Dovecote tutorial

Here's the third OSHIRO tutorial and it's of a little building base for the dovecote released recently. The idea behind it is to have something small but interesting enough to have on the battlefield.

First off is the selection of the parts. I generally have a good idea of what I want for building bases before starting them but many people find it useful to sketch a layout first, which does allow for accurate placement and arrangement of buildings on bases if storage is going to be tight.

Medieval ranges

As we can see here, I've chosen the dovecote (ME09), some small window shutters (MEA06) and a medium outhouse (ME04). The above link is where these can be obtained.

The outhouse has had one of it's side walls removed and a slight angle sanded onto it. This is to represent the quite often haphazard way of construction in the medieval period.

The base itself is a simple rectangle of 3mm mdf with the corners rounded off and the edges given a quick chamfer.

As can be seen in these next two photos, I've blended in the outhouse to the dovecote using both balsa wood and ready mixed wall filler.

These were applied after both buildings were stuck to the base with superglue. Two part epoxy can also be used for attaching huildings to bases but I only tend to use that for bigger buildings.

To give the impression that the outhouse is a later addition, I left the stone wall and panels of the dovecote visible and also only added a small section of balsa to the wall to give an impression of a beam supporting the roof.

Examples of later additions to buildings can be seen all over the country; windows being filled in, left over roof trusses embedded in brick and timber work etc, the list goes on. Next time you're out near some older buildings, have a look for some of these telltale features.

Whilst these elements were drying, I gave the base a coat of my usual ground mix; which is basically acrylic caulk mixed together with fine sand, then applied with a small spatula.

The spatula is also used to to give a slightly rough texture to the ground surface, this takes a bit of practise as the spreading marks left by the initial application need to be removed, but of course using the spatula for this can create more...

After the above have dried, it's onto the painting. The stages in the Japanese tutorial are basically the same for the timber and walls panels in this project.

Starting off with a dark brown spray (now I use Colourforge Hyrax brown), followed by a mid brown overspray (Colourforge Trench brown) the whole model is drybrushed with craft paints; an ochre first then followed by a light tan.

The drybrushing isn't even as it helps to give a more natural look.

Once the drybrushing is complete it's onto the panels and stone work. The panels are done in the same way as for the Japanese building tutorial posted in January; basically building up three layers of tan (Foundry Base Sand in this instance), with each successive layer slightly smaller than the last to help create some shadow.

The stone work is quite simple. There's a base coat of a medium grey followed by around five different shades and tones of grey; picking out a few stone blocks for each colour.

When this was done, the whole lot was given a light wash with GW earth ink which was quickly wiped off with my finger. When dry a very light grey was drybrushed over the stones to pick out some of the details.

The groudwork was also drybrushed after being given a base coat of a grey/brown. The three colours are standard ones I use for groundwork and are Valspar tester pots from B&Q (UK diy shop). They are basically lighter and slightly warmer tones of the basecoat.

The roof was painted to represent terracotta or clay tiles; which were quite common for the period.

A general dull orange was used for a basecoat and various tiles were picked out in varying shades. I usually go for five or six colours, these being a dark brown, a deep red, a light tan, a brighter shade of the basecoat, a purple and an almost yellow. There might seem a large contrast but this will dissapear with the following stages.

A wash of GW earth ink is applied to the roof but I tend to do one panel or area at a time. This allows for a greater degree of control with regard to the amount and placement of ink. Again, like the stone work, this is wiped off with my finger (a tissue or towel is good for this of course but I prefer the slighty rubbery texture of a finger... ooer).

When dry, a light drybrush of a tan/orange colour is applied over the whole roof. I usually use craft paints for this as with larger roofs, expensive pots of paint can get used quickly.

The growies were planted in my usual way, which will be covered in more detail in the Japanese building base tutorial coming soon. Suffice to say that a libreal spread of static grass is glued down with thinned wood glue and then some coarser and darker flock is added to a few areas to break up the monotony of the green. The final touch are a few yellow 'flowers' here and there.

Everything has been given a good coat of spray varnish. I tend to use Windsor and Newton Galleria Matt varnish; brush on for figures and spray for buildings. With the sun being out it helps it to dry relatively quickly.

That's it for this particular tutorial. I hope you enjoyed it and that it has proved to be of some use. I will be doing more tutorials and next up will be the Japanese village base. Watch this space...

cheers

James

OSHIROmodels

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