How I finished the buildings I made last week

Last week I knocked up a couple of cottages and a windmill and I posted a short article about their construction. 

I wasn't all that keen on finishing them quickly, as making buildings is always far more interesting and satisfying than painting them, but when I saw Charles G. on Saturday his first words were "James, nice windmill". Consequently, I felt almost obliged to finish it quickly. I took Monday as a day off (Sunday was a very long day) and did the prep work and some bulk colours; on Tuesday evening I painted the detail and finished them.

The brickwork was prepared with a coat of well diluted plaster filler and PVA mix. When this dries it gives a rough 'gritty' surface that looks 'stoney' when dry brushed. 

I've run out of black artist's acrylic (with which I would normally mix in white household emulsion to get grey), so I did the grey with a tin of satin grey enamel that I've had about the place for a few years (thanks, Mark S.). It was going onto a porous, rough surface so I knew it would dry matt. I then dry brushed it with two lighter shades (the satin grey with white matt enamel mixed in).

The woodwork was painted with artist's acrylics. - there is a base coat of mid brown on all of it with the darker wood getting a burnt umber (brown) artist's acrylic ink wash. 

It was then dry brushed with artist's acrylic lightened with household emulsion paint (I have jam jars with several shades of beige, left over from decorating, that I use). 

I decided to do the sails in a lighter shade of wood purely for the purpose of contrast. It is the same shade as the darker wood dry brushed with more emulsion paint mixed into the artist's acrylic. The detail on the sails was brought out with a few strokes of diluted brown ink.

I prepared the 'wattle and daub' walls (between the timber framing) by loosely applying Naples Yellow heavy body artist's acrylic paint. You can do the same job with a plaster mix but I find this much easier to apply and the acrylic gives a 'smoother' finish. 

When dry, I washed it with diluted brown artist's acrylic ink. Then it was dry brushed with two shades of household emulsion. 

After the daub had been painted the timber framing was painted with black matt enamel paint. This later got a highlight of dark grey. This highlight was applied carefully with a brush on the framing (because the daub had been done already).

The slate roofs are painted the same but, they are more casually dry brushed. 

As you can see, the yards / gardens have a rough appearance. This was achieved with a preparation of loosely applied heavy body artist's acrylic paint (it's the same as the daub), ink washed and dry brushed with beige acrylic and artist's emulsion. 

Finally, I used PVA glue to stick flock around the outside edge of the buildings. I also did the same thing around the interior edges of the yards / gardens. This last step is an important finishing touch.

So that is it, job done: Three new buildings for northern Europe added to the collection.

I hope this very brief description of how I did these buildings is of use to some of you. 

Making buildings, once a few basic materials and tools have been collected, is quite easy.