Andrew's resurrected 1/72 Armourfast Farmhouse....

[adt70hk]

Evening all

So I picked this out of a box it's been in for five years. The build was originally started on 11th Jan 2016.......

Like all Armourfast kits it's aimed at wargamers. Construction was pretty simples and it definitely has the look of the old Matchbox two-tone plastic!

You'll see I've braced the walls internally. I know part of the reason was to give a better place for the floor to sit but I also think it was to brace the walls too.

The external walls were a bit boring and so I labouriously painted them with poly glue and scrubbed at the softened surface with a wire brush, which I sanded down in places where it was too rough.

I used string to create the base for a vine thingy on one wall and also made sure it had a slightly battered look by breaking window frames and leaving doors and shutters off the hinges....it then had a primer coat of rattle can grey primer.

I had a fairly limited paint stock at the time as I was still getting back into the hobby, so I started to give it a coat of Tamiya XF68 Nato Brown for the tiles but it was too brown for the terracotta-ish colour I was looking for, so after doing less than a quarter of it, it's sat in the box for five years except when it's comes out for our battles.....

I had to borrow pictures of the box art and sprue as I didn't take any and this is basically were it got to aside from the partially started roof.

I started back on it after I had a minor eureka moment last weekend and will post an update later

ATB.

Andrew

 

[Jim R]

Hi Andrew
Looks rather good. I don't think a straight out of the box build would look very good however with your 'extras' it is coming on well. I like the vine thingy.
Jim

 

[JR]

Should be fun Andrew painting that vine, will look good when completed.Will follow please.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Texture looks good Andrew, looking forward to the paint

 

[adt70hk]

Hi Andrew
Looks rather good. I don't think a straight out of the box build would look very good however with your 'extras' it is coming on well. I like the vine thingy.
Jim

Should be fun Andrew painting that vine, will look good when completed.Will follow please.

Texture looks good Andrew, looking forward to the paint

Thanks guys. I'll try not to let you down.

ATB

Andrew

 

[adt70hk]

Me again!

Ok, so I still don't know what got me to thinking about a solution to this issue but as I said, about a week or so ago I had a minor epiphany and was also reminded of technique someone on another forum demonstrated to me.

First though I had to finish the roof and give the house a coat of black paint - nothing fancy, just a rattle can.

So this is how far I have go to date.....

Up next my mini-eureka moment!

ATB

Andrew

 

[adt70hk]

So onto the mini-eureka moment.....I'm still not sure what order the thoughts came to me and what made me think about the farmhouse but I think it went something like this.....

It occurred to me that terracotta roofs were almost certainly not a nice uniform colour except when first laid.

Furthermore, back when this would have theoretically been built - remember we're talking about a WW2 battlefield and a farmhouse that has been there for many years before that - manufacturing standards were not as industrialised and uniform as they are now. This means they were highly unlikely to have been completely uniform to start with. I know this from own experience, as the house we live and the one before that are both Victorian terraces and the differences in bricks is amazing!

A quick search of the internet proved me right. It was interesting to see how dark some of them were, possibly even a bit darker than the Tamiya base coat.





So how to go from the nice uniform brown roof to something approaching the above????

One of Martin Kovac's (aka Night Shift) recent builds where he did a wall came to mind and whilst a roof is very obviously not a wall, the principle is the same..... what follows is a some screen grabs from the appropriate places in the video.

After weathering, the finished wall.....





A quick review of my DIY paint swatches (below) revealed I should have enough paints of the right colour to pull it off!!! Whether or not I have the skill is another matter.

This is going to be one of those tasks that lends itself to taking it small stages as when I have a spare half hour or so.....trying to do it one go will be soul destroying..

Why, you may ask???

....because by my calculation there are almost exactly 1360 roof tiles.....

ACW welcome as usual.....as well as advice on how not to go mad doing them all!!

ATB

Andrew

 

[Mini Me]

Should be fun Andrew painting that vine, will look good when completed. Will follow please.

That is actually a tree JR, The technique of training them to grow that way is called Espalier. It is a very old practice and is popular in the Mediterranean countries. I saw a lot of these type of trees in Spain and Italy. Very artful and takes years of pruning and training. Is my green thumb showing? Rick H.

 

[Ian M]

Have been binging on the night shift videos for a few days. That guy is a wizard with the foam board!

