SCRATCH BUILD

Build a German Barn.

Imake no secret of the fact that I have never liked MDF wargame buildings: I find them too flat, too one dimensional and lacking in surface texture. However I have also seen some of the huge improvements in MDF kit construction and the ease of which these simple buildings can be put together to produce quick and practical wargame terrain for the table top.

In this article I will show you how I took a simple 28mm MDF German Farmhouse from Warbases (warbases.co.uk) and added detailing from egg box card and plain, thin card to produce this unique model. Initial construction followed the on-line directions from Warbase and soon I had a very attractive centre piece, but I really wanted more...

Using egg box card I added stone blocks to the ground floor and wooden cladding to the first storey, then using simple scrap packing card I added the ‘fish tail’ or ‘diamond’ shaped roof tiles so common on German and Prussian barns and houses. Unlike some of my earlier tutorials I decided to mount the farmhouse on a diorama display base which was made from some spare 3mm thick plastic card (exadvertising sign picked up for free) which was further detailed and textured with DAS modelling clay and sieved sand.

With this model I attempted to replicate a worn and rather run down farmhouse and took inspiration from images I found on the internet. As for size, the base MDF building has a footprint of 215mm x 105mm and is 180mm tall. The finished model has a fair bit of weathering on the roof surfaces but I have to say that I like the effect and think it looks very realistic and nothing like a shop bought MDF kit. Hopefully the article will inspire others to try and add detail to their MDF kits.