Building of the Week Spanish Style

Yes it's back and back with a vengeance. I painted these up over Sunday afternoon and a little bit of this evening. I would say 3-4 hours between them all. I actually undercoated them all in grey as during the Napoleonic period only the richer residents could afford to paint them white and even then it was not automatic.

All buildings are Leven Miniatures and except the Tavern are all available now. ITSP07 Mediterranean Tavern is on the preview page. All the other buildings are priced at £2.50 so I expect this to be up to another £1 or so but you get a nice bit more for your money.

I wanted this building to look like a nice reputable establishment so it got the white treatment, I have plans to base this building but before I can do that I need to paint up a few extras to go with it. All the buildings have a nice render finish, not least because Mike has managed to give the required texture but the surface is not rough meaning you don't kill the brush but still can get the desired effect. This is more noticeable on a few other buildings.

The roofs I painted grey black and then a mix of bright orange and scarlet adding a little more scarlet over two more applications of drybrush then added rose pink to the mix before a final rose pink layer. Seems a reasonable aged Terracotta look I have been after.

ITSP01 is actually my favourite of this bunch as the steps really make this one stand out. Of course I reward it with the most run down look of the lot what can I say, tough love.

Nuln Oil from GW was added to a very thin white wash that has managed to almost penetrate the the under coat and make this look suitably grubby. This one of all really shows off the texture Mike has managed to tease out of these buildings.

Again I am really happy with the look of this building and I guess it will finally get out on the table sometime when. Originally both Lee and myself were working towards armies for the war in Spain funny how this is project shunted to a siding but we will get there someday.

ITSP02 is a three story building but only has windows on the upper two levels (and on just two sides). Ideal for placing a few of these close together on a street with the extra height making them dominate the other buildings.

Whilst this got the better white finish it has seen better days as the nice white painted render has fallen off revealing the plain render behind. Still they do their best to keep the building looking nice having painted the shutters and arch a nice blue.

Another building (ITSP03) with a balcony and again the nice bright paint has had an outing (I tend to paint buildings fairly drab) I have to admit when I first saw the models on the Leven website I was not that impressed with the balcony buildings and whilst they remain my least favourite I actually find the balcony works (see the last image or stand a few feet from your computer).

Again this building has windows on just two sides but in this case only the one door, health and safety!!

This is actually more accurate than having all the buildings with windows plastered all the way round and plenty of nice and safe doors.

ITSP04 has a nice arched set of entrances, this makes me think of it as more of a tavern or stable type building and will be based as such when I base these buildings. 

I have left the arches as undressed stone and added the lightest touch of the Nuln Oil wash and left the texture to do the rest. Another building I like a great deal.

Back to a more normal building with ITSP05 and back to the windows on multiple sides to give me a nice mix of dwellings to make up a nice sized village/town for my French to fight over.

I think this type of house would have a reasonably comfortable family, the lack of shutters could mark this as possibly a more modern building or even have glazing, I may go back to this one and add reflections intentionally left off all the others due to the lack of glass.

The last one on offer is ITSP06 and another more modern building? this one moves away from the traditional box like look of the others with the single story extension.

Thus ends the selection of dwellings for Spain, Portugal and Italy I have two churches that have yet to be painted up and will feature in a later Building of the Week.

Here is the lot with a Baccus French gun for scale. Overall impressions is good, very good. I have both Timecast and Total Battle Miniatures buildings for this area and whilst I have yet to bring them all together to check them for scale I know these are the most ordinary of the lot and before anyone takes that the wrong way I mean this as a positive point. The others tend to have a lot more bits such as courtyards and or shaped add on sections but you should also have the more box like structures. I guess the Leven ones are better for villages whilst the others tend to suit towns and cities better. At some point in the near future I will do a comparison review.