This originally appeared as a thread on Bluesky where I documented the process of building and painting a model Blacksmith’s house incorporating the Blacksmith forge set which I bought from Iron Gate Scenery a couple of years ago at UK Games Expo. I’ve reedited the whole piece with additional details, so I hope it will be helpful to anyone embarking on a similar scratch build project.

Whenever I begin a project like this, I start by drawing a template for the wall sections on graph paper.

This can then be translated onto a sheet of foam board by marking the corners with pins. For scaling wall height, I use a 28mm miniature or a premade door if I'm using them. Regardless of the overall complexity of the appearance of a building, it really is only a series of boxes, and this applies just as much to a simple house as it does to something more elaborate like my Wizard’s Tower.

The pieces are then trimmed out with a new scalpel blade and the shell is built, gluing the sides with PVA and holding it in place with pins (these can be pulled out with pliers and reused once the glue is set). I tested the overall look by placing the blacksmith forge in situ.

The base piece for the roof is made with a piece of thin card. I chose to use readymade pieces from Zealot Miniatures and Spellcrow for the door and chimney. The door is designed as a free-standing dungeon door (I have a whole set to replace the card doors of my HeroQuest game. I sawed and sanded the back side to flatten it, then superglued both the door and chimney in place.

I intended the ground floor to be stone (as it made sense to me that you wouldn’t have a blazing forge butted up against a timber and plaster wall!), and the upper floor will be half-timbered, so I added a timber frame with balsa wood and made a couple of windows as I went along, using car body repair mesh for the leading. To add a bit of character to the timber, I shaved off random corners with my scalpel so it resembled wood that had been shaped with an axe.

I made the roof slates with thin card (recycling a GW box from a commission project) cut into strips with a scalpel and snipped with scissors, with a length of folded card for the ridge.

I made more snips and nicks in random slates to represent damage and weathering. I also made a couple of windows ready to add to the ground floor.

For the stonework on the ground floor, I rolled out air-dry clay with a textured rolling pin, applied it to the walls with a layer of PVA to hold it, & trimmed it flush to the edges with a palette knife.

I placed the ground floor windows where I wanted them and then trimmed around them with the palette knife so the square of clay could be removed and the window sunk into place.

I bought a few pre-cut 3mm MDF terrain bases from Warbases, so I’ve used one to base the whole piece, leaving enough room around the sides for adding other details.

I painted the upper wall panels with a Vallejo texture paint - Polyfilla, sand/PVA mix, or other methods are just as good for this.

Once everything was dry, I took the model outside to spray it black with Colour Forge primer.

To add the base colours to the model, I used my airbrush for the speed and economy of paint, but this can easily be done by hand. I painted the roof Blue Grey, and the upper floor Mahogany, before applying Light Umber, Yellow Brown and Olive Flesh to the plaster panels, concentrating on the centre of each panel (this can also be done by stippling or dry brushing, but I carefully applied the paint with my airbrush). Paints used are Pro Acryl.

The main technique I used for the next stage is dry brushing to pick up the texture of the stone, wood and slates. I've also picked out random stones in terracotta and brown.

 I applied Vallejo ground texture to the base with a small palette knife, which has a flexible blade and can easily be worked into the awkward gaps around the forge etc.

 When I was at UK Games Expo I bought a few extra crates and Barrels from Iron Gate Scenery (IGSMinis) to add to the build to give it some life-like clutter. These have been basecoated Mahogany and drybrushed with browns and greys, with Steel for the barrel hoops.

Once the barrels, crates etc. were superglued in situ, I applied an oil wash to most surfaces of the building. I've also used Dirty Down moss and rust for additional weathering. For protection, I gave the whole model a spray of Matte Varnish. The last step was to add some tufts and flowers.

I've made sure to keep the graph paper plan, as this can then be used as the template for as many houses as I fancy building in the future, and I can easily make adjustments to change the roof alignment, add dormer windows or extensions, so as to make homes, shops, tollhouses and the like.