Manor House Workshop

MATERIALS - TECHNICAL INFO AND HOW TO HANDLE THEM

Manor House Workshop products are made by three different materials:

All the walls are made in Atoplast.
The Atoplast is a mix of ceramic and resins with a dark grey color and a nice look and feel that remember the real stone.
It's really hard and broke with a clean cut so it can be repaired using PVA glue after wetting the two parts. The joint will be almost invisible but if you like the effect you can accentuate the crack with a small chisel. On the other side if you want to create a ruined building you can broke the Atoplast parts using a robust pincers. (in this case take care to protect your eyes because the operation can cause small splinters) The removed parts can be used as rubbles near the ruins.

All other pieces (doors, roofs and small details) are done using resin or metal.
If you want to modify the resin pieces you have to use a small modeling saw or clippers.
The clippers are the best choice for the metal parts too and you can also use some small iron files.

ONCE OPENED THE BOX...

Check all the different parts, you can clean the small defects using some sandpaper folded around a wood piece or with a small file if you have some bigger flashes to trim.

Use a square to check that all the walls are perpendicular and fit well together.

HOW TO GLUE THE PARTS

Atoplast - use some PVA glue or some other aliphatic glue (do not use cyanoacrilate glues) after a pass with a brush soaked with water. This avoid the absorption of the glue by the Atoplast because this material is really porous and dry.

Resin and metal - first of all wash the parts with dish washing liquid to remove the oil used to detach the pieces from the mould an then use epoxy or cyanoacrilic glues.

BASE COATING

when you have mounted the kit parts (at least the main parts, my advice is to leave apart, paint all the small pieces like shutters, doors, grates etc.. and then add them to the kit later) you have to paint all the parts in Atoplast with a base coat of 80% water and 20% PVA glue. You can add some concentrated tempera colors black or dark brown (you can find it in the Do It Yourself stores). This mix will give a good dark base for the next step and you need to leave it dry well (at least 12 hours).

Use a dark brown or black acrylic color to base coat the metal and resin parts (remember to wash them well with dish washing liquid if you don't have already done it). The pieces are ready for the next step after 12 hours.

HOW TO GET REALISTIC PAINTING

It's not so easy to obtain realistc effect reproducing stones, bricks, metals and other natural materials, but's not impossible, of course! With some hint and some pratice you too can made them.
To help you, we prepared some how-to article and step-by-step descriptions (with photographs) into the "Editorials" page. Anyway, here below you'll find some short description on how to obtain good results with the most popular materials.
Have fun!

The "Dry brush" technique

The dry brushing technique is used because it's simple to learn and gives good results also at the first attempts First of all you need some old or cheap brushes, round or flat and with different sizes, you can use those synthetic brushes sold in most stores. The sizes goes from 0,5 to 2,5 cm. but you can use bigger or smaller brushed for some parts.

Then you need some acrylic colors, we use the Vallejo colors and all the references in this guide are done using the Vallejo names and codes. You have also to use some sheets of blotting paper or even better a cotton rug. Pour some color in a old ceramic dish and take a bit of it with the brush. Then rub it on the paper or the rug to remove the excess of color and pass it on the kit with light and fast passes. The color left on the brush will concentrate on the raised parts and on the corners. In some time you will learn how to create different effect using more or less pressure and color on the brush.

How to paint a wall or a stone floor

Starting from a dark base as previously mentioned you have to dry brush the surface of the building using lighter colors. You can start from a Vallejo Flat Brown 984 and continue with a Yellow Ochre 913 then use lighter passes of Sunny Skin Tone 845, Light Flesh 928, Beige 917 and end with a Light Grey 990. Soon you will learn by experience and then try new colors to obtain results similar and even better than ones you can see in my pictures. When you are working don't clean the brush between two colors, this helps mixing the various shades that will become lighter and lighter.
Another trick is to clean more the brush when you paint the lighter colors. In this way the brush will leave less color on your building to end with the grey (the last step) that will be visible only on the edges. At the end of this step you will get a surface where all the colors are blended together and all the edges are evidenced by a light color.

how to paint bricks, shingles, shutters, wood parts and fired brisk pavings.

To obtain a quick bricks effect start with a Black base and then Vallejo Red Leather 818 painted evenly on all the surface and leave it dry for 20/30 minutes. Then get a chip brush, cut the bristles at half length to make them harder and use it to tap the various colors on the surface you need to paint. The colors to use with the Red Leather 818 are Bright Orange 851, Sunny Skin Tone 845, Beige 917 and Light Flesh 928. Put a small drop of every color on a old ceramic dish and then dip the point of the brush in a random color. You have to rub the excess of the paint on a clean zone of the dish (don't use the rug because you have to use more color on the miniature)and then tip the zone changing often color. In this way the different colors will blend together giving to the surface the characteristic look of the old bricks.

For the shingles you have to use the same colors but with the usual dry brush method.

The shutters, doors and wood part needs a smaller brush and you have to paint them with a bit more color (rub the brush on the dish instead of the rug). At the end you can dry brush a lighter pass with Light Flesh 928 to blend all the colors together without cover them.

How to paint metal

For metal parts like hinges, handles, guns etc.. you have to start from a black base and then dry brush them using colors like Vallejo Silver 997, Bronze 998, Gunmetal Grey 863 etc.

The gold parts need a different base like a Vallejo Yellow Ochre 913 or a Orange Red 910, in this way the gold painted using Vallejo Gold 996 or Old Gold 878 will be more intense.

Remember to use a different brush and water container when you paint using metallic colors because they leave some particles that you can transfer in your flat colors with a bad effect.