Getting Dirty on the Scottish Border, The Bastle House Project comes to completion

       I have long suffered from a motivational malady wherein I find it harder and harder to find the will to finish a project the closer it gets to completion. The Bastle House project had become one of those problems. for nearly two weeks it sat untended and unloved. Finally I decided to "act like a grown-up" and finish the project so that I could address even older tasks that were still awaiting completion (like the Wargames Atlantic Partisans). The models were complete and painted, wanting only a dark wash and weathering, so that is what I set myself to do.

       I mixed up a thin wash of black india ink and acrylic floor polish and gave all of the buildings a thorough coat. This toned-down the differences between the individually hand-painted stones in a most satisfactory manner. Fortunately this took long enough that the first items were dry by the time I was finished with the last item (this prevented me from having an excuse to become distracted by some other gadfly-project). The floor polish imparts a glossy surface that makes weathering and highlighting difficult so I then shot the entire collection with a thin coat of Vallejo Matte Spray. This takes quite a while to dry so I called it quits for the night. 

       The next morning I returned to the workshop and mixed a simply silly amount of very pale grey paint which I used to dry-brush over the entirety of the exterior surfaces of the models. This gave the models a more uniform look. I took no pictures of these steps as they were frankly stunningly boring and there are far better instructionals on such subjects than I could provide.

 

then I lost my mind and decided to "add a little moss, here and there"

 

nothing jungle-like or "haunted-house"

 just a little to break up the vast grey walls

 

and the barmkin walls too

 

roofs were not exempt either

 

 

except these two, functional buildings were often thatched with

 lesser quality materials which didn't usually last long enough to grow a decent layer of moss 

 

then I had to add doors to the barbican that controls access to the barmkin

 

and, being little more than a giant nine-year-old, I had to make them function

 

 

the same goes for the iron "yette"

 the metal grate that guards the other side of the barbican

 

but, of course, it works

 

as do the doors into the bastle houses

 

these were a pain to do this late in the process, 

I should have taken care of these during the initial build

 

 

and then everything got a coat of paint

 

 

 

the whole thing set up on my 6x4 foot table

 

I haven't any proper Scots so I used their "next-of-kin" Irishmen  from Wargames Atlantic

 

       This has been another interesting project. I learned a lot of new information regarding the Border Wars, the architecture of the period and the local adaptations to meet the security needs of an area in constant turmoil. Most of the building was pretty straightforward and the few problems were the result of my inordinate haste at the start of things. I hope Zhodani Commando uses the living daylights out of these things, he has done a masterful job of painting the minis that go with this project.