Pimp My Shed

 I was looking at the TT Combat website a while ago, and saw that they were stopping selling a set of Wild West shacks made from MDF. These are pretty basic kits, and nowhere near as sophisticated as their recent terrain. However, they were cheap, and I thought they'd make the basis for a reasonable building.

This is the biggest of the shacks, and the only one I've put together as yet. As you can see, it's a pretty crude thing: the wood is quite thick, and doesn't even meet properly at the top of the roof. The windows are just holes. It was going to need quite a lot of detailing.

First, I stuck a Mantic door on the front. It overhung the base a little, so I cut a strip of MDF off the sprue and attached it underneath like a doorstep. I've had a Mantic forge piece for ages (thanks James P!) but haven't been able to figure out what to do with it. I decided to stick it to the side of the building, to make this into a blacksmith's house.

The forge needed a chimney, so I hacked up an old biro to make a tube to stick on the side of the house. Then I added the barrel of an old Empire mortar (thanks James F!) to the very top, to look like a fancy brick chimneypot. Because the big chimney would presumably only be for the forge, I made another smaller chimney out of plasticard and some spare plastic tubes for the inside of the house.

The roof tiles and timbers were done in the usual way, with squares of card and coffee stirrers. I had to use paper to cover the gaps in the roof, which worked more easily than I'd expected.

The last step was to add an old Mordheim window to the front and a resin window to the side of the small outhouse-part. I'd been keeping an ancient plastic sign (GW, I think) which went on the side to advertise the blacksmith's shop. The metal shield above the door might have come from a Grey Knight, although I'm not sure.

The painting was pretty simple, using the same techniques as my other buildings. The only unusual aspect was the glowing fire in the forge. I painted this black, washed it with white, washed that with yellow and orange, and then drybrushed the coals dark grey.

All in all, it was a fun project and I finally found a use for that plastic forge! Given how primitive the original kit was, I think it's come out pretty well. Amazing what a few details can do!