A Half-Timbered Coaching Inn
After humming and hawing for a while, I decided to participate in the Lead Adventurers' "Build Something" contest.
The Contest
The Rules
(Quoted directly from the contest page)
Presenting the inaugural 'Build Something' Contest.
The subject for this first contest will be: Transportation
It is a deliberately open category covering just about any type of vehicle from train to submarine to airship. Additionally any buildings connected to transportation, such as a train station, dockside, hangar, Stargate etc are acceptable. In theory you could even submit a road, river or bridge. This should allow almost everyone to come up with an entry regardless of their own specific interests.
Members can post WIP photos if they like. The advantage of WIPs means they can be used for future reference and would allow people to see how the item was constructed. Each entrant should start a WIP thread for their own submission (WIPS only please, no completed items until after the contest has ended). Posting such a thread is however NOT compulsory.
The idea is for scratch-building to form the major part of an entry. If kits, pre-made resin/metal/plastic/etc parts are used they should ideally form only a minor contribution.
I do not wish to make the contest too restrictive for those taking part (or myself running it), so would suggest a modicum of common sense prevails. Voters will (hopefully) decide whether the amount of scratch-building is sufficient. The posting of a WIP thread for an entry is likely to aid voters choice.
All construction & painting should take place during the contest, no previously built/started items please. The idea of the contest is to give you an incentive to build something you have just not got around to doing previously.
For final entries you can submit up to 3 photos:
-A single photo of the finished item (Minimum entry requirement)
-Another that can be a single or composite photo (of multiple smaller photos) of the finished item.
-One photo of the unpainted entry.
The photos may include a few miniatures/vehicle to indicate size/use/practicality of the item only.
The maximum size of each photo is limited to 800x800 pixels.
The closing date for entries is 2359 hrs GMT on 6 December.
My Inspiration
I've got a few old White Dwarf magazines lying around, teasing me with terrain features. WD 25 has the plans for a coaching inn (designed and built by Rob Hooper) in it- perfect!
The First Steps
The first thing to do was to copy the plans onto some 4mm MDF left over from some work I did on my house. I decided to make the courtyard a fair bit larger than the one shown in the article, as I felt it to be too small.Once marked out, the pieces were cut out and the edges were gently sanded to remove the burr from cutting- I used a Stanley knife to cut the MDF.
Coaching Inn, All Parts
Coaching Inn, Farm Parts
Coaching Inn, Stable Parts
The Major Parts Assembled
Well, once all the parts had been cut out, I could begin assembly after cutting out the doors and windows. After assembling the main parts and looking at the overall picture, I decided to add wall around the outside of the bases all the way around- that would turn the farm into a discrete module. It also allows me to add things like a kitchen yard for fresh vegetables, as well as a chicken coop and a pigsty.
All the various pieces of MDF were simply glued on with wood glue.
Cost so far:
Total cost so far: £0.00
Coaching Inn, Assembled Complete Farm
The Farm
Coaching Inn, Farm Side
Coaching Inn, Farm Front
Coaching Inn, Farm Side
Coaching Inn, Farm Back
The Stable
Coaching Inn, Stable Side
Coaching Inn, Front Side
Coaching Inn, Stable Side
Stoning and Roofing
I deviated from the original idea of half-timbered ground floor buildings, deciding to go with stone walls for the main buildings instead. Of course, since I was on a roll with stone walls, the walls of the stable had to be stone too. The two walls of the forge/workshop needed to be done too- the heat of the forge won't do wooden beams any good. I'd bought several sheets of Wills 'OO' Scenic Series stone walls a while back- perfect!
I used three sheets of Coarse Stone for the buildings. Each sheet was cut in half (the perfect height for the ground floor), and each window was cut out.
Two sheets of Random Stone provided walls and the floor for the forge/workshop area.
The roofs are made from some thick cardboard I had laying around (OK, it's backing from some of SWMBO1's fabric).
The car is a Siku 1:55 model, and the two figures are 28mm Bolt Action Miniatures Late War Germans, just to give an idea of scale.
The following five pictures show the roofs and stone cladding in place.
Cost so far:
5 sheets of Wills stone sheeting @ £0.56 each
Total cost so far: £2.80
Coaching Inn, Stoned and Roofed
Coaching Inn, Stoned and Roofed
Coaching Inn, Stoned and Roofed
Coaching Inn, Stoned and Roofed
Coaching Inn, Stoned and Roofed
Wooden Beams
So, after a day's delay caused by lack of foresight (I ran out of coffee-stirrers and had to re-stock), I managed to finish the wooden beams on the upper floors and the "joining bit" between the two parts of the farm house, as well as the door jambs and the supports for the forge roof, chicken coop and pigsty.
While doing this, I decided to leave the roofs off the pigsty and chicken coop (they'll probably end up being corrugated iron), and added some left-over stonework as steps in front of the various house-doors.
