Store with birch roof - building starts (pic heavy)

[AndrewBeasley]

Continuing my series of buildings for SOBH Fantasy Dark Age (ish) period I've started a barn with a birch bark roof based on the Warbase Dark Age barn kit.  Unlike the first couple of houses, these have the timber etchings on the walls so I will not need the wood filler rendering seen here.  As this is a warts and all build I think I should have masked the etched wood off and undercoated / painted the walls before building but its more fun to glue bits than paint 

I remember seeing a couple of articles and web pages on birch roofing using crepe paper and decided this would go well with the grass roof buildings I have built on the principal birch bark was often used as the first waterproof layer and why should the villages spend more time than needed on a lowly store.

Once the kit arrived, I opened the pack to a smell of burnt MDF and a nicely cut kit:

Wonder if the smell of burnt wood will mask that of the unwashed gammers at shows over time

First step is to get the walls up - so a drop or two of PVA glue and one elastic band later:

Note the reinforcing run down the corner - I feel happier with these though I have never seen a building fold in without them to be fair.  At this time the bottom is not glued in as I will paint it first - see I did think about that bit (but that's about all the planning I did).

So while that is drying I got down to the roof and cut up rough rectangles out of crepe paper about 1cm by 2-3cm.  The pack cost me 65p (plus £2.70 for Sues cotton she needed) and will do around 2000 kits with no issue.  This build will take less than a 12cm by 8 cm strip of 4 layers so I have plenty to do the second kit...

I found a pot of 'mod podge' in the cupboard and thought I would give this a go as my PVA is a bit thick and wanted it to soak into the paper.  Part way through I remembered I bought this to try on a river and it was gloss - oh well, I'll try a matt varnish on the top when dry - if that does not work the contents of a paint pot will hide it (or I claim its raining hard). So off I go, laying down tiles and coating with glue:

Anyone spot the deliberate mistake - you start at the bottom when tilling and NOT AT THE TOP (by now you will realise why I am not a model maker by profession and other folks skills make me green).  So peeling off the duff layers, I cover the roof panels in crepe and glue and tuck the edge under (with much glueing and sticking of fingers) and leave both sides to dry on two 35mm film cases:

As it dries I can see it is really glossy and the overlaps are significantly darker than the single layer bits (cheap paper I assume).  Maybe a paint will be the best after all?  One of the FIW longhouse builds has this (Ray Roussell - Don't throw a 1) and it works well even though his paper looks thicker than mine and crinkles better (it was also cheaper and darker).
I assume mine is the 'new and improved' more costly version though so I can sit here with a smug grin