Buying the Farm: WIP Farmers house

Lots more things to do, colour to add, varnish, tufts etc. Could be done in the weekend, or not for a few weejk as I actually want a tree or 2 to add to it if at all possible. We will see.

Buying the Farm: Machine shop finished

Repair shop finished. It's the Leven IND16 Joinery shop, but now functions as a tool and repair shed for the farm. Container is from Old Crow, junk in the back is from various bits from the sparesbox, and the barrels (which you can hardly see) are from Heroics and Ross ( I think)

 Still clueless how to do other stuff like a Autobahn or even decent roads, but hey, I'll build that bridge when I get there. 

Buying the Farm: Vehicle shed finished

 And after 3 coats of varnish, the vehicle shed is done :) I used some Army Painters small bushes I picked up in a sale a while back, they work rather nice, and some Mininatur moss pads.

WIP vehicle shed (for The Farm)

 I'm working on some other scenery and had some free time, to basecoated the vehicle shed and started work on it. As I'm going for the weathered tin shed look grey primer works great to get work done quickly. A ton of washes and stippling and blowdrying later.....ready for varnish (tomorrow) and finishing (somewhere next week, rather busy atm with stuff for the attic and volunteering work.

So....remember that farm I bought?

Instead of finishing the walls etc (what focus do you speak of, online one?) I've started up the bits and pieces of my farm complex I bought last year. Was it last year? So many projects....

It's going to be a large complex. But on a 6x4 table.....not that large.

I'm scratching every detail that I need for this that I have not bought yet. Need a vegetable garden, some more farm machinery, a couple of containers, a few strips of dirt roads with poplars, and  few more junkers in the backyard, somewhere.

Northag: Buying the farm - Stables - part 1

Well, I seem to have received Nurgle's blessing so not a lot has been done....

Cleaned up what little needed cleaning on my Leven order, gave everything yet another scrub with degreaser and sanded the 4 barns and epoxied them together to make 2. Clipped off the chimney stacks, regrooved the roof in those locations and did a basic infill with greenstuff.

Not much to show for yet, but hey.

Now to scratchbuild 4 silos to go with the stable, 2 for each, and maybe 2 smaller ones as well. Not sure yet, depends how fast I can make then and if I have the right stuff in my styrene shapes for them.

Not very happy with the size of the storage tanks, they are a bit small for what I have in mind, I might replace it with a 1/700 oil tanks from the harbour set I have, and modify that a bit.

The vehicle shed pipe got a cap as a test of the styrene Leven uses for pipes, but it seems to hold up fine. I'll cut a vehicle in half to glue it to the open side for a 3D effect. The single garage is going on the side of the farmers house. The glasshouse and a small shed will go on seperate allotment.

I can't for the life of me remember why I bought the other big shed. Can't find it in my notes either, so for now it is going in the spares bin for later use.

My Scotia order arrived today, and their MiG-21 is miles better than the H&R one, so I now know what will happen to the H&R ones..... The other models are fine, even if I earmarked them as wrecks, but the casts are so good I will order up a few more. I need a few models for other purposes anyway, but more about that later.

Northag: Buying the farm - the actual farm I bought from Leven.

Was pleasantly surprised by the order I made with Leven a while back being handed to my wife (who was a bit less, shall we say, happy about it).

A slow unpack later (everything is individually  wrapped with extra protection on all of the chimneys which is very, very good product care) all the bits are in front of me. Grand total of the order is 30 GBP.

I ordered:
- ACC07 - Garden Accessory Set
- FAR06 - Corrugated Shed
- HOU08 - Detatched Bungalow
- IND03 - Modern Storage Tanks
- IND16 - Joinery Shop
- MIL01 - Airfield MT Workshop (4pcs)

First impression: Leven still makes a great quality product for a nice price. Definately reccomended.

Second impression: The airfield MT Workshops, when viewed from the side, have sag in the front and back. It is a rather large piece and not a major issue, but it is there. The Modern storage tanks, the 2 large ones have the same miscast....but again, no major issue and easily solved with some spare plastic. I washed the pieces in hot soapy water as always, but they were still a bit slippery. I sprayed them with degreaser but after that that it still felt very smooth. With my current "hand-issue" I have a bit of trouble feeling is the resin is just very smooth or still has some mould release on it.

I'll start with the Airfield shops as I want to want to make 4 identical pieces that all have their own feed storage, clean up the very few resin bubbles and then give them a good scrub again, add some details and glue them to nails for painting. But more on that later.

My Leven order; a small review

...came in today, and I'd like to share my experience.

On April the 18th I made an order for the following:

1x CHU02 - Russian Village Church a 1.50

1x CHU04 - Church with spire a 2.00

1x GEN08 - 60's style Garage with Petrol Pump a 1.50

1x IND12 - Eastfield Mill a 2.50

1x IND21 - Shoe Factory a 3.00

1x FAR01 - Farmhouse a 1.50

1x FAR03 - Granary Store a 1.50

1x FAR09 - Tractor Sheds a 1.50

2x HUT01 - Stone 'Oast' Kiln Hut a 1.00 = 2.00

2x HUT02 - Ukrainian Hovel a 1.00 = 2.00

2x HUT03 - Russian Isba a 1.00 = 2.00

2x HUT04 - Ukrainian Timber Hut a 1.00 = 2.00

1x HUT09 - Russian Timber House a 1.50

..for a total cost of 24.50 UK Pounds

On the early evening of the same day I got a confirmation for Leven telling me that they had received my order and they would contact me soon for the invoice.

Just half a day later, on friday the 19th I got another email thanking me for my order plus a Paypal invoice, which I paid at once.

The next day, saturday the 20th, I received my shipping notice

The following models arrived this morning (thursday the 25th), taking 5 days to get from the UK to Holland (very fast, but we can only thank the mail system for that :) )

They are all of the standard of Leven I'm used to, well cast, hardly any bubbles, the ones that I saw should be very easy to remove, the only minor quibble is that church nr4 is missing its spire, but that should be easy to rectify in a next order. I've notified Mick of this, he will propably contact me later tonight or tomorrow on this. Anyone can make a mistake, so no real harm done here. All the models were individually wrapped in bubble wrap, with extra foam pellets in the box for added protection.

They are cast in a tough light cream resin, with a light chemical smell that should dissapate in the coming days. I just leave them on the terrace in the sun for a few days to air out, then take them back in so I can give them a good wash to clean off any residue.

For a total cost of 29.45 UK Pounds I'm now the proud owner of 10 Russian style houses I intend to use for Kursk, and the rest for generic European locations.

I'm a happy customer and I'd thought I'd tell you other microarmour fans. He is releasing new stuff pretty often as well, so thats another reason to keep coming back. I'm hoping he will do one or more Continental type water towers or Russian/European windmills as well. I'll mention this in my next email to him.

PS If you are wondering why the center house is on an incline, it is because the porch fairing is taped to the underside and I was too lazy to remove it :)

Edit: Mick just contacted me, spire is in the mail first thing tomorrow morning. Now thats good customer service. Reccomended!