HOBBY TIPS

1. ASSEMBLE THE KIT

The standard MDF kit from Warbases comes on five lasercut sheets and has a surprising amount of fine detailing burnt into the MDF components. I quickly constructed the three part kit (ground floor, first floor and lift off roof) with PVA glue and used clamps and elastic bands to hold the parts in place while the glue dried. I found it prudent to add some internal supports to the inside of the roof apex – this was done with strips of newspaper glued in place with PVA glue.

2. BLOCKWORK

I used egg box card to add stone blocks to the ground floor (cutting individual stones from the pulp card before gluing them in place with PVA glue).

3. DOWNSTAIRS

I extended this to the whole lower floor area. Over the MDF base I used small rectangles of egg box card (bumpy side facing out) to model the individual stone blocks, taking care to build up the corners and door or window surrounds first and then infilling with more randomly shaped egg box stones. These stones were glued in place with PVA glue.

4. UPSTAIRS

The wooden upper storey was also clad with more egg box card, however this time I cut the card into vertical strips and – again – glued them in place with PVA glue. As you can see below, I then covered the whole upper floor walls using this planking technique. (I know it’ll all be covered in paint, but the writing on the card strips does have the effect of having used ‘reclaimed wood’ on the build! Ed.)

5. PLANKING

The planking strips were about 3mm – 4mm wide and – using these – I built up the wooden clad areas, taking care to add some subtle structural detailing around windows and making sure that edges or corners matched up without any gaps.

6. ZIGGER ZAGGER

The tiled roof was modelled from some packing card cut into saw-toothed strips with a scalpel and glued with PVA. To get consistency I produced a zig-zag master from some spare plastic card and used this to first mark and then cut the diamond edged tiles into strips. Using thin card I glued the strips in place with PVA overlapping the edges and then cut back to the final shape once the glue had fully set. When gluing the tiles in place, I tried to add some variety or imperfections to the diamond pattern as I think this looks more natural.

7. DETAILING

I now concentrated on adding fine detail to the exterior of the model. I used DAS modelling clay and acrylic medium to add further texture to the stonework, taking particular care to ensure that the corner stones were blended together. The wooden clad upper floor was painted with a watered-down mix of PVA and acrylic medium to strengthen the exposed edges of the egg box card and the tiled roof was painted with a mix of readymixed filler, PVA glue and fine sand to give the roof tiles a more natural finish.

8. PAINTING

The model was glued on to a piece of 3mm thick plastic card with

DAS modelling clay and sieved sand groundwork applied over PVA glue. All three pieces were painted in the same technique

– I painted the base colour first, and then highlighted individual bits with either lighter or darker colour. Once this was fully dry, I drybrushed the model with some complimentary colours and finally ‘washed’ the whole model with a mix of washes both shop bought and home-made.

9. FINAL TOUCHES & VARNISH

Small details were picked out with a fine brush and weathering was done by applying a green tint to the lower wall edges and picking out individual small stones on the base with grey paint (mixed and highlighted with more white. After varnishing the lower stone walls and wooden cladding with

Galleria matt varnish (note; the roof was not varnished as I had noticed that tiled roofs of this style have a slight glossy or mica finish) I added various static grass and tufts to the base. These were glued in place with either superglue or PVA glue.