28mm Dovecote

Continuing with my ECW Buildings Project I decided to build a Dovecote as I really wanted to add one to my new collection, probably because as a child my father kept pigeons and I used to help him with the keeping of them. Dovecotes themselves especially the type that I have modeled are actually really nice buildings to have on the table top and fairly unusual too.

To make this I used two sellotape rolls glued together, one being 2" deep and the other being 1/2" deep, alternatively I could have used a cut down Pringles tube which is actually almost the same diameter. Next I made a cone from a 5" diameter circle cut from a cereal packet and glued in place as the roof which was then tiled using thin card tiles.

The top part of the roof was made with a tube and cone made from thin card and the roof again tiled with thin card tiles. At this stage I decided to paint the roof and dry brush it to make the tiles stand out and after leaving it a good while I decided to give the tiles a brown wash to kick back the brightness and weather the tiles a little.

The next thing was to cover the tower with stone effect paper and then glue in place a suitable door after which I glued the entrance holes for the pigeons with added pigeons to give a nice effect. I then gave a light wash of brown under the entrance holes to suggest staining and then glued the Dovecote to a 4 diameter tile base.

As usual I painted the base dark brown and then used brown and green scatter material and long grass tufts to for flowers and weeds. I decided to add a pile of pigeon muck to the base as an added feature and this was painted and drybrushed to give the right effect. All in all I am very happy with the overall effect and cannot wait to put it on the tabletop.