Warbases Buildings for Dux

 Despite feeling like s***e all week I have managed to do a bit of wargame related stuff.  I am in the middle of painting some 15mm US Engineers for a chap up country and I have painted and roofed 4 Warbases buildings for the Dark Ages games we are playing.  The buildings are cheap, but they do come up nice with a little bit of work.  I do mean a little bit too, these were painted with Crown matchpot paints (yes, the stuff you paint your walls with at home) and roofed with bits of a towel (courtesy of Mrs Welsh Wargamer). 

Tall Hut

 The large tall hut is fairly big (4.5"long x3,5"wide x3"high) with a single door. 

Lower Hut

The lower hut is a bit narrower and lower but still pretty big (4.5"x2.5"x2.5") and also has a single door.

Small Hut

The small hut has nice wood trim which the others lack and is smaller (3.75"x2.25"x2.5").  The roof overhang is much larger on this one though, increasing the width to 3.5".  Again, it also has a single door.




Last but not least is a watchtower.  A small, 2 storey tower this comes with 2 doors and a raised walkway all around the tower, giving a better view of the dastardly Saxon raiders.  A lovely model, the only quibble I had was the lack of detail on the walkway.  Some sort of planking pattern would have been nice.  Luckily my mate Panjo has a Wood Burning Iron set, which is basically a soldering iron with various ends to burn wood and leather.  A quick practice on a scrap bit of wood and voila, some planking.  Its not brilliant, but it does the job.

All the roofs come off, so you can put figures inside while gaming.

The roofing is made out of towel, cut from an old hand towel.  Each roof is made up of 3 pieces, 2 sides and a central section.  The sides were cut larger than the roof their covered, then soaked in a watered down pva and black paint mix.  Again, cheap emulsion from B&Q was used.  Ring it out as much as you can and then place it on the roof.  I coated the roof in pva first to ensure the fit.  Do both sides so the top is level with the roof, but the sides and bottom overhang.  I squashed and squidged it about with my fingers, but I have read of people combing it.  One thing is to ensure the "grain" of the towel is going down the slope.  I also curved it round under the edge of the roof a bit.  Do the same with the center strip, which covers up the top edges nicely.  Again, I squashed it down so it blended in with the sides. Then leave it for at least 12 hours, preferably 24.

After it has dried, trim with scissors.  I leave a little bit over the edge of the roof, where it curls around and covers the mdf edge.  Then dry brush it with various shades of brown until you are happy with it.  I also gave it a bit of brown ink in patches coming down from the center ridge. 

So there you are.  4 buildings which cost £18 to buy and I spent about £4 on paint.  The towel and pva I had already.  I like them and they will see the heavy tread of Saxon raiders soon.

I am off now as I feel like crap again today.  Keep smiling folks, its not all bad.  Keep rolling those dice.