Affordable Homes… Mediaeval Style- Part 2

So… when we left off, we had the basic houses stuck together and made a start on the detailing. Now we’ll pick up, and start off with the floors.

Again, doing this isn’t entirely necessary, but I figure if you’re going to do the fire-pit, and have the nice painted internal walls anyway, you might as well finish it, and do a beaten earth floor; after all it’s not difficult!

First of all, I looked out black paints and some nice earthy browns (Humbrols 29, 62, 98 and 189). First, paint the floor with heavily thinned black paint, you want this to stay wet;

now open all the browns, and while the black is still wet, start splodging them all on at the same time, so you get the colours all blending into each other. Adding further thinners and swirling them about helps a bit, and you should end up with something like this

Now leave it to dry, and while it’s drying you can crack on with the roof. First of all, look out the teddy-pelt, and you’ll find it’s already been cut into three sections. These are the exact size required for the roof, trust me! The two larger sections do each side, and the slimmer strip goes over the join.

Now paint the roof sections with plenty of PVA; make sure it’s quite thick, ‘cos you don’t want it running off! (this is why it’s important to key the roof well, as previously pointed out…!)

Now add the big sections to each side, like so

And then stick the narrow strip over the apex, covering the join between the two sections of thatch

You’ll now have something like this

NOW LEAVE THESE TO DRY OVERNIGHT! Seriously, you do not want to try and attempt the next step while the glue’s still wet! That said, you probably could just leave it at that (and I’m sure some will), and just have all your battles fought in the midst of a particularly fierce gale… This will also let the painted floor dry properly.

Now, once you return to your DRY roof, you should find you have something like this; wee hairy hooses!

Before you crack on with the roof, it’s a good idea to finish the floor. You’ll need to sit the floor off of whatever surface you work on later, so won’t be able to access the inside for another 24 hours once you replace it on the walls after the next stage.

Take the roof off, and your painted floor should have dried to look a bit like this

Now, paint the floor with PVA, and dump on some brown flock.  Set it aside to dry, and just before you go onto to do the roof, tip out the excess, and you’ll have something like this

If you have gaps where the glue had run away and no flock has stuck, the earth effect you painted on earlier should disguise it adequately. You can put the roof back on now, ready for the next step.

Now, it’s time to trust the instructions and start brushing the roof thatch with PVA from a toothbrush. I admit, I was highly sceptical about this too, I just could not see it working! However, be brave, and go for it; it works, trust me!

You’ll end up with this sort of thing

And yes it looks gopping, but you can see sort of where this is going now…

Leave it for another day to dry, and you’ll end up with this

How good does that look?!

The only slight problem id your apex may have gone a bit bald where the fur has been pulled away to either side.

We’ll take a look at how to sort that out next time round, and finish off all the other little details that will just lift the house out from being just another piece of terrain to block line of sight and hinder movement, to being a beautiful piece of scenery that really looks the part.

Cheers

Iain