Flintloque - Bellingham Manor

Over two years ago I set up my first modelling web pages with the aid of my son. Although the site was a great starting point and taught me a lot about the presentation of my site and the importance of good photographs, I allowed the site to close down and opened this Weblog or Blog, which I believe is much simpler to update.

One of the un-finished projects on the initial site was this construction tutorial showing how I built this warehouse/chapel based on a wine warehouse from the Franschhoek region of South Africa.

Photo One - shows the finished model, with a Flintloque figure alongside and shown for scale. The model is 8.5inches or 21cms tall.

Photo Two - The leaflet that inspired the model. Bellingham Manor is shown as a single, front-end illustration towards the centre of the picture.

Photo Three - I used a photocopier to enlarge the illustration. The drawing shows some very nice ornate mouldings to the front, as well as the three upper storey windows.

Photo Four - Some early sketches. (The leaflet was given to me by my Mother who had just returned from a short holiday in South Africa, visiting friends. Mum brought back loads of wine leaflets and tourist material for her scrapbook).

Photo Five - The early construction was from foamboard, with the detail modelled from foamboard and balsawood covered in filler. The resin barrels came from Grendel. They have been glued to the 6mm MDF base and the gaps between the barrels and the wall filled with DAS modelling clay.

Photo Six - This was the first time that I had tried to model a building with a removable roof, in the past I had always made my buildings solid. In this photo you can see the support ridge for the simple triangle roof shape as well as the built-up floor of the warehouse, made from layers of foamboard.

Photo Seven - In this photo, most of the construction work is complete and the painting just needs some fine detail work. The ivy grown around the windows was done with railway sawdust flocking glued with uPVA. It does not appear on the original illustration (artistic licence). The windows were first painted black, then dark blue, then light blue. A small pure white dot was added to the top corner as a highlight.

Photo Eight - As above. The walls were painted with white Dulux solid emulsion paint. As I had run out of acrylic white paint! The walls were drybrushed with pure Dulux white and later washed with dirty water to help define the texture.

Photo Nine - Between this photo and the previous, there is a time delay of over two years. The model had been moved up into the attic while other projects had been on-going and the model was just collecting dust! A clear out and visit from my Mother prompted me to finish the details and write this short article.

Photo Ten - As above, showing the roof removed and the internal detail, note the red tiled floor. I had intended to add further internal detail, but for now this will have to wait. There is also the option of adding a first floor, see the supports on the side walls.

Photo Eleven - As above with the roof back in place.

Photo Twelve - The finished (at long last) model. The doors are modelled from 3mm thick plastic card, scribed with a knife and plastic cutter before being painted with acrylic paints.

Photo Thirteen - I modelled the side door ajar, and added a simple paper poster to the door. The barrels have been touched-up.

Photo Fourteen - Finished.

As stated above, the model has taken at least two years, possibly more, but is now finished. I would imagine it fitting-in well with my Napoleonic Peninsular architecture/models, but it could also be used as a Spanish chapel.

Photo Fifteen - If you compare this to the original illustration at the top of the page, I think you will agree that I have captured the style and feel of Bellingham Manor.

Tony