I just finished the construction of some of the new buildings to go with the barn I built earlier. These two buildings will go together to make a farm complex. It will also feature a gated wall to go around them which will come later.
As mentioned previously, the barn was my first attempt after a long hiatus of building terrain houses. For my next piece I decided to go all out and do a really detailed (inside and out) Manor House and shed for Normandy and Belgium. The barn was a test and I learned a lot of things I would put to good use (or avoid) for the next piece.
I started work on both buildings at the same time (I often do this to keep my interest going). The main focus was the Main Farm Manor House which I intended to be rather large. The second building was to be an 'L' shaped shed with garage. The idea was to recreate this terrain piece from Sentry Models range of 20mm buildings, but in 28mm and more detailed:
Sentry Models Building
I also wanted to have lift off roofs which would be built with real framing techniques (I consulted my Brother in Law who does framing for this) as well as detailed floors and interiors.
The original roof of the barn in my previous post worked, but isn't done with real framing, so it will have to be rebuilt. This meant I was learning to do this new roof from scratch.
The construction has taken several weeks. The original plan was that each floor would be removable as a whole instead of just lift out floors, but they didn't seat well with the sides of the manor house with the chimneys. Other than that, everything went as planned and even the roof came out just like I wanted. The interior has yet to be done and there are some details to finish on the manor house (such as the rear stone cornices), but it is pretty much ready to paint.
I also came upon a good toybox find from my son's collection of cars. This die cast 1930s car missing a tire would turn out to be the perfect scale for 28mm gaming as well as the right period. I intend to paint it and use it for battlefield clutter. I am undecided if I want to paint it rusted and abandoned or new and just missing a tire (perfect for the garage of the shed).
Hope you enjoy!
Front view of house. The shutters are the louvered kind common to houses from the period. They are made with really small scale plastic sheet siding (N scale I believe) from Evergreen. I cut out a section and then added edges of basswood strips. Simple and effective.
Rear view of house. The windows aren't as fancy as the front and there is a small side outbuilding with a peaked roof.
Roof detail. I built the ends of the roof with foam core. Then I built a support beam between them and added supports connecting to the main roof beam to give the roof its peak. Across all of these I added the wooden slats to attach the roof sheets to. This is how a real roof is built, though mine probably has less supports and doesn't conform to housing regulations!
Shed with tin roof (rusted).
Rear of shed.
Shed interior detail.
Shed roof. Slightly more complicated than the other roof, but same concept. Both have a rim which slots perfectly into the building so they stay on when in use, yet still come off easily enough to allow models to be placed inside.
The toybox find. Josh won't miss it since it was missing a wheel anyway (on the other side). Besides, he's much more into trains, his bus, and his trucks...
Next I have to build the interior walls and rooms and paint the whole thing. The shed is ready to go and will get a nice rusted roof treatment.
