Thursday, February 11, 2010

How to Build 15mm La Haye Sainte from scratch part 1

well you have to start somewhere the only tools need for this building are 3mm Balsa 5mm Balsa 3mm Hard board a stanley knife pva glue a ruler and a hard lead pencil around 4b

I've marked out the base plate and have started cutting. the main houses have40mm high walls the stables connecting buildings are 35mm high
The balsa that i'm using for the buildings is three mm thick as is the base, the walls and the ends of the building on the right of the farm the main house are 5mm thick and should have chimney stacks on them will have to fix that.


Since starting my journey back into Napoleonic gaming last year i've been wanting to build a centre piece and what better than La Haye Sainte. So since I haven't been able to paint these last few days i decided to start.
I started using the technigue of scoring to put all my detail on last year and found that it did such a good job that i haven't stopped. I lightly draw in the details and when i'm happy all i do is press a little harder NB, when scoring against the grain to stop breakage lightly cut with a knife this breaks the surf and allows the pencil in.

So once again i'm building the buildings out of Balsa then covering it in polly filler
Here I've done a slot together where i put a dot of glue on so the builds will just hold together and i can make sure that everything fits well.

the detailed instructions on how to build this model i will try and present in this and the next few articles

 
the Front gate is made of multiple layers so as to give depth to the gate.


next it will be to build the roofs for each house i will pull the buildings apart and finish the scoring that i would have normally done but didn't. well thats where I'm at for now.


Wouldn't you know it I started putting the roofs on and ran out of Balsa well off to the shops tomorrow, see if I can finish it tomorrow, I'm going to go and spend some time working on painting 28mm faces see what i can come up with they are a real challenge for me sometimes good sometimes not so good, well see you then, cheers guys

7 comments:

  1. Very nice looking Buildings Kent,
    Really looks the part. I'm planning to do a load of buildings for the 1813 period in saxony when my loft is finally converted this year (wargames loft). My inspiration: http://www.croebern-1813.de/41587.html
    Till then will keep painting figures.
    Cheers
    Paul

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  2. Cheers thanks i look forward to seeing your buildings and you loft when they are finish

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  3. wow - that looks great. I really like how you've done the exposed brick by just indenting it on the balsa with a pencil - great idea.

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  4. These look GREAT. If you do another project like this I'd love to read an even more expanded step-by-step write up of your process.

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  5. I'll spend a bit of time and fill out the details for this one and the next installment

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  6. Looking good. Wow, very nice work going on. Dean

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  7. Nice work Calpy. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

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