Saka Light Cavalry

Saka Light Cavalry

Monday 28 May 2012

6mm Buildings Painted in Record Time

As you may remember I  bought some 6mm buildings from Total Battle Miniatures at Triples 9 days ago. Well I put the finishing touches to the last of the buildings yesterday in a week were my painting time was much shorter than normal. So it's fair to say they paint up quickly but do they look good? Well I like them and I am first to admit painting buildings is not one of my strengths. So you want to look at the pics? well before you do I'd like to go over a few points on my quick review in the Triples post.

The models hid a little flash which came off with a sharp craft knife and a file or two. You do need to do this in good light as some of the detail may look like it needs cutting whilst other flash is hard to spot. It's well worth taking the time at this stage as the detail is really crisp and whilst the 2' rule is great in theory peeps will want to take a look at 2" so beware! Lee recons he does not wash his resin models in soapy water. DO!! I even had to do so again with the smallest buildings as I think I did not give them enough attention first time around. I found the spray primer was failing to cover well and standing on the surface, instead the more time consuming white paint wash was used. I also mentioned last time that I saw little evidence of bubbles in the casting, well once primed a fair few more stood out. Nothing drastic but if you buy these based on my comment about almost none then you may have reason to lynch me. In honesty it's still very few and most paint out though the church for instance is missing the corner of a window ledge. Not a disaster but not 100% perfect. But in the example, the church cost £4 so it's more than acceptable. OK I know you skipped ahead anyway but here they are.

The Whole Village
All 6 buildings laid out in the sun. I will use them in clusters of two to three buildings in most games. I plan to add a good deal more to the collection at some point in the future and will also mix in Timecast as well once I have plenty of these. It was a real pleasure to paint them.

Baccus Invades TBM!
I bought two barns, the straw is a different colour to the thatch but did not come out as such on the photo. I plan to sink the buildings in to bases later which will hide the resin lip. The thatched row in the background really has a nice feel to it but it's the barn hat steals the show. On the other side next to the double doors is a indent in the stone work that is intended to hold a boot scrapper! I told you it was detailed, no pic of it but will do so first game with them.

Much needed supplies taken from this warehouse.
I struggled with the roof tiles colour. I knew what I wanted and it took so many attempts before I was happy with the result. Cath kept it real with the odd "Looks crap", nothing like positive encouragement to spear you on and she was positive it was wrong! I am happy to report she gave it a "looks better" at the end.

The timbered house was very easy to paint and at only £3 I think you will be seeing a few mixed in with the thatched row of houses. I bought two barns by accident so turned this one into a coal store to stand next to the warehouse. I plan to make the base for this one a little interesting.

The blue door is still debatable, I tried looking at paintings of buildings but could not get a good view, so should I keep it or drop back to a plain wooden one? The church has possibly seen better days as it's a bit dingy and it seems no one has bothered painting the copper dome.


As per TBM's excellent websites pictures I have opted for a kind of off white, theirs is a green to brown whilst mine was a sepia brown wash with a very very weak white painted over it. I then used a full white to paint the stone pillars and ledges etc. for a worn but still well kept finish. To say it's a fairly fast procedure (all done in part of a afternoon) the result really works. In fact all the buildings had inspiration taken from the pics provided and in a couple of cases just a total mugging. My only suggestion is for the site to have two pics of each building showing opposite views as the models have such detail it's a shame for them not to show it off.

I can not give them a big enough thumbs up. They are nice and local to me which only adds to their charm. If I had made Partisan this weekend I would not have been able to resist buying some more. Next plan is to buy at least one of their village or farm tiles that has a number of buildings on a base. I just know that at some point I will also have to get the fortified town but that is some time in the future.

9 comments:

  1. They turned out bloody lovely to me me but then I'm using the 100 mile rule!

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  2. 176.4 miles in fact (yes I used to pass through your gaff on the way to work LOL

    ian

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  3. Great work Ian, and in record breaking time as well!!!

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  4. They look absolutely tremendous! Great work Ian.

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  5. Really great and the photos are fantastic.

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  6. Well I think the photos are better than the figures and as often is the case it was Cath who took them.

    Taking them outside in the sun light worked though, yes you get more shadow but it also broght the colour forward as well

    Ian

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  7. Really nice work, love the buildings!

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  8. Hi, I wonder about the title of this blog, :-)

    mississauga painters

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  9. @ Alan. I used to run a zine called The Mag With No Name, kind of wanted to keep the tradition going really as the TMWNN was a gaming zine as well.

    Funny thing is, I happen to e painting another bunch of 6mm buildings right now ;-)

    Ian

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