Giving simple MDF buildings a makeover!

Things have been quite hectic around here this past couple of weeks, as domestic manoeuvres have taken priority. Our middle daughter Jess and her partner Blake have moved out of our house and into a place of their own, in time for Christmas. They are very happy and the house is now once again quiet and feels very empty. Although we miss Granddaughter Lily's smiling face each morning it's great to see them settled. Of course there is still one to go, youngest daughter Chloe who is 15 and keeps things lively at home!

So the upshot is that I will again have the freedom to set up the full 6 x 4 table downstairs using the TSS 'spacesaver' boards I bought a few months back, to which I intend to add the matching hill system that gives a lot of scope for layouts. In order to break up the park like appearance of the bare boards I plan to make lots of terrain features that can be placed. I'm going to work on the field system, texturing the carpet tiles to look more realistic and varying the shape and size.

My current job (aside from shifting furniture about) is to base and tart up the MDF buildings that I have. I decided to start with the four 'Arcane' buildings, nice simple and relatively cheap kits designed for Flames of War base sizes, using the garden bases that you can buy with them. As you can see I painted them first (a touch colourful I know), and then textured the bases around them. I started with my standard earth flock then added patches of static grass once dry. I then went slightly mad with the flower strips, adding borders etc. The final touches were to add climbing 'Ivy' using the Noch leaf material that I think works wonders in order to disguise some of the joins, and then a few drilled out bullet holes on exposed walls. I might paint the doors and frames in due course, but for now I'm happy with the overall look. I'll print a couple of suitable signs for the shops and stick them on.

Next I have four more MDF buildings by '4Ground'. These as you might expect are more detailed MDF models and come pre coloured. I actually bought these as a job lot via eBay so they were ready assembled and nicely finished, they are mostly collapsed buildings, with partial roofs etc for contrast. I really like playing around with MDF buildings and dressing them up.

Pictures show the almost finished Arcane shops and cottages on modular bases, I will repaint those back gates brown I think, but overall I'm happy with the result.

These are the excellent 15mm 4Ground models, same size and scale as the Arcane cottages but far more detailed (and more expensive) as you can see. I'll enjoy basing these up.