TOWN HOUSE

Town houses are built (surprisingly) in towns, where they are crammed together in narrow streets. The ground floor of such dwellings usually houses s tore or business of some kind, with the proprietor and his family living above. These buildings are larger and more impressive than cottages, and no harder to build.

MATERIALS Medium thickness cardboard Thin card Plaster Plastic tubing or rod Thin metal tube Fuse wire Black, white, brown, red and gray paint

First, cut out a rectangle of card 10cm by 10cm for the base. Now, mark out two rectangles 10cm by 8cm for the walls. Half way up each wall, add a 2cm extension to jut over the street. Cut out these walls. Now, mark out a rectangle 5cm by 10cm. This is the lower front wall. The rear wall is 10cm by 10cm,with a 5cm triangle on top, while the front upper wall is 5cm high, with a 5cm triangle on top. Lastly, cut a 2cm by 10cm rectangle for the floor of the jutting upper story Carefully glue all this together.

Be especially careful with the three part front wall. The rear and side walls of the house should be flush to the edges of the base, with 2cm worth protruding out the front to form the pavement. Cut two rectangles of thin card 10cm by 6.5cm for the roof, and glue them in place. Now that the basic structure is in place, you can add the timber frame. Use 5mm thick strips of thin card. Glue strips along the top and bottom of each wall, as well as half way up the sides and back. Glue verticals at each corner, and add some more in the middle of each wall. For this piece, I choose to use shuttered windows. These are simply constructed from strips of card, glued together with cross pieces at the top and bottom.

TIP: You can make hinges for your doors and windows by cutting short lengths of metal tube, and gluing them to the side of the doors or shutter. Add a small piece of thin card to complete the effect.

The door is made just like the one in the cottage. Four lengths of thin car .5cm by 3cm, with cross pieces t top and bottom. I also added a diagonal. Stick the door on, and add a door frame around it.
You'll probably have noticed that the base is 2cm to long at the front. This is because a pavement. is going in there. Cut five 2cm squares of thin card, and cut the corners off each. Glue these along the pavement to represent paving stones.
Use plaster to cover the unsightly corrugations of the base.
Now, it's time for a chimney. Cut one piece of thin card 2cm square. Now cut two pieces 2cm wide, and 2cm tall. Mark each piece 5mm from the top of one side, and mark in the diagonal to the bottom of each opposite edge. This will make the chimney bottom the right angle to glue directly to the roof. Now cut a .5cm by 2cm length of card for the back of the chimney. Glue the pieces together, with a 2cm square. piece on top. The chimney pot in m,y case is made from a drilled out plastic knitting needle. You can use plastic rod, drilled out, or plastic tube, depending on what you've got. Glue the chimney in place.

TIP: You can make chimneys look realistic by adding stonework to the corners. Simply cut .5cm strips of card, some slightly longer than the others, and glue them to each corner in an alternating fashion.

Now it's time for the roof. Cut out strips of tiles, just like those used for the cottage. Each strip needs to be 10cm long and 1.5cm high. You'll need a lot more than you did for the cottage.
Glue the tiles on, making sure they fit properly around the chimney. You'll need to cut some of the tiles shorter to fit here.
Now you've got a townhouse! Paint it up, using a pale color (I used Kaiser Antique white) on the panels, and black on the frame and roof. Use brown for the shutters and door. A neutral gray serves perfectly for the paving stones and the stone work on the chimney. Drybrush, and wash the roof, and apply some lines of wash around each panel of the walls. Paint the chimney pot red, and give it a chestnut wash.

You'll notice that my townhouse has been plastered. I have decided not to so this in future, as my painting and washing technique (particularly the wash lines around each panel) does not work well on plaster. The texture given by the plaster is hardly noticeable at a distance, so it seems hardly worth it.

Townhouses, like cottages, are very versatile. Try adding a stable (TIP: Use a shed), or building several on one base. You can also try having cross wise roofs, and attic windows. Also, the typical town inn could be made from two townhouses, with an additional section in the middle.

Here's some pics of a new set of Townhouses I made recently. These larger thown houses are made from Foamcore, and are treated with texture paint. On of them has frames made out of Balsa, while the other uses Cardboard.