Second sight - 2D6 Anglo-Saxon Buildings

Second sight posts will be where I give my thoughts on new products after I have painted, based or for rules after I have played a game with them.  In this case its a chance to provide some pictures of the painted Anglo-Saxon buildings from 2D6 which I gave an initial review of a few days ago.

The evidence for the appearance of Anglo-Saxon housing isn't great as most buildings were of timber construction so little remains of their architecture other than archaeological evidence.  That gives us a good idea of the footprint of the buildings and evidence of the type of construction and the materials used but little or no idea of the look of the finished buildings.  For makers of model buildings that means that they have to look at the best reconstructions of these buildings.  In this case 2D6 based their models on the structures at West Stow Anglo-Saxon village near Bury St Edmunds.   From what I can see on the village's website they are a pretty good reproduction too.  Wattle and Daub is known to have been used and there is good evidence for timber planked structures and that latter style is what 2D6 have modelled.  There is less evidence (that is to say none that I am aware of) as to how they treated the exposed woodwork to preserve it from the elements.  It might have been lime washed or even painted if the building was the hall of a Thegn or an Alderman but for the less wealthy it was probably just as simple to replace planks as they rotted.  I have read that the Anglo-Saxons preferred to use logs split in half as planks rather than flat split logs and the models reflect that.

The Great Hall - Timber walls and a thatch roof

Painting is easy as there is good definition to work with.  The thatch is particularly well modeled which means a simple straw yellow block paint with a wash of Agrax earthshade is sufficient.  The newer the thatch the more yellow the block painting needs to be and the lighter the coat of Earthshade.  The downside to the design is that timber and thatch doesn't create a lot of colour contract for the finished paint schemes, which probably reflects the nature of the original structures really well.  Looking at examples of older thatched buildings in real life shows that the thatch quickly weathers to a dark grey-brown colour. As cut timber weathers to a grey almost silver shade I tried a couple of techniques to break things up a bit.  For the timber I started with a Vallejo Green Brown (70.879) washed with Earthshade and then dry brushed a really heavily thinned Vallejo Sky Grey (70,989) which creates a bit of contract.  I also tried block painting in the Sky Grey and then washing with Earthshade which was OK and had the benefit of being fast but wasn't as nice a finish as the grey dry brush.

The pit dwelling in the centre plus two huts the light thatch gives the best contrast

The photos are a bit lighter than reality as the lighting was a bit harsh.  I should really make a light box!

Cottage with wood shingle roof - the timber walls look lighter here than in reality

I'm reasonably happy with the results and will be buying more of the 2D6 buildings as they are released.  There are palisade sections due for release next which will allow me to create fenced enclosures around a Hall complex.  These were usually ovals so some curved sections would be nice. I should really like to see some wattle and daub versions of the existing cottages and Great Hall too to give a bit of variety.

Lastly if you want to order some for yourself the webshop for 2D6 can be found at https://www.2d6wargaming.com/