Terrainfest 2024: A True Roman Bakery for True Romans

I enjoy building MDF kits, but I really don’t like painting them. When painting miniatures I rely on the models’ texture to do a lot of the work for me, so when it comes to painting flat pieces of wood I’m at a bit of a loss. I got the base colors down and managed to dull down the too-bright red with a strong tone wash. But when I tried using the wash to add some weathering, the results were…not great.

I spent the next day painting over the wash with the base off-white mixed with just a drop of black and brown to darken it a bit. I started with a heavy drybrush — too heavy as it turned out, I broke my brush — but then just brushed the darker color on, attempting a bit of blending with the original off-white color. I often need to remind myself about table distance, and that the paint jobs really don’t need to be all that detailed, especially with terrain.

I added some detail to the smaller bits which I’m reasonably happy with. The final step before assembly is one I’ve been dreading: the bundles of wheat painted on the front and side of the building. I studied drawing and painting in college, but that was a long time ago and I’m woefully out of practice with doing anything freehand. I dread doing flags and banners and will go far out of my way to avoid it if at all possible.

In this case, since I’m working with a flat piece of wood that’s been painted white, I decided to try it using Prismacolor markers rather than a brush and paint — they’re a lot easier to control and the end result was more or less what I was hoping for.

Next comes the part I actually enjoy, putting the thing together. After that I’ll touch up the paint where needed and call it done!