3D Printed Wall Farm in 15mm scale - Basing and Initial Paint Up

A few weeks again the first test printing of a walled farmhouse in 15mm scale was finished.  It consists of 18 separate pieces and came out rather well.  My next step in of my 3D printing adventure is to see how well these things paint up.

 Since I'm experimenting, why not vary all the elements - so I'm also experimenting with different materials.  First up is the base- which is made of chip board.  Chip board is essentially the same thing one finds as a backer for legal pads.  Given this is 15mm, I did want to try something that would be thin so the base edge doesn't stand out.  I'm using 1/16 inch thick board.  The pieces in 6 inches wide by 11.5 inches long.

The chip board I purchased is defined as medium weight and, in hind sight, I should have gone with the heavy weight version as I think that will be more durable.

With any card-board based material that's used for basing it's important to protect all of the surfaces (even the bottom) from moisture and wear and tear.  Once the piece is done on top I'll paint the bottom of the base with a 50/50 mix of black craft paint and PVA glue.

For ground texturing and adhesion I'm using a Vallejo ground texture resin.  I've used this stuff for basing minis for years and it works great but never tried it on a larger project.

I put a masking tape barrier down on the work surface to prevent the resin along the edges from adhering to the world bench.   How did I know how to do this? - painful personal experience very early in my miniature hobby experience.  Perhaps a post on hobby mishaps is long overdue...

It doesn't take a lot to cover the piece and when dry it will provide a very nice ground texture that takes paint well.

The lower level pieces are all in place.  I used CA glue (aka super glue) to attach the pieces to each other.  One of the benefits of the resin is it acts like a glue as it dries so it will affix the farm to the base.

All weighted down to ensure everything dries nice and flat.

 The resin dries in a few hours and then the next step is to prime the piece.  Rather than a standard primer, I made up a custom batch by mixing some Liquitex Gesso (a surface prep) and dark brown craft paint (roughly 2/3 to 1/3).

The Gesso is thicker than normal primer and tends to fill in the striations (layers) that are a result of the printing process.  I really liked how the new primer mix worked out.

First basic paint up of the buildings.  The colors used are:

Vallejo light grey primer for the buildings and walls

Vallejo Red Leather for the roof tiles

Vallejo "Old Wood" for the doors and shutters.

I need to go back and touch up the details and scenic the base once the paint has fully dried.

Perhaps a scratch built a set of wooden gates for the entry way would be a nice addition?