Winter Building Number Four...

Well the days after our return from Singapore have been rather pedestrian. Partly because of some mixed weather, but more because I have been under the weather with that bloody awful cold that I brought back with me.

But I've never been one to sit around doing nothing I have launched back into the winter buildings. This is another peasant house and the basic structure again was to be wooden. A common practice was to coat the timber with clay not as a decorative feature but  as additional insulation. It wasn't like a stucco surface found in the Mediterranean countries that completely conceals the bricks, the clay was just slapped on and the outline of the wooden walls was visible, as in this image...

I also like that chunks of the clay could break off, exposing the timber beneath, like this model...

I like the idea of some walls being clay finished and some not.

I also want to get away from the rectangular shape so this building will have a small covered porch to the right of the front face, while an extension will be on the opposite face. Around the base of the building will be a narrow band of stone.

The roof will be thatched, BUT because the rectangular core is the same size as Building Number One, the roofs between the two buildings can be interchanged. 

So here is the basic build with the timber cladding in place and painted where it will be exposed, prior to the application of the 'clay'.

For the clay cladding I have used an artist modelling paste. I found that one coat didn't cover the wood enough, so a second coat was applied, using a paper towel to get the daubed effect. A thinned wash of sepia dirtied up the clay cladding.

The roof for this model will be thatched, but the material I will be using for the thatch has not arrived, so it will be a week or so before I can get started on it. All the same you can get an idea of the basic shape from  the form.

And these shots demonstrate how the roof from Winter Building Number One can be interchanged.

Also completed in this batch is an outhouse and a crane well.