Rock-cut houses

This mining town project (I really should think of a proper name) is incredibly time consuming, but at least I can show some progress. If the first section of the board was a huge bulk, I wanted just the opposite for the next part. Thinking of the Anasazi Cliff Palace (or something in that fashion), I wanted to try a rock-cut section. So in fact, instead of Anasazi, I should really be talking about some fabulous Indian structures.

Whatever the case is, here you can see what I mean:

This will be the front part

The general idea is something like this:

Central section of the board

Of course in due time I'll have to deal with those flat surfaces and square angles, but this serves my purposes for now. So next step is to build that inner structure...

This was the time consuming stuff

Nothing too complicated, but at least with different volumes

Well, this is more or less what I'm trying to get

Working with foamboard has pros and cons. Of course it's super easy to work with and I don't think I could have achieved these results using any other material. But on the other hand, warping is quite an issue. It's become my main problem by now. All the delicate measures and planning have faded away and I have to deal with pieces that don't match and stuff of the like. Besides, the rear panel has also warped; not significantly, but enough to be a concern. Lesson identified. I didn't think that MDF was a suitable solution for the back, for weight and structural purposes, but I may have to consider it for future boards (ahem).

Anyway, I hope that future pieces I have in mind will bring a solution for this unexpected problem. Time will tell. For now I have other issues to think about.

You can see there is an arch down right. I built this to give some depth there:

A store? The entrance of a house?

If the whole board is going to look like adobe, desert rock or something like that, I wanted something to break that monochrome look. So I gave it a whitewash appearance, kind of Mediterranean villages. To give it another touch I browsed and printed Andalusian tiles:

The other piece of paper will be glued on the main structure

The sign over the door makes this board suitable for any Firefly themed game too ;-) (not the first time I use this kind of stuff).

OK, so let's see the next stage. I had to paint the rock-cut houses before I glued the whole section, or else it would be harder later. But hey, once I had the spray I said 'I really don't fancy all this white foamboard, let's make a full colour test'.

Lots of details will vary in the final version

I should have built more different shapes and levels here, but it's done

I'll need a table, chairs and things of the like

General overview of the board so far

Sunlight!

 I'll give it another hand when I add details, this was but a colour test. The spray is somehow darker than I expected, but I'm not dissatisfied, I think I can work with this. I'll have to think how will I add different tones to such large, flat surfaces (and make it all look natural), but that will be a problem for the future me. The most pressing issue now is dealing with warping foamboard (oh, and thinking of a name for this town), I'll see what I can do...