The plan for the Lorraine village is to make the village church (completed) and eight or ten villages houses. This post shows the first three (well four really) pieces.
The typical Lorraine village, called village-rue, is made up mainly of byre houses all built in a row along the rue principale or "high street" that was generally the only street in the village. The village houses were joined each other so that a solid row of houses is formed along the road. A intersecting road might be similarly lined with row houses.
The Lorraine byre house was a farm house in which the living quarters on one side of the building, in two storeys, and storage farm machines or animals in the other. Walls were of stone and are either rendered or simply whitewashed. The lintels, jambs and sills of the windows and doors were typically local sandstone or limestone. Wooden shutters were fitted to windows. A fuller description of Lorraine houses can be found on John Boadle's blog (Link).
The first piece shown here is a byre house with the barn living quarters on the left and the barn on the right. Usually there would be a barn door front and back so that carts and wagons could be run through to a yard behind, but I have chosen not to do that in this case, but other models on the work desk will be built like that.
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The second piece is also a byre house.
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The third piece is two smaller houses, perhaps workers houses, on a single base. I have to admit I would not like to live in that little house with the steps...it would be OK on the uppe floor, but downstairs with just those two little windows would make it pretty dark and dingy...
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The ends of these two blocks have been left smooth so that they can be positioned side by side. I have painted a few cracks and carved a few areas exposed stonework into the MDF to break up the visual smoothness of the surface.
This will allow the street rows to be organised into different combinations.
Amazing work, Mark!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan. I am just starting work on the finishing touches for the next few building now.
DeleteLovely pieces Mark and they look terrific arranged together. Very nice indeed.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lawrence. I'm really pleased with these. I think I will end up with enough buildings for two small villages to fight over.
DeleteBeautifully done there Mark:)! It reminds me of a village street we saw in Austria, with similar houses, as it was a wine growing region, so each house had an entrance to the side for the wagons loaded with grapes etc. We are off there again next week so I'll be keeping a beady eye out for any nice architecture etc for my games:).
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve. That sounds like the ultimate home brew situation.đ
DeleteThese are terrific, I love them. The small house probably belongs to a wargamer - poor lighting in the wargame room, restricted table size and steps to lug new purchases up - couldn't be more perfect.
ReplyDeleteStephen
Thanks Stephen...agreed and additionally the gaming has been consigned to the basement.
DeleteHi Mark,
ReplyDeleteTop-notch stuff! That little worker's house with the steps certainly adds a bit of character to the row, even if it looks a bit dingy downstairs! The overall street layout looks marvellous when pushed together—looking forward to seeing the next batch.
Cheers, Andy
Thanks Andy, another four buildings are nearing completion.
DeleteSplendid news! You’re knocking these out at a proper rapid pace—a four-building batch is no small feat. Looking forward to seeing them lined up alongside the rest of the street!
DeleteAll the best, Andy
They look brilliant Mark! Very well done indeed!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray.
DeleteAs always mate you have a real skill and very impressive.
ReplyDeleteThanks you.
DeleteAnother excellent work đ
ReplyDeleteThank you Michal, its all good fun.
Deletelooking good
ReplyDeleteThanks Bruce.
DeleteThe buildings are well thought out, interesting choices!
ReplyDeleteThanks Joe. It is rather limiting for design...most look the same.
DeleteLovely work Mark they look great and impressive when lined up in the street form, should look so good on the table.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie. The temptation is keep going with intersecting streets, narrow lanes, etc, but that would be silly, and storage is an issue.
DeleteThese are fantastic, great that you can re-arrange for different layouts
ReplyDeleteThanks Neil. There will be a series of backyards the will provide even more variety in layout.
ReplyDeleteLovely work there Mark…
ReplyDeleteI may have to ever so slightly copy you at some point in the future đ
All the best. Aly
Copy away my friend...I copied from John afterall!
DeleteThese are lovely Mark. Especially like how you've pigmented the roof tiles. Looks very natural.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dai...five or six layers of dry brushing ever lightening tones gets the effect!
DeleteIt's gonna be an impressive village with buildings good as these!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes, James
Thanks James, there are four more buildings on the work table nearing completion and I have started cutting and assembling the remaining six. The goal is to try to have them all done my the month's end.
DeleteThese really are superb Mark! BTW I don't know if this is the latest Blogger issue, but when trying to access your site, I got a message asking me to enter one of those series of letters to prove it was "me" because (apparently) "they" had detected "unusual" activity on my PC!
ReplyDeleteIt's all those dodgy sites you go on Keith, or maybe its all those valkyries...
DeleteSplendid looking street, lots of character and a lovely finish!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thank you Iain.
DeleteAll good stuff, Mark. I am delighted to see that my Lorraine houses from a couple of years back have served as some sort of starting point here, although you have also done your own research. These certainly look the part.
ReplyDeletehttps://handbuilthistory.blogspot.com/2023/07/lorraine-houses-completed.html
Thanks John. I am really pleased with them and have another five under the brush at the moment that should be finished Sunday or Monday. Then there are another five forms assembled and ready to start after that, although I have run out of roofing material, so I may have to move some of the Alsace houses forward in the queue.
DeleteYou do get a hell of a lot of work done, Mark!
ReplyDeleteBy the way is the roofing material just the Wills moulded plastic sheets? It's come out well.
Thanks John. Once I got going they came together remarkably quickly. I have another five completed now - five more to go, hopefully by the end of the month. After these I will do half a dozen Alcasien houses.
DeleteThe roofs are done using the JTT sheeting - same product, different brand. It took a bit of filling work to get the finish I wanted, but doing them all at once made it easier. Annoyingly I glued one of the pieces on upside down, but didn't notice it until after I had painted it and wasn't about to take the model apart to correct it...I'll be watching to see if any one notices.
I'm glad I asked about the roof material because I'd not heard about the JTT sheet materials. Somehow they look slightly better than the Wills sheets, so I'll certainly try these when they have them in stock.
DeleteI certainly did notice you'd put one sheet on upside down, but naturally was too polite to mention it. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, mate!
đ.
DeleteStrangely when I went to buy some more of the JTT sheets it was out of stock so I had to buy some Wills sheets to finish the job.
I like the look of these sheets. I wouldn't call them the same thing as the Wills sheets. The latter are injection-moulded, where these are embossed, ie vacuum-formed. Generally this technique gives only a very poor rendition of textures, as seen in the ancient Slaters Plasticard range, and I don't go near them. But these look much nicer.
DeleteI'll be trying to get hold of some of these sheets. They seem to be generally out of stock though.
These JTT sheets apparently come in 1:48 and 1:100 scale, when I would have thought one was too big and one too small. Which did you use in fact as they look about right for the size we want.
DeleteI too was concerned about the vacuum formed styrene because it never gives that hard edge to each tile, but I tried it on a South American church and it worked well. I bought both scales, but the 1:100 is way too small. My first thought was that the 1:48 was too large but visually it is fine. The beauty of the styrene is that it cuts easily and glues with standard plastic kit glue.
DeleteThanks, Mark. I'll see if I can get my hands on some of the 1:48 ones.
Delete