued down and the groundwork further textured with sieved stones and fine sand which has been applied over uPVA glue.

I have used fine filler and thick paint to smooth out the join between the swans neck and the metal paperclip pipe. The stack of wood is just that - a stack if wooden strips cut from some scrap wood.

Another close-up showing the scratch built green jug as well as the Chappel Pot in greater detail.

And finally for this post a view of the completed construction prior to painting. The image shows how the resin barrel has been hollowed-out and the paperclip pipe fits into it.

In the next post I will detail the painting and basing. I hope that you have enjoyed the construction article. It is possible to 'click' on the images - which will expand the photos and show construction in greater detail.

Tony