As we saw last time, the roof has been replaced with one of artists mounting board. It was not a particularly tough job, just a bit tedious. The next step would, I presumed be the really boring bit: tiling the roof. But I was wrong. I had shove the computer onto the BBC iplayer thingy and put on an episode of “In Our Time” and then whipped out the roof tile sheets from Warbases which I’d picked up at Partizan. In a moment I had the first one applied and was on my way. Well, let me tell you, I like companies who innovate and Warbases keep having great ideas (you can tell they are great as others then copy them!). Warbases were the first company to produce laser cut root tiles and I have to say that they are simply brilliant. Just snip to length and then stick on with PVA. No waste at all as you then start the next line of tiles with whatever is left from the first row. A fantastic idea. In less then an hour I had completed the roofs. And here they are.
I am EXTREMELY pleased with these tiles. Well done to Martin for such an innovative product.
Now, each sheet of tiles does come with a row of ridge tiles, but I decided that I was going to finish my roof off with a Milliput ridge. You can see it, made by simply rolling a blob of the stuff out with my hand and then marking the tiles with a craft knife, here. You’ll also note the lead flashing done in paper.
With that done I was back to the pithy question of “the gap”. As I had replaced the roof there was a small gap at the top of the walls. To be honest it was a bit daft worrying about it; you’d have to be 2’6″ tall to notice it. However, there is the risk that the circus is in town when we run a demo somewhere, so I decided to try to fix it. I sinmply built up wht wall height with some 3mm wide strips of mounting board. I wasn’t going to be able to etch on the brickwork pattern, but then again it was not going to be immediately noticeable, so I could live with that.
I then added the interior partition wall with foam board and painted that in tile grout and PVA. That then was allowed to dry in a warm oven.
Next I undercoated the interior and the base in black. I’m not sure why, but I habitually paint the interiors of my buildings black. I may add more detail later when I put the barrels in, but for now black would do. The next stage was to spray the brickwork with a sand colour…
…and the roof with black.
And then I was on to the painting stage. I dry-brushed on Vallejo Red Leather which is great for bricks. With that dry I then used black inks to add some general impression of the damp that one gets with old brickwork. This focused on the base of the model and areas around the roof where there was potential for water ingress. Then it was a case of dry brushing up the brickwork and touching in the odd brick in a variety of individual colours.
The roof I dry brushed up in a variety of greys before finally picking out the odd individual tile in a very light grey. There’s nothing clever about my painting, so no need to endless snaps of my brush. I added some posters when it was complete and the signs I printed off my computer with suitably Germanic fonts. I normally paint my own signs, but for some reason I wasn’t in the zone today, so I cheated. I think the end result is nice.

From the starting point of a very nice MDF building I have now got something which fits my bill precisely. A little effort has really paid off in making the kit a unique model. Now I just need that chimney to arrive in the post so that I can get the main building done. When I consider that I only ordered this from Leon at Minibits a week ago this is a project that has gone swimmingly well.
You can find the model and others like it at Minibits, here: http://www.minibits.net/
And the tiles, which come in several varieties, at Warbases, here: http://war-bases.co.uk/