Cost so far:
5 sheets of Wills stone sheeting @ £0.56 each
Total cost so far: £2.80
Coaching Inn, Beams Added
Coaching Inn, Beams Added
Coaching Inn, Beams Added
Coaching Inn, Beams Added
Coaching Inn, Beams Added, Detail
A detail shot, showing the style of beams, the stone cladding on the ground floor, and the stone cladding used as a step in front of the doorways.
I miscalculated the size of the windows a little, and will have to re-cut some of the walls a little to take that into account.
Coaching Inn, Forge Sans Roof
A detail shot, showing the beams, the random stone cladding on the two walls and the floor. I still need to build the actual forge itself.
Painting...Part 1
Proving how "alive" this project is, I decided to give it a lick of paint before doing the roof tiles, etc (which would, of course, give me the opportunity to think about what to do about the chicken-coop and pigsty roofs), as members of the forum pointed out that my original choice (corrugated iron) limited the period usability, and advised me to use thatch, shingles or planks.
The first thing I did was pop out to my garage and look at what paints I have available. A can of "Natural Calico" jumped out as the obvious choice for the white-washed walls- it's neither too starkly white, not too yellow.
I applied two layers of the paint, thinned with water to a milky consistency, to all the walls above the stone-work.
The stone-work got a layer of dark grey, followed by a dry-brush with a lightened mix of the grey to bring out the testure.
I then painted the wooden beams with a lovely dark brown (the highlight drybrush still needs a repeat, as I didn't lighten it enough in these photos).
Coaching Inn, Beams Painted
Coaching Inn, Beams Painted
Coaching Inn, Beams Painted (note that my shift-supervisor is making an inspection to check that the buildings are safe)
Coaching Inn, Beams Painted
Of course, I plan to weather the walls a little (that will only be after doing all the groundwork, so it can all blend together). The next step will be adding the roof tiles, and maybe the roofs for the chicken-coop and pigsty, along with mesh to keep the hens and eggs safe.
Painting...Part 2 (still not completed, so within competition bounds for the last pictures)
After a couple of nights of tedious, mind-numbing "tile-cutting", the roofs were all tiled. Each row of tiles is a strip of cereal box cardboard, with little slices cut into it to make the individual tiles. The ridge at the top was another strip of card, folded over. This was then all painted in various shades of browns.
Going with the suggestions of forum members, I went with a planked pigsty roof, and a thatched chicken-coop. The pigsty was roofed with coffee-stirrers (painted with various browns).The chicken-coop got paint-brush bristle thatch.
The ground-work got a dark brown base-coat, and the various obvious paths got a slightly lighter shade brushed on.
Cost so far:
5 sheets of Wills stone sheeting @ £0.56 each
2 paint-brushes @ £0.99 the pair
3 pots of sample paint @ £1.49 each
Total cost so far: £8.26
Coaching Inn, Mostly Painted
Coaching Inn, Mostly Painted
Coaching Inn, Mostly Painted
Coaching Inn, Beams Painted
The last steps will be to add some grass, a tree (or maybe two), the doors and windows I've so far neglected to do, some gates and the sign. Time permitting, I'll also try to weather the white walls a little- they look a little too pristine.
Finishing the Inn
The last things I needed to do were adding the static grass and the two trees (bare for that "wintery" look), and adding the windows and doors.
The static grass was part of a large bottle that I bought about six years ago - no end in sight yet! - and the trees are twigs from my back garden. The doors and windows are bits from a texture site, suitably adjusted to fit, printed and glued onto card (from a cereal box), cut and fitted into the openings.
Cost so far:
5 sheets of Wills stone sheeting @ £0.56 each
2 paint-brushes @ £0.99 the pair
3 pots of sample paint @ £1.49 each
Total cost so far: £8.26
Coaching Inn, Finished
Coaching Inn, Finished
Coaching Inn, Finished
Coaching Inn, Finished
Below are a couple of detail shots- I promise I'll add more!
Coaching Inn, Moody Overhead View
Coaching Inn, Moody Overhead View
Coaching Inn, Photo-recon View
Coaching Inn, Photo-recon View
Coaching Inn, Photo-recon View
Coaching Inn, Strafing-run View
The Completed Entry
Phew! I ended up taking my pictures at 23:25. Cropping and a little work to make the collage in picture 2 and attaching and sending them to the gentleman running the competition took me to 23:54- literally five minutes to spare!
Total Cost:
5 sheets of Wills stone sheeting @ £0.56 each
2 paint-brushes @ £0.99 the pair
3 pots of sample paint @ £1.49 each
Total cost: £8.26
Coaching Inn, Completed Entry
Coaching Inn, Collage
Coaching Inn, Unpainted, In Construction
There you have it- a coaching inn, suitable for most periods from the 1600s onwards. Made over the period of a couple of weeks, using mostly "in stock" and leftover items. It certainly didn't tax my skills (although, to be honest, it is my first completed wargames model since my TIA last year).