Home improvements to 4Ground’s Japanese shogunate houses

[Arteis]

After reading a couple of samurai novels this Xmas, I decided to pull out my existing samurai scenery. I’ve got several 4Ground buildings, which I’ve been very pleased with. But seeing them out of storage for the first time in a while, I've realised that the teddy-bear fur thatched roofs look like … er … teddy-bear fur.

So this morning I took a big brush and sloshed a watery burnt umber artists’ acrylic paint all over the thatch. Once this was completely dry, I dry-brushed the roof with a range of ochres, yellows and even white.

The results now look a lot more realistic (and certainly a lot less teddy-like!).

More info on how I did the improvements, and more pics, are on my blog here: https://arteis.wordpress.com/2017/01/06/home-improvements-to-4grounds-japanese-shogunate-houses/

Before:


After:

[Mad Gadgeteer]

Sweet....

Went over to your blog as well and really enjoyed it. I've been toying with getting my unfinished Perry Samurai out and finish them and then get more!    

Have you ever read the five volume series "Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa? I highly recommend it.

[Codsticker]

Yes, definitely an improvement- looks good.

[Vagabond]

A big improvement in my opinion. It looks like you have also done something about the veranda roof as well, this bland wooden planking really does not look good.

The wooden fencing they do really grates on me and it is such a simple matter to put a bit of paint on it.

Oh dear I'm getting really grumpy

[Arteis]

@Vagabond: Yep, I gave the verandah roof the same burnt umber wash as the thatch.  I did start to dry-brush the fences a bit more, but wasn't happy with the effect, so for the moment most of my fences stay in the original colours (though I might have put some black wash in the gaps between the planks when I first got them - I can't recall exactly).

@Mad Gadgeteer: No, I hadn't heard of those books. I will check them out.

[Arteis]