Dwarven Brewhaus

Started with my beloved foamcore, penned in some lines for bricks. For texture, I laid down course sandpaper on the foam then rubbed a hard object on the back of it to press the bumps into the foam.

To assemble the walls, I cut the edges to 45-ish degree angles, so that they would form a seam right on the corner. I figure this way I don't have to try & cover any of the seams.

I was having a hard time coming up with containers to use as the brew tanks, but a quick trip to the craft store & I found these neat little Xmas bulbs on some fake pine decorations & wooden doohickey.

Ad some bands, rivets & they'll start looking like tanks.

I cut some corresponding holes in the walls so the tanks would be partially in the building. This is half because it looks cool & half because I don't want people on my case that I'm missing essential brewing items. My close proximity to Milwaukee does nothing to help my knowledge of brewing beer. So, if those sticklers say I'm missing such-and-such, I can just say "It's inside" :-P

And here's the whole setup. That wooden tank isn't attached yet here because I wanted to get paint in those small crevasses first.

And paint it, I shall.

I primed everything in a dark grey. The stone was done with a sponge loaded with white, tan & dark brown paints. Tanks & other bits painted black as a base for the metallics coming later.


Also added the frame to the roof with hot glue & bamboo skewers. Right now it'll either be a thatched roof or a metal plated roof... I'm leaning more toward the metal, but we'll see.


Also putting in a stained glass window. I took some clear plastic, cut it to size. Then dabbed on black paint mixed with a lot of PVA using a tooth pick following a design I made. I tried making the lines nice & thick (ie: tall) to act as walls between each section. That way there are little wells to hold the color I wanted to put there.

 I made some doors by gluing chunks of tongue depressors to a cardboard template, then using a scissors to cut the wood into shape. Then added some more grooves for planks, cardboard details & some dwarfy bits.

Here's the base of the roof. The hole is for a steam pipe (see below).


Years ago I had other crafty projects that needed these pour spouts you can buy for liquor bottles or cooking oils and I had extras sitting in my drawer forever. So one shall be primed & dubbed my steam pipe, after a few more details, of course.

Back to the roof - I've decided on the metal roof, so I started laying down my plates. They're just from a heavy cardstock & glued with super glue to prevented any warping from the paint or washes.



After lots of rivets & a prime so you could see them all, we have this.


Other dwarf breweries I've seen, I'd say 75% of them had weathered copper roofs & clean, shiny copper tanks outside. That seems wrong to me; either they should both be weathered or they should be clean. I went the clean route because green brew tanks just doesn't seem sanitary :-P So to make the roof more than just one overpowering solid color, I used a variety to break it up a bit.



Also added a hanging sign on the front door. I took a fine tip on my wood burner & added the logo to a small wooden disc from the craft store.

Unfortunately, I put a wash on it to make it look like a stain that was way too dark & you could hardly make out the design anymore. So I took a Sharpie & darkened the burnt areas - which I guess I could've just done in the first place & not wasted my time burning it. *Sigh* Oh well,  it looks decent now, that's all that matters.



So, to bring this project to a close, I added some foam rocks to the yard.


A break area for the workers, because there were a lot of steins in the bits box that needed a place to go. The table is an extra Hirst block I had & chairs are carved out of foam

So after flock/shrubbery, I painted & added a bunch of extra dwarfy bits.

And now she's done!