Your additions to the original kit building are improving it a lot. I would call the tree a Fan rather than an Espalier but that's just knit picking, lol

 

[adt70hk]

That is actually a tree JR, The technique of training them to grow that way is called Espalier. It is a very old practice and is popular in the Mediterranean countries. I saw a lot of these type of trees in Spain and Italy. Very artful and takes years of pruning and training. Is my green thumb showing? Rick H.

Rick

Is that what I've done ??? I really was just looking for a vine like thing growing up the wall, or maybe a very old ivy.

Well have to look it up to see what they look like.

Thanks for stopping by.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[Ian M]

Is that what I've done ??? I really was just looking for a vine like thing growing up the wall, or maybe a very old ivy.

And it could well be. Lots of leaves and jobs a good 'un. If you want a blast of colour you could go for a woodbine (boston Ivy). It gets the most amazing colour foliage and is very good at hiding buildings!

 

[adt70hk]

And it could well be. Lots of leaves and jobs a good 'un. If you want a blast of colour you could go for a woodbine (boston Ivy). It gets the most amazing colour foliage and is very good at hiding buildings!

Thanks for joining the party Ian. I love Night Shift and often have his vids playing as I model. Have you seen the building he's doing for Jagdpanther dio? Simply outstanding!!

Like the idea woodbine, had a quick look and as you say it has lots of great colours. Wil try and work out how to do it.

ATB

Andrew

 

[spanner570]

All looking good Andrew.

A couple of pointers.

Hang loose and don't try and copy exactly, just follow what I presume are his basic rules - And then free flow....

Don't be worried about letting one colour run into the next.

Relax! It's only a roof.


Your lady Chinese Roofer.

Ty Ling

 

[Jim R]

Hi Andrew
I reckon you're onto something with the multicoloured tiles and bricks of long ago. Look forward to seeing your efforts.
Jim

 

[Ian M]

party Ian. I love Night Shift and often have his vids playing as I model. Have you seen the building he's doing for Jagdpanther dio? Simply outstanding!!

That jagdpanther dio he's doing/done is well nice. What he gets out of those blocks of foam is wizardry !

I don't know if they would work in the scale you are doing but the seeds from a silver birch has very similar form to ivy leafs.

 

[adt70hk]

All looking good Andrew.

A couple of pointers.

Hang loose and don't try and copy anything, just follow his basic rules and free flow....

Don't be worried about letting one colour run into the next.

Relax! It's only a roof.


Your lady Chinese Roofer.

Ty Ling

Miss/Ms/Mrs Ling (sorry I don't know your marital status so am covering all bases).

Thank you for your wise words of wisdom. They shall be in the forefront of my mind as I tackle the 1360 tiles...it seemed such a good idea at the time!

Ever yours

Andrew, Ty Ling apprentice!


In all seriousness Ron, good to have someone of your calibre aboard! And you make a very good point about not being too precise.

Hi Andrew
I reckon you're onto something with the multicoloured tiles and bricks of long ago. Look forward to seeing your efforts.
Jim

Thanks Jim. I hope I can pull it off.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[adt70hk]

That jagdpanther dio he's doing/done is well nice. What he gets out of those blocks of foam is wizardry !

I don't know if they would work in the scale you are doing but the seeds from a silver birch has very similar form to ivy leafs.

Indeed it by is. I've probably been watching him for about three years and watching how he's come on had been brilliant.

He comes across as a genuinely humble individual and doesn't claim to know individual.

I'll have a look at birch seeds. Thanks for the tip.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[eddiesolo]

Well, what a transformation Andrew, lovely work on the brickwork. I think this is coming along rather nicely, should look outstanding when finished. Love the vine/string approach, once painted, it will add detail to the wall.

 

[adt70hk]

Well, what a transformation Andrew, lovely work on the brickwork. I think this is coming along rather nicely, should look outstanding when finished. Love the vine/string approach, once painted, it will add detail to the wall.

Thanks Si, much appreciated.

I started it so long that I can't remember what made me think of string. PVA obviously didn't cut the mustard when it came to attaching it to the wall but the superglue worked surprisingly well.

Thanks for stopping by.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[spanner570]

Andrew,to my eternal shame I completely missed your mention of roughing up the walls. The effect is excellent.

Very well done that man!