Building a Bohemian Village

I builtthese some years ago to go with my Austro-Prussian War armies, but they only sawthe light of day in a game in November.

Theoriginal idea for these came from some line drawings of Bohemian villages in aGerman book on the Austro-Prussian War. Nearly all of these were woodenstructures with thatched roof, and these suit my modeling and painting style.

I set outto create six buildings, but finished up with five, four farm buildings and abarn. Each was to be built on its own base, with walls, fences and gardens – anarea that could be clearly defined as a built up area. Three of the  five buildings areshown here.

For onebuilding, the two storey farm and barn in one, I recorded the constructionprogress in photos and I will describe the construction progress here:

1:Construct the basic cardboard form. This is quite rough and glued together withPVA. The approximate location of doors and windows is sketched on the surface.

2: I gluedthe cardboard form into the shaped polystyrene that will form the model’s base.

3: Textureone face of the building. I use a two part epoxy putty called EmerKit. I applythis across the surface of the model to a depth of about 2mm. I then sketch anoutline of what I am going to etch into the surface. First I mark out thewindows and remove the EmerKit from the surface of the model. The I marked outthe door and window frames. Next I textured the door and other wood surfaceswith a scalpel blade, going back to mark nail holes where boards have joined.Finally I marked out the pattern of the stone wall, using a tool to press outthe shape of the stones and then putting a few irregular dents on the surfaceof the stonework. Once this is done I leave the material to harden.

4: I thenwent around and completed the etching on all the sides. I always work on oneside in a sitting and allow it to harden before starting the next – too manytimes have I put my finger on areas just completed and had to re work them! Onwhat would become the back of the building I added the steps and the railings,made from matchsticks. I added the stone chimney.

5: The nextphase was the thatched rood. For this I covered the whole roof area with alayer of EmerKit that was around 5mm thick and then scribed the thatch effectwith a craft knife.

6: With allthe basic etching work done I went back and added shutters to some of thewindows. With Green Stuff I added door hinges and the bar on the barn door.With this the work of the building was completed and I was ready to start onthe model’s base.

7: Thefirst step with the model’s base was the adding of a rail fence, built frommatchsticks. Then went around the areas I began to cover the base with Emerkit,working on the front of the building and the stone wall areas first, beforecovering the whole base. I added a couple of details like a stack of firewoodby the back steps and a spare wagon wheel leaning against the house. Iroughened a few areas of the base that would not be covered with grass flock,where bare earth would show through.

8: I thenpainted the model, weathering it as I went. Finally I added two trees which Ihad made earlier from twisted wire and tissue paper and flocked the base.