On The Work Bench – Building Project No: 7 – Part 3

This week saw the main building of this diorama virtually completed.

Before the outside painting was started there was a need to complete some internal details.  Clear plastic was placed behind each window to provide the glass and an internal wall was added.  I couldn’t be certain if it would be possible to see into the building through the windows but couldn’t afford to take the chance.  Once the building was stuck down and having decided on a fixed roof there would be no opportunity to do so later.  The internal wall was given some wallpaper and a couple of pictures were placed on the wall to be visible through each window.  I had also decided that the front door would be ajar and so I also added an internal porch and flooring for appearance.

The wooden shutters were painted and fixed into place as was the chimney and the front door.  For the rounded ridge tiles I used a plastic drinking straw.  A piece of drinking straw was sandwiched between two pieces of foam board to create the chimney.

The outside painting, walls and roof, was done using a variety of oil paint colours thinned with white spirit to create washes of various dilutions.  Darker colours were used for the brick pointing and lighter colours to provide highlights as appropriate.

Before fixing the building into place it was appropriate to construct part of the groundwork, specifically the cobbled area around the building itself as this was created using another Green Suff rolling-pin.  Milliput was used instead of DAS clay on this occasion.  Time allowed for some vegetation to be added around the building, primarily to cover up the joins between the bottom of the building walls and the base as well as to add colour and authenticity.

Next up is creating the small outside barn, a tree and a few other bits and pieces as well as painting the dozen figures which will feature.

Progress pictures appear below but suffer from too much shadow and so appear rather darker than the actual model.  I will try to do better next time but photography is not one of my strengths!

TIM