1/72 Waterloo Farm House
Dated: July 29, 2009.
The old Airfix Farm House is again being produced included in the renewed Warterloo set, but can also be purchased separatly from dealers who break apart the contents of the rather large box.
This isn't a accurate model, however is still usable and strong enough to suit wargamers needs, being easy to assemble and large enough to have many figures placed inside or to give some cover to vehicles.
Being a large model, decided to prime it using a spray instead of brushes after assembling each building, leaving them without the roofs. The buildings are then handled one by one and started to dry brush them before gluing the roof. I also decided to paint it inside because most building have doors or openings and its easy to spot any lack of paint.
The walls are painted with light grey, mixing more white in each layer, and leaving the grey primer visible between the bricks. The roofs are painted in a darker grey and a few small lines of black had been added together with a black wash. These methods increase the dept of texture and improve a rather flat model and allow for future improvements.
The wooden parts are painted with medium brown and washed with black before the whole kit is assembled by gluing the buildings and walls together with instant glue. This old model isn't a perfect fit and needs some putty or glue to disguise small gaps between parts, requiring a few paint touches.
This model should be based, othewise some parts, as walls can bend or even break and I advise to it as soon as possible. The base may be just a wood board, but also the original base, who can also be purchased separatly from the set. I have a couple of the bases, one of them have the modified Coastal Defense, armed with two Hat MLE 1897 guns and other waiting to be glued to a wooden board. These bases are squaded, with 60 cm sides, and cost less than USD 10, but need to be glued to a wooden board to be kept flat.
This is a classic model and still a very useful one. It can be assembled as a single model, but also combined with other farms. The houses can be used alone as a base for a small village and may be placed in scenarios from the Napoleonic period until now.
Nuno M. Cabeçadas
Portugal
Many thanks to Mr. Cabeçadas.