Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

After what seems like an age I finally completed the exteriors of the Empires at War Spanish/Italian MDF buildings.  This last stage was working on the wooden areas such as the balcony railings and doors.  Part 1 , part 2 and part 3 show the work up to this point. I can't really say that they're finished as there's the interiors to do and I also want to make some scenic bases for them.  But I've reached a stage where I'm happy with how they look and would use them in a game. Two Storey house(L).  Large house with balcony (R)                                                          Large three storey house with balcony (L).  Small three storey house (R) Arched building (L).  Taverna (R).  Two views of the church front (L) and rear (R).  Farm (L).  Villa (R). 

With the roofs done, the next stage in the revamp was to work on covering up the unsightly MDF where the corners of each wall joined which I'd talked about here . I grabbed the remnants of a Privateer Press P3 Jack Bone pot that I've had for years and liberally coated all the corners of each building.  P3 paints are very thick, like the old Citadel Foundation range and will cover anything in one coat. Mind the gaps When doing this I noticed quite a lot of gaps at the corners where I'd not assembled the buildings very well.  I decided to fill them, using  Vallejo Plastic Putty which has got a thin applicator nozzle allowing you to be quite precise.  I used an old gift card to force the putty in the  gaps then a rag to wipe it smooth.  With hindsight I should have done this before painting.  With this done it was time to paint the corners and try to blend them into the rest of the walls.  I used Vallejo Model Colour Dark Sand as the base colour and ...

As described in the first part of this series one of the main things to deal with was the roofs.  The pantiles were too dark, too plasticky and too shiny!  Luckily I had the perfect paint to hand in the form of Dulux Sumatran Melody 2, a tin of which I'd had mixed up earlier in the year when doing the bases for my Algerian War figures.   The original colours with one repainted roof First off I used a smallish brush to cut in round the edges of the roofs, trying not to get any paint on any other parts.  Then with a 1 cm decorating brush I covered all the tiled roofs.  One of the great things about using emulsions is they dry very quick.  All of the Dulux paints I've had made up have been made with a matt finish and they really do give a pleasing flat matt. This stage didn't take long to do at all. A pleasing matt basecoat The next task was to add some contrast.  I mixed up Sumatran Melody 2 with Dulux colour matched to Vallejo Iraqui Sand at appro...

As I mentioned in the weekly update for 28 May to 03 June I've made a start on the Spanish/Italian MDF buildings from  Empires at War .   I  bought the first set in 2017 intending to use them for the Italian Campaign in WW2.  I didn't get round to making them until 2019, and when I finally did I enjoyed it so bought the second set and made them soon after.  Empires at War offer sandstone or unpainted versions, I went for the sandstone to save some work.  Overall they went together well and they make nice little buildings.  I didn't do anything with them and they went into a box file waiting to be used. I always intended to make some bases for them, but it's only since I've rekindled my interest in the Italian Campaign that I got them out and had a good look.  Although these were bought as a finished option, there's still work that needs doing before I'd put them on the table.   First thought was to add a very light skim o...