the Farm

Complete instructions for

building a 28mm farm
complex from scratch
including a
comprehensive list of
resources and materials.

©PRD Ward 2012

www.matakishi.com
 the Farm
the Barn
I'm starting with the barn because it's a simple building to make and should be
completed in no time at all which will hopefully get this project off to a good
start.

There are only four walls to cut out and a base, dead simple. The blank pieces
of cork make this look like a tiny structure but the finished barn is a nice size
and looks the part.

You could go with straight cork of course but I wanted something different and
decided to clad everything in planks. I used coffee stirrers for the planking
which are oversized for actual scale planks if you worry about such things but
look okay to me.

I cut all of my planks to size with my trusty Chopper which saves a huge
amount of measuring and marking up time. I got mine from Antenociti's
Workshop.

The planks have to match the sides of the walls so I cut a set to 60mm length
for the side walls first as these are the straight forward ones (no angles).
Once I had enough planks cut I spread PVA glue onto the wall and stuck them
down.

Some planks had to be cut to fit around doors. I added the matchstick
surrounds first and then just measured the gap. The side door is a small
section of balsa wood scribed with a pencil to simulate planking.
The angled tops of the end walls look more complicated but aren't really. I cut
the planks longer than needed so they overhung and then just sawed off the
excess after the glue was dry.

The top beam of the front opening was just glued on top of the planks at the
end.

Next came the doors. Each was made from three 50mm planks and some
matchsticks cut to 20mm to fit the width.

The doors were assembled on the building so I didn't have to fiddle about
lining up little bits of wood and hoping everything would stay together.

I stuck the planks forming each door onto the front wall either side of the
opening and then glued on the matchsticks.

Then I glued more matchsticks diagonally and trimmed them to size once the
glue was dry. This saved all sorts of complicated measuring and gave a good
effect, the doors look like barn doors to me.
Before everything could finally be assembled I needed to add some supports
for the interior platform. These were positioned 36mm from the ground so that
the platform would be flush with the bottom of the rear doorway.

Finally I glued the walls into their final positions with super glue and some
accelerator.

For some reason the side walls bowed outwards. This was obviously to do with
sticking the planking on but I would have expected them to bend the other
way.

Once all four walls were glued together I added a 60mm plank to each corner
to cover the exposed cork edges of the end walls.
I could have had a charmingly wonky barn but I decided to glue the interior
platform in place rather than have it loose and used this to bring the walls in to
line again.

I did have to paint the inside of the barn underneath the platform before hand
because I wasn't going to get a brush in there after everything was stuck.

I use basic household emulsion for a lot of my building painting as it's cheap
and I can go and pick up a handful of small match pots for each project. I
chose a terracotta for the barn interior as it's a neutral, brownish colour.

Lastly I did the roof. The basic shape is two rectangles of card or similar (I
used Sintra board made from foamed PVC because I had some handy) each
140mm by 60mm. I joined these together with some masking tape on the
underside.

The tape acts as a hinge and allows the roof to sit neatly over the walls.
I cut some cereal packet card into 20mm by 10mm rectangles for the roof
tiles. Again these are oversize but it saves a lot of time with the gluing and still
looks okay to me.
I used PVA to stick the tiles in rows and it didn't take very long at all.

I capped the roof with a strip of thin card, 140mm by 20mm scored along the
middle, to neaten up the centre join, and the barn was finished.
The barn woodwork was painted terracotta and dry brushed with some
Foundry Rawhide 11C to weather it. The roof was painted two shades of
grey and the door frames and planking details were picked out in a very light
grey.
The base was finished with a mix of emulsion paint, sand and PVA glue,
sprinkled with a few patches of larger grit and left to dry. Once the basing
compound is set I dry brush with two sand colours and add patches of static
grass.
 The Farm
the Farm House
The farm house should end up looking like quite a complicated building with its
front and side veranda/porch but it begins life as a simple box with four walls
like most buildings.

Initially the windows were going to be 20mm square with interior wood work
cut to size from matchsticks but I found a box of tile spacers I bought many
years ago to make a gridded floor with (never did that, opened them for this
build six years on). The spacers make perfect windows but they are 18mm
across so I re-cut my four walls which took about half an hour, much less time
than it was going to take to make individual frames for thirteen windows.

