This Part 16 of a series of a fair few posts, Part 1 (link here) gives an overview and the philosophy applied to the series – cheap, simple and fun.

When I was young boy we went to see some relatives in Finland in their country house. The little house did not have a “normal” toilet but instead they had an outhouse for the job. I was so scared of going in there that I almost shat myself outside – a little bit of a paradox. Anyway I went in to do the deed, when I sat there in my solitude I saw a bucket with some white powder and a big ladle. I found it strange to have a bucket of flour on the loo and ask my Mum why. She explain is was to keep the flies away from the “shit”. Well in reality the “flour” was lime powder and it kills the bacteria (minimising the smell) at the cost of the speed of the decomposing process.

Another thing was the bloody flies in the area and I was not used to this and there were a lot of normal flies and horseflies. One day as I came back from the toilet visit my Mum looked chocked and said “What have you done, you are white all over your body and hair”. I smiled, and according to mum, looked very prooud of myself, “Mum, I had enough of these flies, so I poured the bucket of lime over me.”.

Today we are making an outhouse (you buy a nice one from Peter Pig, I have a few already). Anyway let us get going.

Add some planks to simulate a door

And that budget, well we are still at £17.93 we are now beyond half-way on this project and will we make it under £30.

Tomorrow we are doing a Swedish Hayrack.

/ Hope that was of some interest

This Part 15 of a series of a fair few posts, Part 1 (link here) gives an overview and the philosophy applied to the series – cheap, simple and fun.

It has been documented before but a box that changed my life when I was a boy was this one, the Mutant RPG, the 1984 version. I have been raving about that many times before so I will spare you from that now (but more here in case you missed it).

However today we are doing slightly different boxes, again we are going to get out our coffee stirrers…

And that budget, well we are still at £17.93 we are almost half way through, will we be able to contain this within the £30 limit (yes we will but I might add some items to spice it up a little bit)

Tomorrow we are doing an outside loo.

/ Hope that was of some interest

This Part 14 of a series of a fair few posts, Part 1 (link here) gives an overview and the philosophy applied to the series – cheap, simple and fun.

Mum used to make these big washings and hang them to dry, I used to pretend I was a musketeer fighting between the white bed linen, like in the 1974 version of the Three Musketeers – the one with York, Reed, Chamberlain and Finlay (not to forget Lee, Welch, Dunaway and Heston). Here is the fantastic clip.

Today we are going to do a washing line with some washing drying, here a brief description.

And that budget, well we are still at £17.93 we are almost half way through, will we be able to contain this within the £30 limit (yes we will but I might add some items to spice it up a little bit)

Tomorrow we are doing some boxes (back to the 2 minute clutter approach), sleep tight.

/ Hope that was of some interest

This Part 13 of a series of a fair few posts, Part 1 (link here) gives an overview and the philosophy applied to the series – cheap, simple and fun.

When I was a boy we used to go to the Folkpark (People’s park) in the Village of Sågmyra where I was brought up until the Factory sacked everyone and we moved in the “big” town with 50,000 people. There was not much more organised activities in the Village, with perhaps and market once or twice a year. Here I went to my first live gig, my uncle’s band with him on Guitar and song (RIP Lasse) and my Dads cousin on drums (keep on rockin’ Blämmen!), here playing one of their many songs – Klockorna Ringer (The Bells are Chiming). It was my first live gig and I thought it was magic – I still do.

We only need our coffee stirrers for this project (again), the idea here is the sign, It gives a sense of place with a sign saying Rue de Quoique, we might think France, well you get the idea. So more heart than content this time…

And that budget, well we are still at £17.93 as these were all free issue material, I think I might spend a buck or two at some point.

Tomorrow we are doing some washing, I heard the wind will be strong.

/ Hope that was of some interest

This Part 12 of a series of a fair few posts, Part 1 (link here) gives an overview and the philosophy applied to the series – cheap, simple and fun.

A Moose Hunting Tower (Jaktpass in Swedish)

Today we are doing a common item in a Swedish forest, not sure how many they had in the 1940s but at least they had one on my table. The towers are used by hunting teams for setting up positions during the hunt. It would be a fun clutter to put in to break up some forest area.

