Quar 15.6: Finished Mounds

Mounds are all complete. Here's Mound 1. I first undercoated it neutral gray, then gave it a darker wash, then a highlight. Roofs were glued into position and numerous colors of lichen and flocking were added. I also mixed some Vermiculite (used by gardeners for potting plants) with white glue and paint and blobbed it on here and there for bushes. Covered the base in Mixed Turf.

Mound 1 entrance is a simple overhang, HIRST stone floor casting, and a bench for visitors and package deliveries.

S‘hard makes sure the door is securely locked.

Finished Mound 2. By the entrance is a bead pot and a sprig of dry foliage.

All of the rooftop gardens have lichen and various Vermiculite/white glue/paint plants (dabbed with splashes of flower color).

S’hard comes through a hatch to sit on a small stool and take a well deserved break.

Finished Mound 3.

Entrance and window. Pots are beads with HO scale plants.

Balcony and grounds inspection.

After all that continual and exhausting investigating, S’hard was only able to find a single suspicious item, an errant wanted poster strewn about. Obviously, his stellar reputation has scared off any would-be miscreants and he signs off on the completed project as being safe and sound.

Quar 15.5: Sculptamolding

The finished rooms (other side, with temporary roofs), vent, simple outside door and side vent (HIRST Mold 321) have been glued to Mound 1. I then mixed SCULPTAMOLD Modeling Compound with water and a bit of black paint (so I could tell where I’ve applied it) and slathered the sticky stuff on with a Popsicle stick and fingers.

NOTE: Sculptamold takes a looooong time to completely dry! The mounds were left in the garage (nice and HOT… 90-100 degrees during the day) for an entire week before I did any further work on them.

Each of the vents is a piece of ¾” O. D. thin wall plastic tubing (used for sprinklers) with bits added. Mound 1 vent has an inner wheel from a cassette tape, some unknown bit, and plastic strips glued on, then painted a sandstone color. I’ll weather it later.

S‘hard eyes a suspicious looking hound lounging over near the scraps box. He later discovers it’s just his old pal Beans.

Mound 2 and its vent (I added Micro-balloons to the vent paint for texture).

Mound 3, its entrance, small window box and vent.

S’hard says, “These need doors and shutters for security. Can‘t be too safe, y‘know.”

Quar 15.4: Roofs. Mound Shaping.

For the roofs I used 1/8” clapboard. For each I cut a set of four pieces with three or four rows for variety.

The pieces were end-cut at an angle and glued to a separate piece of mat board that was the same size as the top of the room*, then card corners were glued on. I undercoated the surface a dark blue, then painted on individual tiles a lighter blue. I did another blue set for Mound 2 as well as a set of dark/light red ones for Mound 3.

Lesson Learned: If I had been smarter I would have simply painted the pieces the lighter color and used a black .08 micro-marker to draw vertical lines to separate the tiles, then glued the pre-painted pieces to the under-roof. The roofs would have looked a lot crisper. Hindsight is 20/20.

* The completed roof assemblies will NOT glued to the room yet so I can paint and terrain the mounds without having to work around the roofs.

Time for the mounds themselves! I had some thick Styrofoam available so I cut some to approximate size, stacked the slabs up (temporarily holding them together with skewers), and used a WOODLAND SCENICS hot wire cutter to cut them to basic shape. Behind stands a piece of tubing I'll use for vents.

S’hard has slipped into his black stealthy wear to better fool any miscreants he might come across. Seems they’ve left the area, at least for the moment.

Mound 1 after it’s been defined with a TIPPI Hot Foam Cutter, and its slabs glued together. A great tool!

The TIPPI I used. The changeable tips are really handy, the square one being especially useful when I cut out the room notches.