Building the Cafe
For a change this French Dragoon Officer will be sitting in a cafe (or inn).
The building will have to be scratch built using mounting board (the thick card that we use to mount my wife’s watercolours before framing).
Measuring the height of a typical 54mm model soldier, adding another third or so for the height of the ceiling gave me the rough height of the card wall that was needed.
The wall had to have a thickness much greater than the thickness of the card, so I cut two sheets and spaced them apart with scraps of card. Then the ends of the wall were sealed with thin strips of card to make it look neater.
I used PVA glue throughout.
Next came the small section of roof. I decided to make it look like a spanish tiled roof as this was to be in Spain during the Peninsular War.
Again, the tiles were cut from mounting card, bent and then glued to make the roof of the cafe.
Using a sharp hobby knife I cut the window opening in the wall, cutting one side of the wall first, and then using this opening as a template to cut through the other side. Frame and window sill were again cut from mounting board and glued in place.
The floor was cast out of plaster of paris and, whilst still wet, the ‘flagstones’ were scribed with a sharp point. These ‘joints’ between the flagstones need to be cleaned up when dry, and the floor will need a lot of weathering.
Now the outside of the wall was given a dirty white wash followed by spatters of mud and dirt.
I have a lot more to do on the outside yet, and will be adding mould/wet patches and possibly a creeper.
Similarly the inside will need a wash of colour. As you can see I have started to add some cracks in the wall as well as some dirty patches that will not look so obvious once they have been partially covered with a coloured wash.