Ruined Archway

This was the first big project I undertook during the quarantine. I knew I had some time to kill, so I wanted to start a big project. This one was a relatively simple build, just on a large scale. The biggest hurdle was cutting out 999,999,999 foam bricks to stack and glue together. After doing it the hard way, I realized that there were probably easier ways to cut the bricks en masse, or get the illusion of bricks. Let's start with the finished project, and then we can look back at how the build progressed.

So this is what I started with. I had these two instant coffee cans that I had been holding onto for some time. I knew they were the perfect size for towers, but I wasn't sure how to implement them. I decided to form an archway in between them. Looking back, I can't tell you why I cut the archway out in 4 pieces and then spliced them together. The issue may have been that the foam was too thick to cut, and so I could be rougher with smaller chunks. I was also working with a dull blade at the time, as I couldn't go to the store due to quarantine. I also set up the arch on a piece of cardboard that I was going to fill with rubble and scatter, but it warped more than I expected, so was cut away later.

Next, I added on more wall to the outside of the towers, making them look weathered and busted. I also used drywall spackle to fill in the gaps and creases. This was mainly for strength, as all of these areas would be covered in bricks. I actually hated working with this stuff, and I need to find a better solution for filling large gaps like this. The spackle was messy, sticky, and rough. I also started painting everything black as a basecoat.

Once the spackle dried, I gave everything a basecoat and started laying bricks. This process actually took me about a week. I spent an hour or two a day working on this, and it melted my brain. One thing that is hard to see in these pictures, is that I put coffee stir-sticks on top of the arch and coffee cans to make a wooden walk way. They are visible in the final pictures.

Here is the completed brick work. It is meant to look rough and ruined, but I still feel as though there are spots that look too unbelievable. I had a hard time butting the brickwork up against the outside walls. I tried to cut each brick at an angle, so they were flush with the wall, but there are still gaps.

We are getting close to finished here, things are basecoated and ready for drybrushing, weathering, and bits. This stage was probably the second longest, because I had to get paint in between every brick, wait for it to dry, and then check back to see if any blue insulation foam was visible. It took a long time ti get every little piece, and find all the angles of visibility. I didn't document the drybrushing and weathering steps, but I brushed up with a grey, and a tan, but I also used some teals and greens, and a few yellow ochres to give some natural colours. They fade into the finished structure and don't stand out like vibrant colours, but are very important to the feel. I drybrush the ground up from brown to tan, and I used moss and grass flock as ground cover. I also stuck a few bits of stringy moss in any big gaps that I had left.

And here we are again at the finished product!