How I make those buidings

I have been promising for a while to put together a guide for how I scratch build those Spanish houses, when I put together the most recent one I took a snapshot at each step.

The main materials are foam-core and a 200mm sq of hardboard. I firstly rough out a quick sketch of what is planned. In this instance I was hoping to use up some offcuts of pantiles so this would be quite wide and narrow.

I then first mark out on my foam-core the basic plan. I used a black Sharpie for this.

Using a sharp knife I cut out all the walls and the apertures for doors and windows. I then back the windows and doors with cardboard - this is a waste bit that was part of a duvet cover wrapping.

I then start to assemble the walls using super-glue and super-glue activator (aerosol in the background).

Once the structure is complete, I cut some 5mm strips of mounting board.

These are cut to length and put over the doors and windows to represent lintels.

I fabricate a chimney from some offcuts of foam-core stuck back-to-back.

This is then stuck to the walls - try to make sure that there are no windows where the fire place would be.

I then cut the Wills SSMP206 pantiles to shape. I use a razor-saw for this.

Once cut out the roof tiles are stuck in place

Next I make a start on the doors. I take coffee stirrers and cut them to length and then split down the middle to make approx 3mm planks.

I build the doors and check that they fit, I don't glue them in at this stage.

I then use full width coffee stirrers to add the roof supports and barge-boards

I then use green-stuff to build the ridge line and fill in any gaps.

The walls and garden area are then given a coat of Vallejo Pumice Gel. I leave some areas of exposed brickwork, drawing in the bricks on the foam-core by pressing down hard with a biro.

The paths and roadways are textured with Vallejo Gel-Denso

Once the texturing is dry the walls are painted with Dulux Dutch Gold

 The doors are painted Beige Brown and then stuck in place. The roofs are painted Saddle Brown.

It is left overnight to dry and then given a liberal wash with Sepia Wash and again left to dry.

I then highlight the rendering with Dulux Dutch Gold.

 I then add a bit of Reeves Sand to the mix and highlight again.

The rendering is finished off with a dry-brush of Reeves Sand

 The base is then painted in Dulux Pebble Moasic (this is a close match to Vallejo Field Drab)

Once the base is dried I drybrush the roofs with Saddle Brown, then add Flat Red and Flat Yellow to highlight.

Adding a touch more Flat Yellow to the final highlight.

 The paths and roadways are painted US Tan Earth.

 I paint the windows a mix of Dark Prussian Blue and Black

The doors and timbers are painted Beige Brown

 And given a couple of highlights adding Pale Sand

The windows are highlighted with a wash of Prussian Blue and highlighted up by adding White

 Finished off with a a few 'slashed' of white on each pane.

Exposed brickwork is picked out in Saddle Brown

 The base is highlighted with Dark Sand

Then a final dry-brush of Pale Sand

I finish off with my usual mix of tufts, scatter and suchlike.