Vagabonds Viking Village - Beehives Done

[Vagabond]

The raw roof in place, it will flatten down when it's painted with a mix of pva and black gesso. I use a shortish bristle brush to apply the first coat and it sort of combs it a bit.


Like this. The problem with the light coloured towel is it takes a couple of coats of undercoat to cover most of it. The advantage is that's it's a cast off and so free and has single threads rather than the double loop on posh towels and so looks a little more realistic, to me at least.


I've daubed it with a mix of powdered filler and neat pva, this is as tough as nails, I was aiming for a fairly smooth finish, because at this scale you would hardly see the hand impressions as it was put on in real life.


As you can see I made a bugger of it. Mainly because I made the spaces between the framing too small and couldn't work properly with my small trowel. 
Hopefully I can sand it down a bit. Trouble is that "It's as tough as nails"

Note the bespoke door handles. This was the best I could manage, I should have used the dress makers pins.

[gamer Mac]

Looking good the thatch is great
Good luck with the wood and daub , that is the bit I hate doing on these types of buildings

[Vagabond]

Thanks G.M. I thought I was OK with the daub and wood but see below


The thatch is virtually done and I have tried to do a rose coloured wash over the daub and I really don't like it. The wood work is hardly started yet and will look a bit dustier when complete but I need to sort out the daub first. It may be because I did a fairly translucent wash that it looks a bit insipid as well as distinctly odd, maybe a solid coating followed by dry brushing and then a darker wash would be better.


The small building is how I've done all my previous daub, aiming for a dried light mud colour which I've been happy with, but I am aiming to do the Church so it stands out as something other than a mud hut. I'm unsure if I should change it either to another colour maybe a yellow ochre or or to mirror my normal mud colour.


Just another image of the same thing, I'm very much open to suggestions on this, I don't really want to go down the white wash route because I think it will look very stark, and I'm pretty sure I will make a mess of it.

Help. Any thoughts or suggestions.
Cheers

[Doug ex-em4]

First - the thatch looks great. It’s a shame that you’ve had to use your towel - it’s going to be tricky getting dried after your yearly all-over-wash in future.  . Seriously, that looks very effective.

Second. When I mentioned pastel shades earlier, I was thinking of the interior. However, if you’ve found reference to outsides being painted like that, fair enough. I have to agree with you though, I’m not keen. If you want it more distinctive, your yellow ochre idea may be the way to go.

Interesting project - I look forward to seeing where you go with it.

Doug

[DintheDin]

This daub looks too pink in my eyes.
The daub of the hut looks more natural, but I am for yellow ochre too.
I wish you good continuation to your project!

[OSHIROmodels]

I’d go with the same colour as the hut but then add an extra white/light tan highlight to it.

Looking good though 

[Dr. Zombie]

I would just do the daub the same way as the rest of the buildings. And then go nuts with colours on the woodpanels in the door end.

[Vagabond]

Hi Guy's thanks for taking to time to respond and I think your advice is sound, I

'm going to repaint the daub a drabber colour, a bit sad about not having a stand out colour but I think the best historical one looks naff. Hey ho.

I have a couple of other things on the to do list, haystacks a forge and a bakery, probably just 1 or 2 ovens and then I'm out of ideas.

Any thoughts welcome.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

You'll need a mead brewing and storage area! 

[Michi]

You'll need a mead brewing and storage area! 

Bee hives, lots of bee hives!!!

[Dr. Zombie]

I have dreams of building a tannery for my dark age settlement and or a dyers. Large semi underground vats filled with various liquids and frames of curing hides.

I probably won't get round to it for a long time so until then I might as well live it out vicariously through you.

[sukhe_bator]

Looking really good! One small tip you might try for foamcore corner joins - make one end with edges 3x the thickness of the board longer - then cut all but the outer card away on the inside. Lightly score/pencil scribe (allowing for 1 wall thickness) and you can then use the overlap as a tab to fold over and glue. I find it makes a firmer join. You can also use uhu or a n other clear glue for a quicker bond than PVA. If you are applying balsa/matchsticks as beams and adding render it won't show. I used the technique on these timber framed buildings and it worked well. For those awkward little areas I can also recommend using fine milliput as the render - applied with a nailfile or blunt scalpel...
Happy building your settlement is looking great!

[gamer Mac]

Paint the daub a darker colour then dry brush white into the centre of each panel leaving the darker colour showing around the edges

for example

[sukhe_bator]

Paint the daub a darker colour then dry brush white into the centre of each panel leaving the darker colour showing around the edges

Amen to that -
Bull's blood was used to colour, but various ochre tones ranging from off white to sand

[Michi]

Amen to that -
Bull's blood was used to colour, but various ochre tones ranging from off white to sand

Yes, well said.