Sarissa Gaslamp Alley Houses

[fred]

I ordered some of the new(ish) Sarissa Precision Gaslamp alley houses this week. They arrived promptly, and I liked the look of them that much that they were painted and assembled yesterday while listening to the cricket.


The finished set, 2 terrace houses, a narrow town house, with additional floor, and a market stall (un-painted)

I choose the Sarissa ones, as they have more detail than the Warbases range, and are about half the price of 4 Ground. The 4 Ground ones also seem very fiddly to build - and I'm not sure the extra interior detail is that much more useful in a game.


This is the terrace house, assembled with dry fit. The cardboard window frame pieces aren't in place here - as they kept falling over when trying to put the second floor on.


My paint set. I mixed the terracotta and red together to get the brick colour. The B&Q brand grey was a bit thin. I used bits of sponge to 'dry-brush' the paint over the surface, trying to keep out of the brick outlines.


I painted the outsides pre-assembly as I thought it would be quicker, and wouldn't have to worry about getting the wrong colour in the wrong place. You do need to remember to paint the edges of any lugs that will show.


The terrace houses, simple and quick to assemble. The window frames and doors are on separate pieces of card, so can be painted before assemble, which means you don't need to be neat. As these are separate it adds a nice bit of 3D to the model as well.


The 3 story townhouse. This was a fair bit more time consuming to make than the terrace houses. The roof is made up of quite a lot of pieces and there are extra card pieces to go on the outside of the windows (and there was an extra floor too). I really like the mix of stone and brick on the walls. Masking tape was very helpful here. I add the card pieces after assembly which was a mistake, as the soot on the edges came off rather easily from the card, and made a bit of a mess of the paintwork, which required quite a bit of re-painting.


The back view - I do like the arched doorways on the town house.
What is perhaps not clear from these photos is that each floor is separate, and can be easily lifted off, to allow figures to be placed inside.

I may add a little more detailing, such as the odd different coloured brick on tile, just to break up the walls. I am also wondering about door knobs and chimney pots. Currently I have left the interiors plain (there is a planking effect engraved on the interior floors) but am wondering about printing out some victorian wall paper (assuming such a thing is available on the internet).

[lordbert]

Great work, they look a lot bigger than I was expecting (not sure why). It's a shame the mdf joints are showing on the roofs - you think a bit of green stuff would sort that out?

[fred]

When I was assembling them I thought they were fairly compact - but then putting the figures against them they seem quite big. And these are all the narrow buildings, so about 11cm wide

The roof joints, I think, stand out a bit due to the sticking up lug being a bit more heavily painted than the flat area of the roof. But a touch of green stuff and a bit of paint will make them blend in much better. The same would help the tops of the chimneys - on which the joints are more visible in real life than they are on the roofs. The visible lugs on the roof aren't needed to lift the roof off - the whole roof assembly including the angled wall is removable.

[fastolfrus]

Like the back of the town house, but not keen on the front windows.
Look more Rivendell than Whitechapel for my taste.

Nice paintjob.

[Craig]

Thanks for that interesting exposition 

Tell me, do the floors separate so you can move figures inside?

[fred]

Yes, the floors are all separate and just lift off.

The 3rd floor windows are quite fanciful - but there are multiple options available.

[Brummie Thug]

Nice work on these. I must try and save up some cash for some.

[Phil Robinson]

You have got a splendid finish on those.

Search for dolls house wallpaper, can't remember where Dave got the stuff he gave me, just know that it was a US site with free downloads.

[Big Martin]

Try googling for quarter scale dollshouses - you can find links to various "printables" of wallpaper and the like.

[Mason]

These do seem to look pretty good and are growing on me.
You have got a good result from the basic kit.
 

It seems that these MDF kits pay off if you give them a little extra TLC.

Great work, they look a lot bigger than I was expecting (not sure why). It's a shame the mdf joints are showing on the roofs - you think a bit of green stuff would sort that out?

You could always just stick some card roof tiles on top.
They would look much better as well, by creating a three dimensional effect that those roofs lack.
 

I would recommmend the tile sheets from Oshiro Modelterrain:

http://www.oshiromodelterrain.co.uk/victorianbuildings.html

You have got a splendid finish on those.

Search for dolls house wallpaper, can't remember where Dave got the stuff he gave me, just know that it was a US site with free downloads.

Try this one, plenty of eras available.

http://www.jennifersprintables.com/printables1.html

[fred]

Thanks chaps. I was pleased how well these have come out with a straight out of the box build, and a basic 3 colour paint job.

Mason - thanks for the links. I had thought about some ridge tiles early on, then forgot about.

The wall papers look funky, I think I will go with some of those for the town house at least.

[Mr. Peabody]

So very nice!

Sarissa's postage plan is very tempting: free, worldwide, on orders over 50GBP.

[infelix]

I really need to find me some money to get those, they look great!

[Ebonstar]

Those are incredible!

I also paint my MDF buildings using a foam brush and craft-store acrylics. Those Sarissa buildings look great! Well done and thanks for the tutorial!

[Chairface]

Yes, lovely work!