Demonsub goes all in with Sláine

The Sláine starter set comes with an mdf kit from Sarissa Precision for two small roundhouses and some wattle fences. Earlier this year I built one of their larger roundhouse kits so I wasn’t going in completely blind.

The kit comes with instructions and building them isn’t too difficult but the result can be quite basic. As the roof of a roundhouse is quite prominent I used a green scouring pad for the roofing material. I like the look of this when painted as rather than looking like straw thatch it looks more like sod or coarser material that just looks more Iron Age to me. The kit comes with instructions for doing this and I used some of the tips from these but did some things my own way.

The first picture shows the cardboard roof before it’s folded and glued onto the mdf frame. It just about fits a standard sized Tesco own brand scouring pad.

The only cut I used here was to cut out a wedge so the pad could be folded into a cone to fit the roof. I would trim the overhanging parts later when glued. I found scissors to be the best for cutting the pad.

With plenty of thick pva glue onto the cardboard (and the cardboard already glued to the mdf frame and dried) I used spring clamps to hold the pad in place overnight. I did get a few impressions in the pad afterwards once the clamps were removed but these can be hidden later. There’s also the join where the pad was folded together running down the roof. This will be hidden and disguised later.

While the roof was drying I used all purpose filler to plaster the walls of the roundhouses both inside and out. Just a thin coating to add texture and hide a few seams.

I used a mix of cheap brown artists acrylic paint mixed with sand and pva glue to add a little extra texture to the roofs but also do add the sand mix down the seam lines to help disguise them. I also painted this same mix onto the floor of the roundhouses.

The first picture shows the roofs after one coat of brown paint mixed with pva glue and a little water. I used the artist’s paint rather than expensive miniature paint. The scouring pad absorbs a lot of paint so this is the first coat. I also left plenty of time for it to dry.

I painted the walls using pale yellow. You’ll notice that once dried, the roofs start to look green again as the paint is absorbed into the scouring pad.

The walls were given a wash of diluted agrax and then drybrushed with a light bone colour, along with the doors and the mdf fencing.

After their initial coat of paint the roofs were painted in a dark brown then drybrushed in the same light bone colour as the walls.

I added static grass to finish off the terrain. This is the final disguise for any remaining marks on the roof that all of the sand and painting failed to hide.

Here is the new terrain from the starter set along with the large roundhouse and the granary that I previously built earlier this year. I’m quite happy with the finished results and I think I’ve got a great looking village for Sláine to defend against the Druins.