Saturday 27 April 2013

Buildings based and ready for use


The Mediterranean style building project stalled lacking triplex wood for bases. My local supplier promised to have stock the following week. That was over three weeks ago.

Stock arrived, so I bought enough for a dozen DBA sized armies and future BUA projects; Russian village and church, Chinese village and docks and more.



The photo shows the individual pieces with Woodland Scenic material serving for vegetation. Three pieces serve for the village and the larger piece as a farm or convent. I like the modular system, as I can adjust the area covered or spread the pieces over the table for a historical game.



Small trees (Woodland Scenic) are based separately as they can be used for other period BUA.  

The last photo show all the pieces clustered as an example of a large village.
Cheers,  

Thursday 11 April 2013

Part 2 – Mediterranean style structures


The “tiled roofing” was quite fragile, such that any indentations would not come out. This had to be applied over an even surface, so I covered each roof with card stock to improve the bond and smooth the roof surface.

Before applying the roof, I needed to undercoat the structures and did this with an earth tone. Some walls were pitted, so daubing white over the earth would leave places uncovered, but importantly the overall structure would not appear even; areas close to the ground would become dis coloured through dust and moisture.



With a marker, I sketched roughly where windows and doors would be. Doors and windows were painted in and typical of the style, I added shutters  painted green. With a fine micro-pen, I outlined the features to tidy the overall illusion.

Adding the tiles was the last step and this was done for both buildings and walls. These too, were undercoated with standard white household paint and hardened when dry. This was an ideal surface to wash a terracotta colour and dry-brush.



The BUA and farm must be based first before adding the finishing touches of shrubbery, ivy and trees. Unfortunately, my local supply shop exhausted their stock of 1.5 mm basswood, so I shall have to wait.

In the meantime, the Russians have arrived from America. 

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Mediterranean style structures


While waiting for my order of OG15 Napoleonic figures, I kept myself busy with constructing more BUA and edifices. On my projects list were buildings for the Duchy of Trento (Northern Italy).

From the bag full of useful size scraps of pink foam, I selected enough for a hamlet and a possible enclosed feature; farm or convent.



A simple bread knife is useful when shaping the building walls and roof. My first attempt need some correction as the pitch of the roof was appropriate for the snow bound regions of Germany than the warmer climate of Italy.



The roofing is packaging from tea biscuits (cookies) sold here. Scoring this would effectively create the tiles for the buildings and walls.

More later.