Painting Buildings

[mudcow304]

Has anyone seen any tips/guides on painting the MDF buildings from the Rorkes Drift set?

[Smokeouse]

Hi there,

I painted the Rorke's Drift buildings (and the rest of the terrain) for Warlord, I'll write up a painting guide in the next couple of days (once Christmas is well out of the way ) giving a break down of the colours I used, I'll also do a guide on how I modeled the teddy bear fur to look like a thatch roof (and not just a bad hair day).

Regards

Alan Mander

[steve]

Thats great news will the guide be posted on this website.

steve

[mudcow304]

That sounds great smokehouse. I've dabbled in teddy bear fur before when making Norse buildings. I was pleasantly suprised by what can be achieved with some PVA and water. The colour guide sounds really good and sounds like it'll be available just as I've finished the miniatures, 8 zulus down, 100 to go . . . . . .

[Smokeouse]

Hi Steve,

Yeah I'll post it in this thread

[Smokeouse]

Hi all,

Here's the guide for the buildings as promised. I hope you find this helpful, feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them

First of all preparation:
1) might sound obvious but push out all the removable sections in the walls (so that they don't get stuck when you undercoat the buildings), however, leave the roof hole sections in place.
2) Next coat the teddy bear fur on the roof sections with a generous covering of PVA and water in a 70/30 mix. you need to start at the top of the roof and use downward strokes.
3) Once the fur is coated use a blunt knife or fork to make 1 inch long drag strokes across the whole roof, repeating in rows. The aim is to make the fur look like thatch (see pic 1)
pic 1

4) Once the roof sections were dry (they will be nice and firm to the touch- ooeer missus ) the bottom edges were trimmed to give a nice straight line across the bottom of the roof- you need to make sure that it over hangs the the walls slightly so don't get too excited with the scissors.
5) The entire buildings was undercoated along with all the pop out sections- I used Army Painter Black Spray- be prepared to use quite a bit, due to the MDF being porous it may take a couple of coats to get a good even coverage.
6) Once the undercoat is dry, all the pop out sections were replaced.

Painting the roofs:
1) Roofs were painted first base coat was GW's Scorched Brown with a little black added to it (90/10 mix), make sure the fur gets a really good covering.
2) Once the basecoat was dry, a heavy drybrush of GW's Vomit brown was applied.
3) This was followed with a drybrush of GW's Bubonic Brown, then a lighter drybrush of GW's Desert Yellow (I had to do 2 coats at this stage of the desert yellow)
4) A final drybrush of Vallejo Buff was then applied.

Painting the whitewash on the buildings:
1) All the wall sections (inside and out) were given a basecoat of Scorched Brown (avoiding the exposed brickwork).
2) The walls were then given a watered down coat of GW's Khemri brown (80/20). You may need to do a couple of coats as the porous nature of the MDF sucks the paint in. All the chips/bullet holes were only given 1 coat of the Khemri Brown (so that the scorched brown came through).
3) GW's Dheneb stone was then heavily stippled onto the walls.
4) Finally a lighter stippling of white was applied, you can build this up until you are happy with the result. The final effect should be similar to pic 2
pic 2


Painting the brickwork:
1) All the exposed brick work was painted with GW's Adeptus battlegrey, making sure to get all the mortar lines.
2) The bricks were then based coated in either Vallejo's Terracotta or Vallejo's Burnt Cadmium. You need to be quite random with brick colour selection (see pic 2).
3) Highlight some of the terracotta bricks by adding some Vallejo Flat Red to the Terracotta (70/30), then add some Vallejo buff to the mix for a final highlight. The other Terracotta bricks mixing GW's Solar Macharius Orange with Terracotta (80/20) the add more for the final highlight (60/40).
4) The Burnt Cadmium bricks were then highlighted by adding Vallejo's flat red (70/30) and then buff (60/30/10 mix).
5) When highlighting the bricks be careful not to add too much buff (you don't want pink bricks) or orange (or orange ones!)

Painting the wood work:
1) All the wood areas were base coated in Scorched Brown.
2) The floors were drybrushed with GW's Vermin Fur, whilst all the window/door/railings/supports were highlighted with Vermin Fur (painting a grain onto the areas)
3) The floors were then lightly drybrushed with Vermin fur mixed with GW's Bleached bone (50/50), whilst the same mix was used on all the other areas to build up the grain work on the wood.
4) A final very light drybrush of Bleached bone was applied to all areas. (see pic 3)

Pic 3


Painting the Paved Steps:
1) The cracks in the steps were painted with Adeptus Battlegrey.
2) The paving stones were base coated with GW's Charadon Granite
3) GW's Tausept Ochre was then added to the Charradon Granite for the first highlight (60/40)
4) Vallejo's Buff was then added to the mix (50/40/10)
5) The highlights were varied on each stone to give the effect of a rough stone texture see pic 4

pic 4


Finishing touches:
1) GW's Devlan mud was then applied around the bottom of the window frames and were the walls met the thatched roof to give the effect of weathering.
2) The buildings were then given a coat of varnish (I used Army Painter Matt)
3) Mig Pigments Europe dust was then added to the base of the building, to give the effect of dirt. See pic 2. Make sure that you have varnished the buildings first or the pigment will disappear once the varnish is applied.
4) Using a knife with a fresh blade, cut out the roof hole sections, as you left in the MDF bits the fur should be glued to them from the PVA mix. These should then be able to be removable whilst still looking like part of the roof when still in place.

There you go 2 finished buildings.
Over the next week I'll do a guide for the barricades, mealy bags, carts, out buildings, kraals and all the other assorted gubbins that comes with the Horns of the Buffalo set.

Regards

Alan Mander

[grant]

Job's a good 'un!

[Big Al]

Thanks for that Smokehouse!
I wonder if a coat of varnish or weather sealant would help to seal the the MDF before undercoating? I realise that this may mean additional cost, but in the long run it would probably save on the cost of paint in the future. I don't expect it to destroy the detail. I mention this because of the current trend towards MDF for buildings and some of those available don't have the sort of detail that the Rorkes Drift models have.

[BigMike]

Great guide - that's really helpful!

[mudcow304]

Great stuff there Smokehouse, one of the best guides that I've seen and so perfect for my weekend plans - thank you!