Buildings Update 2 - German Barn

I wanted some buildings for my Napoleonic games and so decided to construct a barn.  A trawl of the internet found a blog on German buildings (Yes!) with lots of pictures of buildings both preserved, in use as barns and converted to something else.  You can check out the blog here German Barns by Maggie Blanck I can only recommend it as inspirational.

I built the barn from card (using white glue) which I then covered in brick plastic card (super glued to the card).  For walls and roof I used N gauge brick wall and tiled roof sheets from Slaters Plastikard. The roof was shaped from card and covered with tiles plasticard.  I added framing from plastic rod and added doors.  The barn was based on mdf from Warbases and painted with GW Citadel paints. 

This barn is not based on one particular example, it is an amalgam of buildings to give the effect I wanted.  

I'll also mention Jim Bibbly blog and Dan Hodgson Reveille Painting who regularly post pictures of their really attractive and detailed model buildings.  Their work inspired me to give it a go!

So, here is the finished barn, next to some BBB based Austrians (on 1" x 1" bases).  

The barn probably needs some magnetic strip underneath, both to give it a bit of weight and to raise it so the ground level matches the troop bases.  It also needs a bit of grass!

Still alive, 1/300 Buildings for NE Europe - half timbered

Firstly, I am still alive.  I've been quite busy making things and gaming, never quite getting round to a blog.

So, here's some pictures of a recent project:

My friend Mark and I are recreating 16 battles from 1805 - 1815.  We need some "NE European Buildings".  A search of the Internet found lots of reference material, so having got the style of building determined, I set to work.  I also had a series of photos from central Germany taken in a village whilst at a friend's wedding - lots of reference material as well.

The houses were a simple carcase, with half timbering to be added on the top floor.  I made the overhangs quite thick, cutting very thin card strips for the timbering.  The end walls were faced with more strips pasted onto a piece of ex-greetings card.

They looked like this, with the right hand ones almost completed:

The roof took a bit of working out.  I had looked (on the internet) at 28, 15 & 10mm buildings, all of these were using model railway roof plastic in OO & N gauge.  I could not find a Z gauge roof that I thought would work, I was also on holiday in France so options for looking at roofs were limited!  After a bit of experimentation I devised a way of creating my own roof tiles in a speedy fashion.

Here is what they look like finished - roofs & chimneys added:

Here's the first one painted - it went to Mark yesterday, but I thought I'd record what it looked like....  The paint pot gives some idea of scale.  It will be "christened" ?  "blooded"? tomorrow at the OWS Aspern Essling game.

Finally, my work bench with the making mess over and the painting mess about to begin.  Table, models, paint, light, brushes and freshly brewed coffee!  Let the painting commence!  It won't look this neat from now on....