TUTORIAL - Painting a Basic Log Cabin

Hi all! During display games at various war gaming shows I've received a few comments on the buildings I've painted so I thought I'd put together this tutorial on how to paint a basic log cabin which will look great on your board.

The  building I started off with was fine but some of the colours were a bit off for a log cabin; notice the grey in the roof which you normally wouldn't find in wood. 

I start off by base coating the entire building except the chimney with a java bean; a Wilkinson tester pot, although any dark brown will do.

For terrain and buildings, I recommend purchasing tester pots or standard acrylic paint as it's much cheaper than wasting your favourite pot of 'chosen brand' miniature paint. It's surprising how much paint you actually need, especially the more detailed, textured varieties. 

Once dry, I use beasty brown to dry brush the entire building. You only need a little colour so remember to dab off excess paint. 

I then dry brush again but with a lighter shade. This time I go for a orange/brown called scrofulous brown.

I also base coat the chimney using German Grey. 

Finally, I dry brush the chimney a lighter grey;in this case I used Luftwaffe Uniform WWII.Then I used a slightly watered down ink; Strong Tone, to wash the entire building. This helped bring back some of the details from dry brushing and toned down the colours. After these stages, you will be able to add more weathering or plant details if you'd like to make your building fancier but I hope this has helped cover the basic steps. 

As a recap, these are the paints I have used: 

Wilkinson Tester Pot ~ Java Bean (102)

Game Colour ~ Beasty Brown (72.043)

Game Colour ~ Scrofulous Brown (72038)

Model Colour ~ German Grey (70.995)

Model Colour ~ Luftwaffe Uniform WWII (70816)

Army Painter Ink ~ Strong Tone