The first of the Grand Manner buildings Ive managed to finish is the humble (although quite large) Prussian barn. As I think you can see from the images above, the model is perfectly detailed, with excellent looking wooded frame and straw roof. I should also say that this model required next to no preparation at all, as there were no air bubbles or flash on it.
I fiddled a bit more than usual trying to find the best way to paint all that detail relatively efficiently. In the end this turned out to be a standard base coat-shading wash-highlight, with the highlighting being partly drybrushing. If you want to pick out the framing and give the buildings something of the paint job they deserve, this will have to take some hours to do, no matter how fast you are. One thing I did do to speed things up was use a spray varnish. I used Winsor & Newtons all purpose matt varnish, which worked perfectly. The only difference to the brush on variant was that this product results in a slightly less matt finish. But there was nothing of the dreaded frosting (which I have had with other brands!).
At one point, I started doing a second highlight on the wood, but I abandoned this halfway through the left hand side wall. This would just have taken too long, and would not necessarily have looked that much better. In the end, I am happy with the result, and hope to do the rest soon enough. Another building (the cottage) is already base coated.
Pancratist 