Buildings:
Note on building the buildings: The method I use to make my buildings is that used by Viv on Youtube "RubbbishinRubbishout. The windows start at 15mm from the base and the top is 40mm from base. The walls are 60mm. There is a much better tutorial series on his method in "Part 1 - City Fight - how to make cheap, easy terrain" at
City Fight tutorials. His videos are easy to follow, easy to watch, and are full of good ideas and methods from someone who makes very nice terrain. With a bit of extra effort the buildings you make using this method could be very jazzed up. I'm trying to just get stuff on the table so I'm not going all "modelly" on them. I had the basic concepts but it never seemed to come together right, the videos straightened me out.
The weather has been decent so painting on the imagination Africa buildings continues. I managed to finish two larger buildings that will play the role of a hospital or barracks and I'm almost done with 5 buildings that can be smaller barracks or POW buildings. Here's a smaller building after extras were added, spackled, and then brushed with anti-skid paint (paint with sand in it).
One of my favorite tools is "The Chopper" from NWSL (NorthWest Short Line) at
NWSL site. They deal in model railroads but have a bunch of really cool tools for anyone making things in small scales. It uses a single sided razor so replacing the blade is no problem and it comes with guides for 30,60,90, and 45 degree cuts. There's some youtube videos on it and there are some in depth reviews. I would say if you're going to be building any kind of terrain or furniture (models, games, dollhouses, RR) check out their products.
The end of the barracks building. The doors look a little "gamey" to me but they serve their purpose and it's a game piece, not a model. Practice makes perfect though so the more I make the better. The paint I used was a base dark brown that I got in a quart from the local hardware store. I picked a swatch that looked good, had them mix it, and now have enough for many, many projects. I also picked up quarts of white, medium gray, and a dark green. They aren't figure paints but they are perfect for big projects like terrain and buildings. The roof is cardboard covered with a piece of old towel. I used to soak the towel in glue, squeeze out excess, and put on but sometimes it would warp the cardboard. This was just attached with Modge Podge and then primed black. A couple of primer coats were needed but not so bad and it kept its shape this time.
An interior shot of the hospital. The interiors were painted with a cream color spray paint I also picked up at the hardware store. I painted the inside first so the brush painting of the outside would cover up any overspray. I didn't spend time cleaning up the tops of the walls since they're going to be covered; I should do that in the future to make everything clean. The side room is for operations and what not.
This is the barracks interior. Pretty wide open but I figure they would put bunks in and call it a day and not give much thought to personal privacy in the Army of Lbotu.
These are the new housing units for the army, or some of their guests. The same basic style of building as but I was able to do metal roofs. The material is from a food tray that Chuck had. They cut easily with scissors and exacto blades. I took a shot at edging the roof (don't know the tech term) using basswood, I even had to think about angles! Same base painting as the others but a pint of cream paint for the exterior and Tamiya acrylic for the green was used this time. The roof was painted with Hobby Lobby "hammered nickel" which is a nice "steel" color that's not too shiny like silver. For the roof I just eyeballed and traced things. I made the peak 2cm higher than the wall, centered. Then connected the dots. When the walls were done I traced the peak onto a piece of cardboard which I used as the template to make supports out of foamboard scraps To get the roof angle I taped two pieces of cardboard along the long edge, laid it on the roof so the tape was on the inside and acted like a hinge, and then applied tape to the outside. The braces were glued inside and it's allowed to dry with blocks to help keep it at the right angle. It's good enough for miniatures, just don't build you real home extension by it.
For the interiors I went with a medium blue for some color. It was sprayed with Testors French Blue but I had an issue trying to do touch-ups. The bottle version of the paint, an enamel, was very thick and didn't cover well, it was like painting PVA. I've had this on some of their acrylics also, all new bottles, so maybe a formula change? I used to use Testors a lot in the past and never had this problem, or I did and just forgot about it? The end result is that I overpainted it using some craft paint that was close to the same shade. The doors are still being worked on but the shell of the building is complete. I was able to make 5 of these buildings so the base camp is shaping up nicely. You can see on the left that I still haven't gotten around to putting the base material on my ships. Maybe today's project?
