Details of British Commando paint scheme used by Paintedfigs.com (for reference)

Uniforms

Basecoat - Vallejo English Uniform
Shade - Vallejo Saddle Brown
1st Highlight - GW Kommando Khaki / Vallejo English Uniform (50:50)
2nd Highlight - GW Kommando Khaki

The remainder of the under-strength platoon, yet to be based.

So Ive drawn all the plans or the Dutch Church and opted for a conventional rectangular affair with a spire at one end, and to add some interest a pair of later additions in the form of a small side room, roof and porch on the West side and a oblong room with door on the East.

Overall the church building when combined with the graveyard and retaining walls will be a substantial build which will take sevarl weeks to complete so planning the detail is crucial.

I ve started marking out the materials and have settled on a predominantly foamcore and card constuction, with balsa wood and plastikard detailing. The spire will be the most difficult part as I want a typically fat bottomed roof seen on many Northern European churches, so I am probably going to use HD blue foam, carve it to the approximate shape and then add cardboard to the faces.

One problem I did forsee was how to achive good looking recessed doorways, and have decided on cutting a bigger hole than required in the foamcaore and then from the back progressively filling the hole in 2 stages with smaller pices of card to create that stepped look you get on many churches. The cardboard mock up below shows my thoughts in rough format.

The windows dont need such detail and will have a single insert to create a single lip. As for stained glass, I am currently scratching my head as the best way to achieve this, perhaps colour photocopying on to OHP sheets?

To ensure continuity I ve decided to paint all my buildings of similar age and construction at once, so the 1st town hosue which is nearing completion will be painted with 3 or 4 others in weeks to come. As the building of the 1st town house comes to a close (just the roof to finish), my mind has turned to the next building in the fictional Dutch town, the church. The church is going to be a central part of the town , and also important for game play as the tower will have a commanding view and will no doubt become home to a sniper or a MG42 at some point.

After looking around the net I realied that Northern European churches are very similar, although those in the Netherlands often have distinctive fat bottomed spires as opposed to the typical British Tower. I am going to plump for using a combination of photos of English churches and borrowed bits from the web to come up with my ideal church and graveyard.

I'm lucky i live less than 2 miles from a very interestig typical English c16th village church, so I nipped up there at lunchtime yesterday and took a few photos to get a feel for the structure. This weekend I am working on some drawings and plans to see if I can come up with something I am happy with. The pics above shows my initial thoughts about the West side, both with and without the all important tower & spire. Below pics of my local church, and the last 2 St Severinus in Grathem, copyright http://www.archimon.nl/, a very interesting site and useful resource on religious architecture in the Netherlands:

New camera....had to try it on something....