Painting of the Merchant's Shop resin terrain kit produced by Tabletop World
I. Preparation and Assembly
When working on a resin model, begin by cleaning any flash and mould lines from the castings with your modelling knife, file and/or sandpaper. Once you are satisfied with the cleanup, wash all resin pieces with dishwashing liquid and warm water so the mould release agent is removed. Rinse thoroughly. Allow the parts to fully air dry before moving on. Resin kits may have small air bubbles, which must be filled with modelling putty. Apply a light coat primer.
The Merchant's Shop pieces had next to nothing to clean up, and no bubble holes I could find. I washed it s per instructions and primed it black.
This piece of terrain is made so that the roof and the storeys are removable, enabling models to enter the house during a game. The entire interior is detailed, with wooden floors, plastered walls, doors and windows. The house can be all glued together if one so wishes, or left as it is. The only part that actually has to be glued is the balcony, but I decided to leave that till after the painting since it would prevent me from reaching the door that’s behind it.
With everything cleaned up and primed, I moved on to painting.
II. Stone
Since the most of the house's surface is stone, this was the first thing to paint. All of it first got a coat of Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey. I decided to paint some of the stones in a lighter colour, to make it look more natural and visually interesting. So I picked some stones and gave them a coat of 2:1 Citadel Rakhart Flesh and Mechanicus Standard Grey. To highlight both of the stone colour variants, I just added some more Rakhart Flesh to each mix. The next step was a wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade diluted with Lahmian Medium. When this was completely dry, I slightly drybrushed ach stone with Citadel Ceramite White (very, very dry) to accentuate the stone's texture.
III. Wood
The wood too has a very pronounced texture, with deep grooves. This sort of surface lends itself well to drybrushing, so if a person wishes to paint this up quickly it can be done that way. However, I wanted to avoid the overly messy look drybrushing brings.
For most of the wooden surfaces my process was the same, but with slightly different colours depending on the area.
I'll explain the general idea on this first storey door. The basecoat was Citadel Gorthor Brown (two coats were necessary to get solid colour). This got a wash of Agrax Earthshade. The next step was a lighter mix , some Citadel Mournfang Brown with Vallejo Cobra Leather. This coat was applied with the flat of my brush, following the direction of the wood grain- and the paint was caught mainly on the raised surfaces. This was followed by a couple highlights with more and more Cobra Leather. These were applied with a smaller brush, following the direction of the wood grain. The final highlight has a bit of Rakhart Flesh mixed in.
When the wood of the door was finished, I repainted all the metal bits- the doorknob, the metal railing and the nails black. After a solid coat of Citadel Ironbreaker, I washed first Agrax Earthshade and then Citadel Nuln Oil. When this was dry, I added highlights of Runefang Steel. Done.
The beams, other doors and window frames and panes were done in much the same manner . There are plenty of nails scattered all over these, so one has to be careful not to miss any of them.
For the wooden shingles on the roof I went towards more reddish browns; starting from a 1:1 mix of Mournfang Brown and Gorthor Brown, and going up to a mix of Skrag Brown with Vallejo Cobra Leather.
IV. Plastered wall
Small bits of wall on the exterior, and all oft he walls inside the house have this sort of finish. I basecoated those areas Rakhart Flesh. It took me three or four coats here, since I worked over a black undercoat. To highlight it, I mixed the basecoat colour with Ceramite White (1:1) straight out of the pot, without any water added. These surfaces are textured as well, so the paint caught up on the raised parts. I defined the edges around the cracks a bit more with an almost pure white. Before moving on, I tidied up a bit. Where different surfaces meet I put a thin black line, and where I accidentally got some white on wood or stone I went back and fixed that.
V. Details
Windows- the basecoat was a mixture of a light grey with just a little Citadel Sybarite Green (some tint was good to set apart the windows from the similarly grey stone). I went from this up to white on each glass of the window. On the windows that have a metal grid I carefully painted it black and then Runefang Steel. I must say the windows on the inside are mighty difficult to reach.
Decorative Metal- the grotesque face and the cross on the house's front and back were done to look like patinated bronze. Thanks to Citadel Nihilakh Oxide technical paint, this was done in two easy steps. First, the two were repainted black, since they got painted over back when I did the plaster. A basecoat of an appropriate colour I mixed myself out of various metallics I had around, followed by a generous amount of the aforementioned Nihilakh Oxide.
Chimney- for the chimney I used the same metal mixture as for the cross and the monstrous face. But I wanted it to have a blackened, sooty finish. So first I dabbed Citadel Typhus Corrosion on it, and then I brushed on some Exhaust Black pigment from Secret Weapon. I also put some of this pigment on the surrounding rooftiles.
Painted door- to add some more spot colour, I decided that the front door will be greenish, with a kind of peeled paint effect. So over the wood of the door I had already painted, I put a coat of Citadel Waagh! Flesh. I left the edges of the door, where the paint would first start peeling, the original wood colour. I proceeded to highlight this up to Sybarite Green. I hand-painted the cracked paint with a detail brush on and near the edges of the green area.
VI. Finishing touches
I added some leaves on the stairs and clumps of moss one the stone in a few places near the ground.
When all was finally done I sealed it with a matt varnish to protect the paintjob. Otherwise it would surely be damaged during play.
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