Tembe - finished

On to the final stages of tembe construction. After applying the thatch I laid a heavy book on the roof and left it overnight as it showed signs of warping. The weight solved this problem. Next up came the spackling of the walls. I applied regular all-purpose spackling in a thin layer over the sand sprinkled on earlier, working around those areas I'd already done as brickwork, and allowed it to dry. In the meantime I painted the main roof color using a mix of tan, white and yellow acrylics. Once this was dry I went over it with drybrushed vanilla white acrylic.

Once the walls were dry I painted them a slightly darker shade of tan than the roof, with dark brown going on those areas of exposed brickwork. To bring out the texture of the spackle so it resembles stucco I gave the whole wall areas two increasingly lighter drybrushed colors, a mix of the basic tan and vanilla white, followed by pure vanilla white. Once everything had dried I gave the whole building a wash of sepia ink diluted with rubbing alcohol, a trick I picked up from railroad modelling. The alcohol spreads the ink evenly and evaporates quickly, leaving a nice weathered effect without mess. The photo shows the final result, although the tembe looks somewhat darker in real life due to the lighting conditions when the photo was taken.

I think it looks the part, ready to take its place on the table for use by anybody who has need of a fortified building in my fictional African world. And you can be sure there'll be many!

A British patrol approaches the tembe with caution, unsure who - or what - lurks within.