Redvers and Son Get Into Bushido

Way back when I started this project, I bought some MDF kits, one of which was a farmer’s house. I built all the kits quickly but then got distracted with all the other terrain stuff and some of them languished. But, time to address this.

With terrain, I’m a believer in making it look decent, to provide the immersion, but you don’t need to spend hours on it. After all, the models are the main draw. With this in mind, I set about painting the farmer’s house.

After sealing the MDF, it all looked a bit boxy and needed something adding to it. Earlier in the project, I thatched some rice storage huts, so decided to do the same here. The brush I had used for the previous thatch wasn’t big enough so a trip to the hardware store yielded a coconut fibre brush, which should stick better than the plastic brush I had been using. After a lot of pva, I managed to glue the fibres to the roof. Not the neatest job, but it works.

Looking at reference photos, many thatched buildings had wooden beams in place across the thatch to keep things in place. So using the left over MDF sprue, I cut some to size and glued these in place. I also picked up an MDF sumo ring at Salute and it had some interesting off cuts which I was able to use as the ridge line of the roof. I trimmed the thatch and then gave everything a prime with a reddish brown.

I simply dry brushed the thatch with light brown and then Iraqi sand.

For the wood, I dug out some cheap brown acrylic. This paint tends to streak which is fine when painting wood as it can create a grain effect. But it did take several coats.

The plaster at the top I picked out firstly with gesso, to provide a little bit of texture and then off white.

Finally, I dry brushed the wood with light brown and gave everything a coat of varnish.