Progress on Nuenen House #3

This is the first house from my Band of Brothers Nuenen project, but I've called it House #3 based on its map location. I realise that this is nowhere near as exciting for anyone other than me - it's just another MDF kit building - but for me it has grown from an idea into something that is almost ready to place on the wargaming table.

Progress is being made! The roofers need to fit the tiles :-) but all the walls are up and in the process of being finished off. Once I have added the mortar to the bricks on the chimney, I will then affix the pre-cut tiles. Here is one elevation with the base colour painted on and mortar added to the brickwork.

It has taken several weeks to get to this point and I have learned many more lessons on the way, so the next building will inevitably be better and take less time to complete. This was the first piece off the laser cutter, about a week ago; I painted the edges of the internal window frames prior to assembling it just to make it a bit easier.

Here is the interior view of the same piece with the "glazing" added.

And the same piece from the outside.

This shot shows the window cills; it also shows where I forgot to switch on the air assist for the laser cutter when it was engraving the brick courses: it has left a burnt residue!

One lesson: I didn't account for the extra 2mm required for the base, so there are some small gaps where the walls are supposed to slot into place.

Starting to take shape; this is the four internal walls glued to the base.

The first of the exterior walls glued onto the interior face.

And another external wall in place.

Once all the walls had dried, I attached the gable ends and started to paint the base colour. It is quite a bright yellow ("Chueca" from B&Q) when it first goes on, but it does dull down once the "mortar" is applied.

Really starting to look like a house now, with the roof, chimneys, dormer window and decorative brickwork added, plus the base colour painted all over. I've also affixed thin card, again cut to near perfection by the laser, to the bottom of the house beneath the line of the windows. I need to allow for an extra millimetre when cutting due to the thickness of the "kerf".

A close-up shot of one wall. Note that the base colour is not uniformly applied, which is by design because it makes the final brickwork look more natural and weathered.

Once the "mortar" has been applied, it looks a lot more faded ,weathered and irregular.

The last bit of laser cutting I have done for this house was to cut (and then paint) some brick arches to fit above the windows and doors. The mortar needs to be applied to these too, which will lighten the brick colour.

The end is in sight for this building, so I've ordered up some Artizan US paratroopers from Great Escape Games, so that I can take some photos with Easy Company in the foreground.