Shingle Shack and Shifty Shed 04

Lets skip the part where the attachments to my frets were too fine, and the pieces fell out--is that cool with you?  In any case, next step was to cut the well fretted walls.  I designed the boards such that marks representing nail holes would line up with the framing.  The boards are separate, but are joined by paper bridges that will be later hidden by trim.  Some boards were deliberately separated from others in groups so that they would end up with different paint characteristics.  Everything was cut from "railroad board", AKA poster board. 

The entire thing is essentially a stack model.  I drew it as a set of elevations, and then extrapolated the layers from there, accounting for material thicknesses, plus a little tolerance at the corners.  I was excited to skew the window frame at a slightly different angle than the walls--I did not want a "perfect" plastic window in a structure that I designed to lean.

Oops, forgot to mention that. . . the Shifty Shack leans in two directions, as if the prevailing wind consistently hit one corner.  I also left the triangulated portion of the roof square to one side, as it would remain, while leaning the walls below--a subtle detail, but something I can scarcely ignore having seen this sort of thing in the field. . . 

After a spray painting with "Chocolate brown", I proceeded to paint the walls with acrylics.  The spray paint is an important step, as it seals the paper.  That said, I let it soak in, and apply just enough to color it brown--not so much it sits on the surface.  

Rewind 20+ years: one of my illustration teachers taught me to water color on hot press (smooth paper).  The paint stays wet longer, and pigment settles out in interesting ways.  You can easily apply and lift paint.  While not the same, I used pretty wet streaks of white, black, and burnt sienna paint on the wall.  It was applied and removed with a fan brush that I attacked with an Exacto. . . Anyway, I always say a thank you to Fritz for showing me how he handled paint--it was an eye opener that impacts me subtly to this day.  

On to assembly!

You can see in the following photos how the separated boards keyed together.

The paint looks a little rough there, but when trim is applied with other details, your eye does a lot to complete the illusion of weathered boards.  The representations of the locations where nails might be present (I don't dare call them nail holes" help I think.  It adds a bit of detail to something otherwise utterly simple.