Tricking Out A Common Building

 

BMC "Meade's HQ" after I have painted and based the model.

I have plenty of buildings for my collections of 28mm figures, but finding "off the shelf" buildings for 54mm figures is not an easy task. After a fair amount of searching, I have an idea of where to find some of these buildings, but the selection does not come close to what is offered for 15mm and 28mm figures. So this necessitates converting whatever buildings I can find and turning them into unique individual models.

The BMC model of Meade's HQ Leister House is a pedestrian white plastic model with a medium blue roof. It is a snap together model whose parts are usually warped and hard to fit together. I decided to fix some of the model's defects and paint it. The results can be seen in the photo at the top of this blog post.

I added the exterior portion of the stone chimney using, well, stone pebbles 
that I picked up while walking my dogs. A resin chest was also added to the base.

I had a second model of the same building and decided to give it a different look. I removed the attached porch to change the profile of the building, making it thinner.

The dry brushing completed, I now added a new roof using tree wrap that
I bought at the hardware store. The idea comes from Herb Gundt. Individual
wood shakes will be delineated with a brown Sharpie pen.

The model after two rounds of dry brushing dark to light grey.

The basic model after a coat of black primer. The add on porch has been removed.

The partially finished model. I have to add things like a balsa wood door, maybe some card window shutters,
an outside cellar entrance, and attaching to a base made from a cork backed table place mat. A 
little water well would look nice too.

Here are a couple other commercially made buildings that I have not done any conversion work:

Foam clabbered house from Classic Toy Soldiers store.
Photographer's wagon is made by Lemax.

Colonial Salt Box style house from McShaun 's Closet.

The Rummel Farm Barn at Gettysburg from McShaun's Closet and sold
through Classic Toy Soldiers store.

Britain's - made resin barn. This model is Verrrrry heavy and is hard to find.

So I think that I am fairly well set for 54mm (1/32 scale) building models for my Pickett's Charge Project and other ACW games that I might play. These buildings would also be suitable for the 18th Century such as the American Revolution and the French and Indian War.