Barn raising completed.

Well Livery Stables actually but let’s not split hairs. I’m calling this build finished.  Internally I added stalls to give cover and outside I have added some scatter terrain in the shape of straw bales (well a horse gotta eat).

The roof tiles before painting

The roof was covered with home-made shingles (timber tiles if you haven’t come across the term before).  These were cut from cardboard as short strips with some irregularities in the tile lengths to create a nice visual effect.  I used a grey card and then painted it yellow ochre using Windsor and Newton galleria artist's acrylic paint.  Over that I painted a thinned Burnt Umber which I immediately rubbed off with tissue paper.  This darkens the yellow ochre and creates areas where lighter paint shows through, creating a worn creosote effect.  The topmost roof I did more to, but I decided that less is more and didn’t replicate the effect lower down.

And after

I then started on some scatter terrain items.  First up are straw bales.  These are simply blocks of balsa painted yellow ochre with finely chopped sisal string glued all around.  I also intend added sisal ‘straw’ into the stalls inside the stabling.  The stalls themselves are bass wood with matchstick bracing.

A few straw bales around the place add character (and cover)

With the roof off you can see the stalls I added

I have started some extra scatter terrain using DAS airdrying clay.  These will be a pile of loose straw and some bags of grain.  I'm just waiting for the clay to dry and harden at the moment to see if these have come out OK.  I am going to need more 'straw though, so you will have to excuse me as I need to nip off and start trimming sisal string into 28mm straw stems!