Austrian and Bohemian Villages and Farms

[DHautpol]

I came across an interesting series of postings on Thomas Brandsetter's blog "THE RAFT – Wargames Adventures" (https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com) and discovered that the style of farming buildings in Bohemia was rather different to that in Silesia and Saxony.  In these regions the Low German Farmhouse was the prevalent style; more of which on another occasion.

I found Thomas' blog articles very interesting to the extent that I downloaded the postings and printed them out to make myself a handy reference booklet.  Using the information in Chapter 3 "Austrian Villages" and Chapter 4 "Fences", I set about constructing some suitable village buildings for my collection.  These will work very well for Chotusitz village and Krechor village (Kolin).



The carcasses of the buildings were made from blue Styrofoam.  The door recesses, windows and archways, giving the impression of a "Trettn" (a covered walkway), were carved out with a very sharp scalpel blade.
The doors were made from thin card and I added horizontal backers and diagonals to the barn doors.  The doors were painted with GW Mournfang Brown and then stripes of XV-88 to simulate the planking.  On the barn doors I painted a very thin stripe of Rhinox Hide down the middle to suggest a small gap where the doors met.

I decided that the roofs should be thatched and covered the roofs with corrugated card to bulk them up, covering and strengthening the joins with papier-mäché strips.  I added chimneys from balsa wood over the living areas and they were ready for thatching.  The thatch, itself, is made using a thin layer of DAS modelling clay.  Tony Harwood in his book Wargames Terrain & Buildings – The Napoleonic Wars recommends applying a thin coat of PVA glue before sticking down the DAS to help prevent any shrinkage and I must say that I had no issues in this respect.  The thatch effect was achieved by scoring lightly with a craft knife.  As the DAS layer is quite thin it soon starts to dry out, so it's best to work on small areas at a time before moving on.  Whilst the DAS dries quite quickly, I left the finished roofs to dry overnight to be on the safe side.

The buildings were painted with GW Rakarth Flesh and dry-brushed with Corax White and Scar White. The windows were filled with The Fang grey.  The thatches were washed with Agrax Earthshade and then successively dry-brushed with Karak Stone, Morghast Bone and Wraithbone.

For the fences, I wanted something resembling untidy picket/palisade style fences.  I looked online but the model railway ones were all far too neat and tidy; so I decided to scratchbuild some.  This was not a difficult task, but it was tedious.  I made a jig from a piece of balsa wood and marked out the rails about 5mm apart.  Using 0.5mm x 0.75mm polystyrene strips, the rails were secured in place with pins and then the palings were added.  The length of the rails varied from model to model but the palings (all individually cut) were about 10mm and secured using PVA glue.  Once each length was finished and dry, I brushed it on both sides with liquid polystyrene cement to ensure nothing fell off.



When the fences were complete, the buildings were firmly glued down on pieces of 1.5mm Plastic Card.  I superglued fenceposts made of 1mm x 1mm plastic strip to the building walls and inserted corner posts to mark out the yards.  I then superglued the fence lengths to the posts, having measured and trimmed them to size.  When making the fences, I had replaced a few of the palings with fenceposts to mark out where the gates would be.
The fencing was painted with GW Administratum Grey and then dry-brushed with Rakarth Flesh, Morghast Bone, Ushabti Bone and Corax White to simulate old wood.

The yards were textured with Mod-Podge and the surrounding base edges with Vallejo Diorama FX Ground Texture.  The yards were painted with my usual bare earth colour scheme of Farrow & Ball London Clay, dry-brushed with GW Zandri Dust and Ushabti Bone.  The base edges were painted with Dulux Tarragon Glory 2, and dry-brushed with Dulux Tarragon Glory 4 (or substitute).  Finally, I added a few shrubs and bushes from Green Stuff.

[kipt]

Very Nice!

[Steve J]

Excellent work and loved to see how you went about making these !

[Big Insect]

Most impressive - makes me want to dust down my TYW armies.

[fred.]

Excellent work, these are very nice indeed!

And a really great tutorial too - very impressive to see the starting point and the end point.  Is the texture of the white washed walls just from the blue foam?

[Chris Pringle]

   Lovely job!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Super work

[Techno 3]

Terrific job !

[Matt J]

Excellent work on those!

Thanks for the tutorial

[paulr]

         

Really great job of scratch building, and a really useful tutorial

When you posted the earlier very impressive pictures of your troops occupying the village I assumed that the buildings were from a terrain company

[DecemDave]

    Wot they said.

Future business opportunity? 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Looking great

[DHautpol]

Excellent work, these are very nice indeed!

And a really great tutorial too - very impressive to see the starting point and the end point.  Is the texture of the white washed walls just from the blue foam?

It's Basically the blue foam with a thin wash of Tetrion over it.  As the surface can be a bit fragile to handling, I covered it with a coat of W&N Galleria Matt varnish to seal it.

I think that brushing on thinned PVA glue might give a tougher surface than the Tetrion

[DHautpol]

Thank for the comments.

They were very satisfying to make; I think that it must have been the feel of carving into the foam.

I was also pleased with the effect of the DAS on the roofs and how easily it went on.

[Nick the Lemming]

Lovely job!