Build and Paint Guide

Guidelines

This page is a set of tips to building a Tudor half timbered house whilst painting the bits as you go along.

The guidelines here do not focus on the actual method of building the specific house, but rather the guidelines discuss how I approached painting and building all of the houses used on my own gaming table.

On Or Off The Sprue?

When painting the components before gluing, some can be left on the sprue for painting and some can be removed.

There is no best way, but it is really a matter of choice. If you prefer to paint the components on the sprue then please do so!

Some components are however easier to paint after they have been attached to another bit, thus making a sub-assembly.

Interior Walls and Floor

If I am going to paint the interior of the building, I will start with the interior walls and the floor.

The walls can be easily painted on the sprue.

To make the colour of the floor a bit more interesting, I sometimes add a bit of red into the mix.

While the walls and floor are drying, the decorative beams can be painted. I find it best to remove the beams from the sprue.

My usual colour of choice for the decorative beams is a dark brown, best to decide which you think you want to have as the contract to the exterior wall colour.

Black beams work very well with a white wall colour. For a warmer finish, I like a mustard type wall colour with dark brown beams.

Once the paint is dry, the floor edge can be glued to the walls. I do not used too much wood glue, it is usually enough just to put a bit between each of the tabs.

Once the walls have been glued to the floor, I use an old slightly wet paint brush to smear any excess glue along the join.

Any stains left over actually add to the interior appearance once they have dried.

If the building has an external step, I suggest painting the wall where the steps attach the same colour as the beams or steps.

The next step is to paint the exterior of the building. In this example I am using white, but any cream or light colour works really well.

A light colour may take a couple of coats to cover the MDF.

I find it is best to paint the windows next, I use black for these.

Try to keep the paint within a couple of millimetres of the window edge, the decorative beams will conceal about 3mm of the window edge.

Once all the paint is dry, the decorative beams can be added. Just add enough glue to the back of the beams so they will stick securely.

The damp paintbrush can be used to get rid of any excess glue.

Add the beams to all of the sides.

…getting rid of any excess glue as you go.

I usually dry fit the door at this stage. This just means NOT gluing the door lintel in place yet. It can take me a while to decide what colour to paint the door, so having it removeable at this stage is quite handy…

When the beams have dried in place, touch up the corners of the beams.

It is also good to touch up the inside edge of the door frame, either with or without the door in place.

For this build, I kept the door colour a neutral brown. I used a standard wood brown colour so it looks slightly different from the beams colour.

Roof

When the roof frame has been built following the specific buildings instructions, the roof can be painted, ideally the same colour as the rest of the building walls!

A light colour will likely take a couple of coats to get a decent covering. Although it is not necessary to paint the underside of the roof or indeed a floor level, my OCD means that I have too…

The decorative beams are next painted.

The roof support beams need to be painted on both sides.

Add the support beams to the underneath of the roof.

Paint the window black.

Then the gable end decorative beams can be added along with any extra window frames or side beams.

Add decorative beams to a dormer window if present.

Touch up any corners that need it.

The edges on the underside of the roof need some paint before they are glued onto the roof. I like to use a contrasting colour. There is not a huge visible area, so you can out try several colours…

Don’t forget the underside of any dormer roof.

Drydrushing the decorative beams really brings out the detail. A light cream colour or even the same base colour of the house works best for picking out the beam edges.

With the drybrushing/highlighting completed, the roof panels can be glued onto the main roof.

If there are any under eave decorative beams, they can be added now.

The dormer window can be glued to the roof.

When added the dormer roof can then be glued to the dormer structure. Use plenty of glue on the ridges of the dormer structure and along the back edge of the dormer roof.

If you are adding a chimney, use plenty of glue on the underneath of the chimney and choose the location desired.

The roof is done and can be either painted or cardboard tiled, see the following sections.

Painting The MDF Roof

The roof can be painted as is or it can have cardboard tiles added. For more on cardboard roof tiles see here.

Although as shown here, I prefer reds for my roof colour, there are plenty of alternative options, dark browns, black and greys will also work very well.

To add a bit of variety, individual tiles can be picked out in different colours.

I have even tried a purple tile finish.

Cardboard Roof Tiles

The adding of cardboard roof tiles is covered in more detail here.

First Floor

Using the techniques and indeed the colours that were employed on the ground floor and the roof, any extra level is a pretty straight forward build.

Don’t forget it may take a couple of coats to get a good wall base colour.

Inspiration

Way back when I was a kid at Junior school, I remember spending most of a term learning about the Tudor period, what is not to like about Henry VIII and his excessive number of wives. That is when my interest in the period started and it has stuck with me right up to today.

When I started dabbling in laser cut designs, I always wanted to make some half timbered buildings as the external beams really lend themselves to MDF models.

From the leaded windows to the amazing styles and colour contrasts, I have taken bits and pieces from buildings I have seen online and in some old towns in England.