Hudson & Allen medieval buildings - another one finished (Jan 2019)

[levied troop]

I was using them at Partizan:



Lovely buildings.  I used Halfords black to undercoat and dry-brushed various Foundry triads and Vallejo paints.  The buildings are attached to 0.5mm aluminium sheet via PVA glue and a splattering of plaster.  Fences are Renendra or Fenris.

Good news about a new UK importer, I’m tempted to extend my collection

[Charlie_]

I was using them at Partizan:

They look fantastic!
Looking at that thatched roof at the bottom of the picture... Could you share what colours you used? I'd love to get mine looking like that.

[levied troop]

The thatch is primarily Foundry Rawhide or Drab triads, with a little creamy coloured final highlight if I wanted the thatch to look newish. The one on the left foreground looks to have had a thin brown ink wash added as well.  I’ll see if I can find the notes I made at the time, but basically any brown ink will work.

The church mid-left is actually a Gripping Beast model and I painted it quite some time ago, Can’t remember what I used on that.

[Captain Blood]

That’s a great looking table LT 
Judicious use of the teddy bear fur 

[Charlie_]

The thatch is primarily Foundry Rawhide or Drab triads, with a little creamy coloured final highlight if I wanted the thatch to look newish. The one on the left foreground looks to have had a thin brown ink wash added as well.  I’ll see if I can find the notes I made at the time, but basically any brown ink will work.

The church mid-left is actually a Gripping Beast model and I painted it quite some time ago, Can’t remember what I used on that.

Thanks, I might have to look into these Foundry triads actually, if just for these buildings... What size pots do them come in, are they good value for money?

This is the sort of thing I could spend a long time experimenting with to get the right colours, and knowing me I'd end up buying loads of paints I never use and have to repaint the buildings at some point, so if anyone can show me pics and the exact colours they used I'll jump at it!

[levied troop]

Charlie - I found my notes on the H&A buildings above.  As follows they are:

Undercoat - Halfords spray black
Framework timber 1 - simple dry brush with any light grey, or
Framework timber 2 -drybrush Foundry Moss 29A-C, or
Framework timber 3 - as 1 plus varied dry brushes of Vallejo Chocolate Brown and Foundry Drab 12A-C

Daub - Cote d'Arms Tank Drab, dry brush Horse Dun then Bone (GW?)

Wattle - Any Burnt Umber, then dry brush  Foundry Buff 7A-C

Thatch - Vallejo Chocolate Brown, then dry brush Vallejo Russian Green, Foundry Rawhide 11A-C and/or Foundry Moss 29C, and/or thinned wash with brown ink. 

Stonework - Burnt Umber, then dry brush Gun Corps Brown (P3), Foundry Buff 7A-C, wash Miniature Paints Stone Green then very heavily thinned Vallejo Sepia.

There's no exact approach with any of these, I carried the heaviness of the dry brush or wash art whim and probably touched up a few highlights in the lightest colour, as the object here was not to get them looking exactly the same, they'd have aged/weathered slightly differently.

I've a right mix of paints available  but any near approximation would probably work just as well.

[Charlie_]

I got the first one done!

I based it, and gave it a fenced garden and a small tree. I decided not to put any vegetables or anything in the garden to make placing models in there easier. I might at a later date add more stuff, barrels etc. I'm pleased with how the composition turned out - giving them gardens / yards / etc makes them into much more useful bits of terrain and fills up the table more, making it look like  a real settlement of some sort.

In the end I used paints I had around the house - vallejo, and emulsion tester pots.

I went for 'pink' walls - I don't know about the historical accuracy of this colour, but I saw the Perrys had used a similar one on their plastic house, which seemed good enough justification. If anyone has info on the sort of colours medieval cottages would have been, in particular poorer rural dwellings, I'd like to know! What would be the cheapest? And what sort of colours would suggest a more affluent household?


As others have said, these are a real joy to paint, they take drybrushing and washes REALLY well. The detail in the textures really is fantastic. The only tricky part was drybrushing both the wall panels and the timber frame without messing them up. But I've learnt from this, and will approach the next one slightly differently. Also it should be much easier to paint the houses before attaching them to the base.











I really am very pleased with how this has turned out!

[OSHIROmodels]

Looks great 

The walls would be a similar colour to the earth in the surrounding area and if you had a bit of spare cash they would've been lime washed 

[Charlie_]

The walls would be a similar colour to the earth in the surrounding area and if you had a bit of spare cash they would've been lime washed 

So this reddish brown would be good for the humble cottages, and save the white walls for the walled farmhouse?

[OSHIROmodels]

Yeah, that should be fine. Don't do the white too bright though.

[levied troop]

They’ve come out very nicely and adding the enclosures to wargames buildings is always worth the effort.

[Nordic1980s]

Excellent pictures levied troop and Charlie_!  Rather tempting to buy as well, as I already have positive experiences from the a bit similar Ziterdes foam terrain pieces.

Are there any real differences between MDF and hardboard when basing buildings like this? Is hardboard more prone to warping, or anything?

Foamed PVC sheets is the material gods of Asgård use for this purpose: lightweight, can be carved and cut yet retains hard flatness quite well. Can be ordered pre-cut to customer's requirements.

Thick (5+ mm) cork sheets work also quite well as basing material, even if it's not that rigid. As they're a bit flexible, they will tend to lay relatively good (if not exactly flat) because of the gravitational pull. Cork sheet bases can be painted with elastic acrylic paint to protect them while retaining the flexibility at the same time. Edges are also easily cut to sloping sides.

[Admiral Benbow]

Nice work, Charlie! If you don't mind I'll show some more of the H&A line of buildings as I'm working with them for a long time now. The material is polyurethane foam, the same stuff you'll use to fix real doors and windows into a building. It's very sturdy even if it doesn't look so. Ben Pope from Vatican Enterprises bought the moulds of the medieval line some 17 years ago from the original sculptor Ken Osen, the founder of Hudson & Allen. Ben is a very nice guy and it's a joy to do business with him. Yes, you must have some patience as some of the products like the wall parapets will be made to order.

You can use all kinds of undercoating and paint types on that material, it's quite hard-wearing. A good base is recommended as others here said already. For me THE best and most detailed medieval buildings all around, museum quality! You can even modify or convert them as you can see below on the large farm, I cut the one-piece casting into two parts, broaden it onto a thin hardwood base and added a new gatehouse on one side and a new wall part with door on the other. Main paintjob was done when the parts where separated making painting so much easier ...











 

[Captain Blood]

 

Those are amazing creations Michael. Outstanding.

[Charlie_]

Oh wow, now that is fantastic!

I've had that farm / inn / whatever it is on my shopping list for some time, though it'll probably have to wait a year or two. Along with some of the other slightly more 'urban' H&A buildings, the ones with pavements.... However for the life of me I can't really work out what sort of building it's supposed to be, and what role it would have on a gaming table? I was thinking it would work nicely as some sort of suburban complex, but for that to work it would needs lots more buildings around it... I think you've made it work as a farm just perfectly simply be expanding the courtyard.

(though where are the additional gatehouse and gate from?)

I can see it working very well with additional barns and buildings outside, some sort of walled garden or orchard..... Great setting for a scenario.