I measured initially for 20mm windows then marked up again 1mm inside each
line. The doors remained 20mm x 30mm as usual.
These are the tile spacers, the whole box was about £5.00. They push fit into
the window cut outs snugly.

Using a flat surface and pushing from the outside of the walls meant the
spacers could easily be set flush with the inner edge of each window and a
drop of super glue on the back at each joining point ensured they stayed put.
The windows were finished off with 22mm sills from matchsticks.

Doors were inscribed sections of balsa wood with matchstick frames and
handles. The side and rear door frames needed to extend 13mm below the foot
of the door to overlap the raised base of the building.

I cut down a couple of tile spacers for the small side windows. The chimney is
just a length of balsa wood roughly 20mm x 10mm x 155mm.

I wanted to glaze the windows so I painted the frames and surrounding walls
as I went so as not to get paint on the glass later.

For the actual glazing I stuck rectangles of coloured acetate behind each
window. I used blue acetate for upstairs windows and green for downstairs
ones. I bought this acetate off Ebay a couple of years ago, it wasn't expensive.

I used canopy glue to stick the acetate because it dries quickly and clearly
and doesn't mist. PVA would do as well though.

The last things that needed adding were supports for the interior floor. I cut
them from balsa wood blocks to 46mm to allow a 4mm floor thickness and still
have the floor sitting 40mm down from the top edge of the walls.

On the outside I added supports for the veranda roof from coffee stirrers.
The building sits on a raised base. I added the height with some 9mm thick
cork tile glued to a standard cork tile for the actual floor. A single large piece of
thick cork would have been nice but I used up some off-cuts.
This floor was then glued to the actual base for the model.

Although there is space for a 10mm gap all around in the measurements I
offset it towards the right and the rear to allow more room for the chimney and
the front steps.

Assembling the building was very simple. The chimney, floor supports and
overlapping door frames at the side and rear helped keep the walls in position
for gluing.

I was sparing with the glue so as to minimise the chance of misting the
windows with super glue fumes.
Finally I cut an interior floor to size and glued it on top of the supports with
PVA (again to avoid misting the windows).

I didn't want the bottom floor of the building to be accessible as it's quite a
reach down to place figures and big hands can easily break small buildings. An
open upper floor allows enough figure placement for games.

The roof was another simple component.

I cut two rectangles of Sintra board (mounting card will work just as well)
and joined them with a strip of masking tape which formed a hinge.

The indent for the chimney was marked up with the roof in place and then cut
out.
Before I could check the veranda/porch roof was going to fit correctly I had to
make the supporting posts. I marked the positions by eye and pre-drilled the
holes with a pin vice.

I used bamboo skewers for the posts, they're strong and cheap and available
from most supermarkets. I marked them just above their points to give me a
ground level and then measured 40mm further along for the cutting marks.

Once they were trimmed to size I inserted the pointed ends into the pilot holes
and hammered the posts in to the correct depth. I secured them with a dab of
super glue.
The porch roof was made from a rectangle of sturdy card 90mm x 190mm with
a 40mm x 140mm section removed. The roof angle was achieved by scoring
the diagonal as shown below.
At this point everything looked good and I moved on to the tiling.

I cut the tiles/shingles from cereal packet card as for the barn. I made them
20mm x 10mm again to reduce the time it would take to make and stick them.
The individual tiles were stuck with PVA and the edges were finished with strips
of thin card.

After everything is painted the porch roof will be glued in position but the main
roof will not be stuck so it can lift off to allow access to the top floor of the
house for figure placement during play.
Finally I added some steps by each door and at the front of the veranda from
thin strips of cork and the farm house was complete.
I painted the farmhouse using very similar colours to the barn so that they had
a uniform appearance and looked like they belonged together.

The base was finished in an identical way as well.

The lucky country folk move into their new home. These are 28mm figures
from Britannia Miniatures.
 Surrounding
Structures
the Small Stuff
I haven't provided plans for these as I didn't do any other than making a
sketch or two. Everything is straight forward, all the buildings are made form
cork, coffee stirrers and matchsticks, just like the bigger ones. The rickety
fencing is from Fenris Games and I thought it made a nice change from
standard planked fencing from more coffee stirrers which I would have used if
this wasn't available.

Here are the preliminary sketches I made, as you can see there's not much to
them because I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted.
A cattle shed, another shed for the goats, a chicken hutch and a pigsty. All are
based on 150mm x 100mm bases.