Sweden has the most dense population of moose in the world and annual almost 100,000 moose are being shot to control the population. The Moose was almost extinct at the beginning of the 19th century but due to modern thinking from hunting organisations the Moose slowly came back.

The hunting tower is a welcome sight when you are hiking in the forest or looking for berries, mushroom and fungi (not the ones from Yoggoth), it is a place to stop for a moment hang up your backpack and perhaps have a break and eat your picnic. Dad and I used to go to the same spot every year for a weekend and pick lingon berries, blue berries and if we were lucky some wild raspberry (we used to be able to forage enough in weekend to last to the next year and it was a damn good time. There was an old hunting tower in the area, it was our point of reference and we used to have this as a base for our operations and I wish I had picture of us being there, but we never brought a camera so I guess the only picture I have is up there is my head.

We only need our coffee stirrers for this project.

And that budget, well we are still at £17.93 as these were all free issue material, so we seem to be able to keep this under control

Tomorrow we are making signs, well actually only one sign as it is a lazy Wednesday project.

/ Hope that was of some interest

This Part 11 of a series of a fair few posts, Part 1 (link here) gives an overview and the philosophy applied to the series – cheap, simple and fun.

A Well

Todays little project is to build a well, with a lever like the one seen in the picture.

You can buy a perfectly adequate one from iron clad miniatures (also check out their terrain in many scales – I have a lot of their buildings and trench systems in 15mm and some of their nice 28mm miniatures too) – more here.

However, we have a pile of coffee stirrers that needs to be used, so we will build one from scratch. Here is a rough outline how it was done (this for a well fitting 15mm miniatures).

And that budget, well we are still at £17.93 as these were all free issue material, so we seem to be able to keep this under control.

Tomorrow we are making something like this, see you then.

/ Hope that was of some interest

This Part 10 of a series of a fair few posts, Part 1 (link here) gives an overview and the philosophy applied to the series – cheap, simple and fun.

A Wheel barrow

Again we are using coffee stirrers

And that budget, well we are still at £17.93 as these were all free issue material, but as I tend to say we have a long way to go.

Tomorrow we are making something like this, see you then.

/ Hope that was of some interest

This Part 9 of a series of a fair few posts, Part 1 (link here) gives an overview and the philosophy applied to the series – cheap, simple and fun.

A Planter

Well something you could make of all those Tufts you have lying around for your basing.

Here we go

And that budget, well we are still at £17.93 as these were all free issue material, but we have a long way to go.

Tomorrow we are making a small wheel barrow, see you then.

/ Hope that was of some interest

This Part 8 of a series of a fair few posts, Part 1 (link here) gives an overview and the philosophy applied to the series – cheap, simple and fun.

A Small Pond

Today we are doing a little bit of a different type of tile, a more natural feature, a little pond. Do not really have any good reflection from a pond from my youth, so let us get straight into it.

A lot of the terrain manufacturers produces templates for making your own lakes or ponds. It is really easy to make one yourself using adhesive tiles (that was part of the initial investment for the project). These are sold both as tiles and planks (they can be picked up from pound shops or from eBay for about £5 for 4 No. 1X1 feet tiles). It is nice material to work with an has some flex and can be bent into shape if needed. I really like this as a medium for doing a lot of things, basing your terrain, making roads, making rivers etc.

Here we go

And that budget, well we are still at £17.93 as these were all free issue material (well bought for the monies we already spent), but we have a long way to go, I had the birds in my tool box so I will cheat with those.

Tomorrow we are making a small planter, see you then.

/ Hope that was of some interest

This Part 7 of a series of a fair few posts, Part 1 (link here) gives an overview and the philosophy applied to the series – cheap, simple and fun.

A Composter

Well a environmental friendly way of dealing with kitchen and garden waste is to use a composter that also produces an excellent soil improver. Of course we had a little composter when I grew up, where else would we get the worms from when we went fishing? I remember getting the little container and a small spade and digging for worms,

Anyway for our rural composter I am looking at something like this.

Not to tough project today then, let us get on with it.

And that budget, well we are still at £17.93 as these were all free issue material (well bought for the monies we already spent), but we have a long way to go, will the stirrers last?

Tomorrow we are making a small pond, see you then.

/ Hope that was of some interest