Top quality scratching 
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Per Ardua
We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no ones been -
Thanks for taking the time to post these Tim. Lovely work.SteveComment
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You are the master of this work Tim.Looks amazing.
RichardComment
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Watched this since the beginning. Very interesting. The nearly end result is superb.Comment
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Thanks for all the nice things you have said...
On with the quick recap on the farmhouse...
After a coat of diluted PVA glue to seal the foam board I then gave everything a spray of dark grey and added some white for highlights.
Next I painted the individual stones and bricks.
The stones were done in two stages: roughly half of them in various shades of yellows / browns / reds and the remainder in greys. These were all done using Vallejo acrylics, because you don't want to let any enamel or other oil-based paints get to the foam...
Here it is after I had finished the stone work.
And here after I had done the bricks.
At this stage is all looks a little cartoon-like, but that will soon change.
In the image above you can see that I added a broken mill-stone in the wall (a common site in Derbyshire here in the UK). You can also see how easy it as to add texture to the surface of the XPS foam - or dislodged stones and bricks - simply by pushing into it with anything that works.
All of the 'woodwork' - doors, windows, gable ends, etc - was aded using plastic sheet of various thicknesses with wood grain scribed in using a razor saw and details added from various sources.
The next stage is the most transformative part of the process - adding mortar between the stones and bricks. Here the magical ingredient is this:
It's a water-based foam-like putty that can be applied with a brush before the excess is wiped away with a cotton bud soaked in water. I didn't take any decent photos of this step in progress, but the image below shows the effect almost immediately after the putty has dried:
And here you can see the effect after I had begun to apply some washes to tone down the whiteness of the putty...
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Nice to see this again Tim and great that you're back. Was starting to think that the dio guys were melting away. The continuation of this build is gonna look good, can't wait to find out what animal is also fleeing the Germans. 😂
Cheers,
WabbleComment
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Adding further details...
The plant pots were a fun detail to add - and cheap (£2 for a pack from Red Zebra!).
The wooden trough was based on images I found on-line. And yes, they really did make them of wood - although lined with clay. It was scratchbuilt from plastic card.
I added the water from two-part clear resin with some half-submerged leaves, although I will be adding some ice.
The 'S' shaped reinforcers were cut from thin plastic sheet with resin bolts added and textured with Mr Surfacer.
Guttering and downpipes were made in the usual way from plastic tubing / U shaped tubing. Reinforcing bands were added from masking tape.
The Miniart Ardennes Roadsigns set is a useful source for the concrete telegraph pole. I added the concrete effect my speckling various shades of grey and brown using a toothbrush and cocktail stick.
I decided to make the gate from wooden stirring sticks because I was worried that plastic card would warp. For the posts I used bamboo chopsticks. Nail heads were added from punched-out lead foil and I simply ad-libbed the hinges from bent brass sheet: they actually work...
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Looking superb, the detail is really excellent mate!
SteveComment
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Love the gardening.Comment
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This is outstanding work as always your attention to detail lifts the work to new levels.Comment
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This is some incredible work
That gate looks so real!Per Ardua
We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no ones beenComment
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Don't know what to add really, looks amazing.....Comment
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Beautiful weathering Tim. So much detail.
Cheers,
WabbleComment
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