Pegasus Hobbies makes two set of 1/72 scale Russian village buildings. I picked these up a number of years ago and painted them up. There are two different sets and I picked up two of each. The buildings actually work well for 28mm gaming also, so I saw them as a two for!
The buildings all come as multi part plastic model kits and are easy to put together. I chose not to glue the roofs on, so I could remove them for gaming and give other options (more on that in another article). When glueing the walls on, it is best to “sit” the roof on top, just to ensure the walls dry straight.
I then sprayed them all gray and followed that up with a dip of dark brown Krylon wood sealer for the shading. That takes some time to dry, but does give a good sealer coat the fills in gaps. I then dry brushed all the wood with a couple shades of gray.
Next I picked out the window and door frames and wet brushed them with various colors to add some character. I went with the wet brush approach to give some aging affect. I did the same with the various chimneys.
Then came the thatch on the roofs, I hit these with brown and dry brushed them up. All sealed with Dull Coat. I have actually been using the buildings for quite some time (you may have seen these in earlier battle reports). However, I was never really happy with how the roofs looked and though the painted wood needed a little more aging. So, I pulled them out of the box last week and went to work.
The first step was hitting all the thatch with a GW Agrax Earthshade wash. This darkened the thatch and gave it much more relief. I then hit all the roofs with a Vallejo Iraqi sand dry brush to add a little yellow. I then hit all the colored areas with a very light dry brush of grey to help age them a little more. A little work and I am much happier with the look. Just goes to show, it does not take much to freshen up some old terrain you are not happy with. A wash here and there and some dry brushing and it comes out just like new!
These particular buildings from Pegasus Hobbies are just fantastic. Easy to build, with hardly any flash and affordable. Easy to paint and great on the table top! Due to the door size, they work great for both 20mm and 25/28mm gaming. If you do not need to go inside, glue the roofs on. If you want the option for skirmish, leave them off! Perfect for wood Eastern European buildings!
- Manteuffel