The Inn

Chum Jerry Miller kindly bought me the excellent and very large Hudson and Allan Inn for my birthday, thanks Jerry!

It is quite big and has loads of detail, I have to admit to being a bit daunted by it so I put off painting it for a little while. However after the farm came out so well I decided to jump in.

I also thought it might be nice to share the process I go though when painting the buildings, essentially very similar to figures.

The models have no flash so minimal tidying and straight into priming. I used Halford black primer which I find gives a nice smooth finish to paint onto. A quick brush into any of the gaps and its ready for paint.

First layer is a base colour for each part of the building. The woodwork is going to remain black so I dry brush it with a dark grey and then use the same dark grey for the slates of the roof.

I use Colour Party paints for the most part, the cover really well and are excellent value, they also have some really rich colours. It helps that they are a ten minute drive from my house too! http://www.colourparty.co.uk/

I thought it might also be useful for anyone interested to share the codes of the paints I use. The dark grey is MA39 equipment grey

The stone gets a dark brown covering of MA10 "Negro flesh" and the earth gets a splosh of MA41 "Staffwood".

I have then used the same MA41 Staffwood to wet brush over all the stone work to give me a second layer.

Next I am using ECW Buff MA22, a really useful and rich colour I use for all sorts including of course all the buff leather webbing for figures, this is the base coat for the plaster rendering and the wet brush over all the stone work, I need to add detail now and cut in to the edges of all plaster and the wood beams.

This is an odd stage as its starting to look something like now but I also always get severe doubts as its close but looks a bit rubbish. I shrug and press on, after all the beauty of buildings is you can slosh a wash over anything that doesnt work and try again. I have also wet brushed the slates and wood with a mid grey from miniature paints, the only colour not from Colour Party in this lot.

Lastly for the paints I now add a dry brush right over the whole thing using a pale ivory type colour, MA33 bleached linen. Suddenly everything starts to pop out and come to life, I put an ink wash over the barrels and then onto all of the metal work on the doors which adds a look of slightly rusty old iron work. 

A bunch of tufts to add a sprinkle of colour, texture and a lived in sort of look and we are there.

I still wonder whether a different colour for the plaster render would have added a bit more contrast with both the earth and the stones. Other than that though I am happy with the final result and the rain has stopped just long enough for me to get a few snaps outside in natural sunlight.

I have enjoyed painting this and have two very much smaller buildings to do from Hudson and Allen. Very tempted to get a couple more of the stone croft type buildings which will go well with Irland, the Anglo-Scottish border and other areas.

Hope someone finds the detail useful or interesting, thanks for bearing with me!