The chicken hutch has a piece of corrugated plasticard for a roof but
everything else is from materials used in the construction of the main two
buildings.

These little extras are a good way to use up any off cuts you may have lying
around.
the Cattle Shed

The cows here are from Mega Minis. The goats and pigs are from Amazon
Miniatures and are sadly no longer produced. The chickens are from Black
Cat Bases.
the Goat Shed

the Chicken Hutch

the Pigsty

All the bases have been finished with my basing compound of emulsion paint,
sand and PVA, sprinkled with patches of grit, dry brushed with two shades of
sand paint and finally embellished with patches of static grass.
The Boathouse and Jetty

The boathouse stands entirely on the water surface and the jetty makes the
transition over the edge of the lake terrain piece and down to the table surface
which is why it has an extra step at the back end.
The lake itself is just a piece of hardboard with an edging of my basing
compound.
The optional island is just a stand of trees I already had. I also allowed for the
lake to join up with my existing river sections instead of being just a big
isolated puddle.

The boats are resin models from Minimi Miniatures.

 Resources
Materials
Apart from standard stuff like glue and card which most people have to hand I
used only a few specialist materials to make this project which makes it ideal
for a beginner.

Below is a list of everything I used that should be freely available from craft,
hobby or DIY shops.

Cork tiles I use cork because it's so easy to work with. If you can't find 4mm
cork flooring tiles near you (don't use notice board cork) you can substitute
foam board or Sintra board or even cardboard (from boxes).

Thick cork tiles you can use notice board cork for these.

Hardboard I use this for some bases but either cork, MDF or any of the
substitutes listed above will do as well.

Mounting board thick card from art shops. I used Sintra board as a substitute
for these builds in most cases because I was given some, normally mounting
board would be my standard roof material.

Coffee stirrers which you can buy off eBay very cheaply.

Matchsticks without the igniting bit on the end are available from hobby
shops.

Balsa wood or bass wood is sold in most hobby and craft shops.

Tile spacers are available in all DIY shops.

Thin card can be cut from cereal boxes.

Masking tape is available everywhere. Any tape will do really.

Acetate sheet can be obtained from art shops. If you don't want coloured
acetate but still want glazed windows you can cut up blister packs.

Bamboo skewers are sold in supermarkets by the barbecues.

Textured plasicard corrugated card would have done as well.

Tools
Super glue accelerator can be bought as a spray or in a pump pot from
specialist hobby suppliers, it isn't necessary in most cases but does speed up
the drying time and give standard super glue instant grab.

Super glue is everywhere, try to get thin, runny stuff not gap filler.

PVA glue or white glue can be bought from hobby shops, art shops, school
shops etc.

Canopy glue is designed to glue fast and clear with no misting but PVA is just
as good here.

Box cutter I use a Stanley knife, there are other makes.

Scalpel or an X-acto, any sharp hobby knife will do.

Scissors strong kitchen scissors are best.

Metal ruler for cutting.

Plastic ruler for marking up, transparent is best.

Pencil to mark up. You can use biro if you want but it will show through all
paint.

Razor saw for cutting coffee stirrers and balsa wood.

Mitre box for sawing straight, usually comes with a razor saw and is
inexpensive.

Pin vice a small hand held drill available form hobby shops.

The Chopper is for cutting things to the same length. It's not cheap at around
£30.00 but it's worth the investment if you plan to do this sort of thing more
than a couple of times. It saves time, fingers, other blades and often my
sanity.
Special Stuff
I only used one pre-made item for this project and that was the rickety fencing
from Fenris Games. I try and avoid using manufactured items but sometimes
it's unavoidable. In this case I could have made my own fences but I wanted
an excuse to use the Fenris fencing.

Fenris Games:
www.fenrisgames.com

I buy many of my hobby supplies, including The Chopper, from Antenocitis

Workshop. They provide a fast and reliable worldwide mail order service and
attend many British wargames shows where you can view their great range in
person.

Antenocitis Workshop:
www.antenocitisworkshop.com

The miniatures in the pictures come from a number of sources.

Britannia Miniatures:
www.britannia-miniatures.com

Black Cat Bases Ltd:

http://blackcatbases.com

Mega Miniatures:
www.megaminis.com