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In part 1 I described the construction techniques for Mordheim buildings. This page discusses finishing and detailing. |
Step 1 : prepare the 'timber' details for painting
If you paint the wall and corner timbers as they are they will look
alright, but they definitely look better and more authentic if they
are roughened and carved up a bit:
| Take a sharp craft knife and carve up the balsa wood timbers so that they are not so uniform. Do this for the wall timbers as well as any support timbers such as those shown here. You can also exaggerate the grain in the balsa wood by scratching the sharp tip of the craft knife along the grain to make deeper grooves. |  |
Step 2 : Texture the walls
The foamcore surface is too smooth to be able to get any texture to it when painting, so it is best to roughen it with fine sand in PVA glue or textured wall covering.
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I used white textured wall covering. It comes in
tubs and is a sticky - almost a paste - and has a rough sandy
texture. Apply it with a cheap child's paintbrush. Don't worry
about getting a bit on the floor, and on the outside of the
building put it on thickly around the base of the walls to fill
any gaps. Cover the whole of the base with it too.
The quickest way to work is to paint it on quickly and wipe it off the balsawood parts with a damp cloth. |
Step 3 : Undercoat
Spray everything black. It will be difficult to get the spray inside the buildings unless they are very open, and you may need to use some thin black paint on a brush to fill in any gaps. Be sure that the wall covering is completely dry before painting - this can take 24 hours on areas where you have applied it thickly.
Step 4 : Paint the wall panels grey
| The wall panels are painted up from black to light grey. I use dry a brushing technique and three shades - a dark grey just short of black, a mid 'battleship' grey and a light grey. Then I finish off with a very light dry brush of pale grey or even white, just to pick up the texture. With each shade of grey I stop shorter and shorter of the timber, which gives a shaded effect. Leave some black showing right next to the timber to accentuate the relief - this will happen naturally because your brush doesn't go into the joins between the timber and the walls. Don't worry too much about getting grey on the timbers because you'll paint them next. |  |
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Begin by painting all of the wooden parts and floors brown (I use Bestial Brown). Just paint it straight on, thinned a little if it makes it easier. When it is dry dry-brush with a very light brown, with a very dry brush and very little paint. Overdo it and you'll paint the wood light brown and have to start again. Get some light brown on a big stiff brush (I use a fat cheap child's paint brush about 8mm in diameter), brush vigorously on newspaper until most of the paint has come off the brush and what is left is fairly dry, and then dry-brush your wooden details. As you can see in this picture the carved effect comes out very nicely if you get the brush dry enough so it just picks up the edges. The wall panels shading to black can also be seen in this photograph. |
| The floors are painted in the same way. When dry-brushing work across the floorboards so that you leave the black in the cracks to accentuate the texture. Since I used wood for the floors creating broken floorboards was easy... |  |
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Where the building has a roof I paint the roof timbers as described, but paint the tiles red. Really the cardboard tiles look more like slate than red pantile, but grey roofs look a bit dull when the rest of the building is grey too. So I use a dark red (Scab red or Red Gore works well). I use the same fat brush and brush upwards to leave some black around the edges of the tiles to accentuate their texture. For toughness I actually sealed the roof tiles with PVA and let it dry before painting. If your buildings are for club use you might want to do the same. |
| The stonework for the arches was painted in exactly the same way. Because of their polystyrene (styrofoam) construction I gave the arches a thorough coating with PVA glue after sticking on the cardboard 'stones' and before coating with the textured paint